Barcelona, Spain

I love Europe, especially the tiny towns and narrow streets with cobblestones everywhere. While I typically prefer these to bigger cities, I like to mix them in with some of the more popular tourist destinations, both because clearly they’re well-known and popular for a reason and because it’s often times less expensive to fly in and out of the larger international airports.  When I first decided that we should go to Spain, honestly I didn’t have any interest in Barcelona. It was just another big city. But we found a killer deal on flights in and out of Barcelona so I worked our itinerary around it. It still was not the highlight of our trip, but it was definitely worth seeing, especially for all of the Gaudí architecture which was so different than anything I’d ever seen before. 

One thing I can’t stress enough is BUY TICKETS IN ADVANCE! I’m a planner and I like to make a list of all of the things I might possibly want to see when I travel, but I do NOT like to be tied to any particular plans or schedule so I usually avoid timed tickets and tour guides. My thought is that you never know how much time you’re going to want to spend at different spots. Something you thought you’d want to spend a lot of time at, might turn out to not be as interesting to you. And vice versa, something you may not have thought you wanted to spend that much time on or might have just stumbled upon, may end up taking up much more time than planned. When you have set times for things, you’re not able to be as flexible. So for me, I prefer to have a rough idea of what I’d like to do and I make adjustments as they come up. That being said I kept reading over and over again about how many people were saying you need to buy tickets in advance for all of the major sites in Spain. I kept reading about how the famous sites sell out in advance and when they don’t sell out, you’ll wait hours in line to get in. So I bit the bullet – not wanting to waste hours in line or miss out on things I wanted to see, I bought a LOT of our tickets in advance before we left for the trip. The tickets gave you a certain time slot, which is great because it meant shorter lines, but it also meant you had to be on time for your ticket. In order to attempt to still keep some flexibility in our schedule I tried to spread out the timed tickets across different days when it made sense so that each day still had “free time” to do things at our own pace. 

We stayed in the Eixample district, close to a metro stop and were able to easily navigate around on foot or with the metro. We bought the 2 day pass so that we could easily hop on and off without worrying about getting a ticket each time. 

Here’s my list of things to see, along with which things I suggest getting tickets for!

As I mentioned, the Gaudí sites are top of the list for things to see in Barcelona. 

Sagrada Família: I recommend buying tickets in advance for this! Probably the most iconic building in Barcelona, this is Gaudí’s unfinished church and they’re still doing construction on it to finish him plans! Be sure to also go across the street to the park to check out the view from farther away!

Park Güell: Another one I recommend getting tickets for in advance, Park Güell was designed by Gaudí and is filled with colorful tiles and has great views of the city. 

Casa Batlló: This is a Gaudí designed house and was another must-see. We booked tickets in advance in the evening for this one. They have a couple different add-ons to the tickets. The package we got included a fun old-timey photo taken on the property. 

Casa Milá: Another Gaudí building, but I’d probably rank this lowest on the list of Gaudí sites to see. This has the iconic Gaudí rooftop, but I found the building itself a little less interesting in comparison to Casa Batlló.

Picasso Museum: I enjoy going to museums, but tend to be pretty selective in choosing which ones I’ll visit on a trip. I don’t want my entire time to be spent inside museums. The Picasso Museum was a must for us – it’s a large collection of his work and was really interesting to see.

Barcelona Cathedral: We didn’t have time to go inside the cathedral, but walked passed it at night when we did a casual walking tour of the Gothic district.

Las Ramblas: This is a pedestrian road filled with touristy stalls selling trinkets. I found it on most travel itineraries for Barcelona, but honestly didn’t find it to be a “must see”. 

La Boqueria Market: Off of Las Ramblas, La Boqueria is an outdoor produce market. Worth peeking in if you’re already on Las Ramblas or want a quick snack.

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