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pdf - Costa de Valencia

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© Agència Valenciana del Turisme, 2015
001-055 Turisme ING.qxp_Maquetación 1 3/12/15 8:12 Página 1
Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. Valencia. 39° 27’ 17.82” N 0° 21’ 10.88” W
02
04
The Region of Valencia
06
Emotion and leisure
12
Several destinations, just one heartbeat
22
The beach is life
26
Cities with their own style
40
Diverse and plural
42
Visions
52
Nature
70
Culture
86
Gastronomy
98
People who love festivals
106
Sports
114
Adventure
118
Health
120
Shopping
124
The night
128
Tourism portal for the Region of Valencia
130
Tourist Info Network
133
Practical information
136
Tourist map
Lonja. Valencia. 39° 28’ 28.09” N 0° 22’ 41.45” W
This is an inviting town that loves its traditions and has been open to tourism
for decades. In the Region of Valencia, receiving the traveller is a duty of
courtesy that has become a profession, carried out with an informal style.
Like a surprising, large and diverse
kaleidoscope, the Region of Valencia
is spread along the shore of the
Spanish Mediterranean. It is an
inviting and sunny territory with
open and active people. It is a land
that, bordering the sea for over 500
kilometres, changes its landscape
and becomes mountainous in the
interior, in the areas that border
Aragón and Castilla-la Mancha.
Changing and renewed, full of
charming sites, the Region of
Valencia hopes to capture the
traveller’s senses.
Costa Blanca, Benidorm, València Terra i
Mar, Castellón Mediterráneo and
Valencia. These are the tourist areas that
the Region of Valencia offers to its
visitors. For thousands of years,
expansive and cordial people, hardworking and festival-loving, attentive to
agriculture, industry and commerce,
have lived between the generous soil
and a blue sky that stays clear most of
the year. This is the famous land of rice
and the fertile orange tree orchards. But
04 - 05
Promenade of la Explanada. Alicante.
39° 28’ 28.09” N 0° 22’ 41.45” W
El Fadrí Tower. Castellón de la Plana.
39° 59’ 10.01” N 0° 2’ 14.93” W
it is also the land of olive oil and wine, as
well as fruit and almond trees that look
out to the sea.
Surprises are still possible in the Region
of Valencia. Here, discovering the
landscape is an adventure that turns the
trip into an unforgettable personal
experience. As inviting as they are lovers
of their own traditions and roots, the
Valencian people have been open to
tourism for decades, a duty of courtesy
that has become a profession carried
out with affection and an informal style.
It does not matter where we go. From
north to south, going wherever they
wish, in this land the tourists soon
become travellers; and at once they
become a guest that is treated as if they
were in their own home. In the Region
of Valencia, the experience of travelling
is always a safe bet. Rock fortresses and
thermal springs, solitude and jubilation,
sea and mountain, sun and soil: the
ranges of colours and tastes are always
open in the four tourist areas of the
Region of Valencia. Because this is a land
of contrasts, of flavours and aromas, of
complementary and varied places.
Benidorm. 38° 32’ 3.14” N 0° 7’ 49.47” W
Emotion
and leisure
The roar of motors or the silent
advance of the prow on the waves.
Tight sails or vibrating accelerations.
In the Region of Valencia, the main
sporting events, media spectacles that
summon thousands of people are a
phenomenon of our century that serve
to attract thousands of tourists as well
as to generate dynamics that spread
06 - 07
Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. 39° 27’ 23.13” N 0° 21’ 12,61”W
our reality in a globalised world.
Thousands of people have visited the
Region of Valencia because of these
large events.
The America’s Cup, the Castelló Golf
Masters that took place in Castellón
and the start of the Volvo Ocean Race
from Alicante have been specific
events which have led to the
worldwide dissemination of the
milestones of Valencian tourism.
But the Region of Valencia has many
other attractions and incentives. They
are the large infrastructures of leisure,
culture and sports that are capable of
attracting thousands of visitors and
turning the traveller’s experience into
an unforgettable adventure. From the
Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias to
Terra Mítica, from the Oceanogràfic to
the Circuito de Velocidad Ricardo
Tormo in Cheste, each year the
Valencian lands offer unexpected
incentives.
Circuit Ricardo Tormo. 39° 29’ 5.34” N 0° 37’ 34.51” W
Club
Excitement in Cheste
The first Valencian commitment to
highly competitive events took
place at the Cheste Circuit.
Dedicated to the great Valencian
champion Ricardo Tormo, each
autumn it is the setting for the final
trial of the World Motorcycle Racing
Championship: the Gran Premio de la
Comunitat Valenciana. The annual
circuit of world motorcycle racing,
with all the famous Spanish racers,
close its long run in Cheste every
year. Thousands of fans come from all
over Spain and liven up the town’s
streets and even Valencia. Over
100,000 spectators meet in the stands
and fields at Cheste to see its stars.
But the Cheste Circuit, after these
autumn events, is still active. For over
300 days a year there are training,
trials, techniques, rehearsals, concerts
and every type of activity.
Club de Golf Ifach. Benissa. Alicante. 38° 41’ 15.04” N 0° 6’ 16.15” E
08 - 09
Golf and tennis
The international golf and tennis
elites met on the courses and courts
of the Region of Valencia to
participate in the tournaments
reserved for the great stars. The
informative impact that these events
had the world over highlights the
attractiveness of a golf course network
where travellers can satisfy their highest
demands. In 2008, the Castelló Masters
tournament brought together, near the
sea, not only Sergio García, who started
his sports career there, but also the best
Spanish and European figures of the
moment.
The Agora of the Ciudad de las Artes
y las Ciencias of Valencia hosted the
500 ATP tennis tournament, since 2009.
This new sports form is an important
event aimed at transmitting the external
image of the Region of Valencia. The
exclusive tennis circuit also is made up
of Rotterdam, Dubai, Acapulco,
Memphis, Barcelona, Washington,
Peking, Tokyo and Basel, among other
cities.
Veles e Vents. Valencia Port. 39° 27’ 36.19” N 0° 19’ 25.20” W
Biop
Sails and winds
Between 2003 and 2010, the old dock
of the Valencian port was the setting
for the 32nd and 33rd edition of the
America’s Cup, the oldest sports
competition in the world and the most
prestigious among nautical sports. The
port of Valencia changed, the building
Veles e Vents was created, which is now
a new reference point in the city.
Valencia is opened to the sea with the
best sporting and leisure infrastructures
to house every kind of competition,
regatta and nautical event. The weather
conditions are excellent for nautical
sports and its strategic location has
turned the Marina Real Juan Carlos I of
Valencia into a benchmark in the
European Mediterranean.
In October 2008, the world’s most
intrepid navigators left the port of
Alicante to compete in the Volvo
Ocean Race.
Alicante is home to the Volvo Ocean
Race Museum. This is the first museum
to offer visitors the chance to recreate
the extreme challenge faced by the
crews aboard the boats participating in
the Volvo Ocean Race, an exceptional
round the world yacht race.
Bioparc. Valencia. 39° 28’ 40.57” N 0° 24’ 41.80” W
10 - 11
Animals and myths from ancient times
Valencia has two facilities dedicated
to land and sea wildlife that are
leaders in Europe. They are the
L'Oceanogràfic and the Bioparc.
The first, which is part of the Ciudad de
las Artes y las Ciencias, is one of the
largest aquariums of marine water in
the world, where hundreds of species
coexist in five large circular pools. Each
day there are several performances
with dolphins. The Bioparc entails the
adaptation of the most refined
techniques that exist so that the
spectators can closely observe, with
complete safety, the life of dozens of
species of African wildlife. Provided
with great freedom and the most
favourable living conditions, elephants,
giraffes, rhinoceros, lions and every
kind of animal from the savannah
delight children and adults.
In Benidorm, in a place from where
the city and all the bay can be seen,
there is a large theme park, Terra
Mítica, which relives the myths of
ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt
through intrepid installations of risk
and adventure. The most exciting roller
coasters, the most intrepid and daring
slides imaginable, compete with its
visitors’ emotions. But in the Region of
Valencia there are other many theme
parks, some of them dedicated to
water games. They are leisure
infrastructures that each year attract
thousands of visitors to the Valencian
tourist spots.
Benidorm Beach. 38° 32’ 8.44” N 0° 7’ 19.69” W
Several destinations, one heartbeat
Peñíscola. 40° 21’ 44.07” N 0° 24’ 13.49” E
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San Pío V Fine Arts Museum of Valencia. 39° 28’ 45.54” N 0° 22’ 16.15” W
Several brands make up the
presence of Valencian tourism in
Spain, in Europe and in the world:
Costa Blanca, Benidorm, València Terra
i Mar, Castellón Mediterráneo and
Valencia refer to five destinations, to
five settings with their own welldefined personality, which beat in
unison in service of the proverbial
hospitality and courtesy of all the
Valencian lands. Being daughters of
the same region and answering to the
same beat, the five areas, the five
brands appear with their own
personality, separately, thanks to their
particular charms.
Xàbia. 38° 47' 38.52" N 0° 10' 33.43" E
Benissa. 38° 43' 19.97" N 0° 11' 17.93" E
Costa Blanca
Costa Blanca, the White Coast,
because of the whitewash of the
fishermen’s old houses. Costa
Blanca because of the almond tree
blossoms that appear on the cliffs
and because of the white windmills.
It is the white of Greece, of Sicily and
Ibiza; the white of a latitude where
houses are made to contrast with the
deep blue of the sea. From Dénia, in
the north of the province, to Pilar de
la Horadada, in the south, a series of
beaches and bays, of cliffs and inlets
offer the most varied landscape in a
climate that is always ideal. Winters
are warm and sunny. The old prestige
of the Costa Blanca still attracts
travellers from the Nordic countries as
if they were migrating birds. Few
cloudy days, and a blue that makes
the sky here different from anywhere
else, invite one to the simple life, to
the observation of the sea, to walks
and excursions. There are charming
Nuestra Señora del Consuelo Church. Altea.
38° 35’ 55.66” N 0° 3’ 6.05” W
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“We see from far away, increasingly
distant, the blue dome. The blue dome is
exclusively of the Kingdom of Valencia”.
(Azorín)
valleys, fishing boats that return at
sundown with a silvery load and a
way of life where work and festivities
wisely complement each other.
Alicante is the capital of the province.
