We are going in July with a family of 5.
is it cheaper to get an Uber than to take transportation within the city?
other than seeing sights early in the am and later in the evening is there any other tips for navigating the busiest time of the year?
Posted by
Washington DC
28954 posts
Take advantage of sightseeing options that do not have to be booked ahead of time; they are likely also to be less crowded. The problematic, virtually-always-crowded places are these:
La Sagrada Familia
Parc Guell (but it's outdoors, so you won't always be shoulder-to-shoulder)
Casa Mila/La Pedrera
Casa Batllo
Picasso Museum (experiences vary here; mine was terribly, terribly overcrowded)
I'm not suggesting you skip all those, just that you not spend all your time at them. Not only are they crowded, you may get hung up in an entry line for quite a while even with pre-purchased tickets; some places only let X people enter after X people have exited. That really makes it a challenge to put together a sightseeing plan. In addition, those super-popular sights also tend to be very expensive.
I've been to all the accessible Gaudi sites, and I think most folks would be fine seeing just Casa Mila and skipping the (even more crowded for me) Casa Batllo. If you aren't big fans of Picasso, skip the Picasso Museum.
The Sant Pau Modernista site is a multi-building complex where you can walk up, buy a ticket and enter right away. I like it a lot, as do others here. https://santpaubarcelona.org/en/
I don't have a copy of Rick's guide to Spain at hand, but I think he lays out a walking tour of the Barri Gotic.
Be careful with your valuables, including cell phones, in Barcelona. it is perhaps the world capital of pickpocketing. Those folks are serious professionals; you are a mere amateur traveler. The Ramblas is a hotspot, and I think there have been recent issues in the Barri Gotic.
If you give us the ages of your children, others can probably make useful suggestions.