Valencia is Spain's third city, and for a long time it was the one visitors skipped on the way between Barcelona and Andalusia. That's their loss. The Romans founded it in 138 BC, the Moors made it a rich city of orchards and irrigation, El Cid ruled it in the 1090s, and King Jaume I of Aragon took it for good on 9 October 1238, a date the region still celebrates. In the 15th century, its Golden Age, it was one of the great trading cities of the Mediterranean, and it gave the Church two Borgia popes.
Today it's a city of contrasts that somehow fit together: a Gothic old town around a cathedral that keeps a cup believed to be the Holy Grail, a nine-kilometer park in the bed of a river that was moved after a flood, Santiago Calatrava's white, futuristic City of Arts and Sciences, a long city beach, and, just south, the rice fields of the Albufera lagoon, where paella was born. Five days lets you see all of it and eat paella properly, which means at lunch.
This plan keeps each day in one part of town. Day one is the old town, the Cathedral and the Silk Exchange, day two the Barrio del Carmen and the Turia gardens, day three the City of Arts and Sciences and Ruzafa, day four the beach, a paella lunch and sunset on the Albufera, and day five a trip to the castle town of Xàtiva. Because of museum closing days, the plan works best if day one is a Tuesday. Sagunto, Requena and Peñíscola come after day five. For the bigger picture, see our page on Spain.
Every stop from the plan below, colored by day. Pick a day to see its route.
The square of the Virgin and the oldest court in Europe, the cathedral and its Holy Grail, the view from the Micalet, lunch in a Modernist market, the Gothic Silk Exchange, a round square, a rococo palace and an horchata.
The old city gates, Sorolla at the Fine Arts Museum, street art in the Barrio del Carmen, a tapas lunch, a bike ride along a riverbed turned park and an Agua de Valencia.
A Modernist market for breakfast, a station tiled with oranges, Calatrava's white city of the future, the largest aquarium in Europe, the Fallas museum and an evening in Ruzafa.
The tiled houses of the fishermen's quarter, a walk on the beach, a rice lunch in El Palmar, the dunes and pine forest of El Saler, and a boat on the lagoon at sunset.
A castle along a mountain ridge, the hometown of the Borgias, an oven-baked rice and a last evening in the old town.
Everything today is within ten minutes' walk in the old town. The Ceramics Museum is closed on Mondays and the Central Market on Sundays.
Start in Plaza de la Virgen, the old Roman forum and still the heart of the city, between the cathedral, the Basilica of the Virgen de los Desamparados, the city's patroness, and the Gothic palace of the Generalitat, the regional government. In the middle, a reclining bronze figure stands for the river Turia, surrounded by eight women pouring water, one for each of the old irrigation channels of the Valencian huerta, the farmland around the city.
The water connection is real. Every Thursday at noon, at the cathedral's Apostles' Door on this square, eight farmers in black smocks sit down as the Water Tribunal, which settles disputes over irrigation water as it has since Moorish times. It's claimed to be one of the oldest courts in Europe, it speaks only Valencian, and its rulings are final. It usually takes a few minutes.
Valencia Cathedral was built from 1262 on the site of the old mosque, and it shows three styles at once: a Romanesque door, a Gothic body and a baroque main entrance. Above the high altar, restorers in 2004 found Renaissance frescoes of angels playing instruments, hidden for centuries behind a baroque vault.
The reason most people come is in a side chapel: the Holy Chalice, a small cup of dark red agate on a jeweled gold base, which tradition holds is the cup Christ used at the Last Supper. The agate cup has been dated to roughly the 1st century BC or AD, the base is medieval, and the cup's history before the Middle Ages is a matter of faith. King Alfonso V brought it to Valencia in 1424, and the cathedral has kept it since 1437. Two popes have used it to say Mass here. A Jubilee year for the chalice runs until 29 October 2026.
The cathedral's octagonal bell tower, the Micalet, named after its biggest bell, is the symbol of the city. 207 steps up a narrow spiral staircase take you to the top, about 50 meters up, for a 360-degree view over the rooftops, the blue-tiled domes of the old town, the Turia gardens and, on a clear day, the sea.
