Valencia, Spain

 

Tips: 

• Adjust your eating habits if you are used to eating early and carry snacks. Many places don’t open until after 12 for lunch and may not serve dinner until 8:30pm. If you don’t want to pay for tapas or snack at a bar until dinner then prepare to bring a snack with you to hold you over.

• Don’t be surprised if you see things written in a language different than Spanish. There is a Valencian language, a dialect of Catalan, which you can see on some menus or signs. Don’t worry though, everyone speaks Spanish and many people speak English.

• Don’t forget about siesta. Yes, it is an old fashioned way of living but many shops & businesses still follow these siesta hours. This means that at some point during the afternoon (usually 2pm-5pm) many shops will close. Make sure you have some back up plans during this time in case your original plan involves a closed business.

• If you love fabric stores like me then when you google it anything that comes up textile mill is a fabric store.

• Valencia has a city bike rental program. I would recommend that only people comfortable riding bikes in cities rent them as I saw very few bike lanes in the city.

 

Common Phrases:

•  Insight Guides has some helpful basics for Spanish.

 

Food & Drink:

I am biased when it comes to Spanish food. Every region has their own specialty and Paella certainly is the food to get in Valencia. Im shocked if you don’t find it on a restaurants menu.

• El Rall is a restaurant located in a very tiny square near the Mercato. This is where we had out Paella. They have typical paella but also vegetarian. This place was packed with locals. We even saw a family picking up a giant paella from the restaurant as takeaway. It was funny watching them carry the paella pan down the street. I highly recommend going here. It has become so popular that they took over one of the other restaurant spaces in the square. So it looks confusing when you sit outside because you have no idea which restaurant you are eating at but you are actually eating at El Rall regardless.

• The Mercato/Mercado Central is the typical indoor food hall that you will find in many big cities. You can get fresh foods or grab some tapas. This is where you should go to pick up Jamón or cheese to bring home with you (if you don’t go to a grocery store but you will always find the best prices at a grocery store). If you are flying back to the US, please note that US customs does not allow Jamón into the country legally, even if it is vacuum sealed. So if you plan to bring some home…although i can’t condone it…be careful.

• Mercat de la Tapineria is a hidden gem from tourists. Its 2 small little squares with a few shops and restaurants. We ate at Bar & Kitchen which had a mix of foods including some vegan things for me but the other places in the square also looked good. We went for brunch and managed to catch some live music (be warned they do come around asking for tips once they are finished).

• If you head to the beach then you are very limited with places to eat. There is a strip of restaurants lined up. We ate at El Bobo and were pretty disappointed. It wasn’t terrible but it was not a lot of flavor and didn’t stand out to us as great Spanish food. It has high ratings on Google though so it’s possible we were unlucky.

• I am a bubble tea fan and get it often in cities that sell it. If you don’t know what it is you should try it. Many people do not like the tapioca pearls that come in it but this is ok because you can simply ask for a version without the tapioca pearls in them. Luckily Valencia has a chain of bubble tea places called Wowble. This was convenient on hot days when I needed a refreshing cool drink. 

 

Budget:

• Getting lost and wandering in city center is so much fun. You will find all sorts of cool things and almost always will end up back on a main street where you can figure out your way back.

• There is a huge park that extends from the northwest of the city all the way around to the south east. The park is nice to walk and bike but it also has some cool things to photograph as well.  The southeast part is where you will see the Opera house, Aquarium and Museum of Sciences. These are very famous buildings designs by Calatrava. Even if you don’t pay to go into the Museum or Aquarium, you should still check out the buildings and property. 

• Just north of the Calatrava buildings, in the same park, is Parc Gulliver. This is a cool playground for kids (but worth seeing as adults) as it is a giant Gulliver that they can climb on. You can see the entire Gulliver on Google Maps from above in Satellite view. Its pretty cool.

 

Shopping:

•  I have an obsession with a few things: Home textiles and Fabric. Julián López is a fabric store that also has bedding on the top floor. This place was 4 floors of fabrics with tons of helpful employees. Be warned, it’s not cheap. I managed to find better deals at Tejidos Marina which has a surprise basement hidden from view of the store entrance. However, Julián has a top floor with a few bedspreads, sheets and pillows and a basement of discounted fabrics. I’d honestly check out both.

• I mentioned above the Mercado is the place to buy Jamon & Cheese. However, if you can hit up a Dia, Dialprix, COOP Consum or any other supermarket then you will get the best prices here.

• El Corte Inglés is also the largest department store in Spain. If you have never been then you should make a pit stop here.

• Around the Mercado we found tons of great small local shops worth checking out when we were wandering. I can’t remember the names or locations of any of them but thoroughly enjoyed popping in and out of these shops while wandering around.

 

Downfalls:

The distance between the city center and the beach is a bit far. By taxi/car its 24 minutes and by public transit it is 45 minutes. For this reason, we decided to use the Hop on hop off bus tour as our transportation to the beach. Since the ticket is valid for 24 hours we were able to spend a day at the beach and still take the return part of the bus tour (including the 2nd bus route).

 

Travel Details:

June 2017

3 days-Saturday-Monday

Personal travel