Valencia, Spain's 3rd largest city has plenty of things to do and see no matter what the weather. We looked at eight things we really liked!
Valencia, a large city on Spain's eastern coast is well known amongst holidaymakers and expats as an under rated place. For decades, UK visitors to Spain's Costas only ever holidayed in the typical "bucket and spade" resorts up and down this wonderful region, however an increasing number of people are starting to discover Spain's cities and what they can offer too.
Spain is a big place, far bigger than old Blighty, and it's sometimes easy to forget that there is so much to see and do in this vast and diverse country and one reason why us Brits can't get enough of the place. Valencia is but one area and is in some ways, just like any other metropolitan area in Europe, with wide (and traffic clogged roads) and the people themselves, the characters that make up the place, scurrying about on their daily business in the shadow of huge high rise blocks of apartments.
Valencia has a mix of old and new buildings, giving it a real special feel of it's own. From medieval castles and towers, to modernist and art deco architecture, and of course a glut of massive shopping centres and plenty of places to eat and drink too of course!
Visiting a city in Spain, as opposed to a resort, allows a glimpse into the real working day of the people and of real life, away from the the normal sights and sounds of a resort vacation in Spain.
A lot of people don't realise just how big the city is and what is on offer here. For example, did you know it has atube train system like a smaller version of the London Underground?
Or did you know that it has the largest inner city urban park in the whole of Europe? OK, how about this, do you realise that the holy grail, the cup that Jesus was supposed to have drank from at the last supper, is kept in the cathedral in central Valencia?
The city is jam packed full of culture and history, stuff you really want to stick around for, and explore the old lanes and streets as well as the wide tree-lined shopping areas of this truly awesome city!
We look at eight great things you can do in Valencia, most of which are either free or very cheap and we also suggest some great places where you can stay in the city too!
1. The central plazas
The plazas in Spain are like many European cities of this size and importance; tree lined, with gloriously cool shaded spots to escape the intense summer sun, and they are normally ringed with various lanes, access points and obscure roads, leading out onto different courtyards, and in some cases, even more plazas!
One of the ones that, for me, springs to mind, is the Plaza del Reina, or "Queen's place" in English, located in the old town area and a magnet for more or less each and every tourist that comes here, in fact that was me on my first visit to the city in 2007! Here's a nice shot of the plaza with a waiting horse taxi.
It's a great place to hang out, with plenty of places to eat too, however be warned that you will pay top tourist prices here, for often far less than satisfactory food, so stick to drinks in the square and head back through the winding streets surrounding the plaza for lunch or tapas, and within a few minutes you will find somewhere completely random and probably cheaper too!
Bear in mind also that the tourist hot spots like these plazas are also magnets for thieves and pickpockets too, just like the centre of any large city, so be warned and be aware.
Eat where the Spanish eat, that's best, but armed with a good and detailed map so you can find these obscure places, although in this area you have to be really "in the know" to find a good paella if you fancy sampling the famous local dish at some point,as we discovered in a previous article.
There is a another, more quirky plaza just off the Plaza del Reina, called the Plaza del Redonda which is a must see although it has become rather more tourist focussed of late with the completion of a planned works of regeneration by the city council, sadly resulting in losing some of it rustic charm.
I visited this during one Fallas fiesta time and discovered a Banksy artwork on a wall! I had forgotten my trusty camera, so I visited 2 days later to document it and some fool from the city council had painted over it!
You never know what you will find, or who you will meet, in the alleyways, courtyards and plazas of central Valencia.
2. Valencia Cathedral and The Holy Grail
One of the cities more controversial claims to fame is that it has what is supposed to be the Holy Grail, the actual cup that Jesus drank from at the last supper, although that claim is also upheld by several other places around the world too.
The cathedral is a lovely old place and well worth visiting, however the grail is one of the must-see attractions for those of a religious following, and the subject was recently covered very well in the excellent 24-7 Magazine which is published here in Valencia, of which I recommend you pick up a copy when you visit.
The authors David Rhead and Jose Marin looked in great detail at the story of the cup and suggested that the cup had travelled from Rome centuries ago, however when the Muslim rulers took over Spain, it was put into hiding for centuries and only returned to the city in 1427 by the gloriously named King Alfonso the magnanimous!
More recently the mayoress of Valencia has suggested that the city should be named the "City of the Holy Grail" to attract more tourists, which would mean moving it from it's current location in a quaint little side chapel and in to the main cathedral area ready for all those Catholic tourists and their money, something Valencia is in short supply of just now due to massive government corruption, nepotism and idiotic free-spending on unneeded construction projects, many would argue.
3. Valencia's Central Market
Whilst the prospect of wandering around a food market is not everyone' first choice of what to do whilst on holiday, the historic market in central valencia is a bit different and is actually well worth visiting. We did an article on it recently if you want to read more about the market.