The Mercado Central, opened in 1928, is one of the largest fresh food markets in Europe, under a Modernist roof of iron, glass and tiles, with a weathervane parrot on its dome. Hundreds of stalls sell fish from the morning's auction, jamón, Valencian oranges, snails, rice and tiger nuts for horchata.
Have lunch at Central Bar, a market counter run by the Michelin-starred chef Ricard Camarena, which serves sandwiches and small plates at market prices. It takes no bookings, so arrive early.
Across the square is the Lonja de la Seda, the Silk Exchange, built from 1482 by the master mason Pere Compte and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. Its great trading hall is one of the most beautiful Gothic rooms in Europe: twisted stone columns rise like palm trees to a vaulted ceiling, and merchants signed their deals here under an inscription that warned them that those who don't cheat will be rewarded with eternal life.
Look up at the gargoyles on the outside, some of them obscene, and walk through the courtyard of orange trees.
On the way, look into the church of San Nicolás, whose ceiling is covered in baroque frescoes so bright since their restoration in 2016 that locals call it the Valencian Sistine Chapel.
Five minutes away, the Plaza Redonda is exactly that: a perfectly round little square from 1840, once the city's fish and meat market and now ringed with shops selling lace, fans and embroidery for Fallas costumes.
A few streets south, the Palacio del Marqués de Dos Aguas has the most extravagant doorway in Spain, a rococo explosion of carved alabaster with two muscular figures representing the two rivers of the family name. Inside is the National Ceramics Museum, with the blue and gold lusterware of nearby Manises and Paterna and a Valencian kitchen tiled from floor to ceiling.
On the little square of Santa Catalina, under the church's baroque bell tower, two historic horchaterías, Santa Catalina and El Siglo, have been serving horchata since the early 1800s. Horchata is a cold, sweet, milky drink made from chufa, the tiger nut, a small tuber grown in the fields north of the city. It tastes like nothing else, nutty and refreshing.
Order it with fartons, long, soft, sugar-glazed buns made for dunking. Santa Catalina's tiled rooms are worth seeing in themselves.
Today goes north and west through the old town to the old riverbed, and along it. The Fine Arts Museum is closed on Mondays.
The Torres de Serranos, a pair of massive Gothic towers built at the end of the 14th century, were the main gate of the medieval city wall, which was torn down in 1865. Climb to the top for a view over the old town, with the Micalet in the middle, and across the Turia gardens on the other side.
At the end of February, the Fallas festival officially begins here, with the Crida, the call, when the year's Fallera Mayor invites the world to the fiesta from the top of the towers.
Cross the old bridge of the Trinidad from the Torres de Serranos: the Museo de Bellas Artes is one of the best painting museums in Spain, and it's free. It has glowing Valencian Gothic altarpieces, a self-portrait by Velázquez, works by Goya and El Greco, and rooms of Joaquín Sorolla, Valencia's own painter, whose pictures of children playing on the city's beaches seem to be made of sunlight.
The Barrio del Carmen, the northwestern part of the old town, was a run-down neighborhood of narrow lanes until the 1980s, when artists, bars and students moved in. Today it's Valencia's bohemian quarter, and its walls are an open-air gallery: look for the little girl Julieta by the artist Julieta XLF, the witty figures of Escif and the murals of Deih, as well as countless smaller pieces.
Wander the lanes around Plaza del Tossal and Calle de Caballeros, peek into the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM) for modern art, and look at the old houses with tiled street names.
At the western edge of the Carmen stand the other surviving gates, the Torres de Quart, built in the 15th century. Their walls are still pocked with holes from cannonballs fired by Napoleon's army during the siege of 1808. Climb them for a view down the long street into the old town.
For lunch, stop at Bar Pilar, which everyone calls La Pilareta, a crowded old bar from 1917 on Calle Moro Zeit, famous for clóchinas, small, sweet local mussels, steamed with lemon and pepper. They're in season only from about May to August, and the rest of the year the bar serves ordinary mussels, which are good too.
