Valencia is a city at the mediterranean ocean and it is a beautiful one at the same time; Still not as big as Madrid or Barcelona, but still a big city, which is supposed to be liked by the whole family. There’s so much to see and to do there for children as well as the parents or even the grandparents.
A few examples:
The “Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias”
The city of arts and sciences is the most modern part of the city, There’s no way around of seeing that while being in Valencia. It’s approx. 20 minutes of walking away from the inner city. You can still take a taxi or a bus to get there, if you want to.
A city in the city, there are 6 main buildings, the cinema (Hémispheric), the biggest European aquarium (Oceanográfico), the Club (Umbracle), the hall for events (Agóra), the museum of sciences (Museo de las Ciencias) and the palace of arts (Palau de les Arts). It is always something worth seeing and definitely something for the whole family.
The Stadium “Mestalla”
This is where the home games of the Valencia FC take place, and this is an insanely amazing and antique stadium with a huge and long tradition. The Stadium combines the love of the people to their city with the love to their football club. I myself was present at a football match, and alone the view alongside the sport (if you love it as much as I do) really makes impression on you and it’s fun at the same time. It’s surely something for the kids as well, if they do sports and are interested in especially this sport.
The 9km(!) long Park “Turía Gardens” within the city
This park is the relaxing zone of the city. To get away from the hectic daily life many “Valencianas” are spending their free-time there, of course in the company of friends and family as well. Of course it still is more of a relaxing place but still many people also use the park to do sports and here especially jogging. It is absolutely recommendable for the whole family. Kids can of course play there with friends while the generations above can enjoy their evenings or something else. If you have pets not a problem, you can go and have a walk with them or play with them there. So also for that a great environment was built.
The inner City
Here as well is much to see, you should take a whole day of time to see the city, because the city simply is too big and beautiful to just spend an afternoon or a noon there. You could for example start with going to the cathedral in the morning, having a little tour of shopping afterwards and then going to a typical Valencian restaurant to eat some tapas. After that you should go to the subway-station “Cólon” right in the city to see the “El Corte Inglés”. That is, what is Karstadt in Germany or Harrods in England, but with so many more offers and so many more choices. So let’s go 😉 On the evening you should go into a fancy restaurant, to maybe eat a family-portion of paella, to end the day typically Valencian.
The beach “Cabanyal”
This is a very important part of the sightseeing tour in Valencia. As long as you’re there do not forget to see the beach. It’s just huge, beautifully situated and superbly reachable with the metro-line 4. You will be amazed how great this beach is if you’re just walking around there or especially in the summer go bathing there and just laying in the sun with your soul being relaxed and happy. Every day this beach gets more beautiful and it’s always a great activity to do it during the day, if you’re bored and you don’t know what to do.
The Zoo “Bioparc”
This zoo especially has animals from Africa and is an enterprise, which should definitely be on your cards while visiting Valencia. Many animals, which you probably not see each day like monkeys, giraffes, zebras, elephants, camels etc… are there in the zoo and the environment is designed in a way, in which the animals can feel homely and the visitors can feel comfortable. Even a restaurant is there exactly within the scenery, where you can sit outside and watch the animals. It is an event especially for children.
The “Mercat Central”
It’s one of the oldest, richest of tradition, biggest and most beautiful markets in Europe. It’s a variety of products, which you won’t see anywhere else. Alone the fish-department blows up any border, but it’s amazing and great. Who misses this, literally misses something. Here are from above named fish to meat, cheese, perfume, sausage, sweets, apples, strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes to bakery-products and pizza until burgers, basically everything. Even a BAR(!) within of meat and wine is there. This fact impressed me the most, you just don’t reckon with things like that in this kind of environment.
