I have been reading so many posts and they are helpful, but all the facts are mush in my brain at this point.
I know you need a specific time to enter and another specific time to do the tower. How much time should these be apart? After you do the tower, can you go back in the cathedral?
There are two towers and I think one has a city view and one has a sea view. Which is which, and do you recommend one over the other?
We are going on Thurs, September 4. The waiting lines sound horrific. Any suggestions to avoid waits?
I know the website to buy tickets is difficult and have not tried to tackle this yet. Do you print out your own tickets, or do you pick them outside SF? I read about a servo/caixa booth to pick up tickets. Is this the best? The website for this?
Someone had tickets for the tower and skipped long lines and walked. 400 steps. Someone also talked about main elevator with long line and another deeper into the building and no wait.
Thanks for any help!
Posted by
Oak Park, Illinois
4535 posts
You can do the tower at any time once you are inside. You stay inside after the tower and can do the rest of the church (it's not a cathedral) afterwards.
The ticket lines aren't that bad (about 30 minutes) but timed slots often do sell out a day or so in advance during popular seasons and on weekends. Buy your tickets online or go a couple days ahead of time to pre-purchase in person. You don't have to wait in the ticket line if you buy online.
The towers are basically the same. One faces north and the other south. The south tower would probably give you better city views. You can see the sea from both. Sometimes not both towers will be open depending on work schedules. You take an elevator up and walk down.
Posted by
San Francisco
1008 posts
We easily bought our tickets online, no problem at all with the website - where did you hear that it was hard? We got a 9am entry time - and got there like 8:30ish and were in the front of the line to get in (preprinted tickets from home before we left). We had a 9:30 Nativity tower time, and then went back and explored more after we came down.
I HIGHLY recommend the 9am entry time, lining up early to be in the front. We had a good 20-25 minutes in there with hardly anyone else (as other people were still getting their tickets scanned and getting in) - and it was a MUCH different experience in there with hardly anyone else, than when we came back down the tower around 10 and it was packed...
It was so beautiful. :) Really breathtaking.
Kim
Posted by
San Francisco
1008 posts
Just read your post again - you get an entry time and a tower time on your tickets - print them at home. And we didn;t have lines at all - but it also may be that we lined up early and had 9 am and tower at 9:30...
Unless something has changed since June 6...
Kim
Posted by
2 posts
We just visited it a few days ago. We had purchased our tickets weeks in advance and good thing too. We had scheduled our entry for 11:00 am and once we got there, there were thousands in line with no guarantee they would get in.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
123 posts
Great advice from the posters above. Here is the website to make reservations: www.sagradafamilia.cat. You can print your tickets at home. We haven't been hearing from anyone who has had trouble with the site. With pre-purchased tickets, head straight for the “online ticket office” window, to the right of the main ticket line, and show your ticket to the guard.