It is somewhere where you, the visitor, can sneak a peek into the daily life of Valencianos. The market itself is divided into sections depending on the type of food available such as Fish, a meat section, a fruit section and so on. There are some really interesting stalls here and some of the fruit and the vegetables will look strange to you, as will the rather gory nature of the meat displays.
The place is, for some reason, always full of American tourists (!), however rest assured it's somewhere in the city that is definitely worth a look, and if you get bored, there are loads of shops, bars and cafes around the perimeter of the building. You would advised if you have a hire car, to NOT drive into the chaotic central district but take the tube train instead.
4. The beaches of Valencia
Many would say that a holiday in the sun is incomplete without a visit to the beach, so luckily the city has many beaches along it's coastline, most of which are unspoilt and undeveloped places to sit down and chill, and maybe take a dip in the clean blue sea here.
The city has an envious location beside the sea, and the beaches are wide and long, with clean soft sand, but a distinct lack of facilities compared to the resorts of the Costa Blanca a bit further south. Try the most popular beach, Malvarosa, which starts around the port area and is split into sections such as the Playa las Arenas and the Playa Cabanyal, and then eventually stretching up to the Playa de Patacona.
As mentioned, there are not too many bars or places to eat around the beaches of Valencia, and it is often best to do what the locals do and bring a packed lunch with you to eat whilst on the beach. Be aware that there are a lot of what are known as "Looky Looky" men selling fake goods in the area, and you are advised to politely refuse them no matter how persistent they are.
A bit further away you will find the other local beaches such as Playa de Pinedo and Playa el saler, which also has a gold course nearby. North of the city you will find Playa port Saplaya, and also a bit further still, the Roman area of Playa Sagunto.
5. Going shopping in Valencia
Like most large cities, Valencia has a lot of opportunity for some great retail therapy, and you will find all the major brands have a presence here, plus each barrio, or area, will have it's own street market once a week too. In the main central part of the city, the streets are wide and tree-lined, such as in the image below, and bordered with high rise buildings of quite beautiful architectural merit.
You can find more or less everything here, although many items are surprisingly more expensive than what you would see back home in the UK or Ireland, in fact many Spanish shops are for some reason not allowed to sell items below their market value as loss-leaders, and are rather weirdly only allowed to have sales at certain times of the year.
Spain is certainly different.
Away from the brash high street shops, there are a lot more interesting and independent shops dotted around where you can get all manner of things, many with an international flavour and of course the now ubiquitous Chinese shops selling poor quality tat seem to be everywhere in Valencia nowadays, but they can be good for items that would be regarded as disposable.
Valencia has several purpose built shopping malls too, known as "Centro Commerciales", and the include Nuevo centro, El Saler, BonAire, Parque Ademuz, Aqua, or if you are feeling generous, the high end mall of Galeria Don Juan de Austria, near to the Plaza Del Ayuntamiento. There are also several malls on the outskirts too such as El Osito in La Eliana and several other smaller ones dotted about in the various outlying areas.
6. The insanity and spectacle of Fallas.
The fallas festival is by far the weirdest, loudest and most spectacular thing you are ever likely to see go on in a city! The British Health and safety brigade would go nuts if this sort of thing happened back home!
It's hard to describe unless you have experienced it, but in a nutshell, each region of the city, and some outlying towns too, spend a whole year constructing a large and exuberant statue, throw fireworks at each other, yes even small children, let off firecrackers 24 hours a day, with the adults drinking to excess and plenty of dressing up and parading in fancy outfits. Yes, it does sound crazy and to be frank, after experiencing four of these festivals so far, it is completely insane!
The entire city is gripped with fervent fiesta fever when fallas starts and many businesses close for the whole week and get involved themselves. There is a religious element to it all too and the women dress up in very fancy old fashioned dresses, which are multi layered, very expensive and apparently not very comfortable to wear (!)
Towards the end of the fiesta, they all gather within the centre of the city for various parades, one of the most important being the offering of flowers to the Virgin Mary, a huge wooden statue erected in the centre, and each fallera brings flowers which are then attached to the statue via a scaffold and some nimble efforts by the men who dress the effigy.
Each day at around 2pm, a massive amount of fireworks are let off in the vast square front of the town hall, and this is known as the mascleta, the small fireworks known individually as Masclets in Catalan.
At the end of the fiesta, the statues that took a year to make and in some cases up to 100,000 Euros, get burnt down to the ground and then they start again for the following year. And you wonder why Spain is virtually bankrupt? I digress...
If you have never experienced Fallas, which happens in March, then it is certainly something you really have to come here and experience first hand if only to ratify that this author hasn't just made it all up to complete his monthly world limit! Insanity on several levels but fun all the same. Be prepared for the public transport to be absolutely packed with tourists at this time of year.
7. The old Turia river bed.
Once upon a time, well up to 50 years ago anyway, a wide and powerful river bisected the city in the same manner as the Thames separates the two sections of London. The river Turia, which starts way up in the surrounding mountains, ran in the middle of the city and out towards the sea, but in the mid 50's a horrendous storm and high tide saw the river burst its banks and flooded the centre of of Valencia to a depth of 2 metres.