To the north are the cliffs of the
Marina, with solitary inlets and ports
where the sailboats drop anchor to
pass the winter season. La Granadella,
Teulada-Moraira, Calpe, Dénia, Xàbia,
Benissa, L’Olla d’Altea, L’Alfàs del Pi, La
Vila Joiosa, El Campello, Sant Joan, etc.
They have all won tourism prestige
and top awards for best service. South
of the capital are Santa Pola and Elx,
Guardamar del Segura, Torrevieja, La
Dehesa de Campoamor and Pilar de la
Horadada. The winter sun, the
summer sea. The prestige of a sweet
life protected from the stress of the
big cities.
Levante
LevanteBeach.
Beach.Benidorm.
Benidorm.38°
38°32'
32'4.09"
4.09"NN0°0°7'7'5.79"
5.79"WW
The prestige of Benidorm
Everything the most capricious
tourist could want is here.
This is the paradise city of those who
are seeking variety, exoticism,
multiculturalism and the unusual, as an
accessory, of course, to the prime
attraction of the sun, sea and beach.
This is Benidorm, which has been
called “the city that never sleeps”, the
capital of Mediterranean tourism, not
just Spanish, but European as well. In
the 1950s, Benidorm was still a small
fishing and farming town, linked twice
a day to the capital by a bus service.
Located at the foot of the Serra Gelada
natural park, it had no more than 3,000
residents when it became the pioneer
city of Spanish tourism. Today,
however, it is a large city full of
skyscrapers which reminds one of a
beachside Manhattan. In less than six
decades, Benidorm has become in a
tourism empire, with over 40,000 hotel
rooms –more capacity than in many
European countries- and a regulated
offer of over 20,000 rooms in rented
apartments. Perhaps Benidorm began
16 - 17
Poniente Beach. Benidorm. 38° 32' 0.20" N 0° 9' 18.10" W
as the favourite tourist spot of Madrid,
but now it is a European benchmark
with its own personality and
renowned brand in the world of travel
and summer vacations, which
generates loyalty that goes beyond
the markets’ contingencies. This
coastal city in the province of Alicante
soon became the favourite vacation
spot of the German and British middle
class, of Nordic and Dutch tourists who
wanted sun and beach. The most
prestigious hotel chains have
established themselves in the territory.
Today there are over 140 hotels, some
located in high-rises that beat the
height records of Spain. From those
magnitudes and from the great
amount of tourists that Benidorm
receives each year, with a floating
population of up to 400,000 people, it
can be deduced that the range of
Benidorm’s attractions is practically
infinite.
El S
Plaza de la Trinidad. Xàtiva 38° 59' 22.93" N 0° 31' 11.86" W
València Terra i Mar
The brand València Terra i Mar
covers a tourism variety of a
province with at least two
different and complementary
landscapes. The sea, with beautiful
beaches, announces a coast with
intense tourism, as well as commercial
and agricultural activity where the
orange tree orchards dominate. But
the interior is also intense and varied,
mountainous and with forests that
one must also associate with the
Valencian landscape. Ayora and
Requena, part of that mountainous
landscape, compete in beauty and
attractions with Ontinyent and
Bocairent, cities where there still exists
a labyrinth from Moorish times. Xàtiva
is a historical city, the city of the Borja
family, a family of popes and nobility
that gave glory to the Kingdom of
El Saler Beach. Valencia. 39° 21’ 42” N 0° 18’ 59” W
18 - 19
Valencia. La Ribera del Xúquer is the
fertile cradle of orange trees; the river
flows into Cullera, close to the
Albufera, which irrigates the old rice
fields of Valencia. To the north of
Turia’s banks, the Serranos region
hides peaceful and beautiful villages
with white country houses. On the
coast is Sagunt, with all the prestige of
its Roman history and traces of a
powerful past. The capital, Valencia,
sits at the centre of the province’s
arch, with all its classic values. But in
the south it is important to highlight
the presence of two cities with
tradition, Gandia and Oliva, full of
history and prestige and with wellmaintained beaches.
Júcar River. Cortes de Pallás. Valencia. 39° 14' 22.86" N 0° 59' 7.29" W
Morella. Castellón. 40° 36' 44.07" N 0° 5' 46.69" W
Castellón
Castellón where citrus fruits have
been cultivated for over a century in
stately orchards. Vila-real, Borriana,
Nules, Almenara, Moncofa... These are
ancient cities with solid agricultural
prestige, which look out to the sea. To
the north, Vinaròs and Benicarló are
cities with tradition. They have known
how to develop serene and efficient
tourism, where many residents from
Aragón appear. The isthmus of
Peñíscola, with the castle of Pope
Luna, receives an intense and welldeveloped tourism. To the south are
Alcalà de Xivert - Alcossebre and
Torreblanca, where the Serra d’Irta
natural park becomes a beautiful
landscape overlooking the sea.
Oropesa del Mar and Benicàssim, with
lovely beaches, announce the city of
Castellón de la Plana. During the
1920s, Benicàssim became the place
for families from Castellón de la Plana
to spend the summer. But, the interior
of Castellón holds very interesting
attractions for the traveller. El
Maestrazgo rises up towards the pine
Basílica de Lledó. Castellón de la Plana. 40° 57' 17.46" N 0° 16' 40.05" E
20 - 21
forest of Teruel and has a unique
attractiveness in Morella. Sant Mateu
and Albocàsser, Vilafamés and l’Alcora,
Segorbe and La Vall d’Uixó hold
treasures in their landscapes, secluded
squares, medieval churches and
distinguished modern art museums.
Les Devesses Beach. Dénia. 38° 52' 17.97" N 0° 0' 33.99" W
The beach is life
The duality of the Valencian
landscape causes the long sandy
beaches to alternate with cliff
landscapes, even abrupt ones, where
small coves become jewels of limited
access and crystal-clear waters. The
coast of the Region of Valencia has
magnificent beaches: extensive dune
chains, where the characteristic flora
has been conserved and sandy areas
announce areas with hawthorn and
landscapes of reeds and wetlands. The
22 - 23
good weather, facilities, quality services
and best accessibility conditions make
the Region of Valencia’s beaches the
ideal place for anyone who wants a
relaxed summer under the sun. Xilxes
in Castellón; El Saler, next to Valencia;
and Guardamar del Segura and Santa
Pola in Alicante are among the beaches
with the best-conserved flora in their
dunes. But next to them are Benicarló
and Oropesa del Mar, Benicàssim and
Peñíscola, Nules and Almenara. Farther
south in Valencia, Canet d’En
Berenguer, Sagunt, Alboraya and
Malva-rosa; Cullera, Oliva and Gandia; in
the province of Alicante, Dénia and
Xàbia, Altea, Benidorm, Sant Joan, Elx
and Torrevieja... It would be unfair to
make a list. Beaches with fine and
delicate sand, and also round pebble
beaches; they are all pleasant. There are
over one hundred high-quality beaches
with sandy areas recognised each year
for their natural charm and for the care
with which the cities tend to the
bathers in them. From morning to
night, there is the beach, alive and allembracing. The beach is sun, it is
bathing in warm and transparent
waters. But in this part of the world it
can be a lot more. In the Region of
Valencia there are beaches that are
lighted at night, like soccer stadiums.
This way, the tourist can make the most
of them or get the best ratio with
nature that is sought in the edge of
land and sea. The beach is part of the
vacation city; in reality, it is the result of
the beat of a population that looks out
to its sea, it relates to it in the strip of
sand and in the process, urbanises it,
furnishes it and tames it. With large
sunshades and loungers, showers, foot
washers and rubbish bins, very careful
supervision, healthcare posts and assets
that include reserved areas for playing
sports as well as bathing areas
accessible to persons with reduced
mobility, the Valencian beaches boast
of responding to bathers’ demands.
The towns strive each year to take
better care of their beaches: providing
them with more comforts for the users.
The blue European flags are the
acknowledgement of that effort.
Populated beaches for relaxing under
the sun for dozens of families with
colourful sunshades. As well as
deserted beaches where solitude is
predominant and nudism is practiced:
all of this, in an orderly variety, is
possible on the coast of the Region of
Valencia.
Vinaròs
Benicarló
Peñíscola
Alcalà de Xivert-Alcossebre
Torreblanca
Oropesa del Mar
Benicàssim
Castellón
de la Plana
Moncofa
Puçol
El Puig
La Pobla de Farnals
Nord / Torrenostra
Morro de Gos / La Conxa / Platgetes de Bellver
Voramar / L’Almadrava / La Torre de Sant Vicent - Torreó
Els Terrers / Heliòpolis
L’Arenal
Nules
Illes Columbretes
Masbó / Grao
Les Cases / Cerezo
Almenara
Canet d’En Berenguer
Sagunt
Carregador / La Romana / Les Fonts
Manyetes / Moro / L’Estany
Gurugú / El Pinar
Borriana
Nules
Xilxes
El Fortí
El Morrongo / La Caracola
Nord
Casablanca
Racó de La Mar
L’Almardà / El Port de Sagunt
Puçol
Playa-Puig
Puebla de Farnals
Port Saplaya
Alboraya
Arenas - Cabanyal
Valencia
La Malva-rosa
Pinedo
L’Arbre del Gos
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
El Saler
La Devesa
Sueca
Cullera
El Perellonet / El Perelló
Mareny de Vilxes / Les Palmeretes
El Dosser / El Far / L’Illa - Los Olivos
El Racó / Sant Antoni
Tavernes de la Valldigna
Xeraco
Tavernes de la Valldigna / La Goleta
Xeraco
Playa Nord
Gandia
Bellreguard
Bellreguard
Miramar
Miramar
Piles
Piles
Oliva
Terranova / Pau-Pi / LÁigua Blanca
Dénia
Les Deveses / Les Marines / Les Bovetes
Les Rotes / Marineta Cassiana / Punta del Raset
La Grava / LÁrenal / La Granadella
Xàbia
Teulada-Moraira
Benissa
Calp
Altea
L’Alfàs del Pi
Finestrat
Llevant / El Mal Pas / Poniente
La Cala
Centre / El Paradís
El Campello
El Carrer de la Mar / Mutxavista
Alicante
Elx
Sant Joan / El Postiguet / Saladar / Albufereta
L` Altet / La Marina / Les Pesqueres - El Rebollo
Els Arenals del Sol
Playa Lisa / Llevant / El Varador
Santa Pola
Tamarit / Calas del Este
Tabarca
La Marina / Les Pesquers - Rebollo
Guardamar del Segura
Torrevieja
Orihuela
Pilar de la Horadada
La Fossa / Port Mauri
El Cantal Roig / L’Arenal-Bol
L’Olla / La Roda / Cap Blanc
El Raco de LÁlbir
Benidorm
La Villa Joiosa
El Portet / L’Ampolla / Les Platgetes
Cala Fustera
Centre / La Roqueta / Els Vivers / Moncaio
Torrelamata / Los Locos / El Cura
Los Náufragos-Acequión / La Mata
Flamenca / La Zenia / Campoamor / Cabo Roig
Mil Palmeras / Cala Capitán / Barranco Rubio
Jesuitas-Cala Rincón / El Puerto / Las Villas-Higuericas / Conde
Central Market. Valencia. 39° 28’ 23.82” N 0° 22’ 42.06”W
Pala
Cities with their own style
Port of Alicante. 38° 20’ 21.48” N 0° 28’ 44.48” W
Espai
Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía. 39° 27’ 37.74” N 0° 21’ 20.57” W
26 - 27
Espai d’Art Contemporani. Castellón de la Plana. 39° 58’ 57.52” N 0° 1’ 56.18” W
Marqués de Dos Aguas Palace. Valencia. 39° 28’ 21.50” N 0° 22’ 28.53” W
Valencia
The songs, the verses, the passionate
proclamations of journalism and
novels have made the city of
Valencia, and all of this region, a land
of flowers and light. But there is much
more. In the last years, Valencia is a city
that has been rediscovered by tourists
who want to be travellers. This city has
new and emerging charms for those
who are looking to city tourism for the
incentives of rediscovering small and
large secrets. Permanently blue skies,
fertile ground; orchards and orange
trees that are both exuberant and rich.
