Valencia Travel Tips

I owe much more to this city than the following notes. But until time and writing skills allow me to properly pay tribute to Valencia, this will have to do.

Getting from A to B

• Get EMT’s Bonobús card for €8.50 (+ 2€ deposit for the card) and be done with it (you don’t need the metro to get around town)
  • You can use the card for multiple people, just make sure to swipe inside the bus accordingly
  • If you need to take the metro, e.g. for getting from the airport to the city and back, consider the SUMA 10 card that covers busses, metro, and regional trains and is 50% off until 2024-07-31
• Don’t get confused: bus stops are in Valencian
• Wave at an approaching bus that you want to take to make sure it stops and picks you up
• Rent bikes with Valenbisi
• Our personal guilty pleasure to get a feeling for a city: the red hop-on-hop-off tourist bus (not really a recommendation… we’ve had better)

Neighborhoods

• Valencia is divided into 19 districts each of which is further divided into several quarters
• Ciutat Vella district: the medieval old town with most of Valencia’s iconic sights (e.g. the cathedral, Mercat Central, San Nicolás) between Jardín del Turia in the north (what an urbanistic masterpiece—kudos to everyone who helped turning a riverbed into a gigantic green belt) and the streets along the former city wall in the south
  • Two of the city wall’s twelve towers—Torres de Seranos and Torres de Quart—still exist and frame the quarter El Carmen, note-worthy for its bustling street art scene
  • If you need a place to stay, we had a great time at the UNIK. Apartments in summer 2021
• The district L’Eixample with its super-trendy quarter Ruzafa: gentrification par excellence, but damn it is nice to get lost in the alleys, the pubs, the cafés, and the little shops
• Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències/Quatre Carreras: what we called home for five weeks in summer 2022 and where my father-in-law lives, not far from the opera house (Palau de les Arts), the aquarium (L’Oceanogràfic), the science museum (Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe), and so much more
• El Saler/Pobles del Sud: summer residence of my stepmother-in-law, with beautiful beaches, and the mesmerizing L’Albulfera national park

Food and Drinks

Valencia and my wife have healed my FOMO when it comes to finding the perfect spot to dine. I could spend hours on Google Maps, read ratings, study menus, and look at photos. Now I am happy to drift through the city and stop off at any place that looks nice. I also managed to get rid of some long-lasting misconceptions: Plastic chairs and pictures on the menu are not indicators for bad food! A 3.5 star rating on Google Maps does not mean you’re gonna have a bad time!

Some places we stumbled upon:

• Restaurante Casa Toni: menú del día (appetizer + main course + bread + dessert/coffee) for €9, Toni is a sweetheart
• Bar Sabina Valencia: tapas, cañas, aceitunas at a busy intersection
• Restaurant Panorama: fancy place, perfect view
• Olrait: menú del día for €11.50, the atún a la plancha and the brownie are delicious, great spot for hot weather as the outside area always seems to be windy
• Maestro Dōner Kebap: great Döner Kebab
• Sorsi e Morsi Cánovas: Italian restaurant with lovely staff, we celebrated my sister-in-law’s 23rd birthday here
• Cafè Sant Jaume: in the heart of the old town, a lot of shade, drinking water fountain nearby, perfect spot to people-watch, rest, and dwell on one’s thoughts
• 100 Montaditos: A fast-food classic! Small sandwiches, snacks, drinks for super-cheap, one is always close
• Dodo’s Mediterrasian Restaurant: almuerzo (a meal at lunch time, but not lunch—that would be comida, more like a second breakfast) for €5 (in my case a huge bocadillo chivito + vino tinto de la casa)
• La Pepica: One of the traditional Paella restaurants, right at the city beach
• La Flaca de Ruzafa: cozy restaurant in the middle of Russafa
• Ristorante Lincontro: Italian cuisine, my father-in-law knows the owner who treated us extra-nicely :)
• Café Madrid and Cafè de les Hores: Two great bars and the perfect spots to try Agua de Valencia
• Bar Portolito Carmen: excellent, rustic tapas place
• Pintxo i Trago: another great tapas place

If you spend enough time here and have a full-fledged kitchen at your disposal, go to Carrefour, buy some fresh seafood, and cook yourselves a nice meal. Valencia demands it!

And a short note on tipping: It is not common here to tip the waiters or bartenders. If the service was truly phenomenal, feel free to leave a couple of coins. But rounding up to include 10% on the amount-to-be-paid earned us some weird looks.

Museums and Culture

Valencia is bursting with museums, culture, art, and music. I can only list a few highlights here because it is impossible to cover everything that this city has to offer. Also watch out for festivals (Jazz, Film, Gran Fira), concerts, and exhibitions—there is always something going on!

• Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporánea (CCCC), a beautiful place full of street art, galleries, and the enchanting exhibition Play with Design (part of the “World Design Capital Valencia 2022” programme)
• Fundación Bancaja
• Museo Valenciano de la Ilustración y de la Modernidad (MUVIM): free entrance, the architecture of the building alone is worth seeing, most exhibitions are in Spanish/Valencian
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia
• Museo de Historia Valencia
• El Museu de les Ciències
• Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM): free entrance until 2022-12-31
• La Catedral del Santo Cáliz: €8 for the cathedral and the museum, €2 for the Miguelete tower, highlights: paintings by Goya, the Holy Grail, and the views of the city from the Miguelete tower, the museum is huge, you can easily spend half a day in the cathedral
• La Nit de Berklee – Commencement Concert 2022 (Recorded Livestream)
• CaixaForum València – Àgora: “Faraón” exhibition with Egyptian artifacts of the British Museum
• La Lonja de la Seda: UNESCO world heritage and a beautiful testament to Valencia’s rich trading history, free entrance (but make sure to pay for the audio guide, the €2.25 are worth it)

Other Places

• Cines Babel, movies in original language with Spanish subtitles
• Beaches: ditch the city beaches, and take the bus 24 or 25 to El Saler instead, the beaches there are less crowded and more beautiful
• Street Art Tour in El Carmen, two and a half hours filled with information, stories, anecdotes, and art, our guide Mario was open to all kinds of questions and his trusty iPad allowed us to see street art that is long gone, don’t forget to bring water
• The narrowest house in Europe, Plaza Lope de Vega, 9: make sure to have some tapas in “La Estrecha” (“the narrow”) right next to it
• Jardí Botànic: the botanical garden of Valencia university or how I call it, “peace and quiet inside a green oasis for €3”—perfect spot to cool off after a long city walk
• Jardins del Real / Vivers: beautiful park, always worth a walk
• Vinyl stores Digital Records and Harmony Discos
• Atypical València: Grab some souvenirs that don’t screem tourist trap

ToDos

• Museo de la Almoina
• Bioparc (the zoo)
• Day trips to Xàtiva, Gandia, and Peñíscola
• Weekend trip to Ibiza with the ferry
• Baños arabes del Almirante (closed in 2022 due to construction works)
• The quarters Campanar and El Cabanyal for a less gentrified, less touristy, off-the-beaten-track Valencia