Valencia is in the south eastern region of Spain and only a 100km's or so from Alicante. It has so much to offer for a holiday but is better known as a business city and is relatively quiet in the summer months.
Valencia is not your normal Spanish holiday by the sea, as we are not really beach people. We found a central city hotel, the Expo; this is a 3 star hotel close to the old town and shopping centre in the northern side of the city. Easyjet flew us to Valencia from Bristol, which went surprisingly smoothly after all the stories you hear about and TV programmes that are shown (Very impressed with the service). I would highly recommend Bristol it was easy to find, easy to use the car park and buses, quiet and actually enjoyable. It added to the holiday rather than ruined in the way bigger airports can.
Arriving around 20 minutes early at Valencia airport our bags were ready to collect as soon as we got through passport control, amazing! Then for the next task, transport
to the hotel, not a problem, it was very organised with a queuing system and an airport representative controlling it all. The only small negative point was not being able to find a MPV for 5, so we had to take two cabs. The journey took around 25 minutes to the hotel costing £17 for each taxi. On departure the hotel was unable to find a MPV for us so we have to assume these are unavailable.
To be honest we became a little nervous as we entered the city, and thought to ourselves what have we done, as the main road into the city is surrounded by industrial units and poor housing, which is not very pretty at all.
Accommodation
The Hotel Expo - Three Stars
This hotel was very clean and well maintained with a smart roof top swimming pool, which was ideal to cool off in at the end of a day exploring the city. We had to opt for two rooms as they were unable to provide a proper family room to accommodate five. After searching the web we were unable to find any family rooms in the city. The rooms were clean with a double bed and sofa bed, a bathroom, fridge and a television with English news channels. Being adjacent we were hoping for a connecting door so we could put the kids all in one room (bit of a negative point).
We decided to go for the B&B option as we planned to be out for most of the day and evening; the breakfast was excellent with a wide range of foods for all nationalities, this would keep us going until mid afternoon when you could choose from one of the many cafes/restaurants (didn't find a bad one).
Sunday is still a day of rest and although tourist attractions were open the surrounding shops and restaurants were mostly shut.
Shopping
There was a wide range of shops available, we had a large complex right next to the hotel filled with clothing and department stores that stayed open until 10pm. There were also plenty of places to eat snacks or three course meals right across the shopping centre. Our boys were happy because there was a McDonalds but our daughter being elder was keen to be more adventurous and eat local dishes. There were numerous paella dishes, some jet black! The mall had a small fun fair and the children loved the torros ride, a bull attempted to throw them off while jigging to music.
Site seeing and travelling
We decided to be brave and use the bus and tram, what an excellent choice, absolutely brilliant, but be sure you have the correct change or buy a weekly pass. The buses and trams were used by the locals and rush hour was best avoided as they got very busy and I am sure we got in the way!
The old city of Valencia was filled with beautiful buildings, churches, housing and a castle. It had a very pleasant atmosphere; sitting at one of the many cafe/restaurants watching the world go by became a favourite pastime for us all.
Wherever we walked we were not far from a stunning fountain, the children enjoyed the shooting water and we found one that shot water in different directions and they loved dodging the water and anticipating the next set of water manoeuvres.
The dried up river bed of the Turia has been made into a public park, with a multitude of different functions all openly accessible. Football pitches, athletics tracks, children's playgrounds and cafes stretched through the whole of the city and bridges crossed the park at very regular intervals each one different and each one very interesting.
L'Oceanografic
L'Oceanografic aquarium was spectacular surrounded by stunning modern architecture and pools of beautiful water with foot bridges. The aquarium was an incredible experience with Perspex shark tunnels and huge glass walled tanks containing hundreds of different breads of fish.
There are nine underwater habits holding over 42 million litres of water, some have underneath walkways and others huge tanks. There is a large Seal and Pelican area in the centre of the complex, which can be seen from the centre restaurant. There is a large Dolphin aquarium and display area with an excellent show that all the kids enjoyed (Highly Recommended).
There were also good souvenir shops with clothes and gifts from a pound, and plenty of drinks stands as each day reached over 30 degrees and drink was essential.
Museu de les Ciencies Principe Felipe
The Science museum allows you to take part in present-day and future science and technology, which is a great experience for child and adults alike, again it is housed in a stunning new building that takes your breath away.
L'Hemisferic (IMAX 3D Cinema)
The whole family enjoyed the SOS Planeta movie (Saving the Planet), with multi language headphones, but it could have done with 3D glasses. This another stunning building surrounded by water where the locals race their model power boats.
Parks
There were some beautiful parks dotted with fountains cooling the air, which were clean and well maintained. Some had little streams with stepping stoned across and modern sculptures to admire and little islands waiting to be hopped on.
The Beach
The beaches were clean, vast and crowded and about half a mile away from the sea, not really our thing. Saturday morning half the city descended on the beach and set up camps to spend the whole day relaxing and meeting friends.
Eating Out
Excellent cafes and restaurants surround the old square offering a wide selection of lovely fish dishes, from Paella to Sea Bass, pizza was also a regular option. The waiters were very friendly they made you feel very welcome and spoken very good English, but would let you practice your Spanish. We visited one restaurant where no English was spoken and we had a great game of charades going through the menu and actually had one of our best meals, the waiter was charming and was giggling as he made sheep sounds and blender noises to explain lamb chops and soup!
The one area that let Valencia down was the zoo, located in the middle of a park; it was not suitable for the large animals it housed. We expected a few flamingos and such, who in fact had a lovely sheltered area, but the donkey was alone with no shade and looked very forlorn and the lions and tigers were in small glass fronted cages with no access to the outside and paced back and forward repeatedly. The hippo had a plunge pool just big enough to turn around in and was on its own. The rhino had a concrete space no bigger than a suburban garden. It was a sad end to a great day.
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We propose some unforgettable holidays in "El Capistrano Villages", in Nerja, the privileged balcony of the Costa del Sol. "El Capistrano Villages" is, possibly, the most beautiful and exclusive Urbanisation on the Costa del Sol.
Advantages: Beautiful architecture, many shops and restaurants, history abounds but modern too Disadvantages: can't really think of any-drivers beware!
tintme 25.05.2006 (25.05.2006)
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Review of Valencia (Spain)
Advantages: fun for all ages, great shopping, weather, food, nightlife. Disadvantages: In the summer months, make sure your hotel has a pool or you might find the heat a little too much
lola09 27.02.2009 (27.02.2009)
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