Valencian Community · Spain
Spain's third city gave the world paella, drained its river into a nine-kilometre park, and costs a third less than Barcelona.
Photo: Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 3.0
In 1957 the Turia river flooded Valencia and killed dozens of people. The city's response was radical: it diverted the river around the south of the city entirely, leaving a dry bed running nine kilometres through the middle. The plan was to fill it with a motorway. Residents campaigned instead for a park, won, and Valencia now has a continuous green corridor with cycle paths, sports pitches and gardens curving through its centre where the water used to be.
At the eastern end of that park sits the City of Arts and Sciences — a complex of white ceramic-clad buildings by Santiago Calatrava that looks like a set of vertebrae, an eye and a helmet arranged around reflecting pools. It is the most photographed thing in the city and among the most striking modern architecture in Europe, whatever you make of what it cost.
Between the two is an old town with a Gothic silk exchange, a cathedral claiming the Holy Grail, and a covered market of extraordinary quality. And south of the city is the Albufera lagoon and the rice fields where paella was invented — which means the version you eat here bears very little resemblance to the seafood-and-chorizo thing served elsewhere. Valencia is Spain's third city and it costs about a third less than Barcelona for a comparable trip.
Why visit
Valencia is the value proposition among Spain's big three, and it has two unusual things — the park and the paella — that neither of the others can match.
Nine kilometres of continuous park in a former riverbed, crossed by the old stone bridges that used to span water. It is how Valencians get to work, exercise and spend Sunday, and it makes the city pleasant to move around in.
Valencian paella is rabbit, chicken, flat green beans, garrofó beans, tomato, saffron and rice, cooked over orange wood — no seafood, no chorizo, no onion. Eating it at lunch in the Albufera villages where it was invented is a different dish from what the name usually means.
A science museum, an opera house, an aquarium and a planetarium in a complex of white shells and skeletal structures. Europe's largest aquarium is here, and the buildings work whether or not you go inside any of them.
Malvarrosa beach is a wide sandy strip twenty minutes from the old town by tram, backed by seafood restaurants and considerably calmer than Barcelona's equivalent.
Rooms, meals and drinks run roughly 25–35% below Barcelona for equivalent quality, and the Mercat Central is arguably the best food market in Spain.
Main attractions
Valencia divides into three: the Gothic old town, the Turia park with the Calatrava complex at its end, and the coast. One day each works well.
Nine kilometres of park in the old riverbed, running from the west of the city to the sea. Palm groves, orange trees, running tracks, football pitches, a giant Gulliver climbing sculpture for children, and eighteen historic bridges crossing overhead.
Tip Hire a bike and ride the full length. It takes about an hour each way and is the single best way to understand the city.
Calatrava's complex at the eastern end of the Turia: the eye-shaped Hemisfèric cinema, the vertebral Príncipe Felipe science museum, the Palau de les Arts opera house, and the Oceanogràfic — Europe's largest aquarium, with 45,000 animals.
Tip The exteriors and reflecting pools are free and are most of the appeal. Pick one interior — the Oceanogràfic if you have children, the science museum otherwise.
A 1928 modernista market hall of iron, glass and tile covering 8,000 square metres, with around a thousand stalls. It is a working food market rather than a tourist attraction, and one of the largest fresh markets in Europe.
Tip Open mornings only, Monday to Saturday, closing around 15:00. Go before noon and buy lunch.
The 15th-century silk exchange opposite the market, UNESCO-listed and one of the finest late Gothic civil buildings anywhere. Its trading hall has spiralling twisted columns rising into palm-frond vaulting.
Tip Cheap entry, rarely crowded, and takes twenty minutes. Easily the most underrated building in the city.
A cathedral built over a mosque built over a Roman temple, holding a chalice that has been venerated as the Holy Grail since the 1400s, plus two Goyas. The octagonal Micalet bell tower is 207 steps to a view over the whole old town.
Tip The Grail chapel is a side room and easily missed. The tower is worth it for the rooftop panorama of the Barrio del Carmen.
The old town's medieval core — narrow lanes, two surviving city gates (Torres de Serranos and Torres de Quart), street art, and the highest concentration of bars in the city. Lived-in rather than preserved.
Tip Climb the Torres de Serranos at sunset for a low, close view over the rooftops. It costs almost nothing.
A freshwater lagoon and rice paddies ten kilometres south, where paella was invented. Flat-bottomed boats run at sunset across water that reflects the sky, and the village of El Palmar is where the dish is cooked properly.
