Spain
Valencia
The city that diverted its river, turned the empty bed into a park, and still cooks the best paella in Spain.
Spain's third city holds a big Gothic and baroque old town, a working Mediterranean beach and, between them, a nine-kilometre park laid out in the bed of a river the city moved after a flood. Calatrava's City of Arts and Sciences closes that green ribbon at the seaward end. South of town the rice lagoon of the Albufera is where paella was invented and is still cooked over wood. The pace, and the crowds, run a size smaller than Barcelona.
Suggested stay
3–4 days
Language
Spanish
Currency
EUR
Timezone
UTC+2
Why you'll love Valencia
The Turia a drained riverbed curving right through the middle of the city as orange groves, palm gardens, running tracks and football pitches, with no traffic on it anywhere
Paella this is the dish's home ground, cooked with rabbit, beans and snails over orange wood, and eaten at lunchtime beside the rice fields it came from
City of Arts and Sciences Calatrava's white ribs, arches and shallow pools, holding an opera house, a science museum and a very large aquarium
Room to breathe a proper city with a beach at the end of the tram line, flat enough to cycle everywhere, and none of the queueing the famous coast names demand
Best time to visit
all year
17-30° days
39.470° N, 0.376° W
UTC+2 · Europe/Madrid
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Weather & when to go to Valencia
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best all year
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Valencia
No bad season here, but two stretches bend the city out of shape. Fallas takes over March with crowds, closed streets and daytime firework barrages loud enough to rattle windows, and in August much of the city closes up and heads for the coast while the beach fills. The sea is only really swimmable from early summer into autumn.
Top things to do in Valencia
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City of Arts and Sciences - Calatrava's white city
culture arts scenic 👍 PopularA run of bone-white structures in shallow blue pools at the seaward end of the Turia: the eye-shaped Hemisferic cinema, the ribbed science museum, the Umbracle walkway, an opera house and the Oceanografic, whose Mediterranean, Arctic and mangrove tanks make it one of Europe's largest aquariums.
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Mercado Central - the modernista market hall
food culture arts 👍 PopularIron, tile and stained glass over one of the biggest fresh-produce halls in Europe, still doing its real job: fish counters, hanging hams, tiger nuts, mountains of rice and a parrot weather vane on the dome. Go in the morning and eat at a counter stool.
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La Lonja de la Seda - the Gothic silk exchange
history culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedValencia's finest building and a UNESCO site, built when the silk trade made the city rich. The trading hall is a stone palm grove of twisting helical columns, and the upstairs Consulate of the Sea room carries a gilded coffered ceiling brought in from elsewhere in the city.
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Turia Gardens - cycle the old riverbed
nature wildlife scenic 👍 PopularNine kilometres of park where the water used to run, passing under the city's old stone bridges, with a Gulliver figure built as a climbing frame for children at one end. Hire a bike and ride the whole thing from the Bioparc to the Calatrava buildings.
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Paella in the Albufera - lunch where the dish was born
food ⭐ Highly recommendedThe rice villages south of the city, El Palmar above all, are where paella valenciana is taken seriously: rabbit and chicken, flat green beans, no chorizo, cooked over wood in a wide shallow pan and eaten at midday. Book a table, and never order it for dinner.
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Valencia Cathedral - the Miguelete and a Holy Grail claim
history culture artsA church that changed style every century it was worked on, holding a chapel whose agate cup is claimed as the Holy Grail. Climb the octagonal Miguelete tower for the tiled-dome skyline, and come back on a Thursday for the Water Court outside the Apostles' Door.
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Torres de Serranos and Torres de Quart - the surviving city gates
historyTwo great medieval gatehouses left standing when the walls came down. Serranos is the grander and can be climbed for a view over the old town and the riverbed; Quart still carries the pockmarks of French cannon fire from the Peninsular War.
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El Cabanyal and Malvarrosa - tiled fishermen's houses and a city beach
scenic foodThe old fishing quarter is a grid of low houses fronted in coloured tile, half of it beautifully restored and half still waiting. It opens onto a wide sand beach with a long promenade of rice restaurants, and the tram runs straight there from the centre.
