Purchase a Barcelona Card ?

Major Oops: I now realize my comments refer to the Go City Barcelona Pass, not the Barcelona Card. I'm going to leave the info here in case it's of use to you or others. I'll do a follow-up post after I've reviewed the information on the Barcelona Card.

Having purchased big-city cards twice, though not in Barcelona, I am highly suspicious of them. I think they often don't save money; it takes planning and discipline to make them pay off. Only you can figure out what are your top sightseeing priorities in Barcelona, how they align with what the card covers, and how quickly you can absorb them.

Read the details about each sight carefully. I note that the tours at La Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell and the Picasso Walking Tour with Museum Entry are infrequent, which could make putting together the puzzle pieces of your day quite a challenge. Don't forget that you'll need to eat at some point during the day. Those of us who have a major issue with the super-late Spanish meal hours (dinner at 10 PM?) prefer to have our main meal at lunchtime (2-4 PM), and that will take more time than just grabbing a pre-made sandwich or salad.

Three major sights that don't seem to be covered by the card are the MNAC (major art museum), the Miro Museum and the Palau de la Musica Catalana. The latter is a beautiful modernista building that offers tours. There's no issue with a card not being all-inclusive; it's just that if you're interested in any or all of those three sights, the time you spend seeing them will be time you do not have available to take advantage of the card.

It should be possible to buy tickets in advance from the websites of the places you want to see; they will be skip-the-line tickets, so all the "skip-the-line" blather on the Barcelona Card website is pretty meaningless.

OK, now for the Barcelona Card. This is one of those websites that makes it harder than it should be to find out what is actually covered. Here's the list: https://www.barcelonacard.org/discounts/.

Although there is a long list of fully-covered ("free") attractions, the fact is that a large number of them are fringe things that most short-term visitors wouldn't get around to. That doesn't mean they are not worthwhile, but how much time will you have left for second- and third-tier sights after you hit the big ones?

Many of the major attractions just have discounts, and they are really quite small: 3 euros or 20%/25% being common. The major sights that just have those rather paltry discounts include:

Casa Mila/La Pedrera
Casa Batllo
Palau de la Musica Catalana
Sant Pau Reciente Modernista

Tip-top sights not covered at all include:

La Sagrada Familia
Parc Guell

The 50% discount on the walking tours offered by the tourist office (Barri Gotic, modernisme and Picasso) isn't bad, but the tours don't run all that often, so fitting them into an efficient sightseeing schedule could be tricky.

Don't over-value the transit pass included with the card. You can buy those separately if you want to, but Barcelona is an extremely walkable city with pleasant streets highlighted by fun architecture. Yes, the Metro is very efficient, but if you use it often, you'll miss seeing some very interesting blocks. Individual transit tickets or a 10-ride card probably work best for most visitors. This website shows what I believe are current fares: https://www.metrodebarcelone.com/en/metro/barcelona-metro-tickets-fares.php. It seems that one Zone 1 ticket costs 2.40 euros, but a 10-ride card is only 11.35. (Note: I am not an expert on Barcelona transit options.)

My wife and I were in Barcelona for 5 nights. I think we spent about €10 in total for metro/bus (on a shared metro card) for the both of us during that time, which is only a fraction of the cost of a Barcelona card. Note that we stayed in a very central location, Plaça de Catalunya. Most of the attractions were within walking distance of each other. If you are staying in the outskirts of town and need to transit everywhere, that is a different story.

And I wonder if those discounts are worth it. For example, you should check out the official Casa Battlo website. If you buy tickets online, you get a €4 discount compared to the ticket office, avoid the ticket line-up and get a guaranteed timed entry. On the other hand, you can get a €7 discount if you use the Barcelona card, however, I believe that you can only use this card at the ticket office, not online. You will have to deal with a ticket lineup at the door and run the risk that all tickets at the time have already been sold out when you show up. Big potential time waster. Good luck.

Thanks for all of the wonderful, helpful replies, Much appreciated!!! Note we will Not be buying this card, possibly a 10-ride metro card but that’s it. Thanks again :-).