Buying tickets in advance?

I also like to not be locked into a strict schedule. However, we were in Barcelona in January, and the modernista sites were selling out. I'd make sure to have advance tickets to Park Guell and Casa Mila. Also, we were in Sevilla in November and was told I didn't need to reserve the Alcazar in advance. Well, we should have. I'm sure I got sound advice, its just things can change quickly. Absolutely, the Alhambra in advance. My advice would be to advance book anything RS indicates should be.

To Jules' list I would add the Cathedral in Seville (where you might encounter a really significant line), the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, and the Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona (where the English tours can sell out).

In many cases it's not that the places sell out months in advance (though the Alhambra can, for some months), it's that the ticket line could be an hour long and the tickets are timed. It wouldn't be fun to get to the front of the ticket line and be told "Here's your ticket; come back in 2 hours."

I have no idea for which places Rick urges advance ticket purchase. If you tell us the sights you want to see, we can give you a better answer.

When we went to Sevilla, an easy way to get a ticket to the cathedral was to go to Church of the Savior and buy the combined ticket. I looked at Church of the Savior's website and it seems to still be the case. All we did was get to Church of the Savior about 15 minutes before it opened (which we realized we didn't need to go early), bought the ticket and toured that church and then went to the cathedral. However, its been about 5 years since I've been to Andalusia, so obviously there can be changes.

I can only speak for my "turf", Barcelona. While indeed the number of visitors in November is down -compared to say July-, by no means is "low season". For decades we have no more high-low seasons anymore as visitors flock in all year round. The chances as a "walk-up customer" for Sagrada Família -and several other sites in Barcelona- are nearly zero. In 2023, over 4.7 million visitors visited Sagrada Família, 1.6 million Casa Batlló, 1.2 million La Pedrera, etc.

Which cities are you going to visit? I was there last November.

Thank you for your responses.

The attractions that we are most concerned with are all in Barcelona.

In November which of these would you suggest getting a ticket in advance:

Picasso Museum
Casa Batllo
La Pedrera (Casa Mila)
Park Guell

And, yes - we will absolutely buy an advance ticket to Sagrada Familia. (Waiting for our dates to open)

Most likely all of them.

Having said that, in November you can "probably" wait until a couple of weeks before you travel to book cause availability is reasonable. That's unless you have a very tight schedule and you need to book a specific time band. Then you better pre-book as soon as that month's availability is open.

Also, for Casa Batlló -and it's the only place you can do this- you can purchase the most premium ticket which allows you to join the "next time band" regardless of when you arrive at the site. This offers a degree of flexibility on when you choose to visit the site.