Valencia makes its trip through history
accompanied by these compliments
and definitions, and even by more
flattering ones. They are not completely
clichés, nor are they distorted legends;
they have a lot of truth because the
landscape and weather favour
everything that has been written about
Valencia, even if it has been done with
passionate affection. However, besides
everything that has been written,
Valencia holds pleasant surprises for the
new city travellers; for the tourist
without a fixed calendar and without
any rush; for whoever appreciates
finding the middle road between
culture and enriching leisure. Valencia
has two thousand long years of history.
A Roman settlement at the shores of
Cathedral and Miguelete. Valencia. 39° 28’ 33.62” N 0° 22’ 31.18” W
28 - 29
the Turia river. After that, a Visigothic
and Muslim city, Cid Campeador who
conquers and loses it, and Jaime de
Aragón, who takes it, falls in love with
everything he sees and founds on this
ground a new Christian kingdom,
associated from that moment on, with
no interruption, to the Aragón Crown
and to the Spain that would come later.
A city linked to the Borja, Vives and
Centelles families; city of trades and
guilds, of gentlemen with ruffs and of
honest artisan professionals. City of the
young Azorín and young Ramón y Cajal.
Of Llorente, Blasco Ibáñez, Benlliure and
Joaquín Sorolla. Valencia is the city of
silk and grain, of port and artisan
workshops. Furniture and clothes,
swords and ceramics. Valencia is a
crossroads and at the same time, with
an eternal vocation of being Castilla’s
port in the Mediterranean. All these
characteristics are alive in its streets and
squares, even after all this time. The
Velluters and Carmen neighbourhoods,
the twisted roads of the Moors with
Christian trade names; the route that
Luis Vives evokes with his students. City
of Moors and Jews, of old and new
Christians, Valencia now shows all the
styles from the art history textbooks,
from Romanesque to Modernism, with
a balance that does not overwhelm and
that ends up winning the heart of the
visitor. Sarcastic and fun-loving people
live here, but also very hard-working
people; the executive that works by day
will make you the best paella at night,
without batting an eye, lighting a fire in
the middle of the street during the
Fallas festival. Gothic style in the Micalet
and baroque in Santa Catalina, the city’s
two most famous towers. In the
Cathedral, a cimborio (octagonal dome)
that becomes transparent in alabaster
Pala
“Valencia, open city, is a land so propitious for the
acclimatization of trees, as well as for men and cultures”.
(José Ombuena)
Lonja. Valencia.
39° 28’ 27.46” N 0° 22’ 42.22” W
and a lecture room where the Holy
Chalice is kept. And the tomb of Ausías
March, the Patriarch of the Valencian
language. Nights and days, wars and
centuries: Valencia. With its unique
rarities: it has dedicated almost half of
its territory to a natural park named La
Albufera and has two riverbeds for the
same dry river, after having turned its
old riverbed into an urban park (ten
kilometres long) that now makes up the
city’s unusual landscape. Valencia is the
city that became modernist at the end
The Water Court. Door of the Apostles. Valencia.
39° 28’ 34.00” N 0° 22’ 31.66” W
of the 19th century and proudly shows
the mosaics of the Mercado de Colón
(Columbus Market) and Estación del
Norte (North Train Station). In front of
the age-old Lonja (Silk Exchange) is the
Mercado Central (Central Market),
vibrant with colours and aromas,
sensual and fresh; so that we know,
from the voices of the vendors, that
there’s no town or life without the
hustle and bustle of vegetables, fruits
and fish. It is a city for the pleasure of
living, for chatting in the square; for
tapas and the semi-secret corners. The
Borja family walked through here. This
was the birthplace of Saint Vicente
Ferrer and the cloistered convent for
Sister Isabel de Villena. Olive and cypress
trees. A Mediterranean city, willing to
play with costumes and festivals. On
some days it feels classic and on others
it presents a spontaneous and natural
atmosphere, without ever losing the
composure of its roots. This city, at the
end of the 20th century, dedicated its
new image to Santiago Calatrava, one
Palau de la Música. Valencia. 39° 27’ 58.62” N 0° 21’ 42.59” W
30 - 31
of its favourite sons. The Ciudad de las
Artes y las Ciencias was the dynamic
element of an urban change that was
accompanied by a change in
motivations, ambitions and projects.
There is a new Valencia shaped by the
Palacio de Congresos (Convention
Centre), a very important International
Fair, the IVAM (Valencian Modern Art
Institute), Palau de la Música (Music
Palace) and Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía
(Art Museum). The world has
acknowledged this transformation and
Valencia, since then, changes each year,
adapting and transforming. It looks for
sporting events, unprecedented
festivals, and ambitious challenges. It
knows it is not easy to be Spain’s third
city; but its spectacular change has
made it the city with the largest hotel
increase in Spain and with the greatest
attraction for tourists. On the city’s
outskirts, the green blanket of orchards,
splashed with white farmhouses and
some solitary adobe houses. The
rectilinear crops and the delicate
attention to the earth speak more of
gardening than of agriculture; the
irrigation ditches reach every plot of
land through a capillary system that has
been regulated by the Tribunal de las
Aguas (Water Court) for thousands of
years. White towns extend to the north
and west of the great city.
Port of Alicante. 38° 20’ 21.48” N 0° 28’ 44.48” W
Alicante, city of sea
One will rarely find in a city such an
intense relation and integration
between the city and its sea. Unlike
Valencia and Castellón de la Plana,
which were located in the orchards
but away from the beach and the
ports of Grao, Alicante originated next
to the sea, in a perfect location of
nature and landscape where the
Benacantil mountain offers inhabitants
the possibility of finding shelter next to
a good natural port. These features,
with time, would give the entire city a
marine nature and would end up
influencing the open and friendly spirit
of a tourism city par excellence.
Phoenicians, Greeks, Iberians, Romans,
Arabs, etc. All the people who have
dared to sail the Mediterranean have
passed through this natural shelter,
where now, so many centuries later,
one could say that the warriors, never
completely worn out, come to find
shelter from modern times. Alicante,
and many towns in its province, in fact,
have a very high percentage of
residents from other regions of Spain
and from all of Europe. Over a hundred
nationalities have been recorded in
some cities of Alicante, some of which
have registered more residents of
foreign origin than nationals for years.
It has been written that winter has a
rendezvous and takes refuge in
Alicante. Although Vicente Ramos
wrote that this is a city pierced by the
Mediterranean, Gabriel Miró spoke of
the “serenity of a blue sky, always blue”
and of a “golden sun, strong,
generous”. In fact, the former
Lucentum (ancient predecessor of
Alicante) has awakened the sensitivity
of writers, travellers and poets because
here, the calmness of the sea and the
serene architecture of the palm tree
32 - 33
“Serenity of the blue sky, always blue,
a golden sun, strong, generous”. (Gabriel Miró)
are combined and turned into enviable
traveller service, quality of life and
service professionalism. Generous in
festivals and traditions, Alicante is
reborn each year on the Sant Joan
holiday, when it creates and burns
bonfires in the midst of popular street
celebrations and thunderous
pyrotechnics by day and by night.
Alicante is enlivened by tourism in
both the peaceful winter and intense
summer. The traveller must walk down
the Explanada, the esplanade where
everything and everyone can be
found, and go to Santa Bárbara Castle,
the city’s reason for existing, from
where one can see an impressive
marine and urban landscape.
Museums and churches, such as Santa
María in the old quarter, are landmarks
of a pleasant walk through the city.
The co-cathedral of San Nicolás, patron
saint of Alicante, makes up the
historical centre, along with the City
Hall. Although the entire coast is
beautiful, Cabo de Huertas deserves a
visit for its marine landscape. On the
outskirts of Alicante, each day the
island of Tabarca calls hundreds of
travellers. But it is also nice to go to the
monastery of Santa Faz, site of an
annual procession for the citizens of
Alicante. A short distance away, the
beach of Sant Joan d’Alacant is the
summer vacation centre of Alicante, a
place of very effective development
where hotels, spas and first-rate golf
courses are brought together.
Cathedral and El Fadrí. Castellón de la Plana. 39° 59’ 10.01” N 0° 2’ 14.93” W
Surprising Castellón de la Plana
Castellón de la Plana is the capital
of the province with the same
name. Surrounded by extensive
green plains, that which in the past
was a hidden city has become in a
few years a dynamic and prosperous
city, full of charm for the visitor.
Well balanced, Castellón de la Plana
divides its influences among
agriculture, heavy industry and a
services sector in which the traveller
finds, besides golf, top-level facilities.
