Expat Travel Mom

After four years of hosting every friend and family member who's come through Valencia, we've landed on an itinerary that just works, hits the highlights, and doesn't leave you feeling empty. Here's the tour we keep coming back to, again and again, no matter who's visiting. You can read through the other Spain posts for other ideas, but this is the core.

The Old Town Core

Start in the historic center: Plaza de la Virgen, Plaza Reina, and the Ayuntamiento plaza, all within easy walking distance of each other. The Cathedral sits right in the mix, built in the 13th century on the foundations of a Visigoth church that had been converted into a mosque during the Moorish era, layers of history stacked directly on top of each other the way so much of Spain seems to be. Climb the Miguelete, the cathedral's bell tower, for sweeping views over the old town rooftops. La Estrecha House, the narrowest building in Europe, is a fun, quick detour, tucked into the old town with a genuinely wild story behind it (you can read the whole thing in the Fallas post). The Palau de la Generalitat, seat of the regional government, is also worth a visit on the rare days it opens its doors to the public, elegant, understated, and quietly grand.

But the real reason people travel from all over the world to stand inside this cathedral has nothing to do with the architecture. Tucked into a side chapel sits the Santo Cáliz, an agate cup that archaeologists have dated to somewhere between 100 and 50 BC, of Middle Eastern origin, and which the Vatican has, unofficially but repeatedly, treated as a genuine candidate for the actual cup used at the Last Supper. Four different popes have celebrated mass with it in this exact chapel, Pope Benedict XVI once called it "this celebrated chalice" in a formal address. King Alfonso the Magnanimous gifted it to the cathedral in 1437, and during the Spanish Civil War, when locals feared it might be looted or destroyed, it was quietly hidden away in nearby villages until it could safely return in 1939. Whether or not you believe it's the actual Holy Grail, standing in front of it, knowing millions of pilgrims have made this exact walk for centuries, is something else entirely.

L'Almoina, The Archaeological Site 

Right behind the Cathedral, tucked into Plaza de la Almoina, sits one of the most fascinating things most visitors walk right past: L'Almoina Archaeological Center. In 1985, the Catholic Church bought this land intending to expand the Basilica, and instead uncovered over 2,500 square meters of ruins spanning more than two thousand years of history, Roman baths and a temple from the city's founding in the 2nd century BC, Visigothic remains, and traces of the Islamic era that followed. You walk on glass walkways directly above the ruins, literally standing over the same ground Romans, Visigoths, and Moors once walked. The name itself means "alms" in Valencian, since a medieval charitable soup kitchen once stood on this exact spot before archaeologists found what was buried underneath it. Entry is only a couple of euros, and it's an easy, worthwhile stop given how close it sits to everything else in this part of the old town.

From there, head to La Lonja de la Seda, Valencia's old silk exchange, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. Built between 1482 and 1533, this Gothic hall was once the beating heart of the entire Mediterranean silk trade, merchants from across Europe would gather beneath its twisting stone columns to strike deals worth fortunes. The columns themselves spiral upward like something out of a fairy tale, and the vaulted ceiling still stops us in our tracks every single time we walk back in.

Right across the street sits Mercat Central, one of the largest fresh markets in all of Europe, a genuine Art Nouveau masterpiece built between 1914 and 1928. Wander the stalls, chat with the vendors, and don't leave without trying something you can't quite identify yet. We always grab the horchata and farton from San Antonio bakery there for all of our guests to try. If you're lucky, and the line isn't long, treat yourself to some tapas and wine at Bar Central...it's worth it! And if you can't get a seat at the bar, you can seriously enjoy lunch just by walking around! Grab a cone of jamon y queso here, a fruit cup there, and some desserts to take home!

The City Walls

Make your way to the Torres de Serranos, one of the original twelve gates that once guarded the medieval city, built in the Valencian Gothic style between 1392 and 1398. These massive twin towers, each standing 33 meters tall, have lived several completely different lives over the centuries. They served as an actual prison for three hundred years, from 1586 to 1887, and during the Spanish Civil War, they secretly stored more than 500 paintings evacuated from Madrid's Prado Museum, hidden here to keep them safe from bombing raids until the danger passed. Somewhere within these old stone walls once sat some of Spain's greatest artistic treasures, quietly waiting out a war. Climb to the top for one of the best views of the old town and the Turia Gardens below. And if you have time for a wander, you can cross the street and walk the Turia Gardens.

The Tile Maker

Seek out Sasha at El Raconet de la Cerámica, just around the corner from the towers. He's a hand-painted tile maker worth a visit and a conversation if he has the time. He made our avocado tree sign for our home, and his technique, drawing the dot outlines of the whole piece by hand, then painting and firing it, is authentic traditional Valencian ceramic craftsmanship, the same process used here for centuries. Buy something he already has on hand, or place a special order, he'll ship it to you wherever you are.

Food Stops Along the Way

No tour of Valencia works without stopping for horchata and fartons, and the story behind horchata is one of my favorites in this whole city. The chufa, or tiger nut, was brought here by the Moors around the year 700, but the drink didn't get its name until after the Christian conquest, or so the legend goes. King Jaime I was riding through the fields near Valencia on a hot day when a Moorish farm woman offered him a drink. He asked what it was. "It's chufa milk, sir," she answered in Valenciano. He took a sip and reportedly said, "That's not chufa milk, that's gold, my girl," or, in the local dialect, "or, xata." Say that fast enough, and you've got horchata. True or not, it's the story every Valencian will tell you, and I love it too much not to pass it along. The drink itself is a milky, nutty, slightly sweet beverage made from crushed tiger nuts and water, no actual milk involved, paired with fartons, soft, sugar-glazed pastries made specifically for dunking. Like I mentioned earlier, we always get it at San Antonio bakery inside the Mercat Central, or you can visit the Horchateria de Santa Catalina, which also has churros y chocolate, in a beautiful old tiled shop that's been serving it for generations. (And for those of you thinking this horchata will taste like that of Mexico's? No, no, no, totally different.)

