All Valencia numbers should be prefixed with +34 96 WHAT'S IT LIKE?
This most Spanish of cities has only recently started rolling with a more cosmopolitan gait: two years ago, not one budget airline buzzed in. Now, eight economy flights link Valencia and Britain each day. The new visitors are finding that the heart of Valencia, vibrant by day, pulses even more insistently after nightfall.
A place of bonfires and fireworks, each March it hosts Las Fallas, Europe's wildest, noisiest, longest street party. Meanwhile, the daring architecture of its City of Arts and Sciences expresses the 21st-century identity of Spain's culturally dynamic third city, venue for the 2007 America's Cup.
SECRET PLACES
If it's all getting a little too frenetic, retreat to the Jardín Botánico on Calle Quart and relax beneath its mature trees or roam its extensive cactus garden. Children can romp and let off steam here, but with an eye on the hissing, feral cats. In the smaller Jardines de Montforte, Calle Montforte, newlyweds pose beside equally formally draped Italianate statues, splashing fountains and mature trees that offer deep shade.
OUTDOOR SPACES
The former riverbed of the Río Turia arches like a boomerang through the city. Fountains, playgrounds, lawns and football pitches punctuate this landscaped outdoor space. Over five miles long, it's the city's lung, a safe haven for joggers, walkers, in-line skaters and cyclists.
The beach quarters of Las Arenas and Malvarrosa were, until their makeover a decade ago, seedy with shacks and nondescript villas. Now they gaze uninterruptedly over the Mediterranean. Along the Paseo Marítimo, Valencia's smart promenade, you'll be elbowing your way through the strolling crowds. But hop over the wall and there's room on the wide, sandy beach for everyone and their granny.
LIVE SOUNDS
Black Note (Calle de Polo y Peyrolón 15, tel. 393 36 63) serves up live jazz, blues and soul. But what really counts in this city is dance. Loco Mateo (Calle Erudito Orellena 12, tel. 392 26 07) wails and stamps flamenco, imported from Andalucía in Spain's hot south. Pulsating on the Valencian horizon, well out of earshot of the good burghers, is a fistful of discotecas to rival Ibiza's.
Bananas, out of town at Carretera Valencia-Alicante (El Romani, tel. 178 17 06) with its five dance floors is the maxiest of the maxis. At weekends, a special train goes to Bananas, leaving the Estación del Norte at 1.15am. Made it through the night and still got energy to spare? Stagger on to Flamingo at Avenida Isabel de Villena, a block from the beach, for Misa de Ocho (Eight O'clock Mass), which funks from 8am on Sunday morning until way past noon.
MARKETS
The Mercado Central, Valencia's Art Nouveau covered market with over 1000 stalls, is a swirl of smells, movement and colour. In the fish section, live eels slither, the seafood's piled high and giant swordfish give you a glaucous glad eye.
Nearby, tiny Plaza Redonda sells buttons, ribbons, bits and bobs and tempting, locally-fired ceramics.
Each Thursday morning, lacemakers pick and thread, while on Sundays this circular space becomes a pet market selling caged birds, mournful puppies and kittens. On Sunday too, the Rastrillo on Plaza Luis Casanova offers gypsy scrap and second hand tat, well worth picking over for a quirky present or two for the folks back home.
BEST BUILDING
Only Madrid's Prado museum pulls in more visitors than Valencia's Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (tel. +90 210 00 31), a vision of spiky white tendrils, soaring buttresses and soft curves. It's the baby of Santiago Calatrava, son of Valencia and architect of the Athens Olympic stadium's daring dome. Chief among its attractions, surging from the old riverbed, is the Oceanogràfic, Europe's largest aquarium.
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MUST SEE
Still strictly 21st-century, the IVAM or Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (Calle Guillem de Castro 118, tel. 386 30 00) supplements its permanent collection with excellent contemporary art exhibitions (such as, right now, Anthony Caro, with many pieces straight from his 2005 retrospective at the Tate). More traditionally, the Museo de Bellas Artes or Fine Arts Museum (Calle San Pío V 9, tel. 360 57 93) houses works by El Greco, Goya, Velázquez, Ribera and Ribalta.
Finally, the three entrances - Romanesque, Gothic and high Baroque - of Valencia's cathedral offer an off-the-cuff course in architectural style. Behind the altar, the much travelled, desiccated left arm of San Vicente beckons and the Holy Grail - one of over a dozen rival claimants - graces a side chapel. Climb the 207 steps of the Miguelete bell tower for wraparound views of the city.
BOHO SCENE
The Barrio del Carmen, Valencia's oldest and most vibrant quarter, offers everything from bare-essentials grunge bars to cool designer palaces such as Fox Congo (Calle Caballeros 35, tel. 392 55 27), its walls clad in leather and sheet metal, and Johnny Maracas (tel. 391 52 66), its near-neighbour at no 39, where bright fish dart through the long aquarium beneath the bar counter.
GREAT BITES
Paella, once a fisherfolk dish to use up the leftovers, originated in Valencia. It's served up all over town at lunchtime; request it for dinner and you bear the stigmata of an outsider. Choose one of the restaurants in a long row just north of the port. At La Pepica (tel. 371 03 66), last of the line and more expensive, Hemingway once strutted. The rest serve a three-course meal overlooking the beach for less than £10.
Etiquette requires that you clap or, at the very least, grunt appreciatively as the steaming pan is flourished before you. Have it set in the middle of the table so everyone can pick and prod directly from the pan.
URBAN WALK
From central Plaza de la Virgen, walk westwards along Calle Caballeros, medieval Valencia's main street, nowadays lined with bars and elegant patios. At Plaza del Tossal, sip a coffee on the terrace of San Jaume, a converted pharmacy, before turning left down Calle Bolserías.
Bear left into Avenida Maria Cristina to pass the central market and, bang opposite, the gorgeous colonnaded hall of La Lonja, a 15th-century, exuberantly Gothic building. Continuing, a left turn into Calle San Vicente brings you to Plaza de la Reina, fringed with bars and restaurants. Slip up the pedestrian street on the cathedral's west side to rejoin your starting point. Allow an easy hour, not counting stops.
WHERE TO SLEEP
Posh: Palau de la Mar (tel. 316 28 84; from £110 for a double, excluding breakfast) is minimalist and modern, a sonata of grey, black and cream. Rooms, whether in the main building, a 19th century palace, or the secluded garden pavilion, are exquisitely furnished. Do dine at its cordon bleu Ampar restaurant.
Affordable: Hostal Antigua Morellana (tel. 391 57 73; from £33 for a double) is an excellent value family-run place in a converted 18th-century building. On a quiet side street, it's an easy stroll from the action in the Barrio del Carmen.
WHERE TO START
- Spanish National Tourist Board; TurisValencia
- Flights from easyJet, British Airways, Ryanair or Iberia
- Buy Miles Roddis' guidebook Lonely Planet Valencia & The Costa Brava (£11.99 from www.lonelyplanet.com).