Castellón de la Plana’s birth certificate
is dated 1251, when King Jaime I
authorised the primitive village,
established around the fortified hill
where today is found the Magdalena
Hermitage, to move to the plain and
found a new town. This community
peregrination is still remembered
each year: it is the popular Romería
de les Canyes, in which the residents
go up to the original hermitage and
recall their ancient roots. The very act
of this pilgrimage, the “romería”, is
characteristic of numerous festivals,
devotions and traditions of the
province of Castellón.
The idea of a village in motion has
been used in modern times to
highlight the change experienced by
the city. Because from being a city
with agricultural features it has
turned to urban activities and
determined expansion, to a powerful
and courageous growth in urban
aspects. Always in relation to
controversy, innovation and tradition
have clashed in the city that, despite
the great changes, continues
maintaining features of a life that was
provincial and tranquil.
Castellón de la Plana is always
pleasantly surprising. The Greenwich
meridian and the 40th parallel
Planetarium. Castellón de la Plana. 39° 58’ 43.41” N 0° 1’ 21.16” E
34 - 35
“Castellón is located on a plain, a league from the sea. The amenity and warmth
of its district, the beautiful streets and excellent buildings place it among the
most distinguished towns of the Kingdom.” (Antonio José Cavanilles)
intersect in the city. The Planetarium,
located near the sea, recalls this and
for years it has been a milestone in
the city’s capacity for leisure time and
culture. Castelló Cultural is a constant
dynamising factor in the field of fine
arts and shows: the Teatro Principal,
the Museo de Bellas Artes, l’Espai
d’Art Contemporani and the
Auditoriums and Convention Centres
of Castellón de la Plana and Peñíscola
move together in search of
complementary cultural activities.
The annual festivals of the city are
famous, which take place on the third
Sunday of Lent to recall the
peregrination of the residents.
Returning from the pilgrimage, the
Gaiates, monumental floats of light
and colour are paraded, which move
like triumphant carriages. In the
historical centre, the Plaza Mayor is
the heart of the city: there the City
Hall, the Central Market and the Santa
María co-cathedral meet.
Castellón de la Plana is surrounded
by agriculture that provides pleasant
and noble landscapes, associated
with the cultivation of orange trees.
Between the city and the sea, the
strip of land of the marjalería
(wetlands) is an unbeatable
vegetable garden, splashed with rural
houses for spending the summer
holidays. But, in a nearby radius, the
visitor will find the site of the Desert
de les Palmes, a protected natural
park, and the Columbretes Islands,
the only islands of the Region of
Valencia, also protected, as a natural
park and marine reserve.
Convention Centre. Valencia. 39° 29’ 46.11” N 0° 24’ 5.50”W
Business, conventions and fairs
A balanced network of fairs,
auditoriums and convention centres
has made the Region of Valencia an
ideal place to hold conventions,
conferences and professional or
commercial meetings on the
national and international level. In
the last years, the construction of new
facilities and the radical
transformation of those already
existing have left the four Valencian
tourism areas prepared to tend to any
demand in the commercial field and
to be leaders in convention tourism.
The most veteran institution, the Feria
Valencia (trade fair grounds),
originated in 1917, has recently
renewed and expanded the centre of
operations that were erected in the
1960’s. With 1,000,000 visitors annually
and 10,000 exhibitors in the 60
different shows that it organises, the
institution has become a tool at the
service of the modern economy. The
current facilities, which occupy
fourteen pavilions and a large Forum
suitable for celebrations and
Valencia Trade Fair. 39° 30’ 13.11” N 0° 25’ 43.72”W
36 - 37
conferences, provide all types of
possibilities: up to 300,000 square
metres of useful surface area can be
occupied simultaneously. A leader in
the number of events, exhibition area
and customer service, Feria Valencia is
offered as a profitable channel for
generating business.
The city of Valencia, moreover, has
forums suitable for all types of
seminars, technical and professions
meetings. Besides the Palau de la
Música, the Ciudad de las Artes y las
Ciencias, the two universities and
other institutions, Valencia has, since
1998, the Palacio de Congresos
(convention centre), a building
designed by the British architect
Norman Foster. Effective and practical,
the premises provide all types of
facilities while offering the user the
best equipment for the organisation
of all types of events. The modern
professional installations with which
the three capitals of the Region of
Valencia are equipped make it an
ideal place for the venue of national
Auditorium and Convention Centre of Castellón de la Plana. 39° 59’ 29.95” N 0° 1’ 47.06” W
and international conventions and
fairs. The new premises and its hotel
capacity make the Region of Valencia
an ideal place for all types of
professional meetings.
The Palacio de Congresos of Alicante
is a building with four stories and
more than 8,000 square metres of
surface area. In its nine rooms of
diverse capacity, it offers the latest
technologies at the service of all types
of events. The largest room has more
than 600 seats, and all the facilities
have the latest technologies.
L’Auditori i Palau de Congressos of
Castellón de la Plana placed the city
among those prepared for seminar
and convention tourism. Surrounded
by green zones, in a beautiful setting,
the institution has an auditorium with
capacity for 1,200 persons and
different rooms, with flexible use for
holding conferences as well as
concerts. It has the Magic Box, a multi-
Convention Centre. Peñíscola. 40° 21’ 40.66” N 0° 24’ 0.40” E
38 - 39
purpose room capable of holding 500
diners. The 10 meeting rooms have
capacities that vary from 50 to 125
people. In a total area of 2,025 square
metres prepared for any celebration,
all with the services of catering,
cafeteria, translation, hostesses, etc.
Finally, the Region of Valencia has the
Palau de Congressos of Peñíscola,
located in this beautiful Castellón
province, next to the sea.
Thanks to a design as effective as it is
vanguard, the institution has a main
hall for 700 seats. The building has an
exhibition hall, meeting rooms, press
and management, as well as a lower
and upper hall of dimensions
appropriate for functionality and for
possibilities and multiple uses.
Diverse and plural
This is a diverse and plural land. A
land of contrasts that offers
everything to the traveller. Past and
present, serenity and agitation. At a
very short distance, on the same route,
in the Region of Valencia it will be
possible to experience the discovery of
the most innovative next to a tradition
preserved for thousands of years: the
40 - 41
architecture of Santiago Calatrava
coexists here with the ancestral
Tribunal de las Aguas (Water Court); just
like the palm trees of Elx open under
the same sky as the cliffs of Morella.
Harsh and sweet, dry lands and
irrigated lands, green and brown, the
Valencian landscape is plural. The
rugged forests of the mountain heights
are as possible as the lagoons of reeds a
few steps from the sea. It is this
enormous variety, the contrasted
duality of the Valencian geography,
that gives it a particular charm. So that
the traveller can find it all. From north
to south and from east to west, at a
time in which the journey is a personal
experience, with a great variety of
options in order to please the palate of
very different travellers. Under the sun
and next to the sea, the Region of
Valencia waits for those who love sailing
and golf, Iberian art and contemporary
design. Full of contrasts and of life,
diverse and surprising.
VISIONS
Serra Calderona. Valencia. 39º 42’ 0.00” N 0º 24.20’ 0.00” W
The Altea cove is crowned by the
blue dome, characteristic of the
Valencian landscape. The old white
village, with narrow streets, crowds
around the Virgen del Consuelo
Church. Between the Punta Bombarda
and the Morro de Toix spreads a bay of
serene water and a port where small
yachts harmonise with the activity of
the fishermen that each morning go
out to fish.
In the province of Castellón, in
l’Alcalatén, the Penyagolosa rises
imposingly to confirm that there is a
Region of Valencia of mountainous
landscape, harsh and designed for effort.
From Vistabella of the Maestrazgo one
can reach the sanctuary of Sant Joan de
Penyagolosa and, from there, hike up to
the highest peak of the region,
Penyagolosa, at 1,814 metres. If a blanket
of clouds does not impede it, from the
peak the traveller can contemplate an
astoni shing landscape of mountain
ranges, forests and valleys.
El Turia nearly always ends up dry in
Valencia, but it is a mountain river
42 - 43
Calpe Port. 38° 37’ 44.19” N 0° 0’ 7.42” W
Ports and mountains
Next to the beauty of the beaches and calm ports, the mountain takes over the
landscape
whose source is in the mountains of
Teruel, and irrigates the Rincón de
Ademuz and crosses the rugged
landscapes of the Valencian mountain
region. From Benagéber to Pedralba,
passing through Tuéjar, Chelva, Calles,
Domeño and Chulilla, the traveller will
find imposing canyons, little-known
reservoirs, crests and pine forests. In
Chulilla, the river outlines the town,
settled on a rock mass crowned by the
old castle of Moslem style.
The ducal city of the Borja, Gandia,
is one of the substantial points of
València Terra i Mar. Capital of an
agricultural district of great prestige, La
Safor, the city treasures a distinguished
past and a present of great tourist
attraction. For many years, thousands of
summer vacationers have come to its
beach, golden and serene. There are so
many residents of Madrid that have a
house next to this beach that there are
trains and buses that make the MadridGandia route and there is a stable office
of this city in the capital of Spain.
VISIONS
Altea. Alicante. 38º 35.92’ 0.00” N 0º 3.04’ 0.00” W
Calm and intensity
Serene towns where life passes slowly next to municipalities of amazing flurry
Not very far from Morella, El
Forcall is offered to us as a symbol
of towns with a quiet life where
nothing seems to have changed. The
palace of the Osset presides over this
serene town. Streets and mansions of
a Gothic style have tranquilly gone
through time to offer their new
attractiveness to the modern traveller.
In the city of Valencia, the San
Jaime plaza, in the heart of the
popular Barrio del Carmen,
changes the morning calm for an
unusual night time activity. During
the weekends, the young people
meet here to set up one of the most
well-known recreation and leisure
areas of the entire Mediterranean: old
pharmacies, former stores,
haberdasheries and warehouses are
now active establishments where the
clock stops.
The Rincón de Ademuz is an
enclave of the Valencia province
44 - 45
Terra Mítica. Benidorm. 39° 28’ 40.57” N 0° 24’ 41.80” W
between neighbouring Teruel and
Cuenca. Ademuz, the capital of this
mountainous district is presented to
the traveller propped up on a hill as if
it were a Nativity Scene. Between the
Ebrón and the Turia, valleys of fruit
trees and poplar groves, and thick pine
woods, an exceptional setting for a
serene stay and for strolling in spring
and autumn.
