We recently spent just 2 days in this beautiful city, and I am proud to say we were able to see the most of it…how? Read on and you’ll discover all the things to do in Valencia when you don’t have much time!
The first thing to say is that Valencia is not a huge city…it could be ideally divided into four different areas: the city center, la ciudad de las artes y de las ciencias (the city of arts and sciences), the seaside and the park of the Albufeira! It’s easy to see them all in two days, you just need to divide your time between these four sides of the city equally. This is how we did it:
What to do in Valencia: palm trees and blue skies
DAY ONE
The first thing to do in Valencia is to start the visit with a tour of the city center on foot: the area is really characteristic, with a clear mix of Christian and Muslim religions. It is pretty easy to visit it, my advice is to walk down the streets freely because it is really small.
Valencia Cathredal
Basically, when you see Valencia on a map, you’ll see it is made of “concentric circles“: what you want to visit is the inner one, called Ciutat Vella (old city), and as you will see it is delimited north by a long and narrow
park (jardí del Túria) and south by a big street called Carrer de Xàtiva, which is just above the north railway station. Everything inside this circle is very characteristic and interesting, especially the Iglesia de Santa Catalina, the huge Valencia Cathredal and the plaza of the Ayuntamiento de Valencia.
When you are done with it (no more than 5 hours by foot) you can get a bus or the metro line to the seaside: here there is not much to see but you can have a nice walk down the beautiful seaside street, surrounded by palm trees and amazing sand sculptures like the one you can see in the cover picture.
A fountain on Valencia’s seaside
When you feel tired of walking, get a bus back to the city center and pass by one of the many bike rentals in the Ciutat Vella: you will need a bike to complete your tour of all the things to do in Valencia on the second day.
BY NIGHT
If you are going to spend just two days in Valencia, it means you’ll probably have just one night there. Then, even if you are tired, I’d like to advice you to go out and have another walk (or a bike ride…if you rent them for the second day you’ll find out it is cheaper to get bikes for 24h, so you’ll probably be able to use them on the night of your first day!). If you are tired don’t worry: Spanish people eat very late at night, so you can have a couple of tapas (finger food with typical Spanish products, you can find them at almost every bar) on the way back to your hotel, take a nap (we actually slept until 10.30pm and had dinner at 11pm) and then go out for a dinner based on the typical paella Valenciana! Just a tip: don’t try to order it at one of those restaurants in the very center that claim “true paella Valenciana just 5€!”…it’s not gonna be anything worth! Better following the advices of some locals (or to TripAdvisor if you can’t do better)
After dinner, if you have your bikes with you, you should totally have a ride until the Ciudad the la Ciencias: you are going to visit it anyway tomorrow by day, but it has a totally different atmosphere with darkness, as all the modern buildings look like monsters of lights coming out from the water!
The Hemispheric in Valencia looking like a light monster
DAY TWO
Today you can finish your tour of the things to do in Valencia and lave this city happily :) you should have your bikes with you by now (didn’t you rent them last night?) and you can visit the Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias in daylight. You will get there in less than 15 minutes from the city center with your bikes.
the long and narrow Jardì del Tùria
Use the bike lane in the Jardí del Tùria and you’ll be able to enjoy the park while you ride! Once there, it’s up to you what to do: I’d just take some pictures of the various buildings (the most interesting is the Hèmisferic, an amazing dragon sleeping in the shallow waters of the artificial lake) and go on with your ride. The next stop is the Albufeira park! It’s easy to reach it by bike, as there is a bike lane until the very beginning of it. When you enter it, you’ll probably need Google Maps on your phone to understand which is the street that brings you to the sea, but once you do it it’s pretty much done. You’ll have a bike lane (or kind of it) that goes by in front of the sea for many kilometers in the beautiful nature, and you can ride on it for hours! When you are tired, you can stop by in one of the many restaurants along the coast, and then ride again a bit more and try to reach one of the lakes in the park. You’ll have some pretty amazing views.
The Hemisphéric in daylight looks completely different
You can spend the whole day here, or get back to the city of arts and science kind of early (it’s gonna take you one hour and something to ride back): this way you could also visit the Science museum, that is very interesting and costs less than 10€, and maybe some other building before your day is over!
Here you go: Now you know all the main things to do in Valencia if you only have 2 days to visit it! Of course you can invert your days, with a bike ride to the Albufeira the first one and a walk in the center the second! This is what we did, and we enjoyed it very much.
For a better understanding of the bike route to follow on the second day, I’ve tried to draw it on Google Maps: keep in mind this is not as precise as I would like to because Google doesn’t recognize the bike lanes in Valencia, but you can have an idea of the itinerary. It’s really easy as the bike lane goes on until the very beginning of the Albufera park! Don’t worry and enjoy your ride then!
2nd day bike route to the Albufera Park, between the things to do in Valencia
Let me know if anyone used the same itinerary before, or feel free to add some details in the comments if I forgot something!
Enjoy your travels… ;)
Love,
Girl with a suitcase