Our love affair with Valencia continues, and I blissfully write this after another wonderful day here. My heart aches that we will be leaving soon but my husband and I have already planned to come back again in the future (potentially without the kids too!) and we are now heading off towards golf resorts and to see family. That’s a really nice thing to look forward to and we can’t wait to see them all.
We woke up in the morning refreshed and excited after our wonderful day in Valencia the previous day, and our next did not disappoint. We pre-booked tickets for the Oceanografic and the Museum of Sciences (Museo de las Ciences), in the cultural art and sciences region of the city. We ended up visiting on the National day of Spain, essentially a bank holiday and I was a bit worried it was going to be mega busy. But this city is like some weird, twilight zone, and it was just blissful again.
The tickets for the four of us cost just over €145 to go into both the aquarium and the science museum. And after everything we’ve seen, I would definitely recommend it to anyone with kids, especially if they have a fascination with sea creatures like our two do. We hopped on the metro again, and made our way through the super simple to understand transport system here. And it also included a quick trip on a tram, which was on the kids bucket list. This brought us to the Oceanografic via tram line 10. I can honestly say that this is the easiest city I have ever had to navigate. The kids were practically doing it for us on the way back, which is a fantastic sign!
We scanned our tickets and went into the aquarium, and were wowed by the wonderful and generous exhibits. We love aquariums and understanding more about the ecosystems in the oceans and seas, but we always feel slightly guilty about the enclosures and the welfare of the creatures. So it’s always amazing to come to a place that has conservation at its heart.
We tasked the kids with collecting as many quality facts as they could as part of their home education journey. They were brilliant, running around and absorbing information and making note of it. We find that when we start off with a challenge like this, the kids just pick up and run away with it, going into greater depth than we had planned.
The aquarium says no picnics, but we did see quite a few families eating on the sly. Although I must say, we have been really impressed by the Valencia prices at the classic tourist attractions. It doesn’t feel like the city is trying to rip you off – they want the respectful mutual experience.
The kids favourite exhibits were the sea lions and harbour seals, the sharks (a big hit!!), sea turtles, Japanese spider crabs and so many more. We were genuinely surprised though, at the beluga Wales they have there. We wouldn’t go to a SeaWorld or something like that, but two of the belugas had been rescued from a Ukrainian dolphinarium in 2024, and so had nowhere else to go. It was absolutely immense and a real eye-opener for us about the rescue operation.
After having a coffee and juice with a pelican as our hot date….
…we finished up at the aquarium and popped to the science museum. This, again, was awesome. It was “thrilling” said our daughter and our son said he thinks he preferred it to the aquarium (which is the highest compliment!). we started at the top and we’re so glad we did because the DNA, biology and chromosome exhibit was fantastic. Our son is learning about cellular structures, organisms and apoptosis, and there was a ton of information relevant for him there.
Our daughter wanted to see a space exhibit, and she got that too! There was a brilliant set up looking at the moon, the experience of NASA and ISS astronauts and a brilliant piece about the Earth. If you have children of any age, they will love it because there are so many interactive parts to the museum. Like I said, the price for both of these museums is well worth it in my book.
Once we had explored the other parts of the museum, including the section on Nobel Prize winners, we popped across the road to the huge mall. We did a little retail therapy for our daughter, who needed some trousers and a bit of collectible shopping for our son. It was strange to be back in such a busy environment, but it’s really well set out here. As a treat we decided to eat sushi and Japanese food for an early dinner, it was delicious!
After a very easy commute back to the campsite, we settled down to some TV and a glass of wine and beer. We aren’t sure what tomorrow will bring, but Valencia will have a hold on our heart for a very long time to come.
Leave a Reply