Planning our first real trip to Valencia itself (only usually go to Lee Roy Merlins) and wondered if anyone has any info on where we must not miss, what is not so good as expected etc. Want to make the most of our first visit as I think that it is inclined to colour all future visits. Will go by train so presume that the station is fairly central and that there are good places to visit in the vicinity.

Rosemary

Only been to Valencia a couple of times with work, never really liked the place much myself but then I guess I never had a lot of time to have a look around, others I have spoken to really like it..... anyway, maybe you can find something of interest here:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/GoListDet..._Valencia.html

If not mentioned above:

Silk market:
http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=782

Albufera:
http://www.albufera.com/

Enjoy your trip

someone recommended the sight seeign bus to me http://www.valenciabusturistic.com/ but havent been yet

Thanks to Spain and Econ for your input I will look at the sites with OH later.

Rosemary

Lucky you! The station is central and is a beautiful building, next door to the bullring and diagonally opposite McDonalds.

There are lots of bars, cafes and shops in this area all within a minute or two walking distance. I would visit the old quarter - El Barrio del Carmen - and visit the Cathedral on Plaza de la Reina - or even just admire it from the outside (probably a 15 minute stroll from the station). It's a great place to be at night and especially now as I'm sure the buildings will be lit up with Christmas lights. There are lots of places to visit but my tourist book is in the apartment and I can't recall the names of all the buildings. If you are just going for the day, don't forget to plan for the fact that everything shuts for siesta. If you just walk from the station to the old quarter, you will find lots to interest you along the way.

One of my best memories is of walking round the historic alleyways of the old quarter in the dark, all wooden arches and echoes - fabulous. Enjoy.

I did this with my youngest son in the summer. Not sure if it runs in the winter but it is certainly the best way to see areas that you can't do easily on foot. Like the river bed and the city of arts and sciences.

My best experiences of the city have been on foot.

We stayed in Valencia for a weekend and really enjoyed it. It's not as great as Barcelona, but then again we weren't expecting it to be.

Definitely take the red tourist bus. You purchase a ticket for the day and get on and off on several locations, or wherever the fancy takes you. It is well worth the money and you get a great view of all the beautiful architecture.

Don't forget to take a camera and enjoy

Valencia is a beautiful city, luckily we only live a couple of miles from two Metro stations, so for us it's really accessible.

If you're arriving at the main station, you'll come out with the Bullring on your right.

Directly across from there you will see a pedestrianised street (Calle Ribera). If you walk up there you will come into the Plaza de Ajuntamiento, the centre of the city where the main Fallas is built in March.

From there you can easily walk to the main attractions.

Well worth a visit is the large covered market 'Mercado Central' which is along Avenida Maria Cristina, on the left at the far end of the Plaza de Ayuntamiento.

From the covered market you can walk in an easterly direction and you will come out into Plaza de La Reina.

From there you will see the cathedral. The cathedral is free entry but you have to pay a small fee if you want to climb to the top - great views.

At the north side of the cathedral is Plaza Nuestra Señora Desamparados. This is a beautiful square where they do the 'Ofrenda de Flores' during Las Fallas.

On the north side of the square there is another pedestrianised street, Calle Navellos, if you walk up here you will come to the dry river bed which has been converted into gardens, Jardin de Turia.

If you turn right and walk through the park you will see in the distance 'the eye' of 'La Cuidad de Artes y Ciencias'. But that's a day trip on it's own.

From the park turn right into 'Colon' (Spanish for Columbus) and you are in the main shopping street with two El Corte Inglés among others.

You will then end up at the Bullring, where you started.

Dont forget the Sealife centre and the buildings around there which are ....... different

Thank you Derek. Looks like my first visit is sorted out for me. What a lovely circular tour it sounds. Obviously we will have to visit lots of times to see everything but your tour sounds like a good start.

Rosemary

Thanks for the info. We were originally thinking about staying for a few days but decided that as we only live a 30 minute train journey away that we should do lots of day trips and spread the pleasure out.

Rosemary

Thanks for the info, sounds like you enjoy the city and what it has to offer.

Rosemary

Enjoy Valencia, its a great city. The railway station itself is beautiful (in the bookings hall) and you will see the bullring on coming out of the station.
The sightseeing bus is a good idea, I took one in Bristol lately and it helped me locate all the different areas without wearing out my feet!
Check out Valencia on the internet and Tripadviser - you can get good central hotels cheaply too.

Thanks to everyone for the information. We have just returned from a lovely day out in Valencia, the vast majority of our day was using Derek's tour but with a lot of extras when we said "just go up here and then down there, only a little detour" added on. Our 25 year old Spanish friend told us that we would need to use buses and the metro to do Derek's tour......we could not believe it when we found everything was in such easy walking distances. The catheral was wonderful and the recorded commentary very clear and informative, this was my first experience of gaining a reduction as I became an official retired person today and the young lady gave me pensioners discount.

I normally hate cities with a passion so have avoided visiting Valencia but found it so interesting, historical and lovely to walk around that I have said we must go regularly.

Rosemary

Nice to hear that you liked the city and enjoyed yourselves