Order some tapas with them: esgarraet, roasted red peppers with strips of salt cod and garlic in olive oil, titaina, a tomato and tuna stew from the fishermen's quarter, and croquettes. Throw the empty mussel shells into the bucket on the floor.
On 14 October 1957, the river Turia burst its banks after torrential rain and flooded the city, killing at least 81 people. Afterwards, the government moved the river south of the city through a new channel, the Plan Sur. The empty riverbed was meant to become a motorway, until the people of Valencia campaigned for a park instead, and the Turia gardens opened in stages from 1986.
Today it's a green ribbon of about nine kilometers curving around the old town, under the old bridges, with palm trees, orange groves, football pitches, running tracks and fountains. Rent a bike and ride the whole length, from the Bioparc in the west to the City of Arts and Sciences in the east. Stop at Gulliver, a giant figure of Gulliver tied down by the Lilliputians that children climb all over.
Despite the name, agua de Valencia is not water: it's a jug of cava, fresh orange juice, gin and vodka, invented in 1959 by Constante Gil at a bar called Café Madrid, which still serves it near the Plaza de la Reina. It goes down far too easily.
Café de las Horas, a theatrical, candlelit bar behind the cathedral, full of flowers, velvet and chandeliers, is the other popular place to order a jug. Afterwards, the bars of the Carmen are busy until late.
Today is the modern city. If it's Thursday, which it is if you started on a Tuesday, walk from the Estación del Norte to Plaza de la Virgen (15 minutes) for the Water Tribunal at noon (see day one), then take a bus or taxi to the City of Arts and Sciences for the afternoon.
The Mercado de Colón, built in 1916 in the smart Eixample district, is a Valencian Modernist jewel of red brick, tiles and mosaics of oranges and farm workers. It was a food market and is now a covered square of cafés and restaurants.
Have an almuerzo, the Valencian mid-morning meal: a big sandwich (a bocadillo of tortilla, sausage or jamón), a few olives and peanuts, a drink, and a cremaet, coffee with rum, sugar, cinnamon and lemon peel, flamed at the table.
Ten minutes' walk west, the Estación del Norte, Valencia's main railway station, opened in 1917, is decorated inside and out with oranges, orange blossom and Valencian farm scenes in tiles and mosaics. Walk in to see the wooden ticket booths and the tiled hall, where mosaics wish travelers a good journey in several languages.
Next door is the bullring, built in the 1850s on the model of a Roman amphitheater, and two minutes north is the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, the city's main square, framed by the town hall and the grand Correos (post office) building, where the Fallas firecrackers go off every March.
At the eastern end of the Turia gardens, the City of Arts and Sciences is Valencia's showpiece: a row of white buildings in the shallow pools of the old riverbed, mostly by Santiago Calatrava, a Valencian architect, and opened in stages from 1998. The Hemisfèric, shaped like a giant eye that opens and closes, is an IMAX cinema. The Museu de les Ciències looks like the skeleton of a whale and is a hands-on science museum. The Palau de les Arts, an opera house with a feather-shaped roof, has a season from autumn to spring, and the Àgora, the tall blue-and-white hall, has been the CaixaForum arts center since 2022.
Walking around them is free, and so is the Umbracle, a garden walkway under white arches. The museum and the Hemisfèric together cost about 14 EUR.
The Oceanogràfic, designed by the engineer Félix Candela with a water lily for a roof, is the largest aquarium in Europe, with zones for the Mediterranean, the oceans, the Arctic with its beluga whales, and tunnels under shark tanks. It's expensive, but most people, and certainly most children, think it's worth it.
It also has an underwater restaurant, where you eat surrounded by fish.
Every March, during Fallas, Valencia builds hundreds of huge, satirical sculptures of wood, cardboard and polystyrene, some several stories high, and on the night of 19 March it burns them all, in a festival of fire, fireworks and gunpowder that UNESCO lists as world heritage. Each year, two figures, one from the adults' fallas and one from the children's, are pardoned from the flames by public vote: the ninots indultats.
