What to Book in Advance for Spain

Spain has become one of the most visited countries in Europe, and many of its top attractions, trains and hotels now sell out well in advance, especially in cities like Barcelona, Madrid, Seville and Granada. Prices also increase significantly closer to travel dates.

After extensive travel around Spain and visiting multiple major tourist sites, I put together a list of major things that you should arrange before your trip, sometimes months in advance.

You can wing it if you are planning a relaxed, slow-paced vacation in one or two less touristy locations. But if your Spain itinerary includes several popular cities, securing the essentials early will save you money and disappointment.

I always book the most important attractions and transport in advance, while keeping some flexibility in my schedule. For everything else not on this list, I simply turned up and bought tickets on the spot without issues.

Train Tickets in Spain

If you are traveling in busy seasons (which is almost all year in Spain nowadays), the high-speed train tickets may sell out. In addition to this, they will become far more expensive closer to your date of travel. Therefore, I advise booking them at least 2 months and, preferably, even earlier.

This will also save you a lot of money, as high-speed trains (AVE, Iryo and Ouigo) operate on dynamic pricing, so the tickets are invariably cheaper, if bought in advance.

This advice is particularly important for the most popular major routes, like Madrid-Barcelona, Madrid-Seville, Madrid-Toledo, etc. But also some routes that you may not even expect, like Madrid-Avila.

This rule does not apply to the local slow trains, including Cercanias trains.

Read my full guide to trains in Spain, including AVE and Iryo tickets.

Bus Tickets in Spain

While not as important to book in advance, as trains, bus tickets also best be pre-booked for long distance travel. This is to make sure that you get a seat and pay an optimal price.

I love Omio for being able to compare all train and bus tickets in one space. Busbud is also a great option for checking the prices.

Domestic Flights in Spain

Similar to the high-speed trains, domestic flights, especially on low-cost airlines can become very expensive closer to the date of travel. Therefore, it’s always best to book them at least a couple of months in advance.

Car Rental in Spain

If you plan to rent a car to explore rural areas around Spain, like in Andalusia, the Basque Country or Mallorca, book your rental car early, especially in summer.

Check out Discovercars to compare prices.

Accommodation in Spain

I do advise booking accommodation in advance as well. While you might still be able to find available options last minute, they will either not be highly reviewed or will end up rather expensive. This is especially true in high season, like July-August period, Autumn and Spring.

I usually book accommodation with free cancellation several months in advance and adjust later if needed. I did reserve all hotels about 3 months before my trip, and that was already later than was best, especially in the cities, like Seville and Barcelona.

Check out accommodation options here

Attractions in Spain that Sell Out Fast

As with trains and accommodation, popular attractions can sell out especially in high season. If you are planning an itinerary that includes the cities like Barcelona, Granada and Seville, you must prepare well not to regret afterwards.

Therefore, I came up with the list of places you will highly likely miss out on, if you don’t book in advance.

Tips for Booking Tickets in Spain

How to Avoid “Official-Sounding” Ticket Websites in Spain

While technically not scam, I think that these misleading tactics are quite dishonest. I have seen many people in travel groups confused about them and questioning if they made purchase correctly after they paid double the official price.

Therefore, use the links I provided here and in my other guides or double check any other way to make sure that you are really booking on the official website.

Official Website vs Third-Party Tours

If you are on a budget and prefer to visit without tours, then the official websites are always your best bet. I list official websites for every attraction below to make your planning easier.

On the other hand, if you are late with booking the tickets, third parties can be life savers. They usually offer guided tours with previously reserved tickets, so can have last minute availability.

What to Book in Advance in Granada

Alhambra

Alhambra is the site which you will absolutely have to book in advance. The tickets are timed and limited, especially for visiting Nasrid Palaces – the most beautiful section. It sells out earliest among the places I have been to in Spain. I booked our tickets 3 months ahead for October and I am very glad I did – all slots for Nasrid Palaces were fully sold out 2 months before our trip.

If you book later than this you may have afternoon slots still available. But already about 2 months before our visit literally all tickets for Nasrid Palaces were sold out.

Here is the official website link. There are dozens of sites that try to look official, but don’t fall for them. The actual official website is quite glitchy at times. I had to try three times to finally purchase tickets. It kept throwing me out and not accepting my card. But I did manage in the end.

Alternatively, consider checking Viator tours as well.

If all this fails, at midnight on the day of the visit, the official website may release a few more returned tickets. You may have to keep refreshing to catch the available tickets. People also say there’s a very small chance of buying tickets at 8am in person at the ticket office. But this chance is minuscule and I wouldn’t even attempt it.

