Book the Gaudí slot first. Then let Barcelona happen.
Which Sagrada Família ticket gets you up a tower. What a catamaran out of Port Vell costs at sunset. Whether Montserrat or the Costa Brava deserves your spare day. Reviews of the tours you can book in and around the city.
The basilica, a tapas crawl, Montserrat, the sea.
Most first trips to Barcelona are built around these four. What each costs and what the people who went say about it.
01The opening morningSagrada Familia Entry Ticket with Audio GuidePlain timed entry with an audio guide. Take an early slot, when the east windows throw blue and green light across the nave.
02The first Barcelona nightBarcelona Tapas and Wine Experience Small-Group Walking TourA small group, a handful of old-town bars and a glass at each. The quickest way to learn what to order for the rest of the week.
03The day outMontserrat Tour with Cog-Wheel & Black MadonnaThe rack railway up the serrated mountain, the monastery and the Black Madonna, and back in the city for a late dinner.
04The sunset hourSunset or Day Catamaran Cruise with Tapa & DrinkA catamaran past the beaches with a tapa and a drink. Go at sunset, when the city turns gold behind the stern.
Four Gaudí buildings in Barcelona, four very different tickets.
The basilica sells timed entry with tower lifts on top, the park sells a half-hour slot on the mosaic terrace, and the two houses on Passeig de Gràcia sell guided visits by day and openings after dark. What each costs to get in.
Basilica, park and house in a day★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Complete Gaudi Tour: Casa Batllo, Park Guell & Sagrada Familia · from $162
Sagrada FamíliaTimed nave entry; the tower lifts are a separate slot.
Park GüellThe serpentine bench and the dragon stair, by half-hour slot.
Casa BatllóThe bone-and-scale façade, with a hand-held guide inside.
La PedreraRooftop chimneys by day, or the light show after dark.
Every Gaudí building in one list →
Four Barcelona bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of the city can be decided over breakfast. These four run on timed slots, capped numbers and early starts, and the good times go long before your flight does.
- 01Sagrada Familia Entry Ticket with Audio GuideEntry runs on timed slots and the tower lifts carry a fraction of the nave visitors. In summer the morning times sell out days ahead.
- 02Park Güell Admission TicketThe mosaic terrace is ticketed in half-hour slots with a cap on each. Turn up without one and the next free slot can be hours away.
- 03Casa Batlló Be The First Entry TicketOne early entry before the regular doors open, so the rooms are yours for the first half hour. There is only one of those each morning.
- 04Montserrat Tour with Cog-Wheel & Black MadonnaThe line to stand before the Black Madonna grows through the morning as the coaches arrive. Tours that leave the city early beat it.
Barcelona’s old town belongs to whoever starts walking early.
Every Gothic Quarter tour →
The Barri Gòtic, El Born and the Raval sit inside the line of the old walls, and almost none of it is open to cars. Walk it before the day groups arrive, then come back after dark when the squares fill with tables.
Picasso before he was Picasso
Five medieval palaces on Carrer de Montcada, strongest on the early years: the Barcelona drawings, the Blue Period, and the Las Meninas series he gave to the city.
Montjuïc by cable car
The hill above the port carries the castle, the Olympic ring, the Miró foundation and gardens that drop towards the harbour. Let the cable car do the climb; the walk down is the good half.
A tablao off the Rambla
Flamenco comes from Andalusia, but Barcelona has kept small tablao rooms going for decades: a guitarist, a singer, and dancers close enough to hear the footwork. Book the later seating if you eat first.
Barcelona from the sea, the basilica towers on the skyline.
The city faces a long run of beach and a working port. Catamarans leave Port Vell for an hour or two along the shore, and up the coast the Costa Brava coves are made for a kayak and a mask.
Montserrat, Girona or the Costa Brava: the day trips from Barcelona worth an early alarm.
A saw-toothed mountain with a monastery on its shoulder, a walled medieval town on the Onyar, and clear-water coves on the road north towards France. These three carry most of the bookings out of town.
- 1Montserrat Half-Day Tour with Tapas and Gourmet Winesfrom $55
- 2Montserrat Tour with Cog-Wheel & Black Madonnafrom $59
- 3Girona & Costa Brava Small-Group Tour with Pickup from Barcelonafrom $120
Barcelona’s most popular tours, top to bottom.
