Valencia Travel Forum

Hi,

My husband & I are planning a brief visit to Valencia and we are trying to decide on how long to stay. We are thinking of staying for 2 days, before moving on to our next destination. However, I want to make sure that we'll have enough time to see the sights and get a feel for the city. (Ideally, we'd stay longer, but that will have to be next time)

Will 2 days be enough? What do you recommend we see in that time?

Thank you

2 intensive days should be enough to see most of the main atractions, but 3 would be better.
for a 2-day visit i'd go for:
- city center: bullfighting square (you cant get in to look around), town hall square, la lonja, cathedral (you can climb the stairs to the top of the tower), basilica and fountain in 'plaza de la virgen', stroll in 'el carmen' (oldest part of the city), and the Serrano towers and Quart towers (medieval towers that were part of a city wall in the past). Biggest shopping street (Calle Colón). You only need 1 morning to see all this.
- have paella (if you want smth typical) at the beach Las arenas, and see the beach. if you're into F1 or sailing the new F1 street circuit and the America's cup buildings are in the harbour area.
- la ciudad de las artes y las ciencias (city of arts and sciences). www.cac.es it has a museum, a 3D cinema and an aquarium. you can go there and only see the buildings (by architect Santiago Calatrava), or you can pay and get inside too. you can either visit the 3 buildings, 2 or only one if you want. i'd skip the museum because it's quite children-focused. but both the aquarium and the cinema are nice. in that case you'd spend almost all day there, so i'd go for the aquarium only (you'd only half day then). the aquarium is very nice, and they have a dolphin show too. there's also a huge opera house there, but the opera season is over. they still have classical music concerts and that, but i dont think you want to attend one, as you only have 2 days. still you may want to see the building.
- walk and/or picnic in the old river bed, that's now turned into gardens that contain many sport facilites, etc, and they also have 'el palau de la musica' (another place where they play classical music. there's a fountain in front of the building. whenever they're playing a concert inside the water of the fountain goes up or down with the music)
- if you ant to see a museum there are several of them. i dont know which one you'd prefer. there's a modern art museum, history museum, etc. i guess the most interesting one may be the 'museo fallero'. every year in valencia we celebrate smth called Fallas. as it's very typical from here i guess it could be fun. it's quite close to the aquarium, so you can visit both on the same day.

there are more things to see (more parks, a new zoo, the football stadium, etc), but i dont think you'll have the time to see everything. if you want any more details on any of the different places feel free to ask :)

i forgot to paste this link. it's a great and reliable guide of the city
http://valenciavalencia.com/sights-guide/sights-in-valencia.htm

I think that you should stay at least 4 days. Seeing everything in Valencia in two days can be exhausting. You could also take the bus and go to eat paella or rice with seafood in the "albufera", a sort of lake in which rice is cultivated. And you should obviously taste the "agua de valencia", a mixture of champagne and orange juice. Going out by night is a good way to know valencia people, above all when it is so warm by day

Mu opinion is : two days is enough.

If you are not interested in museums, which are not exceptional in Valencia, may be Ivam, but that's modern art... and also the fallas museum, but that's interesting if you know something about fallas.
http://www.fallas.com/
http://fotosfallas1.110mb.com/fotos_fallas08/fallas2008.htm

I would do, 1 day for CAC, even half a day, only aquarium deserves time, the science museum is ok for children, i find it a bit boring.
For the rest of the city 1 day is ok, even trying Agua de Valencia ans Horchata.
http://www.horchateriasantacatalina.com/horchata.htm
http://www.horchateria-daniel.es/

For paella, try some place by the Malvarrosa beach as this one .
http://www.lapepica.com/

you could add a third day if you spend some time at the beach.

links:
http://www.cac.es/
http://www.turisvalencia.es/

Thank you all for your input and your very helpful tips!