TOP 5 WANDERTIPS FOR VALENCIA, SPAIN

So you have 48 hours in Valencia. It’s a city you’ve only ever heard of and have very little time to research anything. 

These are the things that happen when you are a wanderluster: you end up in places you never imagined. And you end up creating stories that you will tell regularly for the rest of your life. 

Luckily for us, that translated into experiencing things we’ve never even thought of in our wildest imaginations. 

Enter Valencia

Valencia is a gorgeous sprawling city on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. It’s history and authentic Spanish culture gives it a true feeling of a capital city though it isn’t. The winding streets are easy to get yourself lost in, which is why we’ve put together this list of our top five Wandertips for this incredible Spanish metropolis. 

Wandertip #1 - LIVE LIKE A VALENCIAN

While the hotel and tourism industry looks top notch here in Valencia, Our SE recco is to skip the concierge/with breakfast room options and opt in to an Airbnb. To understand Valencia you need to see it as the locals do. And our Airbnb did not disappoint. 

Our host Jasmine greeted up on the winding streets of the city and walked us to our “apartment”. We were amazed at her openness and hospitality. 

We found our way to the front door and wound our way up to the top floor of the building. Please note, there was an elevator for the luggage. We prefer stairs. 

Our flat was listed as a humble flat with two beds, and a junior kitchen. The pictures looked clean and we figured for a one nights stay, all we needed was a place to store our luggage. 

WAnderTip #2 - Get Lost on Purpose!

We were fresh of a train from the Costa Blanca in the south of Spain. We were beached our and ready to see what this urban cityscape had in store for us. 
So we walked. And walking as it does turned into wandering. The French have a work that does t really translate in English: balader. It rough translates to the act of going for a walk with no specific destination. 

This was Valencia for us. 

In asking a women we met in our building, which direction we should go, she pointed us a general direction and we were lost. On purpose. After a pitcher of sangria and browsing an endless amount of local designer stores, we saw a park of sorts. 

It was 

Famished we ended up dining el fresco at (restaurant name). It was recommended by a passerby. 

The food was tapas style and our servers were so helpful. They pointed us on the path home which of course we didn’t follow.  We ended winding through (the main city square). We listened to the live music and of course, grabbed each other for a Viennese waltz, which was met by wild applause. 

And after picking up a few groceries along the way, we napped. 

WANDERTIP #3 - TALK TO STRANGERS

Well I don’t want to get anyone in trouble here but the truth of our story is that if we didn’t end up talking to people we didn’t know, our whole time there would have been boring! 

So we told you aboutnjasmia our Airbnb host? Well, after sunning on our patio and napping for about an hour, we invited her though text back up to our place with another friend she had staying in our. Holding.

We brought us a bottle of local Spanish wine and told us we’d drink it on the roof..... well! Our Airbnb featured a rooftop that spanned the entire roof. I mean the entire roof of the building, and it was one of the tallest building around us. The view was one of the best I had ever seen. It was here that we drank too many bottles of wine with our group of friends which kept growing. Turned out she owned the whole building and kept inviting other tenants up, included a pair of brothers from Norway.  They had lost all their money and had no where to turn to. 

So we brought them some wine and food to the rooftop and talked for hours aboutbwhere we had been and where we were headed. What our ambitions in life were.

Which brings me to the next point…

WANDERTIP #4 - Say Yes to Everything!

Yes, you heard me! This is one of my rules of travelling  as a wanderluster is beer day no to an offer! It’s supposed to change your life. 

One of the brother’s was telling us that he was an architect. A very successful one at that! And Valencia has one of the adtitectural wonder of the world! Th (name). 

They had lost their wallet on the beach and hadn’t gotten a chance to see it. 

The next thing we know, we failed a taxi to take us to the museum! Our Airbnb host joined us and walked us around the gigantic structure. We ended up sitting by the fountains for hours and even ( don’t tell) getting into the fountain and the security removed us! Seeing an architect see one of the architectural wonders was truly a beautiful thing. I don’t think even they know how great that was.

After late night eats we made it back to our penthouse flat before sun up and an early flight out.  Before we went to sleep though, we made sure to push some extra dollar bills under the artictwcta and his brothers door.  It was a special weekend for us, and we wanted to pay it forward to them as a way to say we will never forget them. Which bring me tonpoint number five. 

WANDERTIP #5 - Take a lot of pictures!

They say most things in life are only remembered as well as the last time you remembered them. Valencia is really a city written in the details.

It’s in the congested urban streets of a city ripe with character; its in the uneven cobbles of a well worn central square. We found it on a rooftop of a strangers home and if it wasn’t for our pictures of the experience the whole thing would just be a blur in our memory.

So bring your camera and have fun. Play safe, but not too safe, no never know what adventure awaits around the next cobbled laneway. 

Have you been to Valencia? I want you to add your pics to instagram and add Hashtag #WanderValencia, to be featured below.

Add your comments below, I’m dying to hear what missed about the city so that next time I go back I can add it to my wander plans!