Park Guell, Barcelona

Park Guell in Barcelona is very crowded! Crowds really do ruin things. But I did love the Hypostyle Room, an outdoor area literally underneath the lookout plaza with huge columns, covered in mosaics, that feel like you're in a video game. The gingerbread houses are also cute and the lookout plaza has great views of the ocean, but both are too crowded. 

Park Guell was built by Gaudi as a housing development planned to have sixty luxury homes, but which failed due to it having no tram connection to the city and was turned into a public park in 1926.
Gaudi House, in the park, was the model or show home for the development. It was not built by Gaudi but he lived in it before Park Guell became a public park. It is now a sparse museum showing Gaudi's furniture design. Another of the mansions built before the residential community failed, in 18th century rural Catalan style, is Casa Trias, which is now a private home at the top of the park that you can walk by.
Park Guell consists of several unique sites. There are the gingerbread-style houses that were the residential development's whimsical gatehouses designed to attract interest from buyers. The highly-photographed Nature Square is a large, packed-dirt lookout terrace with canary palms, imaginative mosaic tiled serpentine benches (the plaza was going to host shows for the residents of the development), and views over the city.
The Hypostyle Room (do not miss it!!!), below the Nature Plaza, is an incredible spot where you can get lost in its magic (it is less crowded). Here 86 absolutely gigantic columns stretch up to a ceiling of curved mosaics symbolizing the four seasons and lunar cycles. The design at the top of the columns is just gorgeous. This area is like nowhere you've ever been! It was supposed to be a marketplace for the residents.
Similar to the Hypostyle Room but smaller and less fancy is the Portico of the Washerwoman (inside is a statue of a laundry maid), an area of stone columns set against the hillside in the shape of a wave- don't miss this either! The rest of the park has walkways over rock viaducts with small circular benches between them.
It's too crowded to enjoy Park Guell. But you have to see the Hypostyle Room! Maybe if you come first thing in the morning at 9am (google maps lists this as the least busy time) on a cold day? Definitely 3pm on a weekday in April was not a good time to come.
The Gracia neighborhood is not a nice place to walk around after (sewer smells, crowds, cars, unpleasant cafes, and massive debilitating amounts of pollen in April), despite recommendations to the contrary. So, see the Hypostyle Room and then hightail it out of there! One good thing is that Park Guell is up on a hill so you don't get sewer smells in the park.
If you do decide to come, buy tickets well ahead of time because this park sells out.
Sagrada Familia, one of the best places to visit in Barcelona, was also designed by Gaudi. 

Directions

Park Guell is located at in the northwest part of Barcelona, near the Gracia neighborhood. It is a fifteen minute taxi ride from Sagrada Familia. Ask the taxi to drop you off at the top/east gate called Carretera del Carmel entrance. That way you can walk downhill rather than uphill!

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