A plan was created after the massive clean up afterwards, to divert the river from its present course and therefore entire length as it nears the city was re-routed elsewhere, in order that it never happened again. The upside is that it created a beautiful park right in the centre of the city.
The park can be walked or cycled along, and you can actually rent bikes at one end and then drop them off at the other, although July and August are probably a bit too hot for this pursuit!
The landscaping has been well thought-out and is divided into various sections. There are sports facilities abound here, including the regions one and only Cricket club, known as Levante cricket club, located at the Campo de beisbol y softbol, which was started by some of the local expatriates.
For the green fingered amongst you, it is possible to see a massive variety of plants and trees along the old river bed, and you will also find the botanical gardens just off the river bed too, plus the famous Royal Gardens, which can be found near to Alameda tube stop. As you walk or cycle along the river bed, you pass under the various bridges that connected the two parts of the city, some being hundreds of years old, and we will be looking at these bridges of Valencia in a later article.
There are of course cafes and bars along the way to buy refreshments and also there are some rather odd additions like Gulliver, which is a a model of the giant from Gulivers Travels, but it has been made so it has slides and places to clamber around for the kids. Entrance is free. It can also clearly be seen from Google earth!
If you head eastwards in the park, towards the sea, you will see, in fact you cannot miss, the futuristic buildings of the city of arts and sciences, which really deserves an article all on it's own, so pretty soon expect to see one by me! Yes, more or less every travel guide to valencia talks about the City of Arts and Sciences, but in a list like this we couldn't really leave it out!
8. The City of Arts and Sciences
And finally, the absolute must-see for any first time visitor to the city, The City of Arts and Sciences is the rather tongue twisting name that the city gave to a group of futuristic buildings, designed by local architects who you have probably never heard of, namely Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela, and who built this amazing place in stages, at the seaward end of the old Turia river bed.
The work started in the mid 1990's and is very much an ongoing project, however the deep recession that the city finds itself in has put much of the completion of the site on hold until such times as the economy improves, a recurring theme across the whole city.
In fact one of the downsides to this place, not that there are many, is the fact that it is not really served by any decent public transport, and Valencia being the crazy mixed up place it is, a tram line was built many years ago, stopping right outside, but again due to lack of funds, it has never opened!
It does have car parking though, although many people "in the know" opt for the cheaper parking in the large shopping centre across the main road, which if after your visit, you decide to go shopping or have a meal, your parking ticket is free if you spend a certain amount of money, possibly around 30 euros when I last looked.
When I first visited this area back in 2007 I took this photo.
The area has seen a lot of changes since then, but in the background you can see the 3D panoramic cinema, which is always popular with both locals and tourists. Once you descend into the cinema, you are given 3D glasses which have built in speakers, programmed to your own language so no matter what country you are from, you can sit back and fully enjoy the movies, of which there are many, and they change daily so best to visit their website to find out the screening dates of what you fancy seeing.
The city of arts contains 6 distinct zones or buildings and they are: L'Hemispheric, which was designed to look like a giant human eye, which is obviously what we just talked about and can be seen in the above photo.
Then we find the El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe which is the Prince Philip Science museum which has a programme of changing exhibits at various times of the year and you don't have to be a science fan to enjoy it, plus it's very educational for the kids too with plenty of activities inside to keep them entertained.
The other part of the complex houses L'Umbracle which is completely free and is a landscaped walk of plants native to the area and various artistic and thought provoking sculptures.
Then there is the L'Oceanogràfic which is basically a small version of Sea World, so expect to pay to visit, and it is not cheap either, but it is well worth it for sure. They do a dolphin display which is good but nothing special if like me, you have seen the same thing over and over again in other water parks around the world.
There is also the largest glass water tunnel in Europe to walk through, directly underneath the massive fish tank, with sharks swimming a few metres from your face!
El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia is the next part, which is a very under-used opera house and theatre and another victim of the harsh government cutbacks in the programme of events. You may note that I am trying to be realistic about the state of Valencia in 2013 in this article, and although not being pessimistic, I am trying to not just sit here and write cheesey advertising copy. I would rather tell you how it is here just now.
The last and newest bit is L'Àgora which is covered exhibition space and sports arena, which has been used for a few events but in typical Valencian style, they have not quite worked out the REASON for the building being there in the first place!
Regardless of that, it is most certainly a recommended day out and many signs and leaflets are there to guide you in English so you don't get lost.
So there we are, eight cool things to do and see when you visit Valencia this year, and make sure you stick around and book somewhere to stay from our great range of holiday rentals in this area!
26 July 2013 by Guy Alexander Bell
http://www.spain-holiday.com/Valencia-city/articles/eight-really-cool-things-to-do-and-see-in-valencia
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