We will be traveling in Barcelona with our son, who's a current med student at a U.S. med school. A number of the sights (Gaudi buildings, museums, etc.) offer a "student" discount. My son will be traveling with his university/med school ID. Will this be considered acceptable student ID? Since we have to purchase all of our tickets in advance, I'd hate to show up with his student ID only to have him told he won't be admitted.
Posted by
Barcelona + Sweden
4180 posts
Some places yes and some places no. I used my US Grad student ID and got the discount 50% of the time. Not sure why you have to buy all your tickets in advance, other than the Sagrada Familia or a FC Barcelona Football match.
Posted by
OP
California
3 posts
Thanks, Carlos. Everyplace now has advanced entry, timed tickets.
Posted by
Barcelona + Sweden
4180 posts
Ah ok, just recall walking up to places like Hospital de Sant Pau or the Catalan Art Museum and buying tickets at the front office.
Posted by
Washington DC
28082 posts
The places where advance tickets are usually necessary to avoid a lengthy ticket line (and a potential sellout, especially if you show up mid-afternoon or later) are La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Casa Mila/La Pedrera, Casa Batllo, Picasso Museum and Palau de la Musica Catalana (where the issue is usually availability of an English-language tour).
I'd be surprised to run into a significant ticket line at MNAC, Miro Museum and other art museums in the city and the Sant Pau modernista site.
I checked a bunch of the relevant websites for explicit information about their discount-ticket rules, but the student discount is described pretty vaguely. That could work in your favor, or not. I'm a senior, and I think I may have gotten a senior discount a few times when it was supposedly only available to EU citizens/residents. However, I do look like a senior. If your med-student son is 25 or older, he may not look particularly like a traditional 18-22-year-old college student.
I'd be inclined to buy an adult advance ticket for your son at any of the problem places you're unsure about where the student ticket doesn't save very much. For example, the €29 regular ticket for Caso Batllo is discounted only €6 for students. If you somehow ended up needing to buy his ticket at the box office, there would be a €4 surcharge on the regular ticket price, for a total of €33 for the adult ticket or €27 for the student ticket. At La Sagrada Familia the student discount is only €2 on the basic €26 price, which for me falls in the "why bother" category.