Spain runs on reservations.
The Nasrid Palaces admit a fixed number every half hour. Sagrada Familia sells entry by the slot. The Caminito boardwalk caps how many walk it in a day. Everything worth queueing for in Spain, reviewed and priced.
The Spanish days that sell out first.
A basilica that keeps changing colour, a palace sold by the half hour, a tablao that starts at eleven at night, a boardwalk bolted to a gorge, and tapas counters you would walk straight past on your own.
Barcelona: work out which Gaudi day you want.
All 156 Barcelona tours →
Sagrada Familia, Park Guell and Casa Batllo all sell timed entry, and all three run dry on the same summer mornings. These three carry the most travellers; the full list splits the rest by what you actually want to look at.
Sagrada Familia, from the inside
Gaudi glazed the east windows blue and green and the west ones amber, so the nave changes colour across the day. Late afternoon is the warm side. Tower access is a separate ticket and sells out before the nave does.
Park Guell before the coaches
Only the monumental zone is ticketed, and it is capped per half-hour window. First slot of the day gets you the serpentine bench, the washed-out colonnades and the whole city below with nobody in the frame.
Tapas the way the city eats them
Barcelona eats standing up and eats late. A good crawl orders the one thing each counter does properly, keeps moving, and gets you to vermut hour before the picture menus come out.
What a day out in Spain actually costs.
Three price brackets, and what each one actually buys. A tablao seat, a Nasrid ticket and a full day on a catamaran do not land anywhere near each other.
Entry tickets, tapas crawls, flamenco seats and the old-town walks that need nothing but shoes.
- 1Sagrada Familia Entry Ticket with Audio Guidefrom $39
- 2Park Güell Admission Ticketfrom $25
- 3Royal Alcázar Entry Ticketfrom $23
The full days out: Caminito del Rey with the shuttle, Montserrat with a winery, catamarans with lunch and a swim stop.
Private guides, chartered boats, and the small-group days that keep the group down to eight.
Seville: the Alcazar at opening, a tablao at ten.
The Royal Alcazar empties by mid-morning and refills for the rest of the day. The Giralda is a ramp, not a staircase, built for a man on horseback. And the flamenco that matters happens in rooms of fifty, long after dinner. Granada and Cordoba are both an easy train from here.
The tours more travellers take than anything else in Spain.
Every review →What sits at the top of the whole list, and what each one gets right.
1
Sagrada Familia Entry Ticket with Audio Guide
Review of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia ticket with audio guide, tower options, practical entry tips, app advice, and honest value notes.
From · $39
Read our review →
2
Park Güell Admission Ticket
from $25
3
Royal Alcázar Entry Ticket
from $23
4
Casa Batlló Entry with Self-Audioguide Tour
from $34
5
Cathedral and La Giralda Entry Ticket
from $20
6
Tour Bernabéu Entry Ticket
from $41
7
24 or 48-Hour Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour
from $39
8
Alhambra & Nasrid Palaces Tour with Tickets
from $64
Tenerife, Mallorca and every island in between.
Tenerife keeps resident pilot whales in the strait off Los Gigantes, so there is no season to miss. Mallorca and Ibiza sell the catamaran day with lunch and a swim stop. Lanzarote runs its volcanoes on a timed shuttle. Choose the island first, then the boat.
Spain has three days you cannot have anywhere else.
Cathedrals and old towns are everywhere in Europe. A tablao at midnight, a walkway pinned to a gorge wall and a Moorish palace sold in half-hour slots are Spanish and nothing else.
The Tablao
Flamenco came out of the gitano quarters of Seville, Jerez and Cadiz, and the further north you watch it the more it becomes a show. The rooms that matter seat about fifty, start around eleven at night and usually include a drink with the seat. The theatre versions are bigger, earlier, easier to book and much easier with children.
- 1Live Flamenco Dancing Show Ticket at the Theater★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 16,396 reviews
- 2Casa de la Memoria Flamenco Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 12,964 reviews
- 3“Emociones” Live Flamenco Performance★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 12,866 reviews
The King's Little Path
A metre-wide walkway bolted to the wall of the Gaitanes gorge, a hundred metres above the river, rebuilt and reopened in 2015 after years closed following two deaths on the crumbling original. It runs one way, north to south, on a timed entry that caps how many are on the boards at once. Nearly every tour includes the shuttle, because the exit is a long way from the entrance.
- 1Caminito del Rey Guided Tour with Transportation★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 12,183 reviews
- 2Caminito del Rey: Guided Tour and Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 11,286 reviews
- 3Caminito del Rey: Entry Ticket and Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 8,149 reviews
The Nasrid Palaces
The Alhambra sells several different tickets and only some of them open the Nasrid Palaces, on a half-hour slot printed on the ticket. Miss it and there is no second chance that day. Summer slots go months ahead, which is why almost every guided tour here leads with the words fast track. The Generalife gardens and the Alcazaba stay open all day.
- 1Alhambra & Nasrid Palaces Tour with Tickets★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 19,801 reviews
- 2Alhambra and Nasrid Palaces Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 15,130 reviews
- 3Alhambra & Generalife Fast-Track Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 8,313 reviews
Madrid paints all afternoon and eats at ten.
The Prado, the Reina Sofia and the Thyssen sit ten minutes apart on the same boulevard. The Royal Palace has more rooms than any other in western Europe and opens most of them. Nobody sits down to dinner before nine, so build the day backwards from the tablao.
- 1Tour Bernabéu Entry Ticketfrom $41
- 2Prado Museum Entry Ticketfrom $21
- 3Royal Palace Fast-Access Admission Ticketfrom $26
The Spanish tickets that will not wait for you.
Most of Spain can be arranged over breakfast the same morning. These cannot. They run on capped entries and printed time slots that are gone weeks before your flight is.
- 01Alhambra & Nasrid Palaces Tour with TicketsThe Nasrid Palaces admit a fixed number every half hour, and summer slots go months ahead.
- 02Sagrada Familia Entry Ticket with Audio GuideEntry is sold by the half hour, and the tower lifts sell out well before the nave does.
- 03Caminito del Rey Guided Tour with TransportationThe boardwalk is one-way with a daily cap, and the shuttle back only meets certain departures.
- 04Park Güell Admission TicketThe monumental zone caps visitors per half-hour window, and it is the only part with the mosaics.
When Andalusia hits forty degrees, go indoors.
From late June the middle of the day in Seville, Cordoba and Madrid is not walkable. The Moors answered it a thousand years ago with courtyards, running water and very thick stone. The modern answers are a gallery, a kitchen, or a boat with a swim stop. Everything below runs straight through the worst of the afternoon.
Spain does not sit down to dinner until nine.
All evening tours →
Live Flamenco Dancing Show Ticket at the Theater
Read our review →
Paella Cooking Experience & Boqueria Market Tour
Read our review →By place — mainland, Balearics, Canaries
By experience — flamenco, boats, Gaudi, food
Barcelona to Granada, the way most first trips run.
Toledo
CordobaThe newest Spanish tour reviews.
All recent →
Malaga Organic Vineyard and Winery Six Wines Tapas and Transfer
Read our review →
Madrid Countryside Wineries Guided Tour with Wine Tasting
Read our review →
Mallorca Catamaran Small Group Cruise with Tapas 4-hours
Read our review →
Mallorca Beach & Caves 4hr Boat Trip Drinks, Tapas, SUP & Snorkel
Read our review →
Madrid Express Tour with Local Guide in Eco Tuk Tuk Private
Read our review →
Basque Best Bites – #1 Food & Wine tour of Bilbao
Read our review →
City Sightseeing Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour & Extras
Read our review →
