Valencia, on Spain's eastern coast, is a captivating city that seamlessly blends futuristic architecture with rich history. Its iconic City of Arts and Sciences contrasts with historic gems like the Valencia Cathedral. With vibrant festivals, beautiful beaches and mouthwatering paella, Valencia offers a diverse and inviting Spanish experience.
Historic, eclectic and buzzing: Valencia’s Mercado Central is set in a beautiful Art Nouveau building and is filled to the brim with colourful stalls selling fresh produce to tourists and locals alike. Weave your way past juice stands and tapas bars to grab a typical Valencian snack of ‘horchata’, a sweet milk made from tiger nut, along with a ‘farton’, a small pastry which is delicious when dipped in the drink. For a more substantial meal, dine on a plateful of paella with rabbit and chicken – Valencia’s signature dish.
Santiago Calatrava, an architect who hails from Valencia, is responsible for creating the futuristic City of Arts and Sciences. Opened in 1998, his sprawling modern entertainment complex includes an IMAX cinema, a landscaped vantage point called the Umbracle, an interactive Science Museum, the largest aquarium in Europe and an art museum. Set aside an afternoon to look around both the ins and outs of the complex – it’s built into the dried-up bed of the Turia River, which has been converted into a sunken park filled with football fields, an athletics track, a boating lake, cycle paths and hiking trails.
Las Fallas is the festival of fire which takes place each March and harks back to an old tradition where the city carpenters would burn their spare wood before the day of their patron, Saint Joseph. Nowadays each neighbourhood builds puppets from papier maché which, despite taking a full year to create, are burned in the city square after a week of festival celebrations. The Fallas Museum stores over eighty of the puppets on display for their avid visitors.
It’s surprisingly easy to revisit Valencia’s medieval past as a crucial Spanish port. Start with the thirteenth-century Cathedral of Our Lady, which claims to have held the mythical Holy Grail behind its walls for half a century, before climbing the two hundred steps of the Miguelete bell tower next door to catch a glimpse of Valencia from above. Nearby is the UNESCO-protected Silk Exchange covered in Gothic carvings, built in the 1600s to symbolise the city’s power and wealth. Don’t forget your camera!
Which cruise lines sail to Valencia?
