Sightseeing in Valencia

Sightseeing in Valencia reads the city as layers. Valentia was founded as a Roman colony in 138 BC, and the Almoina, opened to visitors in 2007 under a square beside the cathedral, shows its baths and forum, a Visigothic baptistery and part of the Islamic palace. The Torres de Serranos, raised between 1392 and 1398 as one of twelve gates, held noble prisoners from 1586. The Palacio del Marqués de Dos Aguas has had its alabaster doorway since the 1740s and now houses the national ceramics museum. Beyond the city, Sagunto, 30 km north, is where Hannibal's siege of 219 BC began the Second Punic War, and the Albufera to the south is a natural park of 21,120 hectares.

Valencia sightseeing tours are mostly walks. A private four-hour route runs from the Serranos towers to the Lonja with a stop for horchata, a three-hour family route adds churros and the science museum, and a two-hour walk with a local photographer is for two people. Four phone-run games cover the old town without a guide, one of them a team spy game of two and a half hours. Out of town, the private Albufera day takes six hours, with a forest walk, a bird tower, paella beside the lake and a sunset boat. Cruise passengers get an eight-hour excursion to Sagunto and the city. A one-way private transfer to Barcelona stops for two hours in Tarragona.

Practical. Valencia runs 30C by day and 22C by night in July and August, the sea warms to 25 or 26C in summer and cools to 14 or 15C in winter, and January afternoons reach 17C. Flamingos and the sunset on the Albufera depend on the season and the hour of the trip. Guided tours cancel free up to 24 hours ahead, while two of the phone games leave the terms to the operator and take up to 15 people per booking. The shore excursion runs in English.