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Museu de Belles Arts - Sorolla, Goya and a Velazquez self-portrait
culture artsSpain's strong second-tier art museum, in a blue-domed former seminary on the far bank of the riverbed. Valencian primitives fill the early rooms, and the later ones carry Sorolla's beach light, which is the local painter worth crossing town for.
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Horchata and fartons - the tiger-nut drink of Alboraya
foodChufa tubers grown in the fields just north of the city are pressed into a cold, sweet, milky horchata, drunk with sugared finger buns for dipping. Old tiled horchaterias in the centre serve it, and the growers' town of Alboraya is a short metro ride out.
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Bioparc Valencia - African landscapes without bars
nature wildlifeAt the inland end of the Turia, an immersion zoo built so that moats, rock and water do the separating instead of fences: savannah, Madagascar and equatorial forest, with gorillas, lemurs and elephants. The best thing in the city for children after the aquarium.
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El Carmen - street art in the medieval quarter
culture arts nightlife musicThe oldest lanes in the city double as an open-air gallery, with large murals on gable ends and shutters, and a run of bars that fill after dark. Best walked in the late afternoon, when the light is on the painted walls and the crowds have not arrived.
Best areas to stay in Valencia
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Ruzafa
Foodies & nomads $$Terraces, design shops, market, late nights
Explore hotels in Ruzafa →
Ciutat Vella
First-time visitors $$Medieval lanes, plazas and constant footfall
Explore hotels in Ciutat Vella →
L'Eixample
Calm & central $$$Elegant boulevards, quiet, well-connected
Explore hotels in L'Eixample →
El Cabanyal
Beach at the door $Tiled fishermen's grid beside the sand
Explore hotels in El Cabanyal →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Valencia
Getting to & around Valencia
Getting there
Fly into VLC at Manises, then metro straight into the centre in about twenty minutes
Flight
Valencia Airport (Manises) (VLC)
Eight kilometres west of the centre. Metro lines 3 and 5 run from beneath the terminal to Xativa and Colon in around 20-25 min, an airport bus serves the same stretch, and a taxi takes 15-20 min without traffic.
Train
Joaquin Sorolla
AVE high-speed trains reach Madrid in about an hour and three quarters; a free shuttle bus links the station to Estacio del Nord in the centre
Train
Estacio del Nord
The modernista terminus on the edge of the old town handles regional trains along the coast and inland, plus fast services up to Barcelona
Coach
Estacio d'Autobusos
Long-distance buses from across Spain arrive on the far side of the Turia riverbed, a short metro hop or walk from the centre
Ferry
Port of Valencia
Overnight and daytime sailings connect the port with Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca; the terminal is on the tram and bus network
Getting around
Metro & tram
Metro lines cross the centre and reach the airport; trams run out to the port, El Cabanyal and the beach
TBC
Walking
The old town is compact and flat, and most of the headline sights sit within twenty minutes of each other
Free
Cycling
Flat streets, protected lanes and the car-free Turia riverbed make this the easiest big Spanish city to ride
TBC
Bus
EMT buses fill the gaps the metro misses, including the beach and the outer barrios, with night services from the centre
TBC
Taxi
Metered white taxis wait at ranks and are easily hailed; app-based ride-hailing also operates in the city
TBC
Day trips from Valencia
Albufera and El Palmar
Half dayRice lagoon
A freshwater lagoon behind the dunes, ringed by the rice paddies that feed the city's kitchens. Boatmen punt flat-bottomed craft out for the sunset, and the village of El Palmar exists largely to cook rice at lunchtime.
Getting there
bus | car | tour
30 min by bus or car south of the city
Sagunt
Half dayRoman theatre and castle
A Roman theatre cut into the hillside, with a long ruined castle wall running along the ridge above it and an old Jewish quarter of steep lanes below. The views take in orange groves all the way to the sea.
