In just a few weeks, I’m off on my annual girls’ holiday. This year’s destination of choice? Valencia. So far we have been to Greece three times (Rhodes and Kos), Nice and Majorca.
This year we felt like some paella and sangria, and a city break mixed with some beach fun, so we settled on Valencia. If I’m honest it’s not a city I know much about. However, I’m kind of glad we aren’t going to Barcelona, which would be a bit of an obvious choice.
So, with only a few short weeks left, I need to start throwing some potential itinerary ideas out there. What is there to do in Valencia? Valencia is a port city located on Spain’s southeastern coast. It’s apparently a rather futuristic looking city that is known for art and science, and it’s Spain’s third largest city.
There’s a charming old quarter that’s full of character and cool places to eat and drink, and that’s where we are staying, so we are ideally located. Valencia has everything that Barcelona and Madrid has, a vibrant nightlife scene, rich culture and plenty of quality restaurants. What’s more, it also has quite a few beaches, a wetland reserve, lake and walking trails.
Let’s just say I’m pretty excited to see what Valencia really has to offer. Here’s some activities that I will be suggesting to the ladies that we add to our to do list.
Antiguo Cause del Rio Turia
I really want to spend some time in this enormous park, it’s one of the largest urban parks in Spain. Lots of people on TripAdvisor say it’s an ideal place to go for a picnic, and there’s some outdoor gym equipment you can use.
We normally fit in a couple of workouts during our girls hol, last year we worked out by some Roman ruins on the beach, so this year I think we should head to this park for a job/cycle/impromtu gym sesh, but the girls may disagree!
Bioparc
I think we should think about visiting the Bioparc in Valencia. There’s lots of native animals from Africa and Madagascar here. Apparently the park recycles over 95% of the water it uses. I’m not always up for going to zoos, however this place promises respect for the animals, and it’s enormous, covering 10,000 square metres. It’s less of a zoo and more of a natural park with no animals in cages.
Central market
Central market is a lively, bustling market with lots of local goods on offer. We will definitely be making our way to the market to pick up some bits for brekkie and lunch. This market boasts super fresh food from local farms including fruit, veg, meats such as parma ham, cheese and spices. It’s also inside a rather grand building with impressive architecture, and is known to have a vibrant and exciting atmosphere.
Albufera park
There’s a freshwater lake located six miles outside of Valencia, and it’s where all the local rice is grown. So obviously the paella restaurants here are pretty good. Albufera National Park is home to the largest lake in Spain and there’s lots of wildlife to see. You can get there by bus service (valenciabusturistic.com), which costs €16 and includes a boat trip.
City tour checking out the architecture
It’s not such a bad thing to be a proper tourist and get a tourist bus around the city. We might try and go on a cycling tour, as this is an excellent way to get around and see everything. We will need to stop off at sights such as the Palacio del Marques de Dos Aguas, Valencia Cathedral, the Church of San Nicolas and the Plaza de la Virgen.
Find the best Paella in the city
Valencia does Paella as it’s meant to be, and the city is famous for this flavoursome and satisfying dish. Valencia is the unofficial home of Paella, which just happens to be one of my all-time favourite dishes. The best paella I have had so far was in a place called L’estartit in Spain.
A food blogger for The Guardian recommends having Paella at Casa Carmela, an old restaurant on the beach. Most coastal paellas are made with chicken, seafood and saffron.
However, here it’s cooked with, butter beans, rabbit and snails (I will pretend not to know about the snails and eat it anyway), all of which help enhance the flavour.
Visit a few of the museums and galleries
I very much doubt we will plan a specific trip to go and see the museums and galleries, as the girls probably won’t be up for spending too long out of the sunshine. However, we will definitely wander round the city and check out a few of them. Then we can at least say we were a little bit cultural.
Hot springs and wine tour
This company seems to have excellent reviews and they run tours to the hot springs and surrounding areas and also wine tours. Also, this company does Valencia hot spring day tours and the pictures look amazing.
We are only in Valencia for five days, so we may not have time to do a full day tour, but this looks really interesting and great fun. I’m never going to turn down a wine tour and it’s an ideal girly activity :-)
Chilling out on the nearby beaches
We do intend to spend a fair amount of time on the beaches, because it’s kind of mandatory on our girls holidays. We will need some time to top up our tan and relax after sightseeing. Plus our apartment doesn’t have a pool so we will have to head to the sea to cool off and have a refreshing swim. Here’s a handy guide to some beaches near Valencia.
Oceanographic
Designed by the architect Félix Candela and the structural engineers Alberto Domingo and Carlos Lázaro, the Oceanographic houses an aquarium. In fact, it’s the biggest aquarium in Europe. Here you can see aquatic animals such as penguins, dolphins and sharks. I’m not comfortable with watching any shows but I’m happy to look at the fish in the aquarium.
Planetarium
I want to go to the Planetarium purely just to see the outside of the building, which looks pretty cool. There’s an Imax cinema with some fascinating educational videos. For more info about the Planetarium and the shows you can see click here.
