Timing Sagrada Familia

I have not ascended one of the LSF towers, but based on what you have said in your post, you can choose the audio tour and tower, do the tower when you are scheduled to do so, then see the church proper. It's just that with the tower schedule, you don't get to take full advantage of the uncrowded church if you have the first time slot. But you can see part of the church before it gets crowded and before you have to line up. If they are now allowing 45 minutes, I think that's an improvement; I believe it used to be 15 minutes, so you really only had time to go line up for the tower.

Leave the museum till after the tower; it wasn't at all crowded during my 2015 visit.

The shop has to be last. Once you've entered the shop, you cannot go back into the church.

Audio tour - you must mean the audio guide which you can do at your own speed and in any order. A guided visit is different. Access to the spires is inside the church, so you can start your visit before you ascent and complete your visit after you descend the spire. I was not impressed with the view from the tower (don't remember which one - never quite figured out which was which).

Note that if you go up in one of the towers, you have to walk down hundreds of steps in a steep and narrow stairwell. They won't even let you do it if you have kids or can't demonstrate sufficient agility to descend those many of steps.

My sister went last year. While she loved the Sagrada Familia, she felt ascending the tower (I forget which one she did) was a waste of time and money. She wished she had just done the audioguide tour with no tower.

In mid May 2019 we did the 10:00 am tour. The tour was about an hour and excellent. Entry was @ 09:30, however, security was slow. If you go this route, I would count on independent visit after the tour. No need to do towers, there are many great views from other sites in Barcelona. For me, seeing sites like this one fatigues my head. I would have liked to schedule more than one visit. It is a beautiful site.

We were disappointed with the towers. we were expecting grand views, but instead we found ourselves surrounded by concrete with only slight holes to see out. This is nothing like Paris' Notre Dame.

Thank you all for your input. I will save the money and book the guided tour.

Three weeks ago we did the 10:00 guided tour with the 9:15 entry and were pleased. You can look around and take pictures before the tour and before the crowds. The guided tour comes with audio so you can hear better. I’d suggest bringing your own ear buds to plug in because the disposable ones they supply are not the best. After reading other reviews we decided not to book the spires. Enjoy!