The Museo Fallero keeps all the saved ninots since 1934, along with posters from every year, and it's the next best thing to being here in March.
Ruzafa, just south of the old town, was a working-class neighborhood around a big covered market, and it's now Valencia's trendiest: a grid of streets full of cafés, galleries, vintage shops, wine bars and restaurants from every corner of the world. Start with a drink around the market, then eat your way through a few bars.
It's where young Valencians go out, and it stays lively late, especially from Thursday to Saturday.
Today is the sea. Tram lines 4 and 6 and several buses go from the center to the beach in about 25 minutes. In the afternoon, take a taxi (about 20 minutes) or EMT bus 25 from the Porta de la Mar (about 40 minutes) south to El Palmar in the Albufera, and book your lunch there a day or two ahead.
El Cabanyal, the old fishermen's quarter behind the beach, was a separate town until 1897, and its long, straight streets of low houses covered in colorful tiles look nothing like the rest of Valencia. For years the city planned to cut an avenue through it, and residents fought the plan for two decades until it was dropped in 2015. Now it's being restored and slowly becoming fashionable.
Walk through the Mercat del Cabanyal, the neighborhood market, and come back one evening to Casa Montaña, a tavern open since 1836, with barrels stacked to the ceiling, excellent anchovies and one of the best wine lists in the city.
Valencia is one of the few big European cities with a proper beach in town: a wide, golden strip of sand that runs for kilometers, with a promenade of palm trees and restaurants. The Malvarrosa, its northern end, is the one Sorolla painted over and over, and the novelist Vicente Blasco Ibáñez had his summer house here, now a museum.
From spring to autumn it's warm enough to swim. Even in winter, it's a lovely place to walk in the morning.
The real paella valenciana has chicken, rabbit, two kinds of beans (flat green ferraura and white garrofó), tomato, olive oil, saffron and rice, and, depending on the cook, snails, duck, artichokes in season or a sprig of rosemary. No seafood, and certainly no chorizo. It's cooked in a wide, shallow pan, ideally over an orange-wood fire, until the rice at the bottom forms a crisp, toasted layer called the socarrat. It's traditionally a lunch dish.
Eat it where its rice grows: El Palmar, a village of rice farmers and fishermen on an island in the Albufera, where almost every house is a restaurant. This is also the place to try all i pebre, "garlic and pepper", a stew of eel from the lagoon with potatoes and paprika, the Albufera's oldest dish. In the city, Casa Carmela, by the beach since 1922, still cooks paella over wood fires, but it's a splurge: it has a minimum of 50 EUR per person and the paella has to be ordered a day ahead.
Between the lagoon and the sea runs La Devesa, a strip of dunes, pine forest and wild beaches that was saved from developers in the 1970s by a citizens' campaign under the slogan "El Saler per al poble", El Saler for the people. Walk the trails through the pines to the beach, which is wilder and emptier than the city's.
Bus 25 stops along the road, so it's easy to combine with El Palmar.
The Albufera is a large freshwater lagoon separated from the sea by La Devesa, surrounded by the rice fields where Valencia's rice grows. It's a natural park full of herons and egrets, and a world away from the city.
From El Palmar or the jetty at the Gola del Pujol, fishermen take visitors out in flat-bottomed wooden boats for about 40 minutes. Go at sunset, when the sky and the water turn orange. In October 2024, the floods that hit the towns south of Valencia washed huge amounts of water and debris into the lagoon. The boats run as usual and the birds are back, but the restoration of the lagoon is still going on.
Xàtiva is a handsome old town under a castle, about 50-60 minutes south of Valencia on the Cercanías C2 local train from the Estación del Norte. The castle is closed on Mondays, and the town museum opens only in the morning at weekends, so see the town before the castle.
Start in town: Xàtiva is the home of the Borgia family, Borja in Valencian. Rodrigo de Borja, born here in 1431, became Pope Alexander VI, the most notorious pope of the Renaissance and father of Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia. His uncle Alfons, Pope Callixtus III, was born in nearby Canals.
