7 Mistakes to Avoid When Visiting Park Güell [Local’s Guide]

Whether you are itching to visit Gaudí architectural delights, seeking some oxygen away from the buzz of the city center, or simply looking for killer views of the city, Park Güell is well worth a visit!

That said, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not the most straightforward attraction in Barcelona.

While its popularity on Instagram may make you think it’s an easy find — a place you can just stumble across — that belies the difficulty many tourists have when looking for this tucked-away park.

As someone who has called the city home for a decade, I’ve shown countless visitors around, and I know how to make the best of it. Here are my tips for visiting Park Güell while you’re visiting Barcelona.

I’m letting you know 7 mistakes that are commonly made by people visiting Park Güell — so that you won’t!

Mistakes to Avoid when Visiting Park Güell

Don’t get lost!

I actually live near Park Güell… which means every single day, I see bewildered tourists exiting the metro station and looking around for some kind of green area or that familiar friendly salamander… before turning to their phones with a look of puzzlement.

First things first: Park Güell is on a massive hill, and the two closest metro stations – Lesseps and Vallcarca – are a 10-20 minute walk away, and that walk is mostly in the direction of “up”.

If you get out at Lesseps metro, you surface in Plaça de Lesseps, which is a pleasant if eclectic square with some eye-catching buildings as well as bars, cafes and restaurants if you feel like making a pit stop before the park.

If you want to cab it from here – I am not a big taxi user but it’s not a bad idea at all – this is a busy square where you are likely to be able to flag one down. The fare from here to Park Güell is about €6.

Another option – perhaps a bit more of an “experience” – would be to take the 116 bus from the corner of Plaça de Lesseps and Gran de Gràcia. You can find a map of the route here and bus arrival times here.

The 116 is a “bus del barri”, a neighborhood bus, roughly the size of a school bus, and it takes a winding a 13-minute route up the hill. In peak season you will find tourists on it, but it’s generally a way for local residents to get up and down the hill. 

As of this update in May 2025, the bus fare is €2.65 — so if you are in fact two people or more, a taxi may end up being the same cost.

Finally, you can walk to Park Güell rather easily — but it’s important to know there are a couple of streets with some escalators, which I would highly recommend taking to save yourself some efforts, especially if you’re visiting Barcelona in the summer heat.

The foot of Baixada de la Glòria street is about a 7-minute walk from Lesseps or about 5 minutes from Vallcarca, and the view from the top makes it a photo opportunity in itself.

The escalators have been renovated as of the end of 2023 and the final steps of the public works project to update this area were completed in October 2024, so it should be up and running.

Let me level with you — I used to live at the top of this street and even with the escalators, I’d say it’s a pretty physical climb, not something I would recommend for older visitors, folks in flip-flops, etc.

For the rest of you, if you feel like buying a drink in the convenience store or getting a juice nearer the top – take the break, don’t rush.

One curiosity about this route is that you end up at the back entrance of the park… which is not a bad place to end up.

You climb up a final flight of stairs that leads to a winding path, before you finally come across the famous Plaça de la Natura esplanade, complete with its seemingly-endless mosaic bench!

If you prefer not to take the Baixada de la Glòria route for some reason, the next best option is the 17-minute walk [directions here] from Plaça de Lesseps via Av. del Santuari de St. Josep de la Muntanya.

This street only has one escalator, so it doesn’t make the walk easier, but it’s better than nothing.

Finally, a word for those opting for Vallcarca station. Once you pass through the turnstiles, look up immediately and make sure you take the exit for Park Güell!

The word “vall” is valley in Catalan, which means that if you take the wrong exit, you will end up on the wrong hill, since the station is nestled in between two hills! 

So if you find yourself going up a huge escalator, you need to turn around at the end. Any detour from that exit in Avinguda de la República de Argentina is going to make your walk longer!

Vallcarca metro can also be a bit bewildering because when you come out at the Park Güell exit, the first thing you see is a rather abandoned-looking square lined with protest banners and derelict buildings.

This is a result of a tug-of-war between local residents and the city’s plan to demolish their houses, which dates back to 1976. 

As a result, many visitors immediately turn around and head towards the attractive-looking bridge: don’t do that.

You have to walk downhill from the metro, past the aforementioned sad square, and this street (Avinguda de Vallcarca) will lead you either to Baixada de la Glòria or an escalator-free option for those seeking a real workout.

If all of this sounds really stressful, there are tours that will combine a trip to Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia and Park Güell, handling the transfer for you as well as guiding you through both. It’s not a bad option, although it’s pricier than visiting everything independently, but you’ll get more historical context so it’s great for those who prefer guidance.

Check prices and availability online here!

