Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain

I recently posted about our Half Day in Barcelona and that we visited Sagrada Família. While it’s probably one of the must see sights in Barcelona, at least for us, it does come with a steep price tag…although most sights in Barcelona do!

The Sagrada Família is an overly ornate church who’s design and construction was overseen by Antoni Gaudí starting in 1883 until his death in 1926. The church is still under construction and not even projected to be finished for many more years to come. Gaudí used designs found in nature such as honeycombs, flower, etc to use for the architectural and ornate designs for Sagrada Família as well as his other works, it’s really quite impressive to see.

If your planning a visit to Sagrada Família make sure you book your tickets ahead of time online to avoid a long wait to enter. You can easily do that at the website above, although you do have to chose what time you’ll be there so plan wisely. If you don’t know when you’ll be there you can use the free wifi from a local McDonald’s and order the tickets, however your desired time may be sold out so keep that in mind. Also when booking the tickets you need to choose if your going to visit one of the towers (Nativity or Passion) and a time for that as well. Please note there are some rules for visiting the tower, which can all be found on the website. Since I’ve recently been asked I’ll share just a quick overview. Kids under 6 are not allowed up into the tower, kids 16 and under must be accompanied by an adult, those with limited mobility or wheelchairs are not allowed as well. So if your traveling with a small child and both want to go up I would recommend booking separate ticket times for each one to go up into the tower.

Tickets for our family of 4 (2 adults, 14 & 11 years) was €74/$81 (Adults €19,50 and kids 18 and under €17,50) which included the church and a tower visit.

We chose an entrance time of 3:30 pm, this allowed us to drive to Barcelona from Girona Airport and check in to our apartment before time to enter. We then walked the 10 minutes to Sagrada Família. We had a tower time of 4 pm to go up into the Nativity facade.

Entrance was easily with a per purchased and printed tickets, there was no wait and just a quick search of all bags before entering. There is easily enough to see here for at least an hour minimum, more with the tower visit. I think we were there 1.5 hours and then left to walk across to the park to get photos before the sun went all the way down. There is a crypt, a small room showing models of what Gaudí used from nature to base his designs off of, and a museum area with some neat info, as well as 2 gift shops.

The designs all over were very ornate!

I loved this colorful door with the faux bugs on it.

We had 30 mins before our time to go up into the Nativity tower so we walked around and checked out the interior of the church. Since we arrived later in the day we got some amazing views of the stained glass as the sun was lowering and shining through them. They were making the interior a multitude fascinating colors.

They have the interior a shade of blue & green, it was pretty neat.

The enormity of the interior can be felt as you stand and look up at the enormous vaulted ceilings. We also used Rick Steves’ book to give ourselves a self-guided tour as we normally do.

Then we headed to the far right corner to get on the elevator to go up to the Nativity tower. I choose this one because if the information I had researched and the reviews I’d seen. Otherwise it would’ve been a coin toss 😉 The elevator has glass walls and can be intimidating for those who don’t like heights (i.e. the other 3 in my family! Boo wasn’t with us for this trip) however it wasn’t horrible for them. Bea was a little scared climbing up all the stairs and a bit on the outside walkway but she did great. She did go down all the MANY stairs slowly and they were a bit steep and spiraling.

The outside walkway is fully enclosed and provides some amazing views!

Like this one of the spires casting a shadow over the city of Barcelona!

As well as a view of the park across the street where you can people watch and get some views of the whole Sagrada Família.

Fruit inspired spires.

The stairs down are long and steep, which is why limited mobility is not allowed.

A view up of the stairs you walk down.

A view from the stairs walking down, see how the stained glass is coloring the interior?!

After we got our workout walking down all the stairs (elevator takes you up, you walk down) we headed down to see the crypt although I did not take pictures as thats a bit too creepy for me.

Then we went into the room with the nature models showing the items from nature he’d used like honeycombs, flowers, etc. I thought I took some photos in this room but if I did I have no idea where they went, LOL!

After you exit the church you can go into the museum area and see a history of the contraction of the church as well as huge model that were created for designs. It was interesting and something that I had no idea was there and included until we were there. Again I only have a few pics as the rest are either MIA or I forgot…which is crazy for either one really.

The gift shops have some cute items as well as postcards, however the stuff here was more expensive than some of the souvenir shops that are not at an actual attraction. We did however get postcards as usual, which were €1 so a bit higher than the €0.50 I normally get them for but not horrible.

You can also see some buildings with his curved rooftops.

The sun was starting to set so we walked to the park across the street to get some photos of the building. It’s a good vantage point however there are some trees there you have to work around as well but its probably the best spot to get a full picture of the church. There was some construction going on, and will be for many years but it didn’t take away too much from the experience.

Overall we thought that it was a neat visit, yes a bit expensive, but probably one of our favorite sights in Barcelona. I’d recommend checking it out if your in Barcelona and make sure to visit one of the towers!