My friend and I want to get advance tickets to the Sagrada Familia for our early October visit to Barcelona. We are eager to have a good local guide and would appreciate recommendations of reputable services. In addition to the basic tour we are eager to also see the Nativity Tower and hopefully be in the cathedral at dusk for the special lighting effect. There were so many offerings on line and it was virtually impossible to know what might be the best choice for expertise and price. Thanks for your help and personal experience.
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7642 posts
We did a great Barcelona tour with Barcelona Day Tours. It included almost all the Gaudi sites. However, we had to go back to see the interior (that is a must).
It has been 7 years since we were there, but I think we had a guidebook that helped us with the interior. Not sure if we had an audio cassette or not.
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Barcelona (Catalonia)
2939 posts
My two cents, as native and resident:
1.) The "thing" about Gaudí sites is seeing the interior, the details, not the façades. This, of course, is not to demerit those that, for one reason or another, can't or choose not to. Just pointing out you're missing the "thing".
2.) Gaudí was simply "one" of the Modernist architects -the best known, yes, but just one- and the city harbours plenty other visitable sites very worthwhile seeing, designed by different architects, such as Casa Ametller, Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, CaixaForum, Casa Terrades, Casa Planells, Palau de la Música Catalana... among other. All of these also belong to the Modernist period (roughly 1888 to 1916). Although Modernisme was part of a general trend that emerged in Europe around the turn of the 20th century, the Art Nouveau, in Catalonia the trend acquired its own unique personality. Modernisme's distinct name comes from its special relationship, primarily with Catalonia and its capital city, Barcelona. Take your time to investigate this movement and, my advice is to mix sites from different architects, including Gaudí, so you'll be able to better appreciate what Modernisme is all about.
3.) Despite there are different strokes for different folks, when planning, it's advisable to limit your visits to these sites to three per day (four if they're close to each other). The reasons are multiple (cost being one!), but one major reason is simply "available time": a visit to most of these sites will take you an average of 90 minutes -after all, much like an art museum, one stops to admire this and that. To that, add the transportation time between sites and, if applicable, the queuing time. You'll soon realize anything more is just useless as you wouldn't really get see much of anything then... unless, of course, you're the "bucket-list-quest" type :)
Enjoy!