What to Book in Advance in Barcelona

Barcelona is perhaps the most touristy city in Spain, which comes with its challenges. Not the least is the need to book some of the attractions in advance.

Sagrada Familia

This gorgeous cathedral created by Gaudi sees thousands of visitors a day. Each time slot has limited number of available tickets. Therefore, tickets do sell out.

In my experience the Sagrada tickets were sold out already about 10 days before our visit in October. To be sure you won’t miss out, get them 2-3 weeks before visiting. If you want to purchase tickets of one of the towers, then you will likely need to book even earlier, as the tower tickets are very limited.

Years ago, one could simply queue and get the tickets on the day. I remember about 10 years ago, I queued about an hour and was able to visit without prior reservation. But nowadays that is absolutely impossible.

If you are visiting on fixed dates and didn’t arrange tickets in advance, your main option would be to join tours, which usually still have last minute availability.

If all else fails, you might try to check at the ticket office of the Sagrada Familia for any returns. You might get lucky, but chances of this are very low.

Park Guell

Park Guell tickets are not as elusive, as Sagrada ones, as the number of visitors allowed inside at any given time is bigger. However, they still can sell out. On the day we visited, it had a huge sign “sold out”.

While writing this article, I had to open the email of my purchased tickets to copy the correct link here, because Googling gives so many similar options, you may get confused. So here is the official website link.

If you are purchasing last minute and can’t find tickets on the official website, GetYourGuide offers tours which are not much more expensive than the official ticket price and may still have availability.

Casa Batllo and Casa Milla (La Pedrera)

While perhaps not as likely to sell out, these two most popular Gaudi Casas would require quite a long queue, if you don’t purchase your tickets online.

You can purchase Casa Batllo tickets on the official website here.

While this is Casa Milla official website link.

Picasso Museum

While I am personally not a fan of Picasso, this museum in Barcelona is one of the most comprehensive museum of his works. It doesn’t always sell out but there’s a likelihood. Therefore, if you don’t want to miss out, purchase your tickets at the official website.

What to Book in Advance in Seville

Real Alcazar

The Real Alcazar is one of the two major sites in Seville that absolutely has to be booked in advance. This is especially important if you want to visit Royal Rooms – the rooms upstairs, which the current royal family still uses. These tickets sell out about two months in advance. I actually wanted to get them but forgot to buy early enough. This was my one and only mistake – I made sure to plan everything else smoothly.

If you don’t wish to visit the Royal Rooms and are buying a general admission ticket, then highly likely buying tickets 1-2 weeks in advance in high season will be fine. In winter you can even buy a couple of days before your visit.

Like many other popular sites, don’t just click the first website that comes up while searching for the Real Alcazar tickets. This is the official website.

If the tickets are sold out for the day you are visiting, guided tours are likely to still have availability, as they reserve tickets in advance.

Besides, the site is quite spread out. So unless you learn about all parts in advance, you may want to visit with a guide. If so, this small group tour will allow you to explore all parts.

Seville Cathedral and Giralda (Tower)

Another site that invariably sells out in Seville is the cathedral. Particularly, if you want to visit for the rooftops tour.

On the day I visited all tickets were sold out for the day. However, you may not have to purchase Cathedral tickets as early as Alcazar ones. A week in advance should be perfectly sufficient to be on the safe side for the time slot you want.

Make sure to purchase your tickets on the official website.

If you are trying to purchase last minute tickets, check the guided tours, which may still have availability. This GetYourGuide tour allows you to visit cathedral, as well as its Giralda.

Setas de Seville

While it may not always sell out, you may not be able to visit at the time you turn up. To avoid having to return after buying your ticket, I recommend to purchase in advance.

I visited in the evening, at about 6pm. I was lucky they only had one ticket left for that time slot. Otherwise, I would have to wait for an hour for the next time slot. Keep in mind that your ticket includes two visits – one during the daytime and another at night.

Here is the official website to purchase your tickets.

If you prefer third parties, GetYourGuide sells tickets without a surcharge.

What to Book in Advance in Cordoba

Cordoba Mezquita Cathedral

One of the most gorgeous sites in Spain. The tickets don’t usually sell out for the whole day, just certain hours most of the time. However, I would still advise purchasing in advance to avoid having to wait for the time slot that is available. Besides, the tower tickets are even more of an issue, given that the number of visitors allowed at the tower per each time slot is very limited.

I booked the tower for the 9.30am time slot and the Mezquita Cathedral entrance for 10am. I really loved being one of the first to enter the cathedral and getting some parts of it all to myself for a short while, before it started teeming with tour groups.

