Accommodation and things to do in Valencia, Spain?

February 22, 2008 8:12 AM

I'm going to be in Valencia (Spain) for a few days. Can you give me your recommendations for budget accommodation and some things to do.

I'll be there from 20th-23rd March, and by budget I mean less than about 30 euros pppn.
What shouldn't I miss? I've been to other parts of Spain before and have a reasonable grasp of the language. On those previous occasions I've spent my time eating and drinking my way around the bars. This time I'd like to have a to do list of sights and maybe a museum or two to give our days a bit of structure.
Throw in any other Valencia-related tips as you see fit.

Many thanks!

posted by jonesor to travel & transportation (6 comments total)

I should add that I'll be there with my girlfriend, so the best accommodation would be a non-dorm room -- a room with a double bed would be perfect.
posted by jonesor at 8:21 AM on February 22

My wife and I visited Valencia last year on vacation. They speak Catalan there. It's co-official with Spanish, though, so you should be able to get by with that.

Do visit the City of Arts and Science (the official site). The museum(s) inside are pretty pricey, but you can roam around the perimeter and outer parts of the mindblowingly cool looking buildings freely.

Also check out IVAM and MUVIM. IIRC, MUVIM was free all the time, and IVAM had free days (not sure which those are).

The botanical garden is cool too, cheap (1 or 2 Euro) and near a good tapas bar (can't recall the name of it off the top of my head).

We stayed in kind of a corporate hotel -- the only non-"mom and pop" place on our entire vacation -- so I can't really tell you much about rooms.
posted by cog_nate at 8:29 AM on February 22

Oh but check out Rick Steves's Valencia recommendations here. We used his book to plan out most of our trip (oddly, Valencia was not included in the 2007 version) and found all his recommendations to be spot on.
posted by cog_nate at 8:31 AM on February 22

Seconding Rick Steve's recommendations.

I spent a day there a few years ago. See the train station, a very cool Art Deco building. Visit the cathedral and see the Holy Grail. There's a suprisingly interesting bull-fighting museum very near the bull ring.

If you have time, get out of the city and visit some of the towns on the coast to the south - Javea and Denia are both worth some time.

And don't leave town without eating som Paella!
posted by johnvaljohn at 8:49 AM on February 22

There was a great place for food just north of the plaza de la virgen. From my memory and from google maps, it looks like it is at the corner of Calle del Conde de Almodovar and Calle del Samaneigo called Las Cuevas. They have a bunch of little dishes in front of the kitchen that they reheat. I'd recommend the plaza de la virgen in general, although I happened to be there during some Catholic festival, so the place was all busy for an entire weekend with floats, parades, and fireworks.

Walking around the ex-river which is now a park was great, as you got to see families have picnics, children running around, and there's plenty of walking paths, what with it being an ex-river and all.

The beaches are great and completely non-crowded. I'm no euro-phile, but I do believe that's rare for parts of the Mediterranean that aren't in Croatia.

The city was a capital during the Islamic days, so there's alot of Islamic Mosques (some of them converted to Christian churches) to see. There's a famous set of gates to the city near the Plaza de la Virgen.

Most of the dorms have options for double rooms, in my experience. So don't count that out.

I loved the place. I went there on a whim at the train station in Barcelona (it looked like it had a lot of connecting trains and it wasn't Madrid, so I just up and bought the ticket), and fell in love with the city. Enjoy!
posted by sleslie at 9:58 AM on February 22

Just thought I'd add some info to help future visitors.

We stayed in a nice, reasonably priced, hotel in the centre of town named the Catalonia Excelsior (booked via Venere.com.
The best place we ate was on a side street off Calle de Caballeros. I can't remember for the life of me what it was called but I recall that it had a giant 3D olive on a cocktail stick as it's sign. Great food and cheap too! A sign of it's quality was that it was packed with locals and we had to wait 20mins for a table.

Walking the length of the old river (the park) and the science city were great things to do. As was visiting the cathedral, La Lonja and the old city gates. The institute of modern art (IVAM) was also well worth a visit, as was the botanic garden.

A tip for paella lovers - the best place to eat is apparently in one of the restaurants along the Malvarosa beach. BUT arrive early (2pm?). They were all fully booked up by the time we arrived at 3pm. We settled for an excellent restaurant just around the corner from our hotel instead. Superb Paella Valenciana !!!
posted by jonesor at 6:38 AM on April 4