A Week in Valencia

search this forum for previous posts by me and by Chani and several others for plenty of tips on Valencia.

For modern fine dining check out the Michelin-starred penthouse restaurant Vertical, where the windows look out on the Calatrava-designed buildings and bridges of the science museums.

https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/comunidad-valenciana/valencia/restaurant/vertical

Do your paella homework to find real, freshly made meals -- if you try ordering for 2.5 people in some places you'll get stuff out of the microwave. The trick when you're a small party is often to go to places that are crowded with small parties of locals who time it for when a huge pan is ready to be divvied up.

There are other guide books. I've found Lonely Planet very useful in other countries.

https://www.visitvalencia.com/

Also, you might want to save one full day to visit Dènia, at 80 miles from València -you can go on public transportation- coinciding with the festival of "Moros i Cristians" (yes, literally, Moors and Christians) in the middle of August 13-16 Aug. If you stay for the parade -which is free to attend- I can guarantee you your kid won't ever forget it. It's quite spectacular (you wanna go to the main parade on the 15th).

Even more spectacular are the ones in Alcoi or Otinyent but they're not in August

For our September trip, I bought the Rough Guides Spain on Kindle for $12, well worth the cost and a recent (2022) publishing date. We will only be there for a few days, still looking for plan, so can't offer much at the moment.

We live down the street from Torres de Serranos. You are staying in a great location. Valencia is an awesome city. However, in August many of the locals leave town. Many of of the restaurants close for a week or 2 so the owners can take a little vacation. Call ahead to confirm they are open. Note most restaurants are closed between 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Independent stores are closed 2:00 - 5:00 PM.

The exception would be restaurants in the beach areas particularly along the boardwalk (Las Arenas, Malvarossa, Patacona). Some of the good paella places are at the beach. Note paella is eaten only at lunch and never at dinner. Traditional Valencian paella is chicken and rabbit. You can get the seafood version also.

There are bike rental shops everywhere and are usually very cheap due to the competition. 7 EUR per day. You don't really need a tour to bike around. The Turia Gardens is great for a bike ride. The city center itself is compact and flat as a pancake almost everywhere and there is little car traffic. We always walk everywhere. It takes 20-25 minutes to walk from Torres across the city center to Valencia Nord (the main train station).

Many museums are free on Sunday, but only open 10AM-2PM. I see these tours all the time around town: https://freetourvalencia.com/en/

Valencia is very safe compared to Barcelona, but petty theft exists. There have been some reports of thefts in the Turia. Guy on a bike grabs a bag from someone relaxing on the grass and takes off. Also, don't put your bag on the back of your bike. I heard about a guy running behind bikes to grab bags. Some pickpockets around Colon street.

If you use Facebook join these groups: Expats in Valencia, Americans living in Valencia, Americans in Valencia, Spain. There is a lot of information in the posts such as restaurant recommendations, etc.

This website is quite old and the listings for rest. and hotels etc are out of date. However, it is a really good resource for understanding the city, the sights to see, and the culture. https://www.valenciavalencia.com/

Don't miss El Carmen (oldest part of the city and close to your location), Russafa (hip place with lots of bars and restaurants), Mercado Central (closed Sundays)

Use the bus to get around. Very cheap. Get the SUMA 10 card. Put 10 rides on it. Good on the bus and metro. https://www.metrovalencia.es/en/tickets/

Bus lines and stops map (zoom in to see the stops): https://geoportal.emtvalencia.es/visor?lang=en

Wow--thanks for all this info, everybody. So helpful!
Quick follow up: If we rent bikes, are locks and helmets provided?

This "Hedonista Guide" (part of Valencia Plaza news site) has a lot of reviews and information on local restaurants. Some of the articles are in Valencian rather than Spanish. You can choose Catalan in Google translate in order to translate these articles. https://valenciaplaza.com/guiahedonista

Raco Del Turia, my husband and I visited Valencia before Covid, he still talks about this restaurant. Everything we had was delicious but you need to make reservations.

We spent an unplanned week in Valencia back in 2008 with our 3 young kids. Go to the Aquarium. I believe it's the biggest one in Europe and was incredible.