You can also just book a tour of Park Güell if you don’t want to miss any corner of this park, which meets at the main entrance (address: Carretera del Carmel, 2).

Check tours of Park Güell here!

Know which areas are free and which are paid-access

Contrary to what you may think from just the pictures, Park Güell is not just some walled-in garden with lots of mosaics and statues: its hillside setting actually lends it a pretty rugged, forested feel in some places.

A consequence of that is that when the city decided to charge for entry, it only cordoned off the central, most famous part of the park that contains Gaudí’s designs. So, if you want to go through the main entrance, past the salamander, under the rain-collecting columns and up on to the esplanade, you will have to pay.

As of this update in May 2025, skip-the-line tickets are about $24, or about $31 if you want a guided tour too.

However, if you are more interested in the view and just getting a quick peek of the famous stuff from above without paying for a ticket or a tour, you can access the view for free from the Baixada de la Glòria end.

Note on free access: Park Güell used to offer free admission on Sundays in off-season and in April-October on Sunday evenings, as well as on a few holidays, but this appears to have discontinued. As of May 2025 as I update this post, those tickets still cost the regular price.

If you want to combine your ticket entry with entry to the Gaudí House Museum, you can book one of these tickets for just a little more than if you bought the Park Güell ticket alone. Not a bad deal, I’d say!

Book your combined tickets to Park Güell and the Gaudí House Museum here!

Don’t buy tickets from the box office

It is possible to buy tickets from the box office at Park Güell, but there are two distinct disadvantages. First and foremost, there will definitely be a long line of people with the same idea.

But more importantly, two, there is a limited number of tickets for each time slot, so you will likely not be able to go straight in. Booking a ticket online is straightforward enough, and it means you can rock up at the park knowing your entry time (be there on time, though — you forfeit your slot if you’re more than 30 minutes late!)

As of May 2025, looking now for the next day, I see plenty of evening spots available, though the afternoon and morning are not available. If you want afternoon slots (meaning, before 5 PM), you need to book at least 2 weeks in advance during the high season.

Note for early risers: if you want those coveted 9:30 AM first entrance slots, you’ll probably want to book a month in advance. However, you can’t book more than 6 weeks in advance, so perhaps set a reminder for yourself to get tickets if it’s important to your Barcelona itinerary that you get an early start on your Park Güell visit.

Book your ticket online here!

Don’t forget to dress smart

As noted above, flip-flops, dressy sandals, or any other impractical shoes are a no-no! As well as the initial climb to get to the park, there are going to be steps and dusty trails, so I wouldn’t wear anything flimsy or fancy on my feet.

Similarly, because the park is high up and open, it can feel very exposed to the elements, leaving you susceptible to sun burn and heat exhaustion on hot days.

Make sure you wear sunblock and be careful with exposing your shoulders or other delicate parts prone to sunburn!

There is some shade among the columns under the esplanade, and also under the trees, but there are also there are many vast expanses where you have no cover from the sun. Bring water, or you’ll have to buy overpriced water while walking around!

Don’t be taken in by souvenirs

The walk from both Lesseps and Vallcarca stations will take you past a fair few souvenir shops. Indeed, a bunch of them huddle close to the main entrance of the park, along with a (subpar) restaurant and some other joints.

I would really think of this as tourist central, so unless something unique really, really catches your eye, I would wait till I was in another part of town for snacks or knickknacks.

Don’t forget about Gràcia!

If you exit the park through the main entrance, you can follow the roads downhill towards Travessera de Dalt.

This road, teeming with traffic, will take you back to Lesseps if you hang a right — but if you cross and continue downhill, it will take you to the neighborhood of Gràcia, which is highly worth a detour.

Gràcia occupies a strange position in the Barcelona tourism landscape, but a worthwhile one. Not so long ago it was a village-y neighborhood, removed from the hullaballoo of the beach and the downtown area, but in the last twenty years, its popularity has soared.

Nonetheless, many tourists still pass it by – I’d say it’s tourist-friendly rather than touristy – and its lovely side streets.

This area is home to picturesque squares and loads of local eateries that make it a great spot to treat yourself to something nice after your wanders. It’s also home to a few attractions, like Casa Vicens, another Gaudí site you can visit.

Don’t say the name wrong!

This last Park Güell tip is just for pedants or those wanting to impress locals.

• Antoni Gaudí is “an-TOE-nee gow-DEE” not “AN-ta-ni GOW-dee”
• Güell is a difficult one but “Gway” is closer than “Gwell”. Even Spanish speakers have trouble with the Catalan ll at the end of a word – the best way I can describe it is as a fight between a y, an l and a j.
• While some spell it “Parc Güell” as in Catalan, the original spelling was “Park Güell” as in English, because Mr Güell was looking to recreate a British-style garden