Family Fun - Valencia, Spain

This April I visited Valencia, the third largest city in Spain, for a spring break with my husband and kids. It's a city which offers something for everyone, whether you're there for the buzzing nightlife in the Barrio del Carmen, getting your art fix at one of the many great museums, or enjoying your paella on the beach boardwalk.

Here are some of the things that might appeal if you're visiting with your family but also if you're travelling alone or with friends;

The Mercado Central is Valencia's main food market and is a great place to choose a picnic from the specialist stalls. We stocked up on empanadas (pastries with savoury fillings), olives, peppers stuffed with soft cheese and jamon iberico (air dried ham). Even if you're not buying, the large airy building, specialist stalls and bustling atmosphere will tempt you in.

Just across the road is La Lonja, the old silk exchange. It's twisting stone columns reach up to the roof and it has a cool, tranquil atmosphere, with plenty of room for little ones to run around. The small courtyard is planted with orange blossom which scents the air and there's an upper room with wonderful panelling and patterned marble floors. It's free to enter, so you won't be wasting any money if the kids get bored.

The City of Arts and Sciences is a futuristic complex of science museum, concert hall and IMAX cinema, in amazing sculptural buildings surrounded by cool blue shallow pools. If you're on a budget then just wander round and enjoy the architecture, shady L'Umbracle garden and perhaps try the local milky horchata drink from one of the kiosk vendors. If you're splashing out, our kids loved the Oceangraphic aquarium with the regular dolphin show. There's also a planetarium in the IMAX cinema with and hands on science centre to keep older children interested.

The Turia gardens was once the bed of the river running through the city but when it was diverted in the 1950s due to flooding, it was made into a series of parks, much loved by the locals. We hired bikes and cycled through the gardens all the way to the port and the beach, but you could just as easily take an afternoon stroll. The area around the Palau de la Musica is particularly pleasant with a lake and fountains and you can hire cycle carriages which would be fun for younger children. There's also a children's playground with a theme of Gulliver's travels.

The port and beach is not far from the centre and can be easily reached by tram or bus. There's a long beach boardwalk with many cafes and restaurants and is the traditional place for Valencian families to come and have a lingering seafood lunch at the weekend. If you also want to try the traditional rice dish of Paella on a Sunday, this could be the place, but be sure to book the day before.

There are many great museums and art galleries in Valencia, but as my teenagers are allergic to museums, we only tried a few. The Fallero Museum near the City of Arts and Sciences has cartoon-like figurines from the annual Fallas festival when the city explodes with noisy pyrotechnics and enormous figurines are put on display in each neighbourhood before all going up in flames. The best are saved to view all year round at this museum for all ages to enjoy.

The small bull-fighting museum, next to the bull-ring is free entry and an interesting introduction for older children to this traditional Spanish sport, although younger ones might find it upsetting. There were bullfighting costumes and memorabilia and a short film giving a graphic view of the life of the bull from birth to death in the ring. Not for everyone perhaps, but I preferred to let my teenagers make up their own mind.

More for the artistically inclined is the baroque Palacio de Marques de Dos Aguas, which now houses the ceramics museum. The rooms were covered with gilt and mirrors like a mini Versailles and I loved the Cinderella coach in the lobby and the traditional tiled Spanish kitchen recreated on the upper floor.

Accommodation

There are many great hotels and hostels in Valencia, but I'd definitely recommend the one we stayed in at Home Rooms Deluxe for travellers of all ages. It is moderately priced with rooms that are all individually designed by local artists, a modern self catering kitchen and sitting area. There's free internet and wifi to keep teenagers happy and breakfast is included. They have doubles and triples, but if you have younger children you might want to rent one of their apartments by the night in the same building at 40 flats. The location is very close to the City of Arts and Sciences, and a 15 minute, easy bus journey into the older part of town. (Doubles from €70, Triples from €100, 4 person apartment from €125 per night)

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Heather Cowper lives with her family in Bristol, England. She caught the travel bug as a child from family camping holidays in Europe and since then has devoted her energy to packing as many holidays as possible in between day job and family life. Heather blogs about the interesting things she sees on her travels around Europe, the World and on her doorstep at Heather on her travels.

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For more great travel photos, check out DelicousBaby's Photo Friday.

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Comments

[Dominique]

Thanks for the virtual tour. The market shot with the hanging hams reminds me of the hams we saw over the counter in a truck stop (true story!) in Spain!
I loved the futuristic museum buildings, too.

[Maya]

Thanks for this lovely post, we have just moved about 1 hour south of Valencia with our daughters and I'm researching days and weekends out to enjoy as a family... Have only adult citybreak experience of Valencia city and really looking forward to exploring it with our girls

[Lawrence]

The best time of my life

when i was 7 years of age, i had my first family holiday in Spain, we stayed in a Hotel on the Coast Blanca Coast. this was the start of many happy holidays in spain.

My Family and i went to different resorts every year, for example Benidorm, Cabo Roig, Alicante, Lloret De Mar.

when your young everything is an adventure, plus the fact that you are all together makes for happy times, which is what being part of a family is all about. As you know we all grow up and even though we do keep in contact with close ones we never have the time that we had as children.

our family holidays in Spain was at a time when Spain was becoming the no 1 destination for familles from the uk. so, i remember Spain being unspoilt, beautiful and of course sunny!

driving along the new spanish Motorways my dad use to beep other uk drivers as we passed them. nowadays uk drivers are ten a penny on the spanish Rds.

we never booked a Hotel on the Costa Blanca Coast, my dad would spend 3 days driving to spain and get out of his car and book a hotel there and then for 10 nights.

more to follow

Lawrence