Getting there
train | car
30-40 min by Cercanias train
Xativa
Full dayHilltop castle town
A double castle strung along a ridge above a handsome old town of fountains and Gothic churches. This was the Borgia family's home ground, and the walk up through the gates is the point of the trip.
Getting there
train | car
40-55 min by Cercanias train
Requena and Utiel
Full dayWine country
Inland plateau vineyards working mostly with the dark local Bobal grape, plus cava. Requena's medieval quarter sits on a warren of cellars cut into the rock beneath it, and most wineries take visitors by appointment.
Getting there
train | car | tour
25 min by high-speed train, or an hour by car
Peniscola
Full dayWalled sea castle
A Templar castle on a rock almost surrounded by sea, where an antipope held out for years, with whitewashed lanes below and beaches either side. A long day out, but the approach along the walls is worth it.
Getting there
car | train | bus
2 hr by car, or train to Benicarlo then a local bus
A little history of Valencia
Rome founded Valentia on a river island in 138 BC and settled it with veteran soldiers. Under Muslim rule it became Balansiya, and the irrigation system dug for its market gardens still waters the huerta and still has its own court, which meets in the open air by the cathedral once a week. El Cid held the city briefly at the end of the 11th century; Jaume I of Aragon took it in 1238 and made it the capital of a new Kingdom of Valencia.
The silk trade brought a golden age in the 1400s, when the Lonja went up and the first printing press in Spain set to work here. Backing the losing side in the War of the Spanish Succession cost the kingdom its laws and privileges. Oranges then rebuilt the port, the Republic ran the Civil War from the city for a year, and a catastrophic flood in 1957 pushed the river out of town altogether, leaving the empty bed that later became the park.
Romans found Valentia and settle it with army veterans
Muslim Balansiya takes shape, with the irrigation network that still feeds the huerta
El Cid captures the city and holds it until his death five years later
Jaume I of Aragon takes Valencia and founds the Kingdom of Valencia
Work starts on the Lonja, the silk exchange of the city's golden century
Defeat at Almansa ends Valencian self-government under the Nueva Planta decrees
The Republic moves its government to Valencia for the middle year of the Civil War
The Turia floods the city; the river is diverted south and the bed left dry
The first of the City of Arts and Sciences buildings opens in the old riverbed
Know before you go
Payment
Cards everywhere
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type C / F
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+34
Mobile network & SIM card
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FAQs about Valencia
▸ When is the best time to visit Valencia?
It works all year, which is unusual for Spain. Spring and autumn are the easiest for walking the city and the day trips, and the sea stays swimmable from early summer well into autumn. March means Fallas, which is spectacular and completely disruptive. Winter is quiet, mild and good for the museums and markets.
▸ How many days do you need in Valencia?
Three full days covers the old town, the market and Lonja, the Calatrava buildings and a beach afternoon. A fourth buys a proper rice lunch in the Albufera or a train out to Sagunt or Xativa, which is where the city starts to feel like more than a stopover.
▸ Where should I eat paella in Valencia?
Not on a tourist terrace in the old town. The city eats rice at lunchtime, and the places worth the trip are in the Albufera villages such as El Palmar, along the Malvarrosa seafront, or at long-standing rice specialists in town. Book ahead, and expect it cooked to order.
▸ What is Fallas?
Valencia's defining festival, in March, when neighbourhoods build enormous satirical sculptures in the streets and burn nearly all of them on the last night. There are daytime firework barrages in the main square, gunpowder everywhere and very little sleep. Accommodation goes early and the city is at its busiest.
▸ Is Valencia expensive?
Noticeably cheaper than Madrid or Barcelona, which is a large part of why remote workers settle here. Eating out, transport and rent all sit below the big-city Spanish norm, and set weekday lunch menus keep daytime costs down. Fallas and high summer are the exceptions for accommodation.
▸ Do people speak Valencian or Spanish?
Both are official. Valencian, a variety of Catalan, appears first on street signs and public notices and is widely spoken, especially outside the city centre. Spanish is universal, and English is common in hotels, museums and the busier restaurants.
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