Walk the old streets of palaces and fountains, see the great collegiate church, and look for the portrait of King Philip V hung upside down in the town museum, the Almodí. Xàtiva was also the first place in Europe to make paper, in the 11th century. In 1707, his troops burned Xàtiva during the War of the Spanish Succession, and the town has never forgiven him: its people are still nicknamed socarrats, the scorched ones.
The castle of Xàtiva runs for almost a kilometer along the ridge above the town, two fortresses joined by walls, with Iberian, Roman, Moorish and Christian layers. It was a royal prison, and the views over the town and the orange groves of the plain are tremendous.
It's a steep 30-40 minute walk up from the old town, past the Romanesque hermitage of Sant Feliu,, or take the little tourist train or a taxi. Bring water.
Inland, away from the sea, Valencians bake their rice in the oven in a clay dish: arròs al forn, rice with pork ribs, black pudding, chickpeas, potato, tomato and a whole head of garlic in the middle. It's the dish of Xàtiva and the towns around it, and the perfect lunch before the train back.
Back in Valencia, end where you started, on Plaza de la Virgen, when the cathedral and the basilica are lit up and the terraces are full. Have a last horchata or a glass of Valencian wine, then wander the old town one more time.
Five days cover Valencia and Xàtiva. With more time, here are the best trips out of the city, in order of distance, plus one more in town.
In 219 BC, Hannibal's siege of Sagunto, a city allied to Rome, started the Second Punic War. Today the town has a Roman theater, controversially rebuilt in modern materials in the 1990s, and a long castle along the hill with ruins from Iberian, Roman, Moorish and Christian times. It's an easy half-day.
Getting there: 30 km north. About 30 minutes on the Cercanías C6 train.
Valencia's zoo, the Bioparc, is designed as a "zoo without bars", where African animals live in landscapes of savanna, forest and Madagascar, separated from visitors by water and rocks rather than fences. It's one of the best zoos in Europe, and a good family day.
Getting there: At the western end of the Turia gardens, by metro or bus.
Inland, the wine region of Utiel-Requena grows Bobal, a dark red grape found almost only here, and the town of Requena makes cava. Its medieval old town has a network of underground caves where wine was stored, and the wineries around it offer tastings.
Getting there: 70 km west. About 1-1.5 hours by train or car.
A white village above a deep limestone gorge, Chulilla is famous for its walking trail of hanging bridges along the river Turia, the Ruta de los Pantaneros, a few hours' walk, and for some of the best rock climbing in Spain.
Getting there: 65 km northwest. About 1 hour; a car is needed.
Peñíscola is a walled town on a rock in the sea, crowned by the castle of the Antipope Benedict XIII, Papa Luna, who held out here until his death in 1423. It played the city of Meereen in Game of Thrones, and it has long beaches on both sides.
Getting there: 140 km north. About 1.5-2 hours by train to Benicarló and a bus, or by car.
If you have a spare day and want more sun, Alicante has a palm-lined seafront promenade, the hilltop Santa Bárbara castle and beaches, and it's the gateway to the Costa Blanca. It's a little beyond day-trip distance, but the train makes it possible.
Getting there: 170 km south. About 1.5-2 hours by train.
Valencia is the land of rice. The fields of the Albufera supply it, and there are dozens of rice dishes beyond paella. Lunch, between 14:00 and 16:00, is the main meal, and that's when the rice is cooked.
Rice cooked in a wide, flat pan with chicken, rabbit, flat green beans, white butter beans, tomato, saffron and olive oil, sometimes with snails and rosemary. No seafood, no chorizo, no peas. The crispy layer at the bottom, the socarrat, is the best part. It's traditionally a lunch dish, cooked to order for at least two people. Avoid the photos of paella with sangria on boards outside restaurants.
Where to try it: The restaurants of El Palmar in the Albufera, rice restaurants around the city, and, as a splurge, Casa Carmela by the beach (50 EUR minimum, order a day ahead). Book ahead.
