MINI GUIDE
Weekend in Valencia
COMPILED BY LORNA PARKES, WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM STUART BUTLER AND ANTHONY HAM. PHOTOGRAPHS: MATEJ KASTELIC/500PX, HILARY MORGAN/ALAMY, TRAVELSTOCK44.DE/JUERGEN HELD/AGEFOTOSTOCK, MASSIMO RIPANI/SIME/4CORNERS, YAY MEDIA AS/ALAMYValencia essentials The know-how
FURTHER READING
Lonely Planet’s
Pocket Valencia
(£7.99) is
perfect for short
breaks, with
full-colour
maps, highlights
and insider tips. For wider
explorations, Lonely
Planet’s Spain (£17.99) is a
comprehensive country
guide. Valencia features on
Lonely Planet’s Guides
app, available for free on
app stores. Or the Bulls Kill
You (£8.99; Vintage), by
Anglo-American writer
Jason Webster, is a crime
novel set amid Valencia’s
matador scene and Las
Fallas festival.
Lovevalencia.com is a local,
English-language lifestyle
website with information
on sights, art and beaches.VALENCIA’S BEACHES
Valencia may be a port city,
but it still has a strip of town
beaches, about 20 minutes
from the centre. Playa de las
Arenas runs north into Playa de
la Malvarrosa and Playa de la
Patacona, forming a 2½-mile-
long strip of sand. It’s bordered
by the Paseo Marítimo
promenade and a string of
restaurants and cafés. The port
area, refurbished for the 2007
America’s Cup, is south of here,
flanked by the fishermen’s
district of El Cabanyal.
Playa de las Arenas Backed
by hotels and rice restaurants,
this is the classic stretch of
Valencia’s beach, and the
closest to town.
Playa de la Malvarrosa
The middle chunk of beach.
Playa de la Patacona
Enticing eateries
fringe the northern
section of the
main beach.Calle En Bou 2; from £50).
Ad Hoc Monumental offers
comfort and charm deep within
the old quarter, flaunting sensitive
restoration, original ceilings and
a splendid restaurant. Top-floor
superior rooms have a great
private balcony (adhochoteles.
com; Calle Boix 4; from £80).
Housed in a sumptuous old
mansion with an excellent
restaurant, Caro Hotel sits atop
two millennia of Valencian history,
with restoration revealing an Arab
wall, Roman column bases and
Gothic arches (carohotel.com;
Calle Almirante 14; from £150).WHERE TO STAY
Family-run Hostal Antigua
Morellana occupies a renovated
18th-century posada. Rooms are
well-sized and have great features
for the price, including memory-
foam mattresses (hostalam.com;TRANSPORT
Turkish Airlines flies one of the
most direct routes from Singapore
and Kuala Lumpur with one stop
in Istanbul (from £531;
turkishairlines.com). Valencia’s
airport is six miles west of the
centre. Lines 3 and 5 of the city’s
underground train network run
into Valencia from the airport
(metrovalencia.es; £1.80). Single
bus, train or tram tickets start at
£1.30. The Valencia Tourist Card
offers free urban travel plus
museum, activity and restaurant
discounts (valenciatouristcard.
com; 24/48/72 hours £13/17/21).
Cycling is a great way to get
around; check out the city’s
bike-share scheme (valenbisi.com;
from £11, plus hourly charges).A large suite at Caro Hotel,
complete with a ceiling frescoDrinking Entertainment Sights Eating Sleeping