Agua de Valencia is another must, and this one has an exact birthday: 1959, invented by a bartender named Constante Gil at a place called Café Madrid, right in the heart of the city. It didn't really take off until the 1970s, when it became the drink of Valencian nightlife, and it's stayed that way ever since, a bright mix of fresh orange juice, gin, vodka, and cava, sweetened to taste. Café Madrid still exists today, and you can still order the original there if you want to taste it exactly where it was born.

And for a proper Western-style brunch, Brunch Corner is our reliable go-to, especially on a lazy morning downtown. They have things like bagels, eggs benedict, chai latte, and all the other creature comforts you sometimes miss when traveling or living abroad.

Paella

For paella, we always take or send people to Richard's restaurant, Arroceria Mar y Tierra, where he's taken to calling our usual order "Paella Americana" at this point (I'm just too much of a bunny lover). You can easily get there by train. You'll need to place our order ahead, so you can call or WhatsApp. He has the BEST chicken croquettes and calamari as well!

Paella is originally, and still argues fiercely to remain, a Valencian dish, not the seafood-loaded version most people picture. It was born in the rural areas around La Albufera, a wetland lagoon just south of the city, sometime between the 15th and 16th centuries, invented by farmers and shepherds who needed a substantial, one-pot meal made from whatever was growing or grazing nearby. Rice itself had arrived centuries earlier with the Moors, who built the irrigation systems that still feed these paddies today, and the word "paella" actually comes from the Latin "patella," simply meaning pan, since the dish is named for what it's cooked in, not the other way around.

A true Paella Valenciana, by the standards Valencians will defend passionately, uses only ten ingredients: Bomba or Calasparra rice (both grown right here and protected by Spanish law), chicken, rabbit, two kinds of local beans, tomato, olive oil, saffron, salt, and water. No seafood, ever, that's a completely different regional variation. It's traditionally cooked outdoors over a wood fire, orange wood specifically, which locals swear gives it a flavor you can't replicate any other way. The dish is never stirred while it cooks, and the goal is always socarrat, that slightly crispy, caramelized layer of rice that forms on the bottom of the pan, considered the best part by anyone who really knows what they're eating. So next time you're tempted to order seafood paella and call it authentically Valencian, know that any local here would very politely, or not so politely, correct you.

Architecture Worth a Detour

The Estación del Norte, Valencia's main train station, opened in 1917, designed by Demetrio Ribes in the Valencian Modernista style, and it's genuinely worth stepping inside even if you're not catching a train. Mosaic tilework covers the interior walls and ceilings, with orange trees worked directly into the design, a small, beautiful nod to the fruit that built this region's economy for generations. 

City of Arts and Sciences

Save an afternoon, or honestly, a full day, for the City of Arts and Sciences, the sprawling, dramatically modern complex designed by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela on the far side of the city, built along the old riverbed of the Turia after it was diverted following a devastating 1957 flood. It's every Instagrammer's dream...stunning, bright, beautiful. It's made up of several distinct buildings: L'Hemisfèric, shaped like a giant eye; the Museu de les Ciències, a genuinely excellent hands-on science museum which my kids genuinely loved doing one afternoon; L'Umbracle, a landscaped garden walkway with a lush variety of plants and flowers; and the real centerpiece, L'Oceanogràfic, Europe's largest aquarium. We've walked what felt like endless tunnels surrounded by fish, and marveled at just how much of it sits above ground as well as below, when we've had guests visit. It's US-approved and Humane Certified for its rehabilitation work, though we've chosen not to attend the dolphin show there ourselves, that part is worth deciding for your own family before you go.

The Beach

Valencia's city beach, Malvarrosa, is worth its own stop entirely, not just for the sand. This whole stretch, including the neighborhood right behind it, El Cabanyal, was originally a working fishing village, only absorbed into the city itself in the late 1800s, and the tiled, colorful modernista facades still standing in El Cabanyal today are unlike anything else you'll see in Valencia. The beach takes its name from the pink hollyhock flowers once cultivated here, and it became fashionable with the city's upper class starting in the 19th century, complete with some genuinely strict, old-fashioned rules, the mayor once legally separated the beach into a men's-only section and a women's-only section 200 meters apart. Writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and painter Joaquín Sorolla both lived and worked right along this shoreline, and Blasco Ibáñez's old house is now a small museum you can visit. An afternoon on the sand, a walk along the promenade, and a swim in the Mediterranean is one of the easiest, most enjoyable ways to spend a half day in this city.

Additional Stops if You Have Time:

Fallas Museum- If your trip doesn't line up with Fallas itself, the Fallas Museum is a great way to still get a taste of it. This is where past years' ninots indultats, the pardoned figures saved from the flames by public vote, live on permanently, giving you a real sense of the scale and craftsmanship that goes into these monuments before they're built to be destroyed. Another area to discover is the Requena-Utiel wine region, but I have a post on that separately.

Additional Food Stops:

A few more food stops that always make it into our rotation: Tapeando for pintxos when we want something a little different from typical tapas. Plaza Reina has some genuinely award-winning gelato tucked right into the square, worth the stop even if you weren't planning on dessert. If you make it to the beach, La Divina Comedia does an excellent paella and calamari right on the sand, followed by a quick dip in the Mediterranean if the weather's cooperating. There's a lot of food options in the city, and everyone has favorites. Of course there's place we eat on a casual, we live here, daily basis, but hitting some of the one the ones I mentioned will get you started if short on time.

That's the tour, refined over three years and more visitors than we can count. Come hungry, wear good shoes, and leave room for paella.