A cold, sweet drink made from tiger nuts (chufa) grown in the fields of l'Horta Nord, north of the city, especially around Alboraya. It's nutty, milky and refreshing, and it's drunk with fartons, long, soft, sugar-glazed buns. The season is spring and summer, but the historic horchaterías serve it all year.
Where to try it: Santa Catalina and El Siglo on Plaza de Santa Catalina, and the horchaterías of Alboraya, a short metro ride north.
The seafood rices. Arroz a banda is rice cooked in a rich fish stock, served with allioli. Arroz negro is black with cuttlefish ink. Fideuà swaps the rice for short, thin noodles, and was invented by fishermen in Gandia, south of Valencia. Valencians eat them as often as paella, and at the beach more often.
Where to try it: The rice restaurants along the beach, and in El Palmar. La Pepica, where Hemingway ate, is the most famous, though locals find it touristy.
A stew of eel from the Albufera lagoon with potatoes, garlic, paprika and chili, the oldest dish of the lagoon. It's strong, rustic and rarely found outside the area.
Where to try it: The restaurants of El Palmar on day four.
Valencia's tapas are their own: esgarraet, roasted red peppers with strips of salt cod and garlic; clóchinas, small local mussels steamed with lemon, in season from May to August; titaina, a tuna and tomato stew from El Cabanyal; and tellinas, tiny clams with garlic and parsley.
Where to try it: La Pilareta in the Carmen, Casa Montaña in El Cabanyal and the bars of the Mercado Central.
The mid-morning almuerzo is a Valencian ritual: a huge bocadillo, perhaps filled with tortilla española, sausage, jamón ibérico or fried egg and peppers, with olives, peanuts and a drink, then a cremaet, coffee with rum, sugar, cinnamon and lemon peel, flamed at the table. Workers take it around 10:00 or 11:00, and it's the cheapest big meal in town.
Where to try it: Neighborhood bars all over the city, and the bars of the Mercado de Colón and the Mercado Central.
During Fallas, street stalls fry buñuelos de calabaza, light, crisp rings of pumpkin dough, dipped in thick hot chocolate. Churros con chocolate are sold at the same stalls, and at cafés all year, but the buñuelos are the Valencian specialty.
Where to try it: Street stalls during Fallas in March, and some old cafés and horchaterías the rest of the year.
Valencia is the orange capital of Spain, and the groves around the city fill the air with orange blossom in spring. The season runs from about November to May. Freshly squeezed orange juice is on every café menu, and it's the base of agua de Valencia.
Where to try it: The Mercado Central and fruit shops all over town, in season.
A jug of cava, fresh orange juice, vodka and gin, invented in 1959 by Constante Gil at Café Madrid. It's sweet, sparkling and much stronger than it tastes, a drink for sharing with friends on a terrace.
Where to try it: Café de las Horas behind the cathedral and many bars in the Carmen.
The region's best-known reds come from Utiel-Requena, an hour inland, made from Bobal, a dark, deep-colored grape found almost only there. Requena also makes cava, and the hills south of the city make sweet Moscatel.
Where to try it: Casa Montaña in El Cabanyal and wine bars in Ruzafa and the Carmen.
Valencia is spread out, but the old town is compact and the Turia gardens connect everything. Most visitors are happiest in or near the old town, with the beach a tram ride away.
Best for: First-timers who want to walk everywhere
Around the cathedral, the market and the Carmen, you're within walking distance of day one and two, and of the bars at night. The catch is noise in the Carmen at weekends.
Best for: Food, nightlife and a local feel
South of the old town, full of restaurants, cafés and bars, ten minutes' walk from the center and close to the City of Arts and Sciences. The catch is late-night noise on some streets.
Best for: Quiet, elegant streets and good transport
The 19th-century district around the Mercado de Colón, with wide streets, Modernist buildings and plenty of hotels, close to the old town and the Turia. The catch is that it's quieter in the evenings.
