Valencia 3 Day Itinerary: City of Arts, Paella & Beach

Each day below stays in one part of town, and each one carries a swap for the afternoon when the weather turns. Check the day's opening hours before you leave the hotel, since the tower, the aquarium, and the science museum all keep seasonal hours that catch people out.

Day 1: The Old City on Foot

Start at the Central Market, one of Europe's largest and oldest food markets, for breakfast under the glass dome and iron frame. The market runs from seven in the morning to three in the afternoon, Monday to Saturday, so breakfast there means going early. From there it is a short walk to the cathedral on Plaça de la Reina, where €9 buys entry and a look at the agate cup in the Chapel of the Holy Chalice that many scholars treat as the strongest candidate for the Holy Grail.

Climb El Miguelete next door, the octagonal bell tower that rises 51 m, roughly sixteen stories, for €3 and a rooftop view across the old town. After lunch, walk a block to La Lonja de la Seda, the silk exchange built between 1482 and 1533 and listed by UNESCO. Entry costs €2 and is free on Sundays and public holidays. Spend the afternoon in the lanes of El Carme, and finish at one of the medieval gates: Torres de Quart or Torres de Serranos, €2 each, both with a view from the top.

Evening belongs to Ruzafa, south of the center, a neighborhood that began as a ninth-century Moorish garden and now holds one of the city's tightest clusters of restaurants. Walk in around nine, or book ahead if it is a Friday or Saturday.

When it rains, trade the tower and the gates for the Almoina crypt behind the cathedral, an underground museum of Roman and Moorish remains for €2, then the Silk Museum on Carrer de l'Hospital for €6.

Day 2: The City of Arts and Sciences, Then Sand

Go to the Oceanogràfic first thing. It is the largest aquarium in Europe, split into seven zones, with a dolphinarium and a walk-through shark tunnel, and the building itself is a water-lily shape designed by Félix Candela. A morning covers the highlights; families with children should plan on the whole day. Buy the combined ticket if you will visit two or more buildings, since it stays valid for three days.

Have lunch near the complex, then walk the rest of it, which costs nothing and lets you view the buildings from the outside. The botanic garden at L'Umbracle is free too, and the sculpture walk through it is short enough to fit before lunch. Take the metro or a bike down to Playa de las Arenas after that and follow the promenade north, where the bars and ice cream shops start.

Paella is the meal to plan around today, so keep the middle of the day free for it.

For rain, swap the beach for the science museum at €9.40, where three floors of hands-on exhibits sit inside a building shaped like a whale skeleton, and catch a film in the Hemisfèric cinema instead of the sunset.

Day 3: The Lagoon and the Riverbed

The Albufera sits 10 km south of the city, about six miles, a freshwater lagoon ringed by rice paddies and the place paella comes from. A traditional boat ride across the water, a walk along the fields, and lunch in El Palmar village fill a morning and the early afternoon. Going with someone who knows the boat operators saves you the guesswork, and a Valencia tour that includes the transfer turns it into an easy half-day.

Back in the city, rent a bike and ride the Turia Gardens from the old town to the City of Arts and Sciences. The river was diverted south after the 1957 flood, and the empty bed became a park that runs the length of the city, flat the whole way and lined with orange trees.

End with horchata and a fartón, the small pastry made for dipping, at Horchatería Santa Catalina by the market, or an Agua de Valencia, the orange juice and cava mix invented here in 1959. It is stronger than it tastes, so order one and see how you feel.

Rain on day three means Bioparc Valencia, where African animals live in open enclosures and the lemur house lets you walk through, for €28.90 to €31.90, or the Museum of Fine Arts, which is free and holds two thousand pieces.

Old town or sand? The answer depends on how many mornings you want to spend looking at water, and on whether you mind a metro ride before dinner.

The Old Town and El Mercat

A base in the old town puts the cathedral, the Central Market and the Silk Exchange within a few minutes on foot, with the Turia park just beyond them. Staying in or near the old town means you will hardly need transport at all, unless you go to the beach, which is the trade you make for being able to walk to dinner. Rooms in El Carme and around El Mercat are the most convenient, and they are the ones to book first if your dates land on Fallas.

Ruzafa

Ruzafa, a short walk south of the old town, suits people who want dinner at eleven and a shorter walk home. It has restaurants on almost every block.

