The wait depends a lot on how many people arrived before you, but don’t expect to show your ticket to the safety guy and be happily directed to the front of the line: that won’t happen no matter what the website where you bought it says. In any case, it won’t be the infamous 3 hour waits that were common when tickets weren’t available online and you had to stand in line to purchase them. Sometimes it’s as fast a 5 minutes, but in the high season it’s not unusual to have to wait even 30 minutes under the sun.
Protocol groups, the only ones with real guaranteed fast-track entry
There’s one type of visitor that does have guaranteed fast-track entry: the protocol groups – that is the guests invited by the Sagrada Familia board. If you are lucky enough to have insider contacts at the church or the Barcelona Bishopric, ask them to arrange your visit to Sagrada Familia. If they agree, you’ll likely go in for free, and have priority access through Gate A.
Organized groups (guided tours from outside the church)
Most Sagrada Familia skip the line tours that advertise as such are just guided tours organized by outside companies that purchase group tickets. It’s not really that they go to a special fast-track lane, but they do use a separate entrance that is different from that of the individual visitors: Access B. However, since Sagrada Familia allocates only 20% of the available tickets for each time frame to groups of 10 people or more, the lines at Access B (which have 3 separate lines) often look less busy and therefore faster than those for the regular visitors.
So one way to skip lines at Sagrada Familia (or at least to go in faster) is to join an organized group. It still comes with risks, though, because how fast you get in will ultimately depend on how many groups got in the line before yours arrived, as well as how fast are they to go through security.
Private tours
If your budget allows, booking a private tour of Sagrada Familia can often be the fastest way to go inside of Sagrada Familia. Private licensed guides like us do normally enter via Access B. HOWEVER, if Access A (the protocol gate) is empty and the scanners for the groups in Access B are too busy, it’s not unusual that our small groups are redirected to Access A – or even to Accesses C or D in those strange days when the individual lines are shorter than the group lines. As a result, a private tour is the closest thing to a real priority access (after protocol tours).
Other ways to game the system
- Come during the low season. Schedule your trip for November, January or February. They are the lowest months, and the lines are likely to be shorter.
- Avoid the weekends. That is true only for low season, but as soon as we enter the high season, it won’t really matter…
- Should you visit early? Sagrada Familia opens at 9AM, and that time frame sells out every day. So whoever recommended to arrive early… has outdated information. Sure, there won’t be the people of the previous time frames in front of you, but the difference will be minimal. I prefer the late afternoons because the large groups are usually gone after lunch and the church feels less crowded, plus the stained glass colors are much more beautiful.
What about the Sagrada Familia Towers?
Bear in mind that to visit the towers of the Sagrada Familia you need to buy a specific ticket that includes both the admission to the Basilica AND the Towers – it’s not separate tickets, its a combined ticket that includes both. The tickets that include the towers tend to sell out faster than the basic admissions, and they are also timed: you have a time frame to get in, and once you are in, a specific entrance time for the towers.
However, that doesn’t mean that you get in the towers right away: you access the LINE for the towers at the designated time, and then you have to stand in line until it’s your turn to get in the elevator. That wait takes between 5 and 20 minutes in average. And NOBODY is allowed to skip that line – not the groups and private guides, not even the protocol tours. But you do have a 15 minute window to access the towers line. If you arrive too early they’ll make you wait, but if you arrive 5 minutes before your time window ends the wait for the elevator is likely to be somewhat shorter.
Are there lines for mass?
Oh, yeah! Sagrada Familia organizes an international mass every Saturday evening and every Sunday morning at 9AM. And it’s free! But because of that, the lines to get in a incredibly long and you need to show up 2 hours in advance to make sure you’ll be one of the lucky first 1000 that they allow in. So not a smart strategy if your goal is to skip the lines (but great if you want to go in for free and don’t mind standing in line for 2 hours and then seating in mass for one hour before being made to leave).
Groups of pilgrims (10 people and up) need to contact Sagrada Familia in advance to make a reservation, as their space for groups attending mass is limited.