Benidorm is, by itself, a force in the
tourism of the Region of Valencia.
Cosmopolitan, famous worldwide,
with thousands of hotel rooms, the
city that drove tourism of Alicante and
of all of Spain is a place of exceptional
intensity where life is hectic both at
night and during the day. With its
particular configuration of skyscrapers,
Benidorm has its own style and charm:
the Terra Mítica theme park is one of
its hundred attractions, among which
the beaches are not the least.
VISIONS
Biar Castle. Alicante. 38° 37' 47.69" N 0° 46' 12.88" W
Morella is a fortress perched on a
cliff, a town clinging to its castle and
sustained by the walled enclosure. Its
beauty originates from its rarity and is
transformed in picturesque streets,
plazas and settings. A perfect tourist
destination, it combines history with
attractions of the present, traditions
with modern art, particular gastronomy
and surrounding areas full of surprises.
The scene of wars and battles, many
events of the history of the Valencian
lands have taken place in this
impregnable fortress.
The Provincial Archaeology
Museum of Alicante, MARQ, is
excellent proof of the development
that culture has had in the Region of
Valencia for the purpose of teaching
as well as a tourist attraction. A
combination of the most modern
computer resources with the highest
selection of historical pieces have
allowed archaeology to find an ideal
place in this museum to explain the
customs, cultural expression, food and
coexistence models of the primitive
villages of the eastern part of the
Iberian Peninsula.
It is said that the San Pío V Fine Arts
46 - 47
San Pío V Fine Arts Museum. Valencia. 39° 28’ 45.54” N 0° 22’ 16.15” W
Castles and museums
Fortresses that speak of centuries coexist with cultural institutions of all kinds
Provincial Archaeology Museum (MARQ). Alicante. 38° 21’ 12.79” N 0° 28’ 35.63”W
Museum of Valencia is the second
pictorial collection in Spain because
of its quality and the quantity of
artwork that it houses. Expanded in
recent years, it brings together the
collection of the San Carlos Fine Arts
Academy and its own collections that
go from the early Valencian and
Flemish works to very select pieces of
the last decades of the 19th century.
The Valencian artistic group of that
time –Sorolla, Benlliure, Sala, Pla,
Pinazo– is magnificently represented in
its halls.
Rugged and powerful, the Biar
fortress dominates the city and
reiterates that the Valencian lands have
had gradual borders of conquest and
have also been the scene of tension
with Castilla. In the most extraordinary
cliffs, dominating valleys, road and the
outline of the rivers, there are walls and
towers that invoke a vigilant and
battling past. Beside the fortress, Biar,
which continues speaking to us of
ancient Christian and Arab kingdoms,
preserves a labyrinth of winding
streets, with a particular charm.
VISIONS
Exposición Bridge. Valencia. 39° 28’ 20.56” N 0° 21’ 57.23”W
Declared World Heritage Site by
UNESCO, the Silk Exchange of
Valencia refers to a commercial past in
which the trade guilds shaped the basic
structure of the city in which the port
linked all of those of the Mediterranean.
The Gothic spiralling columns give
solemn architecture to a contracting
room festooned with a ribbon with the
legend, in Latin, that recalls ethical
sentences of the traders.
The international architect Santiago
Calatrava was born in Valencia. And
for more than a decade he had been
leaving in his city a set of buildings that
can be considered as his most powerful
professional and artistic legacy.
Whichever you may prefer, the Ciudad
de las Artes y las Ciencias is made up
by the Hemisfèric, the Príncipe Felipe
Science Museum, Reina Sofía Art Palace,
l’Oceanogràfic, l’Umbracle, the Assut de
l’Or Bridge and the Ágora.
The church of the Sangre is one of the
most outstanding pieces of Valencian
religious culture and a key building of
the city of Llíria, called the “City of Music”.
48 - 49
L’Almoina Gate. Valencia Cathedral. 39° 28' 32.51" N 0° 22' 28.04" W
Classical and contemporary
The styles of the past coexist with the most fascinating modern architecture
It was the first temple that achieved the
protection as an historical artistic
monument in the Valencian region. And
this is due to the fact that it is one of the
few that preserves Romanic traces along
with those of Sagunt and Xàtiva. It is, then,
a temple of the first era of Christian
domination, a time of change and the
settlement of a new culture.
In Castellón de la Plana we can find the
contrast: it is the Planetarium, the first
that was built in the Region of
Valencia, a facility from the 1980s, prior to
that of the Ciudad de las Artes y las
Ciencias of Valencia. It is located next to
the Pinar beach, to the north of the Grao
Port, and it was the first dynamic element
of the change of the city de la Plana in
reference to leisure and culture. Castellón
de la Plana, in the first years of the 21st
century is a city with outstanding
examples of new architecture at the
service of culture.
VISIONS
El Saler Golf Course. Valencia. 39° 19' 9.51" N 0° 18' 5.43" W
The serenity of a golf course, the
solitary peace of a good stroke is a
pleasure within reach of everyone on the
golf courses of the Region of Valencia,
that appear among the best equipped
and designed of Spain. Always with fair
weather, any of the facilities to which the
traveller may go, located next to the sea
or towards the interior, will satisfy the
aspirations of the golfers. El Saler golf
course, located next to the Tourism
Parador of the same name, is one of the
most prestigious facilities in Europe.
Enjoying music of the latest trends, in a
multitudinous atmosphere of festivity
and participation, it is one of the many
possibilities of tourism of the Region of
Valencia.
Thousands of young fans, coming
from all over Europe, join in with
multitudes, each summer, in the
International Music Festival of
Benicàssim, FIB, Rototom Festival,
Arenal Sound Burriana and Low
Festival Benidorm. Singers with great
appeal and the best national and
international rock groups increasingly
include the four Valencian tourist areas
in their schedules of activities and tours.
Each June, Les Fogueres de Sant
50 - 51
Desert and town
The traveller can look for solitude or enjoy being submerged in multitudes
Joan (bonfires of St. John)
culminate with the fire ceremony in
a mass festival, worth being
experienced in the street, in the
popular stalls where young and old
get together for a coexistence that
extends without hours to bridge the
day and night. Among fireworks, the
flames devour cardboard and wooden
monuments to set the rhythm of the
festival of the following year. That
night, the firemen carry out the ritual
established ritual of watering the
excess flames on the façades and the
heat of the multitude of festival goers.
But the lovers of serenity and large
spaces, also have their opportunity
in the mountain heights of
Castellón, Alicante and Valencia.
The mountain climber will find daring
cliffs for his activity and the hiker a
network of paths perfectly marked
and preserved. Deep ravines, winding
paths, torrents and forest allow all
types of sports activities individually or
in small groups, far from the bustle
and noise of the multitudes.
NATURE
Monastery of Santa María de la Valldigna. Simat de la Valldigna. 39° 2’ 34.80” N 0° 18’ 18.89” W
The church of Nuestra Señora de los
Ángeles was built on a large
fortified Templar tower erected on
the rocky mound of Castielfabib.
Perched on a cliff, peering out over
lush valleys of poplars and fruit trees,
the town is one of the most
picturesque landscapes of the Rincón
de Ademuz, a characteristic district of
the Valencian interior. Rural tourism
has awakened new tourist routes in
the three provinces of the Region of
Valencia and has opened new
scenarios, now placed within the reach
of travellers.
The monastery of Santa María de la
Valldigna is located in one of the
most beautiful valleys of the region.
Surrounded by mountains, the stream
bed, populated with lush orange
groves, it opens to the sea and
conforms an exceptional setting. In the
14th century, the Cistercian monks
founded a cenobium, profusely
decorated in baroque times and
abandoned because of the
disentailment. Through extensive
efforts, the Valencian Regional
Government is recovering the place
and returning it to its former splendour.
52 - 53
Calpe. Costa Blanca. 38° 38' 33.24" N 0° 3' 23.82" E
Peaks and valleys
The orography of the Region of Valencia allows great contrast with the landscape
Monastery of Santa María de Benifassà. La Tinença de Benifassà. 40° 40' 35.44" N 0° 11' 49.58" E
Challenging the Mediterranean, like
a watchtower, the Peñón de Ifach
carries with it the legend of being
one of the towers of Hercules. It is
the most characteristic landscape of
the Costa Blanca, the reference of a
postcard of blooming almond trees
and white houses that climb up in
search of a benign sun all year round
and an intensely blue sea. In the rocks
of the coast we can find the Baños de
la Reina, remains of rafts from a factory
where the Romans prepared salted
fish.
Benasal has the name of a spa of
salutary waters where the Font d’En
Segures has for centuries tried to attain
the wellbeing of those who go to its
facilities. Located in one of the most
beautiful valleys of the interior of
Castellón, the town has a rich history
that is preserved in ruins of the wall
and various ancestral houses that make
up plazas with porticos. For decades
the hermitages, pine woods, walks
among shadows and fruit trees have
made more enjoyable the excursions
of the summer vacationers that look
for relief in the fountains and health
from the springs.
NATURE
East and west
The variety of landscape takes us to very different scenarios
The interior of the Region of Valencia
is mountainous and is frequently
covered with lush forests. Those of the
natural parks of the Tinença de
Benifassà, the Sierra de Espadán and the
Desert de les Palmes, in the province of
Castellón, are particularly rich in corn
oaks, Kermes oaks and Holm oaks,
besides different types of pine and
coniferous trees. The protected birds of
prey have taken over the peaks in the
Valencian mountain ranges.
Palm trees make one think of the
south. Palm trees refer us to an
oriental landscape. In midst of the vast
Valencian orange grove, the slender
palm tree is a reference for the hiker. As
we advance towards the south, the
contrast of the palm trees becomes
more frequent and intense until making
up actual forests in the south part of the
Alicante province and especially in Elx.
But along with the adobe houses, or the
white farmhouses, it is an unavoidable
reference of the Valencian landscape.
The orange tree continues being the
master of extensive areas of Valencian
54 - 55
The palm grove of Elx. Alicante. 38° 5’ 67.0.00” N 0° 56’ 28.0.00” W
landscape. From the coastal zone it has
been climbing in altitude in the
protected areas of the interior. Marina
and Safor, Ribera and Camp de Turia, and
of course Plana de Castellón present lush
orchards with orange groves that
tradition teaches to cultivate with
delicacy. In Vila-real and Borriana, in the
province of Castellón, the exporting
brands compete in quality and pedigree
with those of Carcaixent and Alzira, on
the banks of the river Xúquer.