El Cabanyal and Las Arenas

El Cabanyal and Las Arenas put you in a thirteenth-century fishing village that kept its tiled facades, with bars on the corner and the beach at the end of the street. The metro runs from there into the center, and the tram links the beach stops to Marítim, so a beach base does not cut you off. One caution: the block immediately east of Valencia-Cabanyal station is still best avoided after dark.

Valencia vacation packages often include transport, which covers the one gap in an old-town base: the Albufera and Sagunto both sit outside the city.

Paella is lunch, not dinner, and that single fact rearranges your day. Kitchens serve it between 14:00 and 17:00, which is why the beach restaurants empty out by four and why the ones still serving it at nine in the evening are usually the weakest tables in town. If a restaurant has large photographs of paella taped by the door, keep walking.

Book a table or arrive no later than 14:00, and expect Sunday to be the hardest day of the week. The pan is wide, so most kitchens require at least two servings per order; a place that will sell you a single portion is telling you something.

Order the paella valenciana if you want the original, made with chicken and rabbit. Paella de marisco brings seafood, paella mixta mixes the two, and paella vegetal skips the meat. A proper one is cooked in a thin iron pan over a wood fire, with no sausage, ham, or meat broth, and it arrives dry rather than soupy. Scrape the caramelized rice off the bottom, which is the part locals fight over.

For the setting, head to the Malvarrosa beach area, where a row of restaurants has been cooking rice for generations, or drive out to El Palmar on the Albufera. If you want a change from rice, fideuà swaps in short noodles, arròs negre turns black with squid ink, and arròs a banda comes with alioli.

Santiago Calatrava designed the complex with Félix Candela on the drained Turia riverbed, and it is large enough that people underestimate the walking. The table below is the short version of what each ticket buys and how long it takes.

The combined ticket makes sense if you plan to enter two buildings within three days, since it costs barely more than the aquarium alone and the same venue cannot be visited twice. Anyone traveling with children should take the aquarium first, when legs are fresh.

Getting there is easy: the metro stops at Ciutat Arts i Ciències - Justícia, and the bike path along the Turia park runs straight to the door. Go early in summer, when the white surfaces throw heat back at you by midday, and late in the afternoon for photographs. Hours shift with the season, so check the day's closing time before you commit to a late start.

The city has two beaches joined end to end. Playa de las Arenas sits just north of the port and comes with the full promenade: restaurants, bars, ice cream, a long line of palms. Playa de la Malvarrosa starts where that promenade ends and is where the volleyball nets, kite festivals and windsurfers live. Both have lifeguards, toilets and snack vendors in summer, and both fill up in the afternoon.

Keep walking north and you reach Patacona, technically in Alboraya, which is quieter and a good place to drink horchata, since the town grows the tiger nuts it is made from. South of the port, the beaches belong to the Albufera natural park and are calmer again, with dunes and pine woods behind them. The metro or tram drops you at Eugenia Vines or Arenas for the northern pair, and one ticket covers the metro to Marítim plus the tram onward to Neptú.

When to Come

April, May, September and October are the months to aim for. September starts around 28°C, which is 82°F, and slides to about 20°C, or 68°F, by November, and the sea holds enough warmth for swimming into mid-October. October is also the wettest month, so pack a light rain layer even in a dry year.

July and August run at 30°C and above, close to 86°F, with sea breezes that make the sand bearable and water at its warmest; August is also when locals leave and the beaches are busiest. Winter is mild and empty. January days sit near 16°C, 61°F, the citrus harvest is on, and the museums and the Silk Exchange have no queues at all.

Three days fits Valencia because the city is compact, but plans get tested by late flights, long lunches and the occasional downpour. Knowing what to cut in advance keeps the trip from turning into a relay.

With two days, drop the Albufera morning and keep the old city and the City of Arts and Sciences. The lagoon costs a half-day once you count the trip out and back, and it is the piece that suffers most when you rush it. With four days, add Sagunto to the north for its Roman theater and hilltop castle ruins above the coast, or Requena inland for the Utiel-Requena wine cellars and a glass of cava.

Fallas changes the arithmetic. If your dates land in the third week of March, keep the festival and drop the day trip rather than trying to do both, and book the room months ahead, because the city fills up and the good rooms go first.