Good morning,
Please recommend a tour guide that can educate my family. We are 2 adults and 2 adolescent know it all boys.
We will be in Barcelona for only 2 days (arriving 7/1 departing 7/3).
Thanks!
https://sagradafamilia.org/en/tickets-individuals
"google is your friend"
Most people there are using electronic headsets to listen about the architecture, etc.
Thanks for the replies.
The adults enjoy audio tours. The kids need interactive and charismatic guides. Me, the nerdy mom, will pay to enrich the kids and the adults also enjoy the interactions with knowledgeable guides.
We took the elevator to the top of the building to look out over the city. We had to walk down a narrow staircase.
We went last year with an eight-year-old and an 11-year-old. I did not see anyone with a guided tour, as others have said, most people just use the headset. That being said, I detest audio tours and my kids hate them as well. Before we went, we watched the Rick Steves Barcelona episode which does cover Sagrada Familia. That gave them enough background information to be able to appreciate it without any kind of a guide. There’s plenty to look at and see in there on your own.
We took the guided tour in English offered by the church. Lots of information. Book at the website that enric posted in his post. Afterwards you can visit the exhibits in the basement on your own. Your boys think they know it all, but I’m sure they’ll learn something new about the church facades and anton gaudi if they would actually listen and put down their iphones. (My teens are the same.)
There's a minimum age limit, and also physical limitation limit, to take the elevator up to the tower (because of the potentially dangerous climb down that's required, no elevator down). Sounds like your boys are old enough, but be advised that the stairs down are several hundred steps down a narrow stone stairway with no handrail for the first half. The age and physical condition imits are strictly enforced by the guards at the base of the elevator.
As per the SF website, "For safety reasons only children over 6 can visit the towers and until 16 years of age they must be accompanied by an adult. People with functional disabilities or in wheelchairs cannot visit the towers."
My 8-year old did it last year. He got a tiny bit scared coming down but made it OK. It's a bit unnerving because there's no handrail and there's a little hole in the center that goes all the way down. It's not really possible to fall down the hole but it looks scary (Google pictures if you don't know what I'm talking about).