Sam and I live for Spain. If we go on 12 trips in a year, there is a good chance 25% of those will be to different places in Spain. I visited Valencia for a weekend when I first moved to the UK and before I was a practiced traveller. For some reason it didn’t jump out at me like every other trip to Spain did. Sam was rightfully eager to go as he’d never been and it’s the third biggest city in our favourite country in the world. So, for his birthday weekend, we flew to Valencia for a little 48 hour stint.
We flew from London Stansted to Valencia at 6pm on a Friday night, landing at 9:30pm. Our return was exactly 48 hours later on Sunday night.
Valencia airport is very well connected to the city. For €3 each we got a 30 minute subway straight from the airport to Xativa metro station, two minutes from our hotel.
Where to stay on a weekend in Valencia
Zalamera B&B, isn’t in the heart of any neighbourhood, but right smack in the middle of a few which makes it the perfect base from which you can explore. If you’re in Valencia for a just a weekend it’s the perfect place to stay. Great rooms, great breakfast, and great connections for a weekend. Airport to room is the aforementioned 30 minutes, and the grand Valencia Nord train station is on the doorstop with departures up the coast towards Barcelona and other services to Madrid. The hotel also provides free bikes – more on this later! Check in was a breeze and the keys were waiting for us at reception.
Friday evening in Russafa
We hastily dropped our bags and headed out to Russafa, Valencia’s up and coming hipster neighbourhood as well as the city’s Chinatown. It was lively without being overwhelming on a Friday night. Drinks everywhere were absurdly inexpensive. Our first stop was Los Navarros for two €2 San Miguels.
Next, two €2 bottles of Estrella Galicia – one of our two favourite Spanish lagers – at the excellently named Cerveceria around the corner. These were served with unusual fermented olives (there’s that Asian twist).
We finished with a couple of local wines at Vidrio Vacio, which had a great selection by the glass. We would have carried on, but bars were closing at 1am and we had already run out of time.
Saturday in central Valencia
The next morning we started our day as we like to start all of our Saturday’s in Spain – by going to the local market for breakfast. Mercat Central is a 10 minute walk from Zalamera B&B, and we did some sightseeing along the way.
The market was full of people shopping for local produce and meat, as well as more niche offerings.
We had a wander around the stalls of fresh produce, fresh fish, and local specialities. At Retrogusto we had a couple of speciality coffees, where a local customer told us they were the best in town. Then we got in line at Central Bar for our first breakfast/lunch of the day.
Within the market is Central Bar, a restaurant run by a famous Valencian Michelin starred chef. It is a classic Spanish market bar with a kitchen in the middle and only bar seating all round the outside. Their house specialty is a sandwich. What is not to love. They also had plenty of market-fresh produce and seafood all ready to be thrown on the grill. This is 100% worth a visit.
Sam picked up a glass of local Benvolgut vermouth from their market stall to tide him over for a walk around the historical centre of Valencia.
Valencia has a few famous specialties. One of them is Agua de Valencia. Fresh orange juice spiked with vodka, gin, and cava. A dangerous little number to be drinking in the sun. We stopped at Cafe Sant Jaume for our first pitcher of the drink. They claim, as quite a few bars do, to have the best Agua de Valencia in the city. Served in a jug with coupe glasses, it cost just €9. Thank you, Valencia.
On our wanders through Plaza de la Almoina and Plaza de la Virgen we made a pitstop at Cafe de las Horas. Here, they also claim to have the best Agua de Valencia in town. It was only 1pm and we couldn’t handle a second jug of the stuff, so we had a couple of beers. It was too beautifully sunny to sit inside, but the interior of the bar is something to behold.
Time for lunch #2. If you are only in Valencia for a weekend (or indeed any Spanish city), you need supercharge your eating schedule. We split a tortilla with a couple of creamy Mahou cañas at El Patio de Pepa. Cool place for beers but the tortilla was a bit meh (and served with an off-putting garnish of wilted lettuce and a Spanish flag). We moved on to La Senia for our real lunch. We sat at the bar and watched as they managed to turn out a full menu with two gas burners. The food was excellent and the wine selection was great, too.
We stopped for an espresso at The Coffee before heading to Plaza de la Reina for speciality number two – Horchata. This is a milky drink made from tiger nuts. Given my aversion to creaminess this was definitely not for me, but we headed to Horchateria de Santa Catalina for Sam to get his fix. This was such a cool, erm, milk bar, and it’s definitely worth visiting even if you’re not into the drink. I had an Estrella Galicia.
Even with the coffee we were getting sleepy. We had one more beer at Bar Biosca and headed in for a siesta. It might seem wasteful to take a nap during a short weekend in Valencia, but trust the system. Wherever you are in Spain, once siesta hour begins everything closes. Everything. Embrace it and recharge and prepare yourself for a late night.
