Hire a bike for your three days: a park in the old riverbed links the medieval centre to the white science museums without a car in sight, and the beach is a short ride beyond.
View on globeNinety seconds on Valencia
Three days covers the city: one for the old town, the Central Market and the Silk Exchange, one for the Turia gardens and the City of Arts and Sciences, and one for the beach and a sunset boat on the Albufera. A fourth day allows Sagunto's hilltop castle, about half an hour north by commuter train.
On foot in the old town and by bike almost everywhere else. The city is flat, and the park in the old Turia riverbed runs for about nine kilometres across it, clear of traffic. Bike hire shops line the old town and the park. The metro reaches the airport, and tram lines 4 and 6 run just behind the sand at Malvarrosa.
March to June and September to October, with warm days, and the sea is warm enough to swim from June. July and August are hot and humid. The Fallas festival runs through the first nineteen days of March and peaks from the 15th to the 19th, when hotels fill months ahead and the centre is loud day and night.
Valencian and Spanish are both official. Valencian is the local form of Catalan, and street signs, metro stations and menus often carry both, so the city is València on one sign and Valencia on the next. English is spoken at hotels and at the main sights.
The euro. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, including most market stalls. The Valencian region charges no tourist tax on hotel nights. Tipping is modest, a few coins or a rounded-up bill.
Valencia Airport, VLC, at Manises, about 8 km west of the centre. Metro lines 3 and 5 run from the terminal to the city in about 25 minutes. Alicante, ALC, about 170 km to the south, is the alternative, around two hours away by coach or train.
Start your first day at the Central Market before ten, while the stalls are full, then walk to the cathedral and the Silk Exchange a few minutes away. Spend the afternoon in the riverbed park, riding east to the City of Arts and Sciences. Stay there until dusk, when the white buildings light up in the pools.
Sleep in Ciutat Vella to walk everywhere, in Ruzafa if dinner is the point, or in El Cabanyal to swim before breakfast. Ruzafa and El Carmen stay loud until late at weekends, so ask for a room away from the street. From the beach, the old town is twenty to thirty minutes away by tram, metro or bus.
Save a late afternoon for the Albufera lagoon south of the city. Buses run along the coast road to El Palmar, where flat-bottomed boats go out among the reeds until sunset. Book your paella table before you go, and from June to September carry insect repellent.
Lunch starts at two and dinner rarely before nine. If your dates fall in mid March, book months ahead and expect closed streets, daily firecrackers and noise most of the night. Several museums close on Mondays and the markets on Sundays, so give those days to the park and the beach.
The old town lies inside a ring of boulevards built where its walls once stood, with the cathedral, the Silk Exchange, the Central Market and most of the sights in a walk of twenty minutes end to end. It is the easiest base for a first visit. Squares fill late on summer nights, so light sleepers should ask for a room facing a courtyard.
A grid of nineteenth-century apartment blocks just south of the North Station, now packed with cafés, bookshops, galleries and the city's busiest choice of places to eat. Evenings start late and run late. During the Fallas its streets are hung with the city's most elaborate light displays, and it is one of the loudest places to sleep that week.
An old fishermen's quarter laid out in long narrow streets running parallel to the sea, many of its low houses faced in bright patterned tiles. The beach is at the end of every street. Rooms here put the sand at the door, a tram ride from the old town.
A wide, shallow freshwater lagoon south of the city, ringed by reeds and rice paddies and separated from the sea by a strip of pine woods and dunes. Herons, egrets and flamingos feed in the shallows. Take a flat-bottomed boat out at sunset, and in summer carry insect repellent.
Joined to the cathedral by a bridge over the street, this oval church holds the statue of the city's patron, nicknamed the little hunchback for the way she leans forward. Locals drop in through the day. In the Fallas the image is dressed in a giant mantle of flowers built over two days in the square outside.
At the western end of the Turia gardens, this zoo recreates African landscapes, from savannah to a Madagascar forest, using moats and rock rather than visible bars between visitors and the animals. Allow half a day. Buy tickets online, arrive at opening in summer, and reach it by metro to Nou d'Octubre or along the riverbed park by bike.
Gleaming white buildings by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela line shallow blue pools at the eastern end of the Turia gardens: an opera house, a science museum, an IMAX dome and an aquarium. Walking the outside is free and best at dusk, when the reflections light up. Combined tickets cover the paid parts if more than one appeals.
Silk made Valencia rich, and this was the headquarters of the weavers' guild, restored with its original painted ceilings and floors of handmade tiles. Displays cover looms, silk costumes and the city's trade. Visitors get it almost to themselves, and it is a short walk from the Central Market.