What to Book in Advance in Madrid

Prado Museum

Being one of the most famous museums in the world – and for a good reason – Prado Museum tickets can be sometimes difficult to get last minute. This is especially true for certain time slots, like morning tickets, weekends in high season, etc. On the other hand, you may be able to queue and get the ticket on the spot. We visited in the afternoon of the weekday, and while I had purchased tickets already, there were still some tickets available to buy on the spot.

So it’s up to you whether you want to risk it and turn up to purchase it at the ticket office. If you have enough time in Madrid to come back on another day, then you can skip purchasing online. Otherwise, it’s pretty easy to book them on the official website.

The museum is huge, we spent about 5 hours there and still didn’t manage to cover it all. If you didn’t research and learn about the art collection in advance, you may prefer to book a guided tour of the museum.

Royal Palace of Madrid

While not absolutely essential, the Royal Palace ticket queues can be quite long, especially in the morning hours and high season.

If you don’t purchase in advance, most days you should be able to queue and get tickets at the ticket office. Even if the website shows it’s sold out, they may still be available on the spot. That said, you may not get them for the exact time slot you arrive, but for later in the day. We had a lot of time, so just risked it by turning up in the afternoon. It took us about 15 minutes of queueing.

Overall, if you have a short time in Madrid, I highly recommend to book your tickets in advance to make sure that you don’t miss out or don’t waste your time queuing. Here is the official website.

Alternatively, this guided tour will give an opportunity to learn about the history of the palace and each of the rooms, if you didn’t research in advance.

Events you Need to Book in Advance

Football Game Tickets

Even if you aren’t a fan of football, you probably have heard of the fame of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. If there’s a game planned during your visit, the tickets will likely sell out months in advance. In fact, many people plan their trips around these games.

Flamenco Shows

Depending how popular the show you choose is, you may not need to book it way in advance. But at least a week is recommended. For instance, I booked the show at the Teatro Flamenco in Madrid, which was a great budget option, if you don’t want a bar atmosphere. It’s not selling out fast, unless you are visiting in high season. So book about a week in advance.

Popular Food Tours

While I haven’t joined food tours myself, the food tours are a very popular activity in Spain. And they do sell out fast. You can find the highest rated ones in the cities you are visiting here.

Certain Restaurants and Cafes

If you are a foodie and would like to visit particular popular restaurants, especially Michelin restaurants, then you will need to book them in advance.

I prefer to avoid dinner reservations, as I am never sure when will I finish my sightseeing to be committed to a certain time in the evening. Plus, there are so many amazing restaurants and tapas bars which don’t need booking that you can honestly skip the most famous restaurants.

Most cafes usually don’t need or allow booking. However, some of the popular brunch spots may be full especially during afternoon hours.

See my guide to cafes in Spain, including brunch and coffee place.

When You Don’t Need to Book in Advance in Spain

I hope I didn’t scare you by providing this huge list of things to book in advance. You can still plan a last minute trip to Spain without issues, if you are planning to visit less touristy locations. Here are things you can easily buy on the spot:

• Local train tickets: Less popular routes and slower trains don’t have to be booked way ahead. They are almost never sold out. So you can turn up and unless there’s some festival going on in the city you are visiting – wing it.
• Less popular tourist attractions: Practically most museums, palaces, cathedrals, etc, that aren’t listed in this guide can be purchased on the day of travel without any issues. I have visited a number of other cities and hundreds of other sites around Spain and I always bought my tickets on the spot.
• Accommodation in low season and small towns: You are unlikely to be out of options if you aren’t on a major tourist route.

I covered all major things you need to book in advance for visiting Spain. Do let me know if there are any other things you consider worth pre purchasing.

See Also

Train Travel in Spain: Complete Practical Guide

A practical guide to train travel in Spain based on real experience: trains, tickets, booking tips, stations, strikes, and luggage.

Best Cafes in Madrid: Specialty Coffee, Brunch and Local Favorites

Looking for the best cafes in Madrid? Explore specialty coffee shops, brunch and sweet treats across Malasaña, Chueca, Sol, Lavapiés and beyond.

Hello I am Ket,

A traveler, planner, and sweet tooth behind Hit the Road Ket.

Travel isn’t just my passion – it’s a lifeline for my mental health. Having lived in three cities and explored 60 countries (and counting!), I created this blog to share my experiences, smart tips, and itinerary advice with fellow travel lovers.

I’m all about making the most of limited time, finding scenic routes, and turning every trip into something memorable – coffee in hand, of course.