Parc Guell, SF and Casa Pedrera - Is this realistic?

Well I'm thinking Enric might chime in here with better information than I have since he's actually from Barcelona. But I did just leave there and we DID do Parc Guell, Casa Pedrera and Sagrada Familia in one day. We actually also did Casa Batllo in that same day. To be honest, while I liked Parc Guell, it was pretty out of the way from the rest of the sights...we took a cab up there and walked back through the Gracia neighborhood on Enric's recommendation and that was fantastic.

If you're a Gaudi fan, I would consider putting Casa Batllo in place of Parc Guell. That was one cool house. A lot of people told us we didn't need La Pedrera and Casa Batllo but I loved them both.

One other note - we had timed tickets for everything in our jam packed day and here's how they played out. Parc Guell - 9 am ticket but they let us in at 8 - however they only did so because the park was not sold out at that time - they are strict on total visitor counts - so strict, in fact that when we left, they took our tickets, scanned them and counted us OUT of the park.

Casa Batllo and La Pedrera both let us in HOURS before our stamped ticket time with no problem at all. Sagrada Familia was extremely strict - we were there 30 minutes early and had to sit on the steps and wait.

What you are calling Casa Pedrera is actually Casa Mila, also known as La Pedrera. In my opinion, Mila and Batllo are similar enough that you really don't need to tour both (I would recommend Batllo). Parc Guell is something different. When I was in Barcelona, Parc Guell was still free, though, so I don't know how well you could mesh three timed tickets together.

Hi Maria

Stuffing too many activities into a day can be tricky yet deciding how much is too much it's a very personal matter. Some people are happy with a quick look at each site while others like to embrace it and spend some time enjoying each one of them. Personally, I would say your itinerary is pushing it a bit, yet Valerie did something similar the other day, didn't you Val? In any case it's going to be hectic at the very least.

What I always advise is to go to the park early in the morning -to avoid the heat at noon in summer!-, then walk down through the neighbourhood of Gràcia, have lunch somewhere there, then walk to Sagrada Família admiring some impressive Modernist façades along the way, visit Sagrada Família and -if you must- then take the metro back to Passeig de Gràcia and visit either Casa Batlló or Casa Milà (both are at 400 yards from each other) which accept visits until late hours. Check out WED16 in this post for more details: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187497-i44-k7350676-First_Timers_Help_With_5_Day_Itinerary-Barcelona_Catalonia.html#57433425 and this is the map to which it refers for your walk in Gràcia: http://bit.ly/DIYroute-pg-sf

To get to the park, either take a taxi (approx 15€) or walk to Passeig de Gràcia and catch bus #24 going north (towards the mountain) and in either case do stop at the east gate of Park Güell, in Carretera del Carmel... it's far better than going thru the main entrance as there's then a steep stair case to climb. By bus it should take you say 35-45' to get there from your hotel.

Btw guys... it's either Casa Milà or La Pedrera, but not Casa Pedrera. Milà was the surname of the bourgeois family that commissioned the construction of their soon-to-be home to Gaudí. La Pedrera (Catalan for "quarry") is the nickname the building got by the Barcelonians when it was built. When it was finished, Casa Milà provoked an outcry among the Barcelona 'establishment' of the time which considered it, among other equally nice adjectives: 'ugly', 'unbecoming for an upper-class family', 'an abomination', 'a stain in the Passeig de Gràcia boulevard', etc. Much like the Eiffel tower, it took a while for Barcelonians to "accept" such novel type of architecture.

I've got to say that Barcelonians have always been very witty when it comes to nicknaming stuff in the city. A couple of recent examples... official name: Torre Agbar (contraction of Aigues de Barcelona -a water utility company) by Jean Nouvel, nicknamed either the lipstick or more commonly, the dildo (!); this one: El Peix (the fish) by Frank Gehry -yes, it's supposed to be a fish and it's made of thousands of copper pieces that under the sun rays and with a bit of breeze do look like the scales of a fish-, nicknamed the nun's hat (why? check out the view from this angle, doesn't it remind you a bit to this?)

Nooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The word "unique" should be sparsely applied and is correctly utilized for all of these sites. Please take your time and absorb the offerings by slowing down your "need for site seeing speed". Sagrada deserves taking the time to go up at least one of the towers. Parc Guell has lost some of its appeal ever since they started charging admission and folks seem to linger longer trying to max their admission price.

I stringly encourage you to gain more value from your trip by quickly adjusting to the local clock and eating late and enjoying the accompanying entertainment opportunities.

Finally, add the Palau of Music to your "must see" activities. There are many reasons to add it to your trip, but in mid june the offer of "air conditioning" should suffice.

I knew that I would get some phenomenal advice here! Thank you all so very much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I can clearly see now that I am going to stress myself needlessly by trying to do too much in one day. I think that I will most likely go ahead and purchase tickets for SF, La Pedrera and Casa Batilo for the same day and leave Parc Guell for some time later during our stay should the opportunity present itself. I really hope to see it as it looks like an amazing place to visit and will make every effort to do so. Again, thank you all for your kindness and expertise!

Maria ()"o)

I agree with Marbleskies. Go to the Palau de Musica. It was my favorite building over anything by Gaudi. You can work in a tour when you visit the Gothic area.
For me personally, I would go to La Sagrada Familia first thing in the morning before all the tour buses arrive. The building is beautiful and much better experienced when it is less crowded.
I would skip Parc Guell as I'm not a great fan of Gaudi.
Go to one of his houses another day, so you don't get an overdose of Gaudi all in one day. Need to rest the eyes. As your hotel is nearby, maybe go to Case Pedrera first thing in the morning, again to avoid the tour buses and crowds. We practically had the place to ourselves in the first hour it opened. So much fun up on the roof.

We reversed Enric's recommendations because we wanted to see La Sagrada Familia without the crowds. We had 9:15 tickets to La Sagrada, did the audio guide and one tower. Coffee break across the street, then photos with the church in the background. Taxi to Park Guell. We visited the Gaudi family home, then waited for our entry time to the Monuments area. We strolled leisurely through, caught a taxi back down the hill ( two limited walkers) had lunch and then a 5:00 entry to Picasso museum. I only include this to show you how our day shook out. Barcelona is such an easy city to navigate and we were able to do all this without feeling rushed or exhausted. So, fit in the things you want and enjoy a great city.