A few kilometres from Vila-real or Nules,
towards the interior, the landscape
changes and the orange tree
concedes its priority to the olive tree.
It is still possible to find thousand-yearold olive trees in the interior of the
province: an official declaration has given
them protection as assets of public
interest. In the areas near the natural park
of Sierra de Espadán –from Aín to Chóvar
and from Alfondeguilla to Eslida– the oil
is elaborated with traditional care and
results in accredited handcrafted brands.
NATURE
Large and small
Nature, with its variety, offers the most vivid contrasts
In the Bioparc of Valencia, Africa
has been reconstructed in detail so
that the species may adapt to their
new habitat. In this way, it is not
unusual to see in the same excursion a
rhinoceros and elephants, giraffes and
large felines. Hundreds of people visit
the facilities each day, especially those
designed so that the greatest freedom
of movement of the animals is made
possible, the utmost safety and the
greatest sensation of unity between
the fauna and the landscape.
Four islands make up a singular and
very old island chain of volcanic origin.
They are the Columbretes Islands,
one of the most cared for natural
parks of the Mediterranean, a place
where being delicate and small
is still important. The protection
permits the rarest plant species to
coexist with birds that find
there a specialised refuge of
environmental quality. The lizard of the
Columbretes is an endemic species
that cannot be found in any other part
of the world.
56 - 57
Beluga. L’Oceanogràfic. Valencia. 39° 27’ 19.49” N 0° 21’ 9.64” W
The seabeds of the Valencian coast
are places of singular beauty and
environmental quality. They are bays
of clean and transparent water where
the meadows of seagrass are part of the
landscape between bands of fish. On
the coast of the Serra d’Irta, in the
setting of the Tabarca island, or in the
natural park of the Serra Gelada, in the
proximity of Altea and Benidorm, the
Region offers scuba divers the
guarantee of enjoyment at a depth of a
very few metres.
In l’Oceanogràfic de Valencia, the
larger marine species wait for the
visitors. In some cases, as occurs with
the dolphins, to give them thrilling
shows, full of liveliness and intelligence.
In others, as is the case of the orcas and
other large marine mammals, so that the
curious can know the power and the
majesty of animals that have found in
this aquarium the accommodation that
they needed to live and reproduce in
freedom.
NATURE
Peñón de Ifach. 38º 37.95' 0.00"N 0º 4.80' 0.00" E
Natural Reserve Network
A great variety of Mediterranean flora and fauna
The Region of Valencia has a network
of natural spaces that are among
those of the best quality in Europe
and that are already the second in
Spain. Established for the purpose of
protecting the natural territory in the
upcoming years, it is object of
investments dedicated to the restoration
of the environment, the promotion of
research and the prevention of forest
fires. In all these areas, the traveller will
find the best landscape and
environmental conditions, a variety of
fauna and flora worthy of interest and
sheltered places and information on
activities that are scheduled and the
values that are defended in the reserves.
Besides the more than twenty natural
parks, the Region of Valencia has
landscapes with protection, natural
settings of a municipal character and
58 - 59
Chera. Valencia. 39° 35’ 36.08” N 0° 58’ 22.02” W
protected natural monuments. Other
protection models that the European
legislation considers are those places of
community interest, of which there are
around one hundred in the region, and
the areas of special protection for birds
that exist from north to south.
The Region of Valencia has precious
wetlands that are especially
protected. They are the ones of Prat de
Cabanes- Torreblanca, Albufera of
Valencia and the Santa Pola salt
L’Albufera. Valencia. 39° 19’ 19.01” N 0° 19’ 49.92” W
marshes. The Fondo d’Elx, the Marjal
Pego-Oliva and the lagoons of MataTorrevieja complete a series of
protected areas at the edge of the sea.
As stopping points for the migratory
birds, these wetlands located in coastal
areas of the region have special
relevance and protection. The Albufera
of Valencia is the largest wetland and
especially characterises the city to which
the lake belongs. Valencia is the only
large capital of Spain that has a natural
park in its municipal district: specifically,
it occupies 43% of the surface that is
owned by the city. Of this area especially
protected for its beauty and
environmental importance, 48% is
occupied by the lake, with the remainder
being reserved for rice fields, reeds and
the sandy bar of El Saler and La Devesa.
NATURE
Serra Gelada. Benidorm. 30º 31.83' 0.00 N 0º 5.43'0.00 W
Besides the Peñón de Ifach, in Calpe,
there are coastal mountain ranges
that have been subject of special
protection for the high landscape and
natural value. They are the Serra d’Irta,
in Castellón , and the peaks of
Montgó and Serra Gelada, in the
areas of Costa Blanca and Benidorm.
For its beauty, for its values, thousands
of hectares of territory of the Region of
Valencia are subject of special
supervision and protection. Each year,
around 800,000 persons visit the
protected natural settings of the region,
either on group excursions or on private
visits. The affluence of excursionists is
growing, in step with the extension of
the environmental values in the society.
In the proximity of Castellón de la
Plana and Benicàssim, the Desert de
les Palmes is a place of more than
60 - 61
Penyagolosa Massif. Vistabella del Maestrazgo. 40º 13’33.00” N 0º 20’57.00”W
Penyagolosa is a beautiful protected park
of special environmental value whose
peak is at more than 1,800 metres in altitude.
3,000 hectares, protected since 1989
for its singular beauty. The mountains
of the Puebla de San Miguel, in
Ademuz, and the Sierra Calderona
have been protected too, contributing
more than 25,000 hectares to the areas
of special supervision.
The Sierra Calderona is comprised of
more than 18,000 hectares of
extension and takes in lands of fourteen
towns on the two sides of the mountain
chain, in the province of Valencia as well
as in that of Castellón. In addition to
being one of the green lungs nearest
the city of Valencia, the Sierra safeguards
two important monasteries: the Cartuja
de Portaceli, founded in 1272 by the
Cistercians, and the Franciscan convent
of Santo Espíritu del Monte.
NATURE
Los Cuchillos. Cabriel River. 39º 36.30’ 0.00 N 0º 46.74’ 0.00 W
“The Valencian does not disdain anything. If he finds obstacles, he overcomes them with tenacity;
if the soil is unrewarding, he improves it; if it is fertile, he makes it produce up to three or four crops
a year” (Antonio José Cavanilles. “Observaciones sobre el Reino de Valencia” [Observations on
the Kingdom of Valencia]. 1792)
The Hoces del Cabriel, that
separate the Region of Valencia
from the province of Cuenca, is an
area of exceptional interest that has
been object of protection by the
Valencian Regional Government. It
concerns more than 30,000 hectares
of the best protected places, with
canyons where the river Cabriel draws
the border between the two regions.
Among the fauna stands out the
abundance of birds of prey, with the
62 - 63
Font Roja. Alcoy. 38º 39.82’ 0.00” N 0º 32.35’ 0.00” W
presence of eagles.
More than twelve thousand
hectares of the Sierra de Mariola,
in Alicante, are also protected,
where more than 12,000 species of
plants are catalogued, many of them
endemic, and the two thousand
hectares of Holm oaks of Font
Roja, pride of the city of Alcoy, one
of the natural sites of all of Spain that
has obtained the Q of quality for the
excellence of its management.
NATURE
Turia River. 39º 36.30’ 0.00” N 0º 46.47’ 0.00” W
“Through time, the Valencian has always
tried to tame the river Turia”. (José Soler Carnicer)
The Ribera del Turia is an important
area, protected since 2007; it spreads
for almost five thousand hectares in a
total of thirteen riverside towns of the
Turia, in the region of l’Horta and Camp
de Turia. The pine trees make up the
main forest masses in the surrounding
area. The Barranco Hondo aqueduct and
the Vallesa de Mandor reservoir make up
the protected area.
The Tinença de Benifassà, the Sierra
de Espadán, the Columbretes Islands
64 - 65
and the massif of Penyagolosa are four
natural spaces, each different from the
other, but all of great importance in
terms of landscape and environment.
With them, the heritage of the province
of Castellón is enriched. On the other
hand, in the province of Valencia over
6,000 hectares of thick forests in the
Chera-Sot de Chera area, have also
been the object of unique protection
from the Valencian Regional Government.
NATURE
Llíber. 38º 44' 32.66" N 0º 00' 22.78" E
The value of rural tourism
One of the best values exploited by
private initiatives in the Region of
Valencia is rural tourism. Small
business owners from Valencia
have begun reforms and
adaptations in their rural homes in
order to turn them into shelters
and simple vacation homes where
the way of life and tending to the
66 - 67
Ademuz. 40º 3.64' 0.00" N 1º 17.13' 0.00" W
travellers have been maintained as
in classic times.
With simplicity, honesty of a
natural and generous cuisine, with
approved facilities in every case,
small town entrepreneurs from the
Valencian provinces are achieving a
growing presence of travellers,
Valencian, Spanish and foreigners,
who repeat the experience of good
treatment in search of values
contrasting with reasonable prices.
This way, small towns where there
never was a boarding house or
where business disappeared years
ago, once again have beds
available in well-furnished houses.
This has brought about the
possibility of travelling to places
and exploring new areas, with the
resulting benefit for the more
deteriorated regions of the interior
in resources and perspectives.
Columbretes Islands. 39º 53' 38.23" N 0º 41' 10.12" E
68 - 69
Parque Natural
Natural Reserve
Natural Marine Reserve
CULTURE
Cathedral. Orihuela. 38° 5' 9.29" N 0° 56' 45.54" W
In the Valencian lands there are
noticeable traces of Romanesque art,
which came with the conquerors
preceding Jaime I in the highlands of
Castellón and Rincón de Ademuz. In
Valencia, there is the Almoina gate, the
most primitive of the Cathedral, it evokes
the legend of the seven families that paid
for it and that without a doubt were
among the first Christian residents of the
repopulated city. The traveller can read the
names of the man and his wife under each
of the smiling figures.
Ripollés is the symbol of Castellón art in
the 21st century. Affable and natural,
covered in simplicity and innocence, the
painter and sculptor dresses with a white
tunic, covers his head with a handkerchief
that is designed each day and always
shows a blade of grass in his smiling,
ingenious and happy face. Close to life, his
work can be seen in many plazas and
crossroads of the Valencian cities; to make
public a Valencian way of living, close to
materials and nature.