Every Barcelona tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers book than anything else in the city, and what earns each one its place.
1
Sagrada Familia Entry Ticket with Audio Guide
Enter Barcelona’s unfinished Sagrada Familia with a timed ticket and a self-guided audio app in your chosen language. See Gaudí’s facades and soaring interior, then explore at your own pace. Tower access is available only if you select that option, and the climb includes narrow stairs. Bring a charged phone and headphones, and download the guide before you arrive.
Entry starts at $39
Read our review →
2
Park Güell Admission Ticket
from $25
3
Casa Batlló Entry with Self-Audioguide Tour
from $34
4
24 or 48-Hour Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour
from $39
5
Park Guell Guided Tour with Skip The Line Entry
from $31
6
Barcelona in 1 Day: Sagrada Familia, Park Guell,Old Town & Pickup
from $120
7
Barcelona Aquarium: Entry Ticket
from $31
8
Sagrada Familia Skip-the-Line Entry Ticket & Tour
from $67
Barcelona eats late and well: tapas, paella, cava.
Vermouth before lunch, tapas from seven, dinner at ten. Learn the order on a guided crawl, cook a paella with produce from the Boqueria, or ride out to the Penedès where the cava is made.
All the tapas and wine tours →
When August heat settles on the Eixample, go under a roof.
July and August fill the beaches by noon and the Gaudí queues by ten, and the afternoon heat holds in the stone streets. Do the walking early, then spend the hot hours in a kitchen, a gallery, a cellar or a tablao.
What a day in Barcelona actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good share of the best Barcelona days cost less than dinner on Passeig de Gràcia.
Gaudí entry tickets, old-town walks, flamenco seats and the harbour boats.
Guided Gaudí days, Montserrat and Girona by minibus, paella classes and catamaran afternoons.
Private guides, balloon flights over Catalonia and chartered sailing.
Three things you will only find around Barcelona.
Cathedrals and beaches turn up all over Spain. A monastery on a saw-toothed mountain, a rooftop of stone sentries, and a theatre rebuilt as one painter’s self-portrait do not.
Montserrat
An hour north-west of the city the rock rises in rounded pinnacles, and a Benedictine monastery has sat on its shoulder for close to a thousand years. Pilgrims queue to touch the Black Madonna, La Moreneta; everyone else rides the rack railway or the cable car up and walks the paths above the basilica.
- 1Montserrat Half-Day Tour with Tapas and Gourmet Wines★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 7,359 reviews
- 2Montserrat Tour with Cog-Wheel & Black Madonna★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 6,969 reviews
- 3Montserrat & Cogwheel Train, Gourmet Wine Tasting & Tapas/Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,290 reviews
La Pedrera rooftop
Casa Milà was finished in 1912 and the neighbours mocked its rippling stone front as a quarry, which is how it got its nickname. The roof is the reason to go: a walkway between chimneys and stair towers shaped like helmeted sentries, lit and animated on the evening visits.
- 1La Pedrera Night Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 4,633 reviews
- 2La Pedrera-Casa Mila Admission Ticket with Audioguide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,032 reviews
- 3La Pedrera – Casa Mila Night Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 564 reviews
The Dalí Theatre-Museum
Dalí rebuilt the burnt-out municipal theatre of his home town as a museum of himself, with giant eggs along the roofline and a glass dome over the old stage. He is buried in the crypt beneath it. It sits about two hours north of Barcelona, usually paired with Girona on the same day.
- 1Girona & Dali Museum Small Group Tour with Pick-up from Barcelona★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,965 reviews
- 2Girona, Figueres, Dalí Museum, and Cadaqués★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,928 reviews
- 3Girona and Dalí Museum Small-group Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,592 reviews
Five days from Barcelona, in the order most first visits run.
Barri Gòtic
Montserrat
Costa BravaBy place: the city, the mountain, two coasts
By kind of day: tickets, tables, wheels or water
Barcelona tours we reviewed most recently.
Older Barcelona reviews, newest first →
Two Hour Luxury Sailing Experience with Open Bar
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Skip-the-line Montjuïc Castle Tour with a Cable Car Ride
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Skip-the-Line Barcelona & Montserrat Tour with Pick-up
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