Kritin and I traveled from Madrid to Valencia by bus. It took about 4 and a half hours including a lunch break for 30 minutes. We stayed in Valencia for 10 days.
Spain consists of 17 autonomous communities. Valencia Community is one of them.
Valencia Community has three cities and Valencia is the capital of this community and the third-largest city in Spain, after Madrid and Barcelona. Madrid is in itself an autonomous community and the capital city of Spain. Its population is at 6.5 million and Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia with a population of 5.5 million. Valencia Community has 1.6 million inhabitants and the City of Valencia has approximately 850,000 in population.
We stayed at a one-bedroom loft in the area of Cabanyal through Airbnb. Cabanyal has access to a few famous beaches but used to be an independent town as a rough area with a lot of gypsies living under the dictator Franco's rule. With tourists coming to the beaches and the expats settling down in the area, Cabanyal has been developing. Now it is a part of Valencia City.
Overall, I found Valencia to be a very livable city. People are friendly; the streets are clean; the public transportation is diverse and well developed; the cost of living seems reasonable; the climate seems mild. It has beaches, museums, parks and gardens, and many cultural attractions.
The best time of the year in climate is said to be March, April, and November, December. But, even in the summer, the temperature hovers around 25 degrees C thanks to sea breezes.
Valencia has seven public universities, including the University of Valencia, and 25 private universities. Reportedly, students come to Valencia not necessarily because of academic quality but because of attractive nightlife.
Kristin and I took a Tuk Tuk Tour Valencia for two hours on the next day after we arrived in Valencia. The tour guide and driver was Tommy, who is originally from Rome but lived in various countries, including Australia, San Diego USA, Brazil, Mexico, now living in Valencia for three years. He was quite an interesting guy!
We usually take a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour to browse a city, but this time, we took the Tuk Tuk because the Hop-on Hop-off bus tour was rated very poor. the Tuk Tuk Tour service was pretty convenient. Apparently, Tuk Tuk Tour is fairly new to Valencia. There are only 10 Tuk Tuks in Valencia and Tommy's company owns six. It was a great way to experience the city with a lot of flexibility and practical convenience of stopping wherever we wanted. The Tuk Tuk we rode was bigger than what we were used to. Tommy explained that it takes 8 hours to charge this electric vehicle and it can run for 3 days.
Valencia has a well developed public transportation system, including metro, tram, buses and taxis. Also, there are extensive networks of bike routes. We took the buses quite often to travel around the city. It cost us 1.50 Euro for each ride.
Based on the tour, we took our own independent trips to different parts of the city. I have broken our Valencia trip into:
- General,
- Beaches,
- Historic Center,
- City of Arts and Sciences,
- Foods and
- Fallas.
Enjoy Valencia! - Jeffrey
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