VALENCIA · SPAIN
White sails, sea light, the home of paella.
Calatrava's white city, the Albufera rice fields, the old town with its cathedral, and the long Mediterranean beaches. Tickets, tours, paella classes and the best day trips, all in one place.
Only here
Three things that are pure Valencia.
Beaches and tapas run the length of this coast. Paella as the Valencians invented it, Calatrava's white city, and the chalice the cathedral calls the Holy Grail belong to Valencia alone.
Born here
Paella, Where It Was Invented
Paella is not so much a Spanish dish as a Valencian one. It was born in the rice paddies of the Albufera just south of the city, cooked over orange-wood fires by farmers and fishermen. Learn it from a local cook, over the same short-grain rice, the way it has been made for two hundred years.
- 1 Paella Cooking Class, Wine Tasting & Central Market in Valencia
- 2 Valencian paella cooking class, tapas and visit to Ruzafa market.
- 3 Valencia: Paella Cooking Class with Central Market Tour
Calatrava's white city
The City of Arts & Sciences
Santiago Calatrava drained an old riverbed and filled it with white bone-like shells and turquoise pools. Inside sit Europe's largest aquarium, a planetarium under a giant eye, and a science museum shaped like a whale's skeleton. Nowhere else on earth looks quite like it.
- 1 Valencia: Oceanogràfic, Hemisfèric & Science Museum Combo
- 2 Valencia: Principe Felipe Science Museum Entry Ticket
- 3 Valencia: City of Arts and Science 3D Movie at Hemisfèric
The Holy Grail
A Cathedral and Its Chalice
Valencia Cathedral guards a small agate cup the Vatican accepts as a serious candidate for the Holy Grail, the chalice of the Last Supper. Around it spreads a tangle of Roman, Moorish and Gothic streets, the Gothic silk exchange, and the bell tower you climb for the rooftops.
- 1 Valencia Old Town Tour with Wine & Tapas in 11th Century Historic Monument
- 2 Valencia: Old Town Tour, Wine & Tapas in an 11th c. Monument
- 3 Valencia: Cathedral, St Nicholas, and Lonja de la Seda Tour
Start with the icon
If you do one thing, make it this.
More travellers build their Valencia around this than anything else in the city.
The classics
Valencia's Most Popular Experiences
The Oceanogràfic, the old town, a sunset catamaran, a flamenco night. The days most travellers come to Valencia for.
Where to begin
The experiences a Valencia trip is built around.
The white city and its aquarium, the old town and its cathedral, paella by the lagoon, the Mediterranean by boat, the city by bike, and the day trips beyond. The handful most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
Beyond the city
The best day trips from Valencia.
An hour or two from the centre, the province turns to rice fields, mountain springs and an underground river. Three escapes worth giving a whole day.
The old riverbed
A city built for bikes.
After the great flood, Valencia diverted its river and turned the old bed into a nine-kilometre green ribbon that curls through the centre, from the old town past the City of Arts all the way to the sea. Add flat streets and a coastal path, and there is no better way to take in the city than on two wheels.
Read the guide: the best bike tours in Valencia →The Mediterranean
Out past the breakwater.
Valencia meets the sea at a working marina that once hosted the America's Cup. Catamarans run sunset cruises off the city beaches, sailing yachts head out for the afternoon, and the calm Mediterranean makes for an easy first day on the water.
See the cruises and sailing trips →The City of Arts & Sciences
White shells on a turquoise pool.
Calatrava's complex rises from long reflecting pools at the eastern end of the old riverbed, all white ribs, blue water and curving glass. By day it gleams; after dark it lights up and doubles in the still pools. It is the image most people carry home from Valencia.
Tickets & tours →After dark
Flamenco, and a long Valencian evening.
Valencia keeps late hours. The night begins with a flamenco tablao, the guitar and the heels close enough to feel, then runs on through tapas, a horchata in the old town, and the bars of the Carmen quarter. These are the evenings travellers book first.
- 1 Valencia: Palosanto Flamenco Show Ticket
- 2 Valencia: Authentic Flamenco Show Entry Ticket
- 3 Valencia: Flamenco at Toro y La Luna with optional Dinner
Eat like a local
Tapas, the market, and the city's sweet tooth.
Valencia eats well and eats late. Start at the Central Market, a Modernista hall of four hundred stalls under stained glass, then graze the tapas bars of the old town and finish with horchata and fartons, the chufa-nut drink the city runs on. A food tour is the quickest way into all of it.
See all 46 food & tapas tours →By place
Valencia, near and far.
The old town for the cathedral and the market. The City of Arts for the future. The Albufera for the rice and the sunset. Montanejos for the springs, San José for the caves, and the coast for the quiet days.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
On foot through the old town. By bike along the Turia. On the water by catamaran. Over a paella pan, a tasting glass, or a market stall.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Valencia? A long weekend that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
Just added