Before joining our recent RS Sicily tour, we spent five nights in Barcelona at the end of September and beginning of October. In advance we found that Barcelona has 9 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, seven being Gaudi sites and two Montaner. We decided to get an in depth exposure to Modernisme (Catalan Art Nouveau) by visiting all nine sites over our four days.
Day 1: Park Güell including the Gaudi House Museum
Casa Vicens
Evening food tour in the Gothic and El Born neighborhoods with Eating Europe (highly recommended)
Day 2: La Pedrera (Casa Milà)
Casa Batlló
Palau de la Música Catalana
Sagrada Familia with guided tour
Day 3: Sagrada Familia with Nativity Tower access
Hospital de San Pau (Recinte Modernista de San Pau)
Palau Güell
Day 4: Colònia Güell including the Crypt at Colònia Güell
Of the above, all are Gaudi sites except for the Montaner sites of Hospital de San Pau and Palau de la Música Catalana.
If you have the time and energy, you can sneak in some of Rick Steves walking tours from his Barcelona book and/or downloadable audio guide. If you go early to Colònia Güell, you might have time to visit Mont Juic and/or Barceloneta, which we did not. Montserrat is an optional day trip in good weather. A fifth day would probably be best to include Montserrat.
Although advance tickets are probably optional for Palau de la Música Catalana, Park Güell and Hospital de San Pau, we had advance timed tickets for everything except the Crypt at Colònia Güell. The reason for the two visits to Sagrada Familia was to catch the evening and morning light and to maximize our overall enjoyment of this remarkable site.
For seniors visiting Colònia Güell, there is a discounted ticket that includes round trip train (Zone 2) and entry to the Crypt and audio guide of the town and Crypt available from the Colònia Güell TI. You need to go to the TI anyway to present your round trip ticket, which is effectively a voucher for entry to the Crypt. The info kiosk at Plaça d'Espanya does not sell the senior discounted ticket, but they can be purchased at a machine underground at the train station there. For some reason the machine would only take cash. Strangely on the return trip, the exit turnstile at Plaça d'Espanya wouldn't let us through, indicating the card had expired, but a Metro employee let us through the gate so we could exit.
It is easy to get around Barcelona by subway using Google maps or the TMB app.
I would be happy to share our times, but you can plug in the above itinerary details into Gemini or ChatGPT, correct for errors, and you will get a reasonable timed itinerary.
For a splurge stay at Hotel Sercotel Rosellon with a Sagrada Familia room view, an even better view from its rooftop bar/restaurant. It is only one block away from the Sagrada Familia, which also has a Metro station.