Walking Tour of Valencia

My trip to Valencia was beautiful, but short-lived. We arrived Thursday morning and left Friday evening, spending just a little over 24 hrs in the coastal Spanish city. My time there felt like a whirlwind of beaches and sightseeing. Being an overplanner, I made sure to look up all the places to see and put them in geographical order to maximize our time and not double back. 

If you overplan like I do, or want someone else to do all the planning for you like my sister usually does, then this post is for you! The route we followed will take you to all the major places to maximize your time.
 

My first piece of Valencia advice is to get a metropass. We got one named the Suma T2+ which gave us unlimited metro and bus rides for 48 hrs for 11 euros. Everything within the city center is walking distance, but depending on where your hostal is, and if you want to go to the beach or not, this pass may be worth it. They also have passes for one day, or more. The Metrovalencia site lists them all. 
 

1. Plaza de Toros de Valencia - our first stop, the bullfighting stadium.

2. Central Market - huge indoor market, home to at least a hundred fresh food vendors.  You can find traditional Spanish foods like croquettes, a large selection of fresh seafood, and whole pigs legs and feet.

3. La Lonja de la Seda - home of the Valencia silk exchange. A UNESCO world heritage site and once a stop on the Silk Road. 

4. Valencia Cathedral & Miguelete Tower - central cathedral in Valencia. For 2 euros you can climb the 207 stairs to the top of the Miguelete tower where you can get an amazing 360 view of the whole city.

5. Plaza de la Virgen - open air plaza home to the Turia fountain and many cafes

6. Torres de Serranos - a tower on the edge of the Turia gardens, used for storage during the Spanish civil war. It is free to climb to the top, where you get a nice close up view of the city.

7. Mercado de Colon - another big indoor market, filled with restaurants and little cafes, resembling an old train station.

8. Turia gardens - snaking through the center of the city, it used to be home to a river which was diverted, but gave rise to a huge garden.

9. Gulliver park - within the Turia gardens is a playground that resembles a giant man laying down, based on the book Gulliver’s Travels.

10. City of the Arts and Sciences - a group of futuristic looking buildings located at the end of the Turia gardens. Definitely worth a visit, even if you don’t go to any of the museums. There is also an aquarium here with dolphin shows. We didn’t not have any time to go to any shows or museums, but if I went back to Valencia this is one thing that I would definitely do.

11. Playa de la Malvarrosa - Lastly was the beaches. Beaches never make sense to me because the strip of coastline houses many different beaches, but they are all connected. Like where does one beach end and another begins. But this is the one we put in the GPS and metroed to. There is a metro stop 2 minutes from this location, as well as volleyball courts on the beach and some cute restaurants nearby. 

My favorite gelato spot in Valencia, Glasol, was also 7 min from here!
 

Hopefully this provides some ideas for things to do in Valencia. And remember, sometimes you stumble upon the best things just by wandering. My friends and I ran into a late night drag show in the main square.

Happy travels!