The river left in 1957. Valencia kept the riverbed.
Nine kilometres of park where the water used to run, Calatrava’s white buildings at one end of it, rice paddies half an hour south and a beach at the end of the tram line. Reviews of every tour you can book in Valencia.
Four bookings a first weekend in Valencia hangs off.
An aquarium, a bike, a flat pan over wood and a gorge full of turquoise water. What each costs and how long it takes.
01The one everyone booksOceanogràfic Entry TicketSharks, belugas and a dolphin pool under Calatrava’s shells. Take the first slot of the day, before the school groups reach the gate.
02The first morningCity Highlights Guided Bike TourThree hours through the riverbed park, past the Torres de Serranos and out to the market. It is flat the whole way.
03Lunch you cookPaella Cooking Class with Central Market TourThe Central Market first, then a wood fire and a flat pan. Rabbit, chicken and beans, the way the city actually eats it.
04The day out of townMontanejos Guided Hike with Natural PoolsTurquoise river pools in a gorge ninety minutes north, with a walk in and a long swim at the bottom.
In Valencia the good morning starts on a bike.
The old river is a nine-kilometre lane with no cars on it, and the city built the rest of the network to match. Three ways to ride it, what each costs, and how long you are out.
The port is twenty minutes on the tram, and the catamarans go from it.
Valencia built this marina for the America’s Cup and never stopped using it. Sunset sails, swim stops off Malvarrosa, rice served on deck. The water holds its warmth from June into October.
Calatrava’s white city, and which ticket is worth the money.
Everything at the City of Arts →
Five buildings dropped into a dry stretch of the old riverbed: an aquarium, a planetarium, a science museum and an opera house shaped like a helmet. Walking round the outside costs nothing. The decision is which of the insides you pay for.
Oceanogràfic, and how long it really takes
Nine sea habitats, a shark tunnel and a beluga pool, laid out across the biggest aquarium in Europe. Give it four hours. The dolphin sessions fill first, so pick your slot on the way in.
Aquarium, planetarium and science museum on one pass
The three-in-one runs about ten dollars over the aquarium alone, which only makes sense if you are staying the weekend. Keep the science museum for the hot part of the afternoon.
The science museum on its own
Three floors of things you are allowed to touch, under a roof built like a whale skeleton. It is the cheapest ticket on the site and the best wet-afternoon answer in the city.
The Valencia days out more travellers take than any other.
Every review on the site →Tickets, boats, bikes and one very good pan of rice. What each costs and how long it runs.
1
Oceanogràfic Entry Ticket
Spend a full day at Valencia’s Oceanogràfic, part of the City of Arts and Sciences. Your ticket covers every exhibit, from the Mediterranean and Arctic to the shark tunnel, beluga pool, outdoor bird areas, and dolphin auditorium. Allow at least four hours, and arrive early in busy seasons.
From · $44
Read our review →
2
24 or 48-Hour Hop-on Hop-off Bus Ticket
from $31
3
Palosanto Flamenco Show Ticket
from $25
4
Catamaran Cruise with Sunset Option
from $17
5
Valencia Old Town Tour with Wine & Tapas in 11th Century Historic Monument
from $96
6
Oceanogràfic, Hemisfèric & Science Museum Combo
from $54
7
City Highlights Guided Bike Tour
from $26
8
Sunset or Daytime Catamaran Cruise with Drink
from $18
Ciutat Vella is small, was walled once, and is best before ten.
The cathedral keeps an agate cup it says is the Holy Grail. The silk exchange across the square is a UNESCO site with twisted stone columns and a gargoyle problem. Between them the lanes stay narrow enough to hold their shade until the sun gets overhead.
Every Old Town walk →
What a day out in Valencia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Most of the city’s best mornings sit in the cheapest column.
Museum and aquarium tickets, guided bike mornings, the catamaran hour and a seat at a flamenco tablao.
- 1Oceanogràfic Entry Ticketfrom $44
- 224 or 48-Hour Hop-on Hop-off Bus Ticketfrom $31
- 3Palosanto Flamenco Show Ticketfrom $25
Paella classes with the market walk in front of them, the gorge days north, the cave boat and a private old-town guide.
Private drivers, chartered boats and the full days that cross the province and come back after dark.
Three things Valencia has that nowhere else does.
Beaches and cathedrals run the length of this coast. A park where a river used to be, a rice dish with a legal definition and a boat ride inside a mountain do not.
The Turia Gardens
In 1957 the Turia came over its banks and drowned the city. The engineers dug the river a new channel to the south and left the old bed empty, and Valencia filled nine kilometres of it with a park instead of the motorway that was planned. You ride under eighteen old bridges without meeting a car, from the zoo at one end to the white buildings at the other.
- 1City Highlights Guided Bike Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,373 reviews
- 2Valencia Bike Tour from the City to the Beach, plus Bike Guy App!★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,187 reviews
- 3Valencia Bike Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 826 reviews
Paella, at the source
The dish comes from the rice paddies of the Albufera, not from the sea, and the Valencian version takes rabbit, chicken, flat green beans and butter beans. It is cooked over wood in a shallow pan so the bottom layer catches, and it is eaten at two in the afternoon. Order it for dinner and someone will tell you.
- 1Paella Cooking Class, Wine Tasting & Central Market in Valencia★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,150 reviews
- 2Valencian paella cooking class, tapas and visit to Ruzafa market.★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 828 reviews
- 3Paella Cooking Class with Central Market Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 721 reviews
The Coves de Sant Josep
An hour north at la Vall d’Uixó the river runs inside the hill, and you go in on a flat-bottomed boat with a boatman pushing off the ceiling. It is the longest navigable underground river in Europe, roughly eight hundred metres of it, and the air stays near nineteen degrees whatever August is doing outside.
- 1Caves of San José Guided Excursion and Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,717 reviews
- 2San Jose Caves Guided Tour from Valencia★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 732 reviews
- 3Caves of San José Guided Tour & Boat Ride★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 179 reviews
The province starts where the tram stops.
A rice lagoon to the south, a thermal river to the north, a gorge strung with walkways inland and a cave you enter by boat. Each of them is a morning’s drive and back in time for dinner.
Four Valencia bookings that will not wait.
Most of this city can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on timed entry, a market that shuts on Sundays and a river that makes its own decisions.
- 01Oceanogràfic Entry TicketEntry is a timed slot with a cap on each one. In summer the morning slots go first, and they are the only cool ones.
- 02Paella Cooking Class with Central Market TourThe market half of the morning only works while the market is open, and the Central Market closes on Sundays.
- 03Albufera Day Trip with Boat Tour and TransferThe boats on the lagoon are timed to sunset, which moves by nearly two hours between June and December. Check what time yours actually leaves.
- 04Caves of San José Guided Excursion and TicketBoats into the cave run on a fixed cycle with a hard capacity, and heavy rain can close the river for days at a time.
From July the city goes indoors between two and six.
Forty degrees on the pavement and no shade in the old squares. Valencia eats at two, sleeps it off and comes back out at eight. Put the outdoor bookings in the morning and something with a roof and a fan in the middle of the day.
- 1Oceanogràfic Entry Ticketfrom $44
- 2Palosanto Flamenco Show Ticketfrom $25
- 3Authentic Flamenco Show Entry Ticketfrom $23
Paella is a lunch, and Valencia will not be argued with.
Rice with rabbit, chicken and two kinds of bean, cooked flat over wood so the bottom catches, eaten at two in the afternoon. Around it: the Central Market at opening, tapas in Ruzafa after dark, horchata that is not a coffee substitute.
By what you came for
Old town, riverbed, white city, lagoon: the order that works.
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