Discover Valencia

Why visit Valencia

Valencia is Spain's third city and the country's most rewarding under-the-radar destination — a sun-drenched Mediterranean coast city with about 790,000 residents, the spiritual birthplace of paella, and one of the most architecturally diverse old quarters in Spain. The compact medieval Ciutat Vella centre revolves around the dramatic Plaça de la Reina, the Gothic Valencia Cathedral (with the genuinely interesting claim to hold the actual Holy Grail in a side chapel), and the spectacular silk-trading hall of La Llotja (UNESCO-listed, one of the finest civil Gothic buildings in Europe). Just behind, the bustling Mercat Central (Central Market, one of the largest fresh-food markets in Europe, in a stunning Art Nouveau iron-and-glass shed from 1928) is essential. The big modern wow is Santiago Calatrava's spectacular City of Arts and Sciences (Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències) — a brilliant white sci-fi complex of an oceanographic park, an opera house, a planetarium, and a science museum, built in the drained bed of the Turia river that was rerouted around the city after a catastrophic 1957 flood; the 9km former river bed is now Valencia's spectacular green urban park. Don't miss the historic Albufera lagoon 10km south (the spiritual home of paella, where rice fields meet a brackish wetland), the wild Las Fallas festival in March (when colossal paper-mâché figures are paraded through the streets and burned in the dramatic final 'cremà'), and a long lazy lunch at a beachside chiringuito.