Eusebio Sempere is the artist of
Alicante. So much so that the
70 - 71
Tribute to books. Juan Ripollés. Valencia. 39° 27’ 50.48” N 0° 21’ 30.60” W
Yesterday and today
The diversity of culture and of the fine arts offer examples from all eras
Contemporary Art Museum of Alicante,
located in the Casa de la Asegurada, a
building from the 17 th century and of
noble design, have a highlighted place
dedicated to him. Within its rooms, the
visitor will find a magnificent collection of
contemporary paintings and sculpture,
from the donation that the artist made in
1976. In addition to his works, one can
enjoy relevant pieces of Joan Miró and
Picasso, of Tàpies, Millares, Chillida, Saura,
Juan Gris, Julio González and others.
The city of Orihuela, cradle of the
poet Miguel Hernández, is the
Episcopal seat and treasures a set of the
noble palaces that make necessary as
detailed visit to the stately streets and
plazas. Apart from the Palacio Episcopal
and the Santiago church, which is
Property of Cultural Interest, it is
recommended to visit the Cathedral,
which began with a Gothic design and
later had elegant Renaissance and
Baroque additions. A good museum,
linked with the episcopate, summarises
the city’s artistic history.
CULTURE
Dama d’Elx. 38° 14' 14.67" N 0.39° 42' 0.84" W
Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno. IVAM. Valencia. 39° 28’ 47.73” N 0° 22’ 58.72”W
Serene and beautifully covered, the
Dama d’Elx was named the Reina
Mora in the days of its discovery. Her
eyes seem to hold mystery; her
flamboyant chignon evokes forgotten
etiquette. What was placed in the
hollow that the sculpture has in its
back? Perfumes, offerings, ashes? The
Dama de d’Elx was discovered by a
farmer, at the end of the 19th century, in
an orchard in Elx destiny took it to the
Louvre Museum from which it returned
to stay in Madrid, cared for in the
National Archaeology Museum. Elx
longed for its return to where it first
came, which became temporarily
possible a short time ago.
The painter and sculptor Manolo
Valdés, one of the founders of the
Equipo Crónica, built for the avenue of
the Valencian Courts, one of the main
locations of modern Valencia, this new
version of the Dama d’Elx, made with
thousands of small Damas made of blue
ceramic. Stylised, simple and serene, the
new Dama also seems to hold secrets in
the distance with which it looks out at
72 - 73
Dama Ibérica. Manolo Valdés. Valencia. 39° 29’ 22.92” N 0° 23’ 58.12” W
Tradition and avant garde
Classicism and the vanguards offer a wise combination of arts
the daily hustle and bustle from the
centre of the monumental roundabout.
The Guerrero de Moixent is a figurine
of Iberian art. Found in the excavations
of the Iberian village of Bastida de les
Alcusses, on the outskirts of Moixent,
the horse rider has become a Valencian
symbol. Prizes with its name are
awarded and its image is reproduced on
trophies and sculptures of different
sizes. The original, a few centimetres in
height, is carefully kept in the Museo de
Prehistòria of València, located in the
cultural complex of La Beneficencia.
Close by, barely some distance away, is
the Instituto Valenciano de Arte
Moderno (IVAM). It was founded in
1989 and, along with the Palau de la
Música, was the initial dynamic element
of the change of Valencia towards
vanguardism and modernism. Today.
the IVAM, in a renowned institution on
an international scale which exhibits
and cares for the collections of Julio
González, Ignacio Pinazo, Josep Renau,
Equipo Crónica and all the vanguards of
the 20th century.
CULTURE
Baroque doorway of the Cathedral. Valencia. 39° 28’ 33.62” N 0° 22’ 31.18”W
In Valencian lands, the traveller will
find all the styles and very diverse
forms to address architecture and art.
Thus, in the primitive Cistercian
constructions, the simplicity of form will
make us recall a world without artifice,
where the solidity of stone leads to
prayer and contemplation.
Years later, the Valencian temples took
on the baroque abundance in the
decoration of columns and capitals. If
the city of Valencia encloses a complete
sampling of all the stages of fine arts, a
trip through the Region of Valencia will
make the experience even richer and
more varied: Gothic, Renaissance and
Baroque, Neoclassical too, coexist
harmoniously in temples, palaces and
belfries of the Valencian lands.
Sant Mateu is a beautiful city of
medieval style that in its day
experienced the splendour of being the
true historical capital of the Maestrazgo.
Its relation with the medieval military
orders (San Juan de Jerusalén and
Montesa) can still be followed in the
outline of its main temple dedicated to
74 - 75
Colón Market. Valencia. 39° 28’ 7.51” N 0° 22’ 8.27” W
Simple and complex
Next to starkness, abundance: the styles are superimposed in culture
Sant Mateu. 40° 27’ 50.08” N 0° 10’ 41.75” E
St. Peter, in the large Gothic windows of
its palaces and in the routes of its
narrow streets. It was the site of
meetings of the Courts of the Kingdom
of Valencia and, in its church, Papa Luna,
Benedicto XIII, presented his resignation,
famous for his resistance in ceding in his
schismatic determination from his
fortress in Peñíscola.
Modernism is very much present in
the buildings of the Ensanche district
of the city of Valenica. But a
particularly refined and elegant
expression is found in Novelda, a city
of Alicante, where the seafarer Jorge
Juan was born. The city, outstanding for
its marble industries and for its table
grapes, has created a Museo Modernista
that is a living example of the
decoration and furnishing of this style,
located in a house – a clear example of
Modernism and the moment – built
between 1900 and 1904.
CULTURE
Depositary of Culture
A complete network of museums await the visitor in the Region of Valencia
Almost all the periods and
specialities of art and culture are
found in the specialised museums of
the Region of Valencia.
From large collections to the modest
local undertakings to bring together
archaeology and ethnology pieces, you
are ensured that there are few medium-
sized cities that do not have something
of interest and that there are many
small towns that have made a cultural
effort worthy of respect. Sometimes,
this collecting and preserving desire has
accompanied a project of a greater
goal, such as the restoration of a wine
cellar, a mansion, a mill... in a
commendable operation that has led to
recalling the old industry and bringing
together in it other pieces of cultural
and historical interest. It is in the city of
Valencia where there is the most
variety of museums and collections
to visit.
From the IVAM to the Museo de
76 - 77
Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno. IVAM.
Valencia. 39° 28’ 47.73” N 0° 22’ 58.72” W
Conchita Piquer, located in the house
she was born in, the traveller will find
museums dedicated to numerous
subjects, from the Corpus Christi
procession to rice. It is essential to get
to know the Museo de Bellas Artes and
the Museo Nacional de Cerámica, the
medieval Atarazanas (dockyards) where
Marqués de Dos Aguas Palace. Valencia. 39° 28’ 21.50” N 0° 22’ 28.53” W
ships were built for the Crown and the
Museo de la Ilustración y la Modernidad,
MUVIM.
The school of Corpus Christi, or that of
the Patriarca, house a magnificent
collection of paintings and a library of
excellent worth. The cultural complex of
the Beneficencia always presents
interesting expositions and unites the
museums of Prehistory and Ethnology.
Lastly, the city has two museums of
history and an exhibition hall in the
medieval Almudín. The bullfight,
military, fallas and natural science
museums are also interesting. The
University also preserves very
CULTURE
Ducal Palace. Gandia. 38° 58' 08.50'' N 0° 11' 06.81''W
important collections and houses the
first book printed in Spain. In the
Valencian Library, located in the
imposing monastery of San Miguel de
los Reyes, in the orchard to the north of
Valencia, there are usually seasonal
exhibits
In the province of Valencia there are
outstanding archaeological
collections in Sagunt and in Llíria, as
well as in Cullera and Gandia. It is
necessary to know the Museo de
l’Almodí, of Xàtiva, and the Ducal
Palace of Gandia. Albaida has an
original museum dedicated to the
Puppets (titelles) and Aras de los Olmos
has another dedicated to fossils. In
Godella one can visit the Casa-Museo
Pinazo and in l’Olleria the Museo de
Vidrio (glass museum). Oliva preserves
the house of the family Mayans and, in
Manises, there is an important
collection of ceramics and a museum
dedicated to the entire handcrafted
process. The Museo de la Imprenta y la
Obra Gráfica (printing and graphic arts
museum) can be visited in the
78
78- 79
Modernist Museum. Novelda. 38º 23' 10.77" N 0º 45' 54.65" W
Monastery of Santa María del Puig.
Nearly all the medium-sized cities of
the province of Alicante have an
interesting archaeological collection
that can be visited. However, those of
Elx, Dénia and Villena stand out, which
preserve the impressive treasure of
their name. Ethnographical collections
and those of lost trades also abound,
especially those related to agriculture.
In Ibi there is a notable and curious
museum dedicated to the great local
resource which is the toy. In Monóvar,
there is the house where José Ruiz,
Azorín, was born.
Castellón de la Plana offers an
interesting ethnology museum. The
history museum of Nules and that of
natural sciences of El Carmen de
Onda guarded by Carmelites deserves
mention. Segorbe, the Episcopal Seat,
has a cathedral museum; while
Vilafamés has a noteworthy
contemporary art collection, resulting
from the critic Vicente Aguilera Cerni’s
passion; and Morella has footprints
dinosaurs left behind.
CULTURE
Heritage of Humanity
In the year 1996, the UNESCO
decided to bestow the title of
Heritage of Humanity on Valencia’s
Lonja de la Seda (Silk Exchange), a
monument held as the most beautiful
building of the civil Gothic style of the
entire Mediterranean. Two years later, it
agreed to declare the protection of the
Cave Art of the Mediterranean Arc of the
Iberian Peninsula, the Palm Grove of Elx
in the year 2000, and the Misteri d’Elx, a
sacral-lyrical drama of medieval origin
that continues being represented each
month of August in honour of the
Asunción de la Virgen María (Ascension),
was declared in 2001 as an Asset of Oral
and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
The Tribunal de las Aguas has been
declared a world heritage site in 2009
and, in 2011, la Festa de la Mare de Déu
de Algemesí festivity.
Valencia’s Lonja de la Seda, or Lonja de los
Mercaderes, has the virtue of being the
centre of trading since it was founded, at
80 - 81
Inside the Lonja. Valencia.
