5 tips to avoid queueing at Barcelona’s biggest tourist attractions
Barcelona is a destination which attracts more and more tourists every year. The queues to get into Sagrada Familia, Casa Batlló, La Pedrera or the Picasso Museum can be extremely long, and no-one wants to spend their holiday waiting!
If you’re only staying in the city for a short while, time is of the essence, so follow our advice in order to optimise your visit to Barcelona.
Skip the queues with an official guide
One of the many advantages of taking a guided visit of a museum or tourist attraction is that you’ll be let in through a special entrance, reserved for guides and their groups.
- Note that only professional guides registered with the Catalan government have access to this privilege. If you decide to visit with a non-official guide, you’ll have to queue like everyone else.
We offer a number of visits throughout the city with an official guide. These visits are made-to-measure, they are tailored to the your needs.
- Visits to Sagrada Familia take place from Monday to Saturday.
Buy queue-jump tickets in advance
Another way of getting into tourist attractions without queueing is to buy queue-jump tickets online before your arrival. You’ll need to plan ahead, but it’s well worth it for the time you’ll save once you arrive!
The price is the same as if you buy on arrival (and sometimes even cheaper), so why not? The links below will allow you to book queue-jump tickets for the principal museums and monuments:
- Casa Milà (Pedrera)
- Casa Batlló
- Miró Foundation
- Barcelona FC Museum
- Poble Espanyol
- Parc Güell: Here, there are set visitor quotas per hour. If you don’t book ahead and the quota has been reached, then you may have a long wait in store! By buying online, you can choose the time of your visit, but you must arrive at the stated time or you may be refused access.
- Sagrada Familia: Click on the link to buy your queue-jump ticket for Gaudí’s masterpiece. Note that once again, you must pay close attention to times.
Use the Articketbcn
Articketbcn is a passport to art in Barcelona
. For 30 euros, you get access to 6 museums (CCCB, Picasso Museum, Miró Foundation, MNAC, MACBA and the Tàpies Foundation) and you won’t need to queue.
Organise your programme
The best way of optimising the programme of your stay in Barcelona isn’t particularly complicated: plan, plan and then plan some more!
To help you, we’ve created a plan for organising your stay in Barcelona.
5. Avoid free visiting times
Sure, getting in somewhere for free is fantastic, but on the flipside, you won’t be the only one making the most of the opportunity, and it’s likely to be packed.
If time and pleasant visiting conditions are higher on your list of priorities than money, then avoid free visiting times.
Many museums offer free entry on Sundays from 3pm and all day on the first Sunday of the month.
Bonus tip: the tour bus
Don’t try to catch the tour bus from the busiest stops (Sagrada Familia, Parc Güell, Plaça Catalunya etc.) – you may have a long wait before being able to get on, particularly in summer.
Simply walk to the next stop (in either direction – they’re all quite close together) to save a considerable amount of queueing.
