Wow, what can we say?! Valencia is an amazing city and our favourite one by far. It was vibey, gorgeous, beautiful, relaxed, safe and full of “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m so lucky that I get to be here” moments. We’d never been here before but we would come back and stay here for a month or two in a heartbeat.
We parked up at the Valencia Camper Park near Bétera, north west of the main city centre. It’s a big car park essentially, with an amazing little bar/ restaurant, really lovely toilets and showers and a multicultural feel. We got a double pitch and are glad we did as the spaces are tight. But to be honest, you wouldn’t notice as most people use this space to travel into Valencia and are therefore away from their pitches for most of the time.
From the camper site here, we jumped on the metro and took the scenic and beautiful 27 minute ride into the city centre – to Angel Guimera. It was honestly the easiest commute we’ve ever done! We walked for about 5 mins, just outside of the campsite and down the road and were at the lovely little station Horta Vella. The kids loved looking out of the window as we travelled into Valencia on line 1. It felt a bit unreal, almost too picturesque!
Before we knew it, we were in the city centre and hunting for a coffee spot. My husband immediately found one, a gorgeous little hipster café called Pals. The kids tucked into a pastry and we had a hot and strong flat white. Then we set off to find our first sight. Le Lonja de la Seda – the silk exchange. It was absolutely stunning. And it was free! I don’t know whether that’s because it was a Sunday here or it is always free, but it was beautiful. Well worth a visit.
Just walking the streets was an experience, the architecture and civil planning here is a testament to the València people’s love of beauty and care for its people. The streets are gorgeous, the buildings look in proportion and picturesque and we loved just meandering through the streets. As Valencia is such a walkable city, it wasn’t long before we came across the cathedral here too. We queued up to climb the tower and its famous 207 steps after very fortunately bearing witness to a live Sunday morning service at the cathedral. We had to queue for about half an hour to go into the tower staircase, but that’s because it is a one-way system up and then you have to return down the same staircase at the end of your session.
The kids counted the steps as we climbed up and we got to enjoy gorgeous views of the city at the top. We carried on slipping in and out of the streets after this, grabbing another coffee, a matcha mango tea and a traditional small doughnut filled with chocolate (bunuelos). We also booked tickets to explore the Centre of Art Hortensia Herrero. She is a patron of the arts, with a great love of Valencia, and has established a fantastic contemporary art centre in the centre. We saw (and experienced) some wonderful exhibits and installations, from Hockney to Kiefer. We really enjoyed it and would recommend it if you like contemporary art or want to give the kids a new experience.
After sampling some of the fresh zumo de naranja orange juice, we rifled through some vintage clothing shops. It’s a beautiful and very fun city, so we weren’t quite ready to leave! It felt like the perfect day (as we had also seen the ancient riverbed turned natural park, our son found some funky t-shirts he absolutely loved and our daughter bought a cute little handbag). Deciding to eke out the day a little longer, we stopped for a cold beer and juices for the kids and basked in the late afternoon sunshine.
Tomorrow we explore the famous Oceanografic and the Museo de las Ciences. But for tonight, our hearts are full of Valencia!
Top tips with kids in Valencia:
- If traveling as a family, the the metro SUMA 10 card – all members have to pay for the metro but this gives you 10 swipes of the card (so for us, that was 2 full trips each and 2 left over). We didn’t get the València tourist card.
- Bring plenty of water! It was extremely hot as the day wore on. But also, because it’s such a walkable city you will want to keep hydrated as you explore.
- Look up – even the apartment buildings look like pieces of art.
- Try this coffee place near the cathedral – Top Notch speciality coffee. The lady was wonderful with the kids and the coffee was strong and delicious. Watching her prepare the matcha mango milk drink was also a masterpiece.
- Try a natural orange juice… sooo good.
- Get into the city early and consider visiting on a Sunday. It was so quiet in the morning we got the streets to ourselves. And this was on a Sunday sandwiched in between the national Day of Spain and the Day of Valencia in October! So peaceful and relaxed.
- Bring a packed lunch – there are many places to sit and eat and look at the beautiful buildings. But do support local businesses by eating and drinking where you can. We take a packed lunch because we’re usually starving by 11:30am (being intermittent fasters) and not all European cities are raring to go by that time. But we always grab drinks, ice creams and buy things from local businesses when we can.
- Wear good shoes (saying this, we saw many glamorous women wearing heels!)
- Do wait in the tower queue to climb up the steps, the view is worth it.
- We loved the art and culture part of the city most – just pick an area of the city and do it well. We plan on definitely coming back again to explore another section too!
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