Tip Go for a late lunch and stay for the sunset boat trip. Bus 25 runs from the city, or it is a flat 40-minute cycle.
A wide sandy beach twenty minutes from the centre, with a promenade of seafood restaurants. Behind it, El Cabanyal is the old fishermen's quarter of tile-fronted houses, slowly being restored.
Tip El Cabanyal's tiled facades are worth an hour's walk and almost nobody does it.
Things to do
Valencia is a city to move through rather than queue in. Bikes, markets and long lunches do most of the work.
Flat, traffic-free and nine kilometres each way, from the Bioparc in the west to the City of Arts in the east and on to the sea. Bike hire is cheap and the city has over 150 km of lanes beyond the park.
Tip Ride out to the coast, eat at the beach, and come back along the seafront rather than retracing the park.
Valencian paella is a midday dish, cooked to order over about an hour, and locals do not eat it in the evening. El Palmar and the villages around the lagoon are where it is made properly.
Tip Order for a minimum of two and expect to wait. The prized part is the socarrat — the caramelised crust on the bottom of the pan.
A thousand stalls under a modernista dome: jamón, oranges, seafood on ice, and horchata. Buy breakfast, buy lunch, and watch a city do its actual shopping.
Tip The Mercat de Colón nearby is a smaller restored market now full of bars and horchata counters — a good afternoon stop.
A cold, sweet drink made from tiger nuts, unrelated to the Mexican rice version, served with long sugared pastries for dipping. Entirely Valencian and available on almost every corner.
Tip The town of Alboraya just north is where the tiger nuts are grown and where the best horchaterías are.
The city's most interesting neighbourhood — a grid of early 20th-century blocks south of the station, now full of independent restaurants, bars and a good covered market. Where Valencia goes out.
Tip Fifteen minutes' walk from the old town and considerably better value for dinner.
For five days in March the city fills with enormous satirical papier-mâché sculptures, daily street explosions at 14:00, and a final night when nearly all of them are burned. It is one of Europe's great festivals and it is overwhelming.
Tip 15–19 March. Book a year ahead, or avoid the week entirely — there is no middle option.
Local food
Valencian cooking is rice, seafood, citrus and vegetables from the surrounding huerta — one of the most productive market-garden areas in Europe, irrigated by channels laid out under Moorish rule.
Rabbit, chicken, flat green beans, garrofó butter beans, tomato, saffron and short-grain rice, cooked over orange wood in a wide shallow pan. No seafood, no chorizo, no onion, no peas. Snails when in season.
Where to try it El Palmar and the Albufera villages, at lunch. In the city, restaurants that require a 45-minute wait are the ones cooking it properly.
The seafood rices, which Valencians distinguish carefully from paella. Arròs a banda is cooked in fish stock and served separately from the fish; arròs negre is blackened with squid ink.
Where to try it The beachfront restaurants of Malvarrosa and El Cabanyal.
A cold drink pressed from tiger nuts — chufas — grown just north of the city, served very cold with long glazed pastries for dipping. Sweet, nutty and completely unlike its Mexican namesake.
Where to try it Horchaterías throughout the city, and Alboraya where the chufas are grown.
Cava, fresh orange juice, gin and vodka, served by the jug. Invented in a Valencia bar in the 1950s and considerably stronger than it tastes.
Where to try it Bars in the Barrio del Carmen. Ordered by the jug for a table, not by the glass.
Two salt-cod dishes: esgarraet is shredded cod with roasted red pepper, garlic and olive oil; titaina is a fisherman's stew of tuna, pepper, tomato and pine nuts from El Cabanyal.
Where to try it Traditional tapas bars, particularly in El Cabanyal and Ruzafa.
The surrounding province produces some of the best citrus in Europe, and the season runs roughly November to May. Street trees across the city are bitter Seville oranges, not the eating kind.
Where to try it The Mercat Central, and freshly squeezed at any breakfast bar. Do not eat the street oranges.
Accommodation
Valencia's old town and the neighbourhoods around it are all walkable or a short bike ride apart. The beach is a genuine alternative if you want sea over sightseeing.
Transport
Valencia sits on the Mediterranean coast midway between Barcelona and Andalusia, with its own airport and a fast rail link to Madrid.
Flat, compact and one of the best cycling cities in Spain. A bike covers Valencia better than anything else.
When to go
Valencia has one of the mildest climates in mainland Spain — warmer than Barcelona in winter, less brutal than Seville in summer. There is no bad month, only one very loud week in March.