We emerged refreshed and ready for the night ahead, and walked up to the neighbourhood of El Pilar. On our way we came across a street parade in Llotja de la Seda. A group of children and adults dressed head to toe in striped jumpsuits and caps proceeded to climb up one another to create a human mountain. It was an incredible scene. There was a parade running up and down the whole main street, with music and people in costumes and floats of animals and plants marching down the street. This ‘Great Valencia Fair’ runs for the whole of July, and it ends with The Battle of the Flowers on the last weekend in July.
We watched the parade and headed to Negrito, a bar in a lively plaza filled with people having drinks. Lunch was a biggie so we didn’t want to get too much for dinner. After a beer or two in the plaza we headed to Tasca Angel which is exactly our type of place. It’s a small, old school, family run affair with standing room at the bar. Running along the walls are a couple of ledges to perch on. By the time we got there at 9:30pm, many of their ‘raciones’ had already run out. Fortunately, their house specialty of anchovies were still available, as well as (what we think was) a plate of cuttlefish eggs. All of the fish was doused in garlic herb butter. Sam had a local dish called all i pebre which arrived at the bar still simmering in an earthenware bowl. It was all delicious.
Shortly after we ordered, they sold out of every single plate for the day. The husband and wife had a drink behind the counter as we all finished our food, and they shut up shop by 11pm. We stopped for a couple of drinks on our way home and crashed.
Sunday bike ride to the beach
One of the benefits of Zalamera B&B, is that they lend out bikes for free. It is a very cycle friendly city. The previous weekend I came to Valencia I rented out a bike for the duration. This ended in disaster when the bike shop closed early and I couldn’t get my driver’s licence back. No such issues this time and we took full advantage of a sunny Sunday in Valencia with bikes, and headed towards the beach.
On Friday night I had spotted what looked like an incredible gelato place in Russafa called Le Gran Cafe. Given that we were on the drinks rather than the cones at the time, I didn’t want one, but Sunday morning was a different story. We ordered a large cup to share and it was the most gelato we have ever been served by a factor of three or four. I’m pretty sure it was more than a half a litre. It was very high quality and I have never seen holding pots like the ones they use, where the gelato is constantly turned and mixed. It was very good, but I wish we had known just how big a large portion would be!
Next up we stopped at Valencia’s second market, Mercado Colon. This was a much less food-led market and instead contained several different restaurants and a few different craft stalls. It was quiet on a late Sunday morning. We stayed for a couple of classically creamy draught Mahou’s before doing the full 25 minute cycle to the coast.
We parked our bikes at Mercabanal, an outdoor venue with lots of different street food vendors and bars, and grabbed a couple of beers.
From here we walked along the beach to Cerveceria Freiduria for a drink overlooking the water. The beach was sprawling and deep, and while it was busy it wasn’t densely packed as you would find in other Spanish beaches in the summer months. It had a much more laid back vibe. We hadn’t brought our bathing suits so just came for a look-see before heading off for a three part lunch in El Cabanyal-el Canyamelar.
Sunday lunch(es) in El Cabanyal
This was actually only meant to be a one part lunch at Casa Montana, a bodega established in 1836 with an incredible sounding food and drink menu, but when we turned up the very apologetic hostess told us there was no way we would be able to get a table that day, and that they were fully booked. Dejected, we crossed the street to La Sastreria, which was a more high-end affair than we would normally go for in Spain. The beauty in Spanish (and most Mediterranean) food, is that the cheapest, simplest options are often best. Dressing any quality ingredients up too much detracts from the quality.
Anyway, La Sastreria was excellent, and the food was of incredible quality. It just didn’t have that classic Spanish bodega vibe we look for, so we split one main and a couple of sides, and headed to the more casual looking bar across the street, El Ultramarinos. Now this is what we were after. A few bottles of Estrella Galicia, a giant Valencian tomato sliced up and served with a drizzle of olive oil and salt, and a large plate of pork loin sprinkled in paprika. So simple yet so beautiful.
We’d definitely eaten enough food at this point, but we thought we would try our hand at Casa Montana again. Lo and behold there was plenty of space for us, so we ordered a third lunch. They had both classic and modern dishes. I opted for classic (obvs) and Sam had one of the more modern ones, which he described as not worth while. Sam had a vermut from the barrel and I had a glass of Rioja. Oh, and we had a couple of beers, too.
We cycled back towards the centre along the many cycle highways, through Turia Gardens along the north side of the city. Fun fact: these gardens were previously a river which has since been drained! For our final couple of hours we parked ourselves at Boatella Tapas, a bar opposite the market. We had a few beers, and somehow managed to order a few more plates of food. The food was all fresh and came from the market over the road.
We cycled home, dropped our bikes, grabbed our bags, and headed to the subway. A human-sized and shaped sign told us that the trains were free today. What a generous end to a weekend full of pleasant surprises.
While Valencia is still not our favourite Spanish city, it’s the perfect place for a weekend. Especially with a couple of bikes. Spanish people are incredibly friendly and prioritise having a good time and life. Valencia is a great city in which to absorb and enjoy this lifestyle. But definitely prioritise Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian, and Seville above it.
