Combined tickets and how to save money

It's one of the most frequently asked questions regarding this topic, so we provide the answer before the explanation: There is no official pass that includes all of Gaudí's works. None of the eight monuments offer a combined ticket with any of the other seven. You must purchase a ticket each time, on the website of each individual monument.

The following explains what existing bundled services actually are, and where the real savings lie, which is often not where people typically look for them.

La Pedrera is the only one of the eight monuments to have official combined tickets, and it offers three: one that includes the modernist complex of Sant Pau, another with the Palau de la Música Catalana, and a third with the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres. None of these are works by Gaudí. The first two were designed by Domènech i Montaner, who competed with Gaudí in the same municipal competition for artistic buildings. The third is from a different era and a different subject matter. La Pedrera aligns with modernism and surrealism, not with the other Gaudí works.

The other package is called "Combinat Güell" and is sold at the crypt of the Colònia Güell. It includes the train from Barcelona, and it's the only one that also handles transportation, which sounds better than it actually is. The package description doesn't clarify whether the ticket is round-trip or from which station it departs, and Santa Coloma de Cervelló is within the metropolitan area, so you need a ticket for that zone. The actual savings are less than the name suggests.

For those planning to visit several modernist buildings in the city, the cost can add up. And for those who only want to see Gaudí's works, it's even less worthwhile: of the eight works mentioned, only Park Güell explicitly mentions the card as offering a reduced price, and that same discount is also available for those of a certain age.

The Palau Güell is the only one of the eight that has free admission days for everyone, and there are quite a few: the first Sunday of each month, February 12th for Santa Eulàlia, April 23rd for Sant Jordi, the Night of Museums, September 11th for La Diada, and September 24th for La Mercè. It is also free for unemployed individuals. The explanation is simple: it is managed by the Diputació de Barcelona and is public, while almost all the others are foundations or private companies.

In other words, it's the only documented way to enter a Gaudí work in Barcelona for free without being a resident, a minor, or having a disability. The fact that almost no one talks about it is likely because there's nothing to sell there.

The Park Güell achieves the same thing through a different approach. There are two time slots each day, early in the morning and late in the afternoon, during which the regulated area is open to everyone without an entrance fee, outside of the tourist hours. The exact times vary depending on the season, and you need to check them on the same day. And in addition to that, most of the park is outside the paid area: it is public urban space and is always open.

And an answer that addresses another frequent question: the Casa Batlló does not have any open house days, and it states this in writing on its own website, where it is defined as a private institution that does not participate in any open house events. It is the only one of the eight that states this explicitly. Searching for "Casa Batlló free" will not lead anywhere, and it's worth knowing this before wasting half an hour.

The discrepancies are greater than one would expect from eight monuments in the same city. The Sagrada Família has a reduced rate for those under 30 years old, which does not exist anywhere else. Casa Batlló accepts student IDs of any age and from any country, which means a thirty-four-year-old doctoral student can get the reduced rate. La Pedrera offers a discount for residents of Catalonia, which no other does. And within the children's category, there is a five-year difference between Palau Güell, free until the age of 13, and Torre Bellesguard, free only until the age of 8.

The last row of the table is of a different nature. The Colònia Güell crypt does not publish either the age limits for its reduced-price tickets, nor the age at which children are admitted free of charge; it is the only one of the eight that does not provide this information. We did not invent this figure, nor did we copy it from a reseller. You need to inquire about it directly.

One more point, which is relevant for families: Casa Batlló provides augmented reality tablets free of charge for children up to the age of twelve, and the Sagrada Família always includes an audio guide, available in nineteen languages. These are extras that are often charged separately at other monuments.

Before buying anything, it's worth knowing how much of Gaudí there is in Barcelona that you can experience for free, as it's significantly more than what the typical tourist routes suggest.

• The two streetlights in Plaça Reial, with six arms each, were inaugurated on January 14, 1879: they are the first of his works to be completed and inaugurated.
• The ones that remain in the Pla de Palau. Four were installed, with three arms each, at the end of the 19th century, and today, two of them still stand, in front of the old Customs House.
• The Portal Miralles, with its undulating wall of white trencadís. The iron cross you see from the sidewalk is a replica: the original is in the Casa-Museu Gaudí.
• The wall, the gate, and the iron dragon of the Pavellons de la Finca Güell, which have been closed for renovations since June 2018, and therefore can only be seen from the outside today.
• The panot on Passeig de Gràcia, 60,000 m² of sidewalk, with a detail that almost all guides get wrong: Gaudí designed it in 1904 for Casa Batlló, where it was never actually installed, and it ended up in the service areas of Casa Milà. It wasn't placed on the street until 1971, and the tile you step on today is a redesign from 1997.
• Most of Park Güell, plus the two daily time slots in the regulated zone.

The complete list, showing everything that can be seen in its entirety, what can only be seen from a distance, and what no longer exists, is in "The Hidden Gaudí".