Between the Albufera and the sea, a protected strip of pine forest, dunes and undeveloped beach runs for several kilometres. Sandy trails cross it to the sand. It is the wildest beach within reach of the city, and buses from the centre stop along the coast road on their way to El Palmar.
Twisting lanes in the north of the old town, between the two surviving gate towers, covered in murals and street art and lined with small bars. It is the liveliest part of the centre after dark, and at weekends the noise runs past two in the morning. By day it is quiet, and good for an unhurried walk between the Serranos and Quart towers.
A village of fishermen and rice growers on an island in the paddies of the Albufera, reached by road and by a short bridge. Boats leave from its jetties from mid morning until dusk. Restaurants here cook paella and all i pebre, an eel stew, over wood fires, and lunch tables fill at weekends, so book ahead.
Still the working terminus for regional and commuter trains, this Modernista station beside the bullring is worth a look even without a ticket. Its ticket hall is lined with carved wood and tiled panels of oranges and orange blossom. Mosaics on the walls of the café spell out good wishes for a safe journey in several languages.
In the Turia gardens near the City of Arts and Sciences lies a giant figure of Gulliver pinned to the ground, about seventy metres long, with ropes, ramps and slides running down his limbs and clothing. Children climb all over him. Entry is free, it is busiest at weekends, and adults are allowed on the slides too.
Shaped like a giant eye whose lid opens over a reflecting pool, this was the first building of the City of Arts and Sciences. Inside, a domed IMAX cinema and planetarium shows nature and space films. Screenings run at set times, so book a slot and fit the rest of the complex around it.
From a narrow side lane it looks like nothing, but inside every surface of the vault is painted in restored Baroque frescoes, which is why the city calls it its Sistine Chapel. Entry is ticketed with an audio guide. It is closed on Mondays and opens only in the afternoon on Sundays.
Valencia's modern art museum, on the edge of El Carmen, built around a large collection of the iron sculptor Julio González and changing shows of twentieth-century and contemporary work. Temporary exhibitions fill most of the building, so check what is on before planning a visit. It is closed on Mondays.
A walled university garden west of the old town, with palm groves, cactus beds, a shaded fern house and an iron greenhouse. Cats sleep on the benches. Entry is ticketed. On a hot afternoon it is one of the coolest places in the centre.
Known locally as Viveros, these gardens stand on the grounds of a vanished royal palace on the north bank of the old riverbed. Shaded paths, a rose garden, fountains and a small natural science museum fill them. Families gather here at weekends, and the Fine Arts Museum stands at the southern gate.
Under a shallow pool of glass behind the cathedral lie the foundations of Roman Valentia: baths, a granary, a stretch of the main street and later Visigothic and Muslim layers on top. A walkway leads down among them. From the square above, the ruins can be seen through the water for free.
Built as the merchants' exchange, its main hall stands on spiralling stone columns that branch into the vault like palm trees. Gargoyles of monsters and drunkards line the outside. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site opposite the Central Market, and on Sundays it opens only until two, so a weekend visit belongs in the morning.
A long, wide stretch of fine sand on the city's edge, with a palm-lined promenade, lifeguards and showers in summer. Tram lines 4 and 6 stop just behind it. Weekdays outside July and August are calm; on summer weekends the sand fills from late morning, so arrive early or walk north towards Patacona for space.
Rebuilt for sailing races in the 2000s, the old inner harbour now has a waterfront promenade, a public swimming area, restaurants and the white Veles e Vents building with its stacked terraces. Its quays make a good walk at sunset. It lies at the southern end of the beaches, a short walk from El Cabanyal.
Under an iron and glass dome trimmed with Modernista tiles, hundreds of stalls sell fish, ham, rice, tiger nuts and the oranges of the surrounding plain. Come in the morning, when the stalls are full and the bar counters serve breakfast. It opens Monday to Saturday from early morning until mid afternoon and is closed on Sundays.
An open Modernista market hall in the Ensanche, its brick arches covered in coloured tiles and ceramic oranges. The food stalls have given way to cafés and bars on two levels. It is a good stop for a glass of horchata in the afternoon, a few minutes' walk from the shopping streets around Colón.
Painted in bright stripes of colour, this neighbourhood market hall in the middle of Ruzafa keeps a full set of fish, meat and vegetable stalls with few visitors among the shoppers. Small counters serve coffee and snacks. It is open in the mornings and closed on Sundays, so come early for a breakfast stop.
