Barcelona Tickets: Which Ones You Really Need to Buy in Advance and Where

What You Need to Know About Tickets for Barcelona Attractions

Barcelona is an incredibly popular travel destination. Around 30 million people take a city trip to Barcelona every year, making it one of the most visited cities in Europe.

Everyone wants to see the most famous attractions, of course. That’s why you should take care of ticket purchases early for the sights you definitely don’t want to miss — just like figuring out where to stay in Barcelona.

For the most popular attractions, tickets are often sold out weeks in advance for specific time slots — or sometimes completely sold out altogether. And even if a few tickets are available on the spot, you’ll have to wait in long lines at the ticket counter.

If you book your Barcelona tickets online in advance, you can avoid all that hassle easily.

In this article, we’ll explain which Barcelona attractions you should buy tickets for ahead of time. We’ll give you a ticket overview with all the options and make clear recommendations. By the end, you’ll definitely have a much better picture of things — we promise!

Tickets for the Sagrada Família

The Sagrada Família is the absolute top highlight in Barcelona and the most visited attraction. Tickets are frequently sold out two to four weeks in advance.

So take care of your ticket as early as possible. You can buy your entry ticket up to two months in advance.

Important: This is actually only possible online, as there is no ticket counter on-site.

Sagrada Família Tickets from the Official Provider

Sagrada Família Tickets from Third-Party Providers

* You can choose the ticket type during the booking process

Buying Sagrada Família Tickets: The Best Way to Go About It

If you’re comfortable with English, it’s best to check the official website first for tickets. It’s nicely laid out and the booking process is easy to follow. And most importantly, tickets are quite a bit cheaper there.

One downside, though, is that canceling your ticket through the website is very complicated. It’s only possible if you have official proof of why you’re unable to visit the Sagrada Família. You can find more details here.

With third-party providers, cancellation is straightforward — you can cancel up to two days before your visit with a full refund.

If that’s a deciding factor for you and/or you’d prefer to book in English with a more familiar interface, we recommend booking through a third-party provider. It makes no difference whether you book through Tiqets or GetYourGuide, as their terms and conditions are the same.

In general: If tickets on the official website or at third-party providers are already sold out for your desired dates, check the other options. Sometimes there are still tickets available there.

Our Sagrada Família Ticket Recommendation

We recommend the Sagrada Família standard ticket including audio guide, which you can listen to in the official Sagrada Família app (Android | iOS).

For us, visiting the towers is not an absolute must. The view is genuinely lovely, but there are still far better viewpoints in Barcelona. In our opinion, the ticket with tower access isn’t worth it just for that.

It’s certainly very interesting to see the facade and the towers up close. But the basilica itself impressed us even more.

Tickets for Park Güell

Park Güell is a true highlight and anything but a hidden gem in Barcelona. Demand is enormous, but visitor numbers are limited.

It’s therefore worth booking your ticket online a few days or even weeks ahead. Getting in spontaneously is almost impossible.

Park Güell Tickets from the Official Provider

Note: Through the official website, guided tours are only available in English, French, Catalan, and Spanish.

Park Güell Tickets from Third-Party Providers

Buying Park Güell Tickets: The Best Way to Go About It

If you’re comfortable with English, it’s worth booking Park Güell tickets through the official website. They’re a bit cheaper there than with third-party providers.

If you’d prefer a more familiar booking experience, you can buy your tickets through GetYourGuide or Tiqets instead. This also applies if you’d like to do a guided tour — the official website does offer English-language tours, but third-party providers often have more options.

Tickets for Casa Batlló

Casa Batlló is also incredibly popular. While tickets don’t sell out as quickly here as they do for the Sagrada Família and Park Güell, long lines at the ticket counter can still form.

On top of that, tickets are more expensive on-site than if you buy them in advance online.

Casa Batlló Tickets from the Official Provider

The Blue Ticket is the standard ticket including an audio guide. The Silver Ticket gets you a virtual reality tablet, access to the immersive Gaudí Dôme, and the original concierge room.

The Gold Ticket includes everything from the Silver Ticket plus fast-track entry to Casa Batlló and exclusive access to additional areas.

