We are three months from our trip to Europe. We fly in to Barcelona on Sunday, May 15 and are spending 3 nights. I'm thinking that we'll visit the Sagrada Familla on Monday afternoon. How is the audio guide vs. the guided tour? How much time should I allow between the church entry time and the tower entry time?
Is the Park Guell work visting? Gaudi House Museum? Monument Zone? How much time to allow before the reservation at Sagrada Familla?
Any advice and guidance will be appreciated.
Here are the links for tix:
http://visit.sagradafamilia.cat/?lang=en#horaris
http://www.parkguell.cat/en/buy-tickets/individual-purchase/
You should buy the tickets for SF online. There are time slots for the tour, but you can gain admission early before the tour. Check the site, i believe the tour was about 90 minutes, so just book your tour about 30 minutes after guided tour ends. IIRC, the website will not let you overlap the guided tour and tower, so you cannot double book same times. However, you should not leave a huge gap or you will be waiting around and using up your time.
We did the guided tour of the SF last May and thought it was excellent. It was very informative and the guide was very enthusiastic. And the fees contribute to the construction. No idea about the audio guide. The price diff was only about 2€.
We were on cruise and only had a day. We did not have time to go to PG, but wished we did.
I used the audio guide, so I can't compare them either. It was okay, maybe I wasn't as interested in all the details. It was a little confusing because with prebooked tickets you enter through the Nativity facade, but the guide starts with the Passion facade. Even after I figured it out, I had a little trouble finding a couple of the stops. I did like that I was free to wander at my own pace wherever I wanted. If you don't choose the guided tour, you can go up the tower at any time and complete your visit to the church after you descend. To exit the ticketed area, you go through a turnstile into the gift shop. Don't do that until you are ready to leave, there's no turning back.
How many Gaudi sights to see, and which ones, depends on your interest level and budget (they add up if you're seeing a lot of them).
I can only say that I saw Park Guell 20 years ago, when it was free, and wasn't that impressed. In September 2015 I paid €21.50 to see the Casa Batllo (it's up to €22.50 now), and felt it was worth every penny; you get an included audio-video guide that explains everything. Next time, I'll pay for the tour of the Casa Mila.
On a short visit like yours, instead of seeing multiple Gaudi sights (again, unless you've a specific interest), I'd see one, and then make time for Montaner's Palace of Catalan Music (also requires reservations). This was amazing, and lets you see a different Modernista architect.
Interestingly, another guide rates as follows ...
3 stars
Sagrada Familia
Palau de la Musica Catalana
Casa Mila
Hospital Sant Pau
2 stars
Casa Batllo
Palau Guell
1 star
Park Guell
(maybe Park Guell rates poorly because of the difficulty in access and the cost involved)
thanks for the feedback so far
