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Comment by mabbo | Hacker News Reader

The most marvelous thing about the Sagrada Familia (okay, second to how insanely beautiful it is for a Catholic cathedral) is the ticketing system: There are almost no lines to get in.

Every ticket you buy has a time and day- a 15 minutes period in which you may enter. And there are a limited number of tickets per 15-minute period.

This does mean you have to plan your visit ahead by a day or two, but you'll be rewarded with not needing to line up for more than a few minutes.

Operationally, the management have an exact steady stream of visitors from open to close, so staffing can be just as even, which I can only imagine reduces costs. And management can also tell if they've priced entry correctly by seeing if they have open spots all week or having three weeks' backlog sold out.

Could we please do this for everything that has a line up? It's a wonderful system.

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I've also seen this at Disney World and the Washington Monument. Agree, it is so much better. Waiting in line (or traffic) is such a waste of human life and potential.

> how insanely beautiful it is for a Catholic cathedral

Beautiful Catholic cathedrals are the norm not the exception. France alone contains some of the most mesmerizing cathedrals you're likely too see.

Although, yes, the design of Sagrada Familia is exceptional.

My wife and I love to travel, but we've reached a point where we don't bother with cathedrals anymore. They all seem to be identical to the last one. Oh sure, little touches here and there that are unique, but rarely worth the wait in line and time spent. At St David's in Wales last month, we were way more interested in the ruins of the Bishop's Palace than by the actual cathedral next to it.

The Sagrada Familia is such a different place. It is art with a function.

I was also impressed with the ticket experience. Everything flowed nicely. I visited almost a decade ago and I'd like to go back to see how much has changed since then.

Sagrada familia isnt a cathedral. Its a church, albeit a large and fancy one, and now a basilica due to that.

Good system, yes. Though I am still not sure why you can go only to one tower. I am not sure it's worth going to the both, but why not allow it? I don't think it would add that much to the traffic...

personally i find it disgusting to have to pay for ticket to enter church, unseen in many European countries, almost ridiculous on par to pay ticket to enter nature (national park), what's next ticket to enter square or use sidewalk?

>> This does mean you have to plan your visit ahead by a day or two

Actually, when I went to visit Sagrada Famillia I didn't know a first thing about its ticketing system, went straight to it, and then ended up finding their website on my smartphone and buying ticket online. They still had tickets with time of entry in 15 minutes.

OTOH visitors who discover it will be unable to explore it. Seems like a tradeoff.

that's like "discovering" the eiffel tower, it's not like you're stumbling into an unexplored land

There's (at least one) order of magnitude difference in popularity between the two. I don't think the average American could name the Sagrada Familia from a picture of it, for instance. For me, when I travel, sometimes I don't really look up what there is to see/do in a city until I'm there. When I landed in Barcelona, I didn't know what the Sagrada Familia was.

Sure it's a tradeoff. But also consider, like the eiffel tower, both are large architectural installations with beauty one can marvel from a distance. No ticket needed. Haven't had your fill from the outside views, and want a deeper look, you'll probably go back home/hotel and look it up, learn a bunch about Gaudi on wikipedia, find out you can book tickets online. Get them, a couple of days later you can go back and explore the inside, and find that everyone there seems to be a little knowledgeable about Gaudi, and there are no lines, since there are no walk-ins.

This is because the Sagrada Familia is still way from being finished.

It was supposed to be an atonement temple relying on donations of sinners for progress but unfortunately there were not enough sinners in the Barcelona area or these were tight with their money.

Once the huge dome is finished, I’m sure it will play in the same league as ND in Paris.

I didn't know about this Cathedral until I was looking into what I might find in Barcelona earlier this year. It's entirely easy to imagine not knowing about it until I showed up.

That's like being surprised to see the pope in Rome.

I’m just another rube, i guess. Got me!

How many people go to Barcelona unaware of the existence of the Sagrada Familia?

That would be like going to Paris and being surprised to see the Notre-Dame.

Surprise can be the best part of travel.

You likely could find the slot the same day, it's not likely 100% daily tickets always sell (I've been there and while the traffic is substantial, it's not packed, so looks like the capacity is managed quite well).

I bought the tickets on the spot online. People in front of me, making time whatsapping to get tickets.

Suckers.

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