Casa Batlló Tickets from Third-Party Providers

* You can choose the ticket type during the booking process

Buying Casa Batlló Tickets: The Best Way to Go About It

We recommend booking your ticket through the official website. Tickets there are overall cheaper, and you can book just as easily as with third-party providers.

Another big plus: when you click on your desired visit date on the website, you can see right away that entry is cheaper at certain times. Perfect if you have flexibility, since you can simply pick the most affordable slot.

With third-party providers, prices don’t vary between different time slots.

Our Casa Batlló Ticket Recommendation

During our visit to Casa Batlló, we went with the standard ticket (Blue Ticket) and were completely happy with it. The audio guide works great and you have access to all the important areas of the building.

The virtual reality tablet and the immersive Gaudí Dôme included in the Silver and Gold tickets are cool extra features, but personally, we wouldn’t consider them worth an extra 8 or 10 euros.

In our opinion, the fast-track option with the Gold Ticket isn’t strictly necessary either. Because if you’ve booked your Barcelona skip-the-line ticket online in advance (regardless of which type), you’ll only have to wait briefly for entry — if at all. With our Blue Ticket, for example, we were able to walk right through.

Tickets for Casa Milà (La Pedrera)

Just like with Casa Batlló, you can skip the lines at the ticket counter and save a few euros by purchasing your Casa Milà ticket online in advance.

Casa Milà Tickets from the Official Provider

Casa Milà Tickets from Third-Party Providers

Buying Casa Milà Tickets: The Best Way to Go About It

For the tickets available through both the official ticket shop and third-party providers (standard ticket and Night or Sunrise Experience), the prices are the same. Both options also walk you through the booking process in English.

Through GetYourGuide and Tiqets, however, you have the option to cancel your ticket for free up to 24 hours before your visit.

That’s not possible through the official ticket shop — you can only request a change of visit date (at no charge) but cannot cancel entirely. That’s why we’d go with booking through one of the third-party providers.

If you want to book the Premium ticket, however, you can only do so through the official website. The standard ticket with a guided tour, on the other hand, is only available through Tiqets.

Tickets for the Museu Picasso

The Museu Picasso is one of the best museums in Barcelona and, with over one million visitors per year, also the city’s most visited museum.

Tickets for popular time slots sell out quickly, especially on weekends and holidays. That’s why we recommend getting your ticket online in advance so you don’t have to worry about it once you’re there. And online tickets are one euro cheaper.

A standard admission ticket can only be purchased through the official website. Third-party providers only offer tickets that include a guided tour of the museum.

Museu Picasso Tickets from the Official Provider

* On certain days/times, admission is free (you can see exactly when here). However, you still need to reserve an entry ticket online for those times.

Museu Picasso Tickets from Third-Party Providers

Buying Museu Picasso Tickets: The Best Way to Go About It

If you want to buy a standard ticket online without a tour, you can only do so through the official website. The booking process is in English, though honestly we don’t find the site particularly user-friendly. But if you just want a simple admission ticket, there’s no way around it.

If you think you’d enjoy a guided tour of the museum, booking through one of the third-party providers can save you some hassle.

Our recommendation: Through the third-party provider Tiqets, you can book a guided tour with an English-speaking guide.

Barcelona City Pass or Individual Tickets?

A Barcelona city pass covers admission to many of the city’s attractions and often includes discounts on activities like guided tours of Barcelona. It saves you the hassle of buying individual tickets for each attraction and saves you time in the process.

Our tip: Our favorite among the passes is the Explorer Pass for 4 attractions. It costs 134 euros.

To make the Explorer Pass worth it financially, you need to choose the most expensive highlights. We’ve listed which ones those are below. The regular admission prices are shown in parentheses:

• Sagrada Família with 2-hour guided tour (from 49.50 euros)
• Casa Batlló (from 25 euros)
• Casa Milà (29 euros)
• 24h Hop-on/Hop-off bus tour (33 euros)

With this combination, you’ve already covered three of the top highlights and can also do a city tour on the hop-on/hop-off bus through Barcelona.

Without the pass, you’d pay 136.50 euros for these attractions. With the Explorer Pass, you save 2.50 euros — not a massive financial saving, but you do avoid the hassle of buying tickets for each attraction separately.

Book the Explorer Pass online

Frequently Asked Questions About Barcelona Tickets