Visit La Sagrada Família at dusk or 9am? Human tour? 3rd party "Fast-Track" or buy normal tix?

You can buy your own ticket for your time to enter online before you go on the official site if you don't trust the 3rd party. .This is the official church site: https://sagradafamilia.org/en/tickets

Buying online allows you to avoid the very long one of people who just showed up and need to buy tickets.
You just line up with the others that have the same time slot you pick but not before or after that.

When you buy a ticket online you have options to select an audio guide (which is an audio player that you can stop/start) or a live person guide.

Peter, I'm glad that you asked this, since I've been wondering the same thing. We thought morning because there might be slightly fewer crowds, plus, it's better to do the pre-booked sights first in the day; but then I read the same suggestion as you. Now I'm not sure. I don't think we can go wrong either way, but obviously one would prefer to go at the most ideal time. I wish I knew.

Not a 'scam', just misusing the language for unethical marketing purposes. Note that this term is often used by middle-men and not the actual sites of the monuments/museums.

THERE IS NO "SKIP THE LINE" in the vast majority of popular sites in Barcelona (*). This is just creating confusion with a useless promise. Understanding how the system works will clarify this.

In the most popular sites, due to the vast number of visitors, a time-slot based system has been in place for some years. One books a time to enter the site via the online reservation system. One is then supposed to arrive at the site 15' before the entry time and head to the "entrance queue", and voilà, in 15' you're in. So, the fact is that if you drop by at any time you'll see two queues: the queue for buying tickets -normally very long!- and, at the entrance, a much shorter queue (not more than two dozen people on average) for the people entering in the next slot. Slots are sold (normally) in 30' blocks.

So, this "skip the line" promise, which some people understand as "dropping by at any time and getting in", is not such. This is only saying that you won't have to do the queue at the ticket booth --which you don't have to if you just buy a ticket online, also if you buy directly to the original site, duh!-- but you'll have to wait anyway for your time slot, alongside everybody else that booked the same time slot. So, in fact, it's an empty promise, you already "skip the TICKET BOOTH line" just by buying online in the original site, you don't need a middle-men for that.

I hope this helps to clarify this "confusion"... bear with me, English is not my mother tongue :)

(*) at present, only Casa Batlló offers a ticket that allows you to just "drop by" at any time of your convenience and enter the premises in the "next available slot".

Thanks for taking the time to explain in such detail, Enric. I hate marketing-speak. It's obvious many travelers think that specific marketing promise actually means something.

It's my impression some of the highly popular sights in Barcelona meter people in and out, so if you don't have a ticket for one of the early time slots, you may not get in the door at exactly the time shown on your ticket as the doorkeeper waits from some folks to leave. That seemed to be happening at Casa Mila and Casa Batllo, and possibly at the Picasso Museum (heaven knows, it should follow that policy) and maybe even Palau Guell. Am I mistaken about that?

The amount of delay at the door wouldn't be significant unless you had back-to-back entrance tickets and hadn't left enough time between them. I cringe when I see folks spending only three nights in Barcelona, because I suspect they'll end up scheduling their stops too tightly in an effort to fit everything in.

We booked our tickets for the opening time, and it proved to be a good decision. The church gets crowded very quickly, so that provided us with a bit of time to be there before it became very crowded. We were able to take beautiful photographs at that time of day. Yes, the audio guide can be stopped/started. That gave us the opportunity to move through the church at our own pace, rather than on a guide's timetable.

I went to La Sagrada Familia in September, 2017. Our entrance time was about 90 minutes prior to the official sunset time and the colors coming through the stained glass, illuminating on to the walls, were stunning. I just arrived in Barcelona this morning and plan to go again about 90 minutes prior to sunset and hope it is as beautiful this trip as it was previously.

Hi Ann, I wouldn't know that, it might well be. Obviously, there are health and safety regulations and a maximum capacity so it might well be so.

However, I had the chance to meet one of the consultants of the main software providers to these sites and he explained how AI is used in the algorithms to predict the flow of people at any time. Theoretically, the "system" is designed to adapt to the flow of people and it's designed to take into account the "average" exit time of visitors. He said the results after a few years of use it's rather accurate hence the reason his customers can manage so many visitors at the premises.

Keep in mind that, Casa Batlló for example -the most profitable attraction in Barcelona- is receiving nowadays over 1 million visitors each year, up from 200,000 in the year 2002, when it was opened to the public, and Sagrada Família, the most visited, receives over 4,5 million visitors each year, up from 700,000 in 1991, so one needs to have a pretty good piece of planning software to manage that.

Hi Peter,

When we visited Barcelona (my favorite city in Europe so far) in May of 2016, we booked our tickets for the first available spot of the day, and were we glad that we did. We also scheduled an english tour for 10am, which was fantastic! Getting in 45 mins early allowed us to take pictures without the wash of people you'll have later in the day.

"however the best time that you must choose to visit is during sunset time, and you will really regret afterwards if you miss seeing the beautiful golden-light that reflects from the stained-glass windows all around."

If you go in the morning, the soft morning sun will be shining right through those blues and greens, turning the white marble inside into a kaleidoscope of color like you have never seen before. The way La Sagrada Familia is laid out, the east side of the building is filled with blue and green stained glass, and the west side with yellow, orange and red. Going first thing in the morning, or at dusk, you will have similar experiences, but featuring different colors dominating the scene. Either way, it's quite incredible to behold!

Have a fantastic trip!
RF

Technically you cannot do that.

You CANNOT visit Sagrada Familia nor at sunset not at dusk during MOST of the year.... it either OPENS later or CLOSES earlier than that. Period!

Sagrada Familia schedules throughout the year: https://sagradafamilia.org/en/schedules-how-to-get
Sunset and dusk in Barcelona throughout the year: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/spain/barcelona

There are only two months in which you can be inside Sagrada Família at dusk: the first fortnite in MARCH in which dusk is between 6:45 and 7pm; and the second fortnite of SEPTEMBER, in which dusk is between 8pm down to 7:35pm. Never at sunrise, it always opens later than that.

Having said that, the more oblique the sun, the more spectacular the photos you can take inside and this is why in Spring and in Autumn the pictures are more beautiful. See a gallery of a local amateur photographer who frequents the Barcelona forum in TripAdvisor: http://www.pbase.com/joseantonio/la_sagrada_familia&page=all So, pictures of Sagrada Família are ALWAYS spectacular, no matter the hour... but if you are there at sunriseish or at duskish (and assuming you know your ABC in photography!) they can be amazing.

Enjoy!

PS: On a personal note, in Spring and Autumn, visiting at 4ish offers a great light inside the basilica as, IMHO, the sun enters at the right angle for beautiful pictures and also, the amount of light is strong so all the interior details are well lighted.

We went in March around 9:30am and the light was streaming through the stained glass windows-just beautifully. I would try and get tickets right after opening simply because the church becomes extremely crowded with tour groups and people in the late morning and all afternoon. Also the morning light highlights the colors. I don't agree with the author who said go at dusk.

The audio guide is fine and you can pause/FF it.

Is it even open at dusk? Sunset in Barcelona is pretty late. I got the first entry of the morning and it was perfect. Line up 15-20 minutes before, you'll be among the first to enter, when it's relatively quiet and you can get nearly people- free pix and have some quiet time to appreciate it. An hour later, the noise will detract from the beauty.