Octagonal and Gothic, the cathedral's bell tower is climbed by a single spiral of 207 worn stone steps with no lift. On a flat city the terrace at the top gives the widest view there is, across the domes and roofs to the sea and the mountains inland. Late afternoon has the softest light, and the bells ring on the hour.
Across the river from the old town beside the Jardines del Real, this gallery holds Valencian painting from the medieval altarpieces onwards, with works by Velázquez and Goya and rooms of Sorolla's sunlit beach scenes. Entry is free. It is quieter than any museum in the centre and closed on Mondays.
Each year one figure from the Fallas is spared from the bonfire by public vote, and every one saved since the 1930s stands in this museum near the City of Arts and Sciences. The figures are satirical and often very funny. Outside March it is the closest look at what the festival builds.
Housed in the Palace of the Marqués de Dos Aguas, whose doorway is carved from alabaster into a riot of figures, water jars and palm fronds. Inside are gilded state carriages, a tiled Valencian kitchen and centuries of local pottery, with plates by Picasso. It is closed on Mondays and on Sunday afternoons.
A hall the length of a city block, ribbed in white concrete like a whale's skeleton, filled with hands-on science exhibits made for children to touch, push and run. Older visitors may find it thin. A Foucault pendulum and a chromosome tower are the standing exhibits, and the rest changes with temporary shows.
Europe's largest aquarium, spread across buildings built round a lake at the far end of the City of Arts and Sciences, with walk-through shark tunnels, beluga whales, an Arctic pavilion and a dolphin show. A visit takes most of a day. Buy timed tickets online in summer and on weekends, and come at opening to beat the queues.
Valencia's opera house, its white shell topped by a feathered steel crest, stands at the head of the City of Arts and Sciences. Guided tours run on most days, but the best way inside is a performance. The season runs from autumn to early summer, and tickets for the main productions go fast.
North of Malvarrosa, across the municipal line in Alboraya, the same sand continues with lower buildings behind it and fewer bathers. Beach restaurants line the promenade. Inland lies the farmland where tiger nuts grow for horchata, and the village of Alboraya is known for serving the drink fresh.
On the site of the Roman forum, this square is framed by the cathedral's Apostles door and the pink Basilica, with a fountain whose reclining bronze figure stands for the river Turia. Terraces line its edges. Arrive forty minutes early on a Thursday to see the Water Tribunal at noon, when the crowd is thickest.
Triangular, ringed by grand early-twentieth-century buildings and the town hall, this is the city's main square and the centre of the Fallas. Every day from the first to the nineteenth of March a mascletà, a deafening daytime barrage of firecrackers, goes off here at two in the afternoon. The rest of the year it is lined with flower stalls.
A small circular square of nineteenth-century houses, entered through four narrow passages a short walk from the cathedral. Its stalls sell lace, embroidery, ceramics and haberdashery. On Sunday mornings a small market of stamps, coins and old postcards sets up in the middle, and the ring of balconies above makes a neat photograph from the centre.
A Renaissance seminary around a cloister of white marble columns, with a small picture gallery that includes works by El Greco. A stuffed crocodile hangs inside the church door, a gift from a viceroy and the subject of local legend. Visits are by guided tour at set times, and it is closed on Sundays.
Walls and towers run for nearly a kilometre along a ridge above the town of Sagunto, north of Valencia, with a restored Roman theatre on the slope below. Commuter trains from the North Station take about half an hour. Wear proper shoes for the uneven paths, carry water, and avoid midday in summer: there is almost no shade.
Rounded towers at the western gate of the old city, still pocked with craters from cannon fire during the Napoleonic siege. Their steep stairs and terraces are open to visit and far less busy than Serranos. A visit combines easily with a walk through El Carmen and a stop at the botanical garden a short way west.
Twin towers that once guarded the main gate of the medieval walls, facing the old riverbed. Stairs and open terraces climb to the top, where the view runs over El Carmen to the cathedral and across the Turia gardens. Fallas opens here on the last Sunday of February with a proclamation from the battlements.
After a flood in 1957 the river was diverted around the city, and its dry bed became a sunken park running nine kilometres from the Bioparc to the City of Arts and Sciences. Paths, orange groves, sports pitches and old stone bridges fill it. Hire a bike and ride its length; it is the easiest way to cross the city.
Three doors in three styles, Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque, open onto one church, each facing a different square. A side chapel holds an agate cup venerated as the Holy Grail. Entry is ticketed with an audio guide outside service times, and on Thursdays at noon the Water Tribunal sits outside the Apostles door on Plaza de la Virgen.
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