I am visiting Spain in the beginning of June. I will be in Barcelona for 2 !/2 days. I plan on spending a day visiting the following Gaudi sites:

Sagrada Familia
Casa Batllo - Manzana de la Discordia
La Pedrera
Casa Vicenc
Park Guell
Am I better off going with the metro of bus turistic? I am leaning towards the metro as I can just visit what I want to see as opposed to going the whole route of the bus. After visiting the park we would like to go back to Plaza Catalunya area and shop. Is there a reason to take the bus that I am not considering? Please advise me.

We stayed in the Plaza Catalunya area so getting to La Pedrera and Casa Batllo was easy - walk! They're right near each other. We did try the Bus Touristic for the first time in our traveling life. It was nice because you got a panorama view of may neighborhoods AND it got us to the Park Guell (you've got to go there!) easily, although there's still a very steep hill to climb once off the bus. Not sure how to get there via metro.

We took the metro a lot. La Sagrada is crazy crowded (and we were there at the beginning of December) . The bus is expensive.

You also have to walk up the hill taking the metro to Parc Guell.

Most of the sites you listed are easy to get to. Like kenav said, it's easiest to walk to Casa Battlo and La Pedrera from Placa Catalunya. Sagrada Familia is easy to get to by subway.

It's about a 10-min walk from the metro (Lessups) to Parc Guell, and as others mentioned, the last bit is an uphill hike.

Casa Vincenc is near the Lessups metro stop, so if you want to stop by Casa Vincenc, it may make more sense to take the Metro to Lessups, see it, then walk over to Parc Guell. I did this route back in Nov 2009.

I recall taking a local bus to Parc Guell. There was little uphill walk, but we came in the side, passing by Gaudi's residence before seeing the main sights.

It all depends how long you want to spend at each sight. Sagrada Familia becomes very crowded and Parc Guell is spread out but I am sure the tour will include the lizard.

A tour is someone else's view of the world. Walking back to the hotel one day from Parc Guell, we passed a restaurant called Harrison Fuc. Fuc is the word for fire in Catalan. And it was filled with Harrison Ford posters. We still have our Harrison Fuc espresso cup, even though the waiter had no idea why we wanted one.

As others have mentioned, only Parc Güell is a bit away from the Metro. If you don't feel for that walk from Metro Lesseps, you can catch bus 24 (direction Carmel) from Metro Lesseps which will drop you off close to the park's entrance.

I do plan on staying near Placa Catalunya and thought walking to Casa Battlo and La Pedrera made sense.
That's funny about the restaurant Aduchamp, my son is a huge fan of Harrison Ford.
So far metro sounds best.

Buy a two day bus tourista ticket. It was 21 Euro each and well worth it. Metro has a pick pocket problem sometimes.

<i>Buy a two day bus tourista ticket. It was 21 Euro each and well worth it.</i>

To each his/her own. The 2day Turistic Bus ticket is now €29. http://www.barcelonabusturistic.cat/...est/informacio

The OP can buy a TMB T-10 ticket (valid for Metro & bus; plus free transfers) for €7,85. That will be plenty enough for her to use in 2 days. And if the OP is traveling with someone, they can share one T-10 ticket as long as they travel together.

She can use the leftover money for one nice lunch.

The more you do on your own, walking, metro, local busses, the more you have the chance to discover. None of the places you mention are at all hard to get to. You can take the 24 bus right from placa Catalunya for Parc Guell and skip the metro .

kenav - how long of a walk would it be from Placa Catalunya to Casa Batllo and then to La Pedrera? Maybe we could do that and then take metro to Sagrada Familia and Casa Vincenc. We could then take metro to Parc Guell. When we are done there we could take metro or bus back to hotel. Does this make sense?

I'm another fan of the barcelona transort system, even though we didn't use it enough. in 3 days, we used 20 tickets- that's 10 each, which cost us about €15, as opposed to €58 the HOHO bus would have cost. that's another meal, more or less, or several bottles of prosecco.

don't underestimate how much walking you will do though - some of the metro stops have looooong tunnels to negotiate.

It is a few blocks (8 I think) to the Gaudi buildings from Placa Catalunya but only slightly uphill and there are plenty of shops and restaurants to distract you on the way!

It's about the same from La Pedrera to Sagrada Familia or two stops form the Diagonal station. You'd definitely want to take the Metro to Parc Guell from there. It's a pretty steep walk up from the Lesseps but there are six escalators to the side entrance that make it bearable.

<i>how long of a walk would it be from Placa Catalunya to Casa Batllo and then to La Pedrera?</i>

10 mins to Casa Batllo, then another 5 mins to Le Pedrera **if you don't get sidetracked (lots of other lovely buildings, and tons of shops)**.

jerseysusan - Agree with yk about time and distance. Very close to one another and to Placa Catalunya. Maybe 4 blocks between them, and a 10-15 minute walk from the Catalunya to both. Beautiful big boulevard walk. I've never seen such deep sidewalks!

Thanks everyone for the info and advice. BTW my almost 17 year old daughter is not so interested in Gaudi but can't wait to go shopping. A mixture of both is great for all of us!

Well, now that the price of the bus tourista has gone up, I will use the local bus now. Thanks for the updated information.

We took the metro to Parc Güell then walked back

We always hit the big Zara store on Passeig de Gracia along with some designer shops. Usually we buy at Zara and ogle at the others.