Best for: Beach holidays in summer
Wake up by the sea, with the beach restaurants and the tiled streets of El Cabanyal on your doorstep. The catch is a 20-30 minute tram ride to the old town.
The practical stuff that makes the first day in Valencia easier.
Valencians eat paella at lunch, never at dinner. Real paella is cooked to order for at least two people and takes 30-40 minutes, so a place that serves it in five minutes is reheating it. The best restaurants need booking, especially at weekends. Avoid places with pictures of paella and sangria outside.
Most museums close on Mondays, including the Fine Arts Museum, IVAM and the Ceramics Museum, and the castle of Xàtiva. The Mercado Central closes on Sundays and public holidays. That's why this plan works best starting on a Tuesday. Many monuments, including the Lonja and the city towers, are free on Sundays. On 9 October, the Valencian Community's day, and 12 October, Spain's national day, the market closes and museum hours change.
Metro lines 3 and 5 run from the airport to the center. A single ticket is 4.80 EUR from the airport, plus 1.10 EUR for the card. In town, walk or cycle along the Turia gardens, and use the tram to the beach. The Valencia Tourist Card includes transport and several monuments.
If you're here from 1 to 19 March, you'll find the city transformed: hundreds of giant sculptures in the streets, firecrackers day and night, and a daily mascletà at 14:00 in the town hall square. It's thrilling and very loud. Hotels fill up months ahead, and on the night of 19 March everything burns.
On 29 October 2024, extreme rain caused flash floods in the towns just south of Valencia, especially Paiporta and its neighbors, killing more than 230 people in the province. The historic center and the tourist areas were largely spared and work normally, but reconstruction in the affected towns is still going on. Be respectful if you pass through them.
Spain uses the euro, and cards are accepted almost everywhere. Tipping is optional: round up in bars and leave 5-10% in restaurants if you were happy. There's no tourist tax in Valencia as of late 2026.
Valencia has two official languages, Spanish and Valencian, a form of Catalan, which you'll see on street signs and menus. Everyone speaks Spanish, and English is common in hotels and restaurants. EU roaming rules apply in Spain. Plugs are types C and F, 230 V.
No. Two or three days covers the old town and the City of Arts and Sciences, but five lets you add the Turia gardens by bike, a proper paella lunch by the beach, sunset on the Albufera and a day trip to Xàtiva, without rushing.
At lunch, in a restaurant that cooks it to order: a rice restaurant in El Palmar in the Albufera, or, as a splurge, Casa Carmela by the beach. Book ahead, order for at least two, and expect to wait 30-40 minutes.
The Cathedral and the Holy Grail, the Micalet, the Lonja de la Seda, the Mercado Central, the Torres de Serranos, the Barrio del Carmen, the Turia gardens, the City of Arts and Sciences and the Oceanogràfic, the beach and a boat on the Albufera at sunset.
The cathedral keeps a 1st-century agate cup that tradition identifies as the Holy Grail, and two popes have celebrated Mass with it. Its history before the Middle Ages can't be proven, but it's one of the oldest and best-documented of the cups that claim the title.
Every year from 1 to 19 March, with the biggest days from the 15th to the 19th, when the giant sculptures stand in the streets and are burned on the last night. In 2027, the festival opens with the Crida on 28 February.
The Albufera lagoon is the essential half-day, part of day four of this plan. Xàtiva, day five, has a castle and the Borgias. Sagunto is closer, and the wine town of Requena and the gorge of Chulilla are best by car.
It's cheaper than Barcelona or Madrid. A coffee costs about 1.50 EUR, an almuerzo 6-8 EUR, and paella 15-25 EUR per person. The Oceanogràfic is the big expense.
In hotels, restaurants and at the main sights, yes. Older people and market sellers may only speak Spanish or Valencian, but pointing and smiling works.
Find Valencia on the map, learn the flag and check how much you really know about Spain.
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The last Moorish kingdom in Europe, a palace like nothing else, free tapas with every drink and the snowy Sierra Nevada behind it all.
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