Warm and bright at 18–28°C, with the sea swimmable from about June. Orange blossom in March and April. Las Fallas dominates 15–19 March completely.
Hot and humid at 28–33°C, but the coastal position keeps it well below inland Andalusia. The beach and the Albufera come into their own, and the city is noticeably less crowded than Barcelona.
The best window: sea at its warmest in September, temperatures easing to the mid-twenties, and very few visitors. October is mild and quiet. Note that this is also the season for occasional intense storms.
Mild at 10–18°C with a lot of sun — among the warmest winters on the Spanish mainland. Orange season, cheap rooms and empty museums. Too cold to swim.
Worth planning around: Las Fallas, 15–19 March, unless you specifically want it. The city is full, rates multiply, and there are controlled explosions in the main square every day at 14:00. It is magnificent and it is not a quiet city break.
Itinerary
One day in the old town, one on the bike and at the Calatrava complex, one on the lagoon and the coast. No queues to plan around.
Market, silk exchange, cathedral, and the Carmen after dark.
The park end to end, and Calatrava's complex at the far end of it.
Where paella comes from, then the sea.
Travel tips
Valencia is an easy city. These are the few things worth knowing in advance.
FAQ
Yes, and it is the better value by a clear margin — roughly 25–35% cheaper for equivalent rooms and meals, with far fewer crowds. Barcelona has Gaudí and a stronger set of headline sights. Valencia has the Turia park, the City of Arts and Sciences, a superb food market, the Albufera and real paella, plus a beach that is pleasant rather than packed.
El Palmar and the villages around the Albufera lagoon, ten kilometres south, at lunchtime. Valencian paella is rabbit, chicken, flat beans and garrofó — no seafood, no chorizo, no onion — cooked to order over about an hour. In the city itself, the restaurants worth eating at are the ones that make you wait 45 minutes and require a minimum of two people.
Three. One for the Gothic old town, the Mercat Central and La Lonja; one for cycling the Turia and the City of Arts and Sciences; and one for the Albufera lagoon and the beach. Two days covers the city but misses the lagoon, which is where the food culture comes from.
A nine-kilometre park in the bed of the Turia river, which was diverted around the city after a catastrophic flood in 1957. The original plan was a motorway; residents campaigned for a park instead and won. It now runs through the middle of Valencia, crossed by the old stone bridges, and connects the old town to the City of Arts and Sciences and on towards the sea.
15–19 March. Enormous satirical papier-mâché sculptures fill the streets, there are controlled explosions in the main square daily at 14:00, and on the final night almost all the sculptures are burned. It is one of Europe's great festivals and it is overwhelming — room rates triple or quadruple and must be booked a year ahead. Either commit to it or avoid the week.
Yes — Malvarrosa is a wide sandy beach about twenty minutes from the old town by tram or bike, backed by a promenade of seafood restaurants. It is noticeably calmer and cleaner than Barcelona's Barceloneta, and behind it El Cabanyal, the old fishermen's quarter of tile-fronted houses, is worth an hour's walk.
A cold sweet drink pressed from tiger nuts — chufas — grown just north of the city at Alboraya, served very cold with long glazed pastries called fartons for dipping. It is entirely Valencian and unrelated to the Mexican rice drink of the same name.
Keep exploring
Places that pair well with Valencia, whether you have a few spare days or are building a longer route.
Catalonia, Spain
Catalonia's capital pairs a dense Gothic core with the most ambitious modernista architecture in Europe, and puts a city beach at the end of the metro line.
Don't miss The Sagrada Família's stained glass at the right hour — blue-green in the morning, red-gold by late afternoon.
Explore Destination — BarcelonaBalearic Islands, Spain
The largest Balearic island has a proper capital city, a mountain range along its entire northwest coast, and hundreds of coves that never appear in the package-holiday version of it.
Don't miss The Serra de Tramuntana — a UNESCO-listed mountain range of terraced olive groves dropping straight into the sea.
Explore Destination — MallorcaCommunity of Madrid, Spain
Spain's capital sits at 650 m on the Castilian plateau, with an art triangle no other European city matches and a nightlife that does not start until midnight.
Don't miss The Prado's Velázquez rooms — Las Meninas hangs where it can be walked around, in the light it was painted for.
Explore Destination — MadridAndalusia, Spain
The heart of southern Spain, where flamenco, tapas and Holy Week processions are living traditions rather than performances, wrapped around a medieval core of white walls and orange trees.
Don't miss The Real Alcázar — an Islamic palace rebuilt by Christian kings in the same style, and still a working royal residence.
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