How do I get there? Count the ways. Ryanair (www.ryanair.com)
flies from Stansted; EasyJet (www.easyjet.com) from Stansted, Gatwick and
Bristol; British Airways (0870 850 9850, www.ba.com) from Heathrow and
Gatwick; and Thomsonfly (0870 190 0737, www.thomsonfly.com) from Coventry.
Jet2 (0871 226 1737, www.jet2.com) starts services from Manchester in May.
Why should I go? Because it’s genuinely Spanish. Unlike
cosmopolitan Madrid, or the Disney Catalan of Barcelona up the coast, this
is El Real McCoy — a proper, big, historic city that isn’t overrun with
tourists. Add in excellent tapas, exceptional nightlife, some fine old
buildings and some frankly insane new ones, along with a good beach, and
you’ve got a weekend wonder.
Where do I stay? For traditionalists, it’s Ad Hoc (00 34-96
391 9140; doubles from £54), a beautifully restored 1880s house, all beams
and exposed brickwork. For minimalists, it’s the Petit Palace Bristol (96
394 5100; doubles from £69), with white walls and arty photography — go for
rooms 501 or 502.
Where do I eat? Best of the city’s new wave of restaurants is
Seu Xerea (Conde de Almodovar 4; 96 392 4000) — trad Valenciana with an
Asian twist. Tapas is everywhere, but Palacio de la Bellota (Mosen Femades
7) stands out for its beautifully aged hams (about 200 hang overhead), while
Bar Pilar (Moro Zeit 13) has the freshest, tastiest mussels. And, go on,
have a paella: it was invented here, and Valencians put away quantities of
the stuff. Try the pollo y conejo at L’Estimat (Paseo de Neptuno 16; 96 371
1018).
What do I do? Follow the Valencians’ example by starting
early, snoozing in the afternoon and bar-hopping till late. First, to the
vast new Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, to gawp at Santiago Calatrava’s
bonkers architecture — especially the new opera house, which has been
compared to a whale, a helmet, a ship and an onion, with a 230-metre steel
feather arching over the top.
Back in the old town, drop into the quirky cathedral, a mishmash of styles
from gothic to neoclassical, which was 500 years in the making. It houses a
couple of wonderful Goyas — oh, and the Holy Grail. So that’s where they’ve
been hiding it.
Stroll the art-nouveau Mercado Central — great fish section, complete with
writhing eels — and get lost in the maze of pretty alleys and squares round
about, then have a snooze before dinner. Which is at 10pm, by the way.
Afterwards, the bars of Barrio del Carmen beckon until 3am: our favourite is
the authentic, chatty Negrito (Plaza del Negrito 1). Then it’s clubbing with
bite at La Indiana (Calle San Vicente Martir 97) — £4m worth of dance
heaven, with three floors, wall-to-wall titanium and leather, and live
sharks in the fish tanks.
