How to visit Park Güell and which areas require a ticket

Güell and Gaudí had known each other since 1878 and had already worked together on the palace on Nou de la Rambla street. The "Muntanya Pelada" project was something else entirely: an English-style garden city, with private plots, communal services, and a regulation that prohibited obstructing the neighbor's views. Güell had the word Park written with a "k" on the gate, in English, because the model was English and he wanted it to be noticeable. Between 1900 and 1914, all the communal areas were developed: the roads, the three viaducts, the square, the hall of columns, and the two houses at the entrance. Of the sixty plots planned, only two houses were actually built. Construction stopped in 1914. Güell died in 1918, and his heirs sold the land to the City Council. In 1926, it opened as a public park, which is what it remains today, a hundred years later.

Of the sixty plots, only two houses were built, and both still stand. One is the model house designed by Francesc Berenguer, Gaudí's assistant, intended to show potential buyers what life would be like there. No one wanted it. Gaudí eventually bought it, and he moved in with his father and his niece in 1906, living there until 1925, when he moved to the workshop of the Sagrada Família to avoid wasting time on the commute. Today, it is the Casa Museu Gaudí and has a separate entrance: the park ticket does not include it, and many people discover this at the door. The other house was commissioned by the lawyer Martí Trias i Domènech and remains private property, with its tower visible above the pine trees; it can be seen from the outside, but it is not open to visitors. Two out of sixty. That was the success rate of the project.

The monumental area has been a paid area since 2013. The City Council's justification was for conservation, and it's difficult to argue with: the mosaic of the bench and the staircase is made of ceramic from over a century ago, and for decades it had received millions of people without any capacity control. Since then, access has been timed and limited, and the paid area receives approximately 4,400,000 visitors per year, distributed in time slots. The rest of the park has remained free every day, and it constitutes the majority of the area. The confusion arises because almost all the photos circulating are of the paid area, so many people assume that the entire park is closed. It is not. You enter through the upper gates; there is no ticket office or turnstile, and from there, you can access the best viewpoints in the area.

The Park Güell is located on a hillside, and this fact conditions the visit more than anything else. The main entrance is at the lower part of the park, and the plaza is above: you always have to go uphill to reach it. From the metro, there is a considerable uphill walk from the Lesseps and Vallcarca stations (line 3), taking a good fifteen minutes, and it's all uphill, while bus number 24 drops you much closer to the upper entrances. Those with knee problems, those pushing a stroller, or those traveling with elderly people should consider this before booking, because most tours don't mention it, and it's not a minor detail. On the page for private tours, we break it down door by door: not all the entrances to the park are at the same level, not by a long shot.

It has to be said: Park Güell is the Gaudí work that disappoints the most. In public reviews of the monument, it scores a 4.2 compared to the 4.7 of the Sagrada Família, and the difference isn't in the architecture. It's in what people expect. The photo that circulates is of the empty bench at sunrise; what one finds is a square with hundreds of people taking the same photo, a short walk, and the feeling of having paid 18€ for twenty minutes of mosaics. To that, one must add that the free part, which is the largest, is almost never visited: people enter from below, do the paid circuit, and leave. Those who then go up to Turó de les Tres Creus get a different impression of the place. It's another half hour of walking, it's the best viewpoint in the park, and it doesn't cost a euro.

The 67 experiences in the catalog are divided into three types of entry, and the reviews say very different things about each one. The 14 unguided entries account for 42,929 reviews with an average rating of 4.46, the lowest rating on the entire site: this is what happens when a service is sold and the buyer expected a guided visit. The 25 guided tours have a total of 40,086 reviews and a rating of 4.62, with an average price of €89. The 29 private tours have the highest rating in the category, a 4.82 based on 13,353 reviews, and also the highest average price at Park Güell, €249. Each one has its own page below, with information that you should know before booking and that is not included in the product description.