hey fodorites,

i'm trying to plan out our four nights/three (full) days trip to barcelona. we will be there at the end of september; we arrive on a sunday afternoon and leave on a thursday morning. i would say that 99% of our sightseeing will be done on monday/tuesday/wednesday.

i posted previously about the HOHO bus and have been convinced (thank you!) to purchase a 2-day pass. so, i'm thinking about doing one loop on the monday morning and another loop on the tuesday morning.

we don't have plans for museums on this trip ... but we're planning to visit sagrada familia, casa batllo, and casa mila. i've read on other posts that lineups at these places can be horrendous. is there any way to 'beat' the lineups? (i.e. we got up really early and we were the first folks in line to enter versailles) would arriving before opening help?

while i think the HOHO bus on monday would be a good thing to do straight away, i would be willing to head straight to one of the gaudi sites on tuesday morning and another on wednesday morning and move the HOHO bus to tuesday afternoon.

in addition, we would also like to visit parc guell and montijuc ... could you please let me know if there are less crowded times to visit?

and finally, we're planning to go to la boqueria (at least once, if not more) ... the website shows that it opens at 8 am. will the market be dead at 8 am? or will be it be bustling? ideally, we could go to the market at 8 am and then maybe catch one of the HOHO buses afterwards...

thank you!!

lilaki

Sagrada Familia has long lines - but those are lines to get UP the towers. The actual entrance line looks long but moves quickly. There IS a way to pre-purchase advance tickets for a few of the Barcelona sites... Maribel mentioned it a while back and she was supposed to come back here and report how it went for her trip. But I haven't seen her around here lately. Let me see if I can find that thread about advance tickets.

For Parc Guell, it's a huge park so it really doesn't get ridiculously crowded since the crowds disperse. There will be tourists around the dragon at the entrance, and the serpentine bench, but I wouldn't worry about what time to go.

Found it! Here's the thread on advance tickets for Sagrada Familia and other sights (including Casa Batllo):
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...da-familia.cfm

hi yk,

thanks for the info - this is great.

i have to double check on the discounts we get with the HOHO bus...i think there are a bunch of discounts to popular sites with the HOHO ticket. i wonder if we can purchase our HOHO ticket and then purchase all of our discounted 'attraction' tickets at the tourist office? or if the discount only applies if you go straight to the site?

also - we were planning to climb UP the towers @ sagrada familia ... is there a recommended time to do this?

tks!

Hi lilaki, I don't know how the HOHO discounts work. Hopefully others who have used the HOHO can answer your question.

REgarding Sagrada Familia, there are 2 towers you can climb - the "newer" facade and the Gaudi facade. Here's the deal:
You first line up to enter the whole complex. After you get in, you are facing the Gaudi facade and you'll see the line for the tower. The Gaudi facade is more popular so the lines are longer. It was a 1hr wait when I visited in Feb 08. If you don't climb the Gaudi facade tower, you can get the audioguide and tour the interior of the cathedral. After you make your way through the cathedral, you exit on the opposite side, where the newer facade is. There, you'll find another line to climb the new facade tower. That's the one I climbed, as the line was shorter (45 min wait).

FWIW, lilaki, there was no line when we went to Casa Batllo. We went around 6:00. There were a lot of people once we got in the house, but no line to get in. We used the Bus Turistic coupon to purchase our ticket (which we bought there at the time we entered). I don't know whether you can use the discounts if you pre-purchase.