Hello,

I just booked a trip to Barcelona a week ago for a departure leaving in two weeks. Obviously I am scrambling. I know that the Sagrada Familia is one of the must sees, the good news is that I can still get tickets for my time frame. In doing my research it occurred to me that I felt like this when I booked my Vatican tours, SO many options. I am interested in the tower and a guided tour in English. There is a tour directly through the Sagrad Familia as well as multiple private tours. Can anyone render an opinion on the public tour versus private.

We typically do the free walking tours in various cities and then explore deeper on our own. I noticed that the office of tourism sponsors similar walking tours versus the "free tours." I would love to hear any opinions on tours taken through that office. I also came across the Devour Food tours which get great reviews and thinking of booking one of those as well.

We will be in the city for a total of 8 days. Five devoted to Barcelona, then day trips to Montserrat, Girona and Tarragona.

Thank you in advance for any insight or suggestions, I welcome any feedback.

When I visited the Sagrada Familia (2015), I used both the audio guide and one of the guides available at the Sagrada Familia itself, both booked in advance. IMO, both were excellent and both added immeasurably to my experience. I don't think you would regret either and suggest that you choose based on your personal preferences. I wouldn't book anyone off the main Sagrada Familia website; YMMV.

Thank you for info but how did you book the guide available at the site itself in advance? I can get a guided tour through the website itself but sounds like you went another route? Sorry for my confusion.

As I said, it was in 2015, so things could have changed! I'm not sure what I said that confused you, but according to my notes:

• I reserved "Sagrada Familia with Guide and visit to the Towers" in advance through the official Sagrada Familia website. I specified that the language should be English. The tower was the one on the Nativity facade. My reservation specified the date, time of access to the basilica, time for the start of the tour, and time of access to the tower.
• Once I was there, I also rented an audio guide for the time I had in the basilica before the tour itself.

The last time I visited SF was in 2023. We booked the entrance time in advance. Didn't use the guide.
The place was more crowded than I have seen in years . ( I visited several times starting in 2010)
Most visitors were taking videos with their phones hardly looking at the whole picture .
.

We booked a guided tour with a guide of the main portion of the cathedral (without the tower.) We booked through the website and thought our tour was excellent.

We also took two "free" tours with Runner Beans in Barcelona and really enjoyed both. We did happily tip the suggested amount afterwards.

We did the Casa Batllo tour and it was great, we would have gone to Parc Guell but we have a cruise coming up and one of the excursions goes there so we will go then