39° 28’ 27.46” N 0° 22’ 42.22”W
the end of the 15th century. Constructed
between 1482 and 1498 at the expense
of the city of Valencia, it was the
headquarters of the Consulat del Mar, the
trade regulating institution. The
contracting room, supported by eight
twisted columns that open like palm trees
in the ceiling, was festooned with a
ribbon with Latin slogans that give moral
advice to the traders. Doors and windows,
a helicoidal stairway without auxiliary
shoring, the Consulate Room and the
Patio of the Orange Trees complete some
of the values of a unique monument.
The Cave Art of the Mediterranean
Arc of the Iberian peninsula extends
Cave Art. La Valltorta. Castellón.
40° 25’ 46.45” N 0° 5’ 31.86” E
from Andalucía to Cataluña, but the
most unique examples are found in the
Valencian region. The inland regions of
the Region of Valencia shelter cave
drawings with impressive
representations of hunting scenes, of
shepherding or honey gathering. In the
town of Tirig, in Castellón, near where
the Cova de la Valltorta is found, of
particular significance, the Generalitat
founded a museum dedicated to these
artistic representations, which are
between 4,000 and 7,000 years old. In
the interior of the province of Valencia
there are at least another 16 sheltered
places of singular importance of which
the Cueva de la Araña, in Bicorp, is the
one of greatest relevance.
The palm tree makes up the
Mediterranean landscape par
excellence and turns Elx into a unique
forest. Subject of a protective
declaration by the UNESCO as universal
cultural heritage, Elx, where the Iberian
Dama was discovered that has its name,
possesses precious orchards of palm
trees among which stands out the
famous Huerto del Cura: the imperial
palm tree, with eight arms, boasts of an
age of nearly two centuries. In the
proximity of the sea, the Fondo, or the
Hondo, is a marsh rich in flora and fauna.
CULTURE
Seasons of music and festivals
Theatre, symphonic music, ballet,
opera, pop music, jazz... The options
are always open in the Region of
Valencia. All the musical modalities,
and all the styles, find accommodation
in the institutions of Castellón, Valencia,
Alicante and Benidorm. The Valencian
Regional Government, which has a
network of theatres and auditoriums in
the principal cities of the region,
coordinates the most important
programming. But along with the
public initiative, the private sector offers
stimulating programming throughout
almost the entire year in all the
Valencian tourist areas.
The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, in
Valencia, has become one of the most
important opera and lyrical
auditoriums of Spain. Lorin Maazel and
Zubin Mehta, in just a few years, have
82 - 83
situated the institution at the peak of
musical aspirations. Its programming
goes from October to March but it
connects, when spring arrives, with the
Festival del Mediterráneo, which runs
until June. Opera, symphonic music,
zarzuela, musical comedy, ballet... They
all appear through the year, making
more enjoyable the conferences, exhibits
and lectures in a cultural machine that
combines three large halls.
In the city of Valencia itself the Palau de
la Música offers, since 1987, varied
programming that goes from great
symphonies to popular band music, in its
two sound rooms. The autumn/winter
season coexists with that of the spring,
which becomes diverse when summer
arrives, when the jazz festival arrives and
open-air concerts are lavished on the
gardens of the riverbed of the Turia.
CULTURE
Roman theatre. Sagunt. 39° 40' 35.82" N 0° 16' 40.55" W
Castellón de la Plana and Alicante also
have lyrical seasons to satisfy a
demanding public. If in the city of la
Plana opera is offered from October,
the city of Benacantil prepares each
year a prestigious festival of
contemporary music with national
impact. In Castellón there are festivals
and competitions, as in Benicàssim, in
honour of the guitarist Tárrega, and in
Valencia each year the pianist José Iturbi is
evoked.
As regards the theatre, the traveller will
find stable programming in the principal
theatres of the three capitals and in many
other public and private halls of the
region. But it is in the summer when
special festivals will be found: classical and
baroque music is programmed in many
places, but those of Monserrat and
Oropesa del Mar stand out; and of those
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Teatro Principal. Castellón de la Plana. 39° 59' 2.08" N 0° 2' 16.26" W
“The idea of strength, which is always united with the memory of Rome, emerges
incomparable from this rubble, adhered to the rocks and hardened like them”.
(Teodoro Llorente. Sagunt, 1887)
dedicated to the theatre the most
relevant is that of Sagunt, which is
carried out in the ancient Roman
theatre.
But on the more popular scale, the
bands of music are the great cultural
wealth of the Region of Valencia.
There are more than three hundred
federated musical bands, supported
by thousands of young workers that are
learning musical sensitivity. If in the
Valencian festivals we are always going
to hear fantastic popular music, in the
festivals and competitions, in winter as
well as in summer, the programming
becomes more demanding and the
quality is not far from the great
symphonism. The Certamen de Bandas
of the July Fair in Valencia is one of the
most prestigious of Spain.
GASTRONOMY
In the Valencian cooking ranges, there
is not much occasion for disputes. Two
do not argue if no one wants to and in
the restaurants of Alicante, Valencia
and Castellón in the 21st century, the
traveller can find contrasts, and
numerous occasions for variety and
contrast; but never contradiction and
must less confrontation. Because, in
the restaurants of the Region of
Valencia, innovation is a required area
of the profession of cooking, which
always originates from a
comprehensive and admiring view of
those who, in the past, exercised the
mastery in family atmospheres or with
very little projection.
There is no dispute, in fact, when
establishing that good products are
always the key. There can be no
tension when there is a decided
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Tradition and Innovation
The old roots are not incompatible with the research on new textures and flavours
predilection for the simplest materials,
presented in the most natural form.
Good fish, excellent vegetables, select
meat and respectful treatment make
up a way of preparing, always full of
affection, that will result in the eternal
Mediterranean cuisine and also in the
most demanding results of innovation.
There is a bit of everything, then, in
contrast but without challenge, in the
cuisine of the Region of Valencia: for
this reason we will find tradition and
evolution. And also such different
worlds as that of fish and that of meat,
that of the coast and that of the inland.
Cuisine without haste in the villages
and with the table laid for urban life
and the business world. The taste is in
the variety.
GASTRONOMY
Rice is the king in Valencian cuisine,
the scholars ensure us. But it has never
been alone. The Valencian would not
know how to live without his rice, but it
is also true that one can eat splendidly
beyond the rice. In order to see clearly
this contrast of the traditional and
modern cuisine in the substantial
chapter of rice, over time, it has adapted
to the variety of the products that the
market offered, the economic
possibilities, the local traditions and the
good taste and creativity of the chef.
In the field of desserts and pastries, the
traveller will find an identical set of
passionate contrasts.
The arnadí is an ancient Valencian
sweet, made with roasted pumpkin.
From Xàtiva and its district, its recipe
has been preserved from olden times
and has extended to many other
points of the Region of Valencia. Sugar,
eggs, lemon, cinnamon and almonds
accompany the roasted pumpkin in
Arnadí. Xàtiva.
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Arnadí. Xàtiva.
Of the sea and the vegetable garden
All the flavours meet in the varied cuisine of the Valencian lands
order to take the palate many
centuries back, to the time of Moorish
domination of these lands.
Sugar cane reached Europe through
these lands and was cultivated
profusely in large Valencian districts.
So it is natural that here there is a very
rich tradition of pastries, linked to a
product of its own such as the
almond. Alicante is the land of the
turrones and ice cream, and the
three Valencian provinces have known
how to prepare magnificent
chocolates for centuries. Along this
line, the modern restaurant business
continues looking for the way to
surprise the most demanding palate
with delicate preparations in which
the traditional products of the
architecture of flavours are present.
GASTRONOMY
Strong and light
The geography and the climate characterise the cuisine of all the districs
In the interior of the provinces of
Valencia and Alicante, the Valencian
cuisine is transformed and adopts as
its own dish the gazpacho de caza
(gazpacho of game). We are far from
the sea and here the roads are what
bring the influence of La Mancha’s
cuisine. Ayora and its district are a
perfect example. But there are many
other places: in Cortes de Pallás, in
Bocairent, and in many districts of the
Alicante interior, Monóvar and Villena,
in Castalla too, the traveller will find the
aroma of the mountain herbs together
with that of the game. A shepherds’
dish, strong for those days in which
winter is approaching; it is another
characteristic of the variety of Valencian
cuisine.
On the coast, however, there are
districts where the preparation of food
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claims minimum intervention. One just
needs a sheet of pastry to put into it
whatever one’s imagination dictates,
depending on the possibilities of our
pantry. We have found in the kingdom
of the tarts, prepared in Moorish
ovens, that the traveller will associate
very soon with the world of the pizzas
of the not very distant Italy. There are
flour tarts, but also of corn (dacsa). On
occasions, some vegetables, a little
sobrasada (soft spicy sausage), an
anchovy are enough to reach the
perfection of culinary simplicity. The
tart can be so humble that it barely
contains oil and salt. Heirs of a tradition
that must be traced to the Moorish
domination, the Valencian pastries and
desserts enjoy great fame. If Alicante is
with full justice the cradle of
turrones and of ice cream, the
villages of the Region of Valencia
collect ancient recipes in which
almonds and oil, associated with eggs
and sugar, provide the palate with an
incredible variety of flavours.
At the same time, from the Roman
era, the Valencians have shown a
special tendency to prepare
magnificent salted and marinated
food. The fish (anchovies, tuna, frigate
mackerel, cod, octopus) have become
delicate bites, very appreciated by the
most demanding palates.
GASTRONOMY
White, rosé and red
Valencian wine is famous and boasts
of variety
The wine of the Region of Valencia,
with Designation of Origin, has wellmerited fame in Europe and America. If
from olden times one has spoken with
admiration of the wines from Alicante
and Valencia, it has been in recent
decades when a quality selection
process has occurred that has been
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associated with international
recognition and appropriate marketing.
In this way, on a tradition that in the
19th century gave great returns in
quantity of production, they now work
on quality levels that are highly
esteemed and recognised.
Variety also appears when speaking of
Valencian wine. The dry white wines
from the Alto Turia are famous, as
are the rosé and red wines from
Utiel and Requena. No less
recognised is the sweet wine of
Godelleta and of La Marina in
Alicante. The designation of origin
Alicante is especially outstanding for
the quality of its productions.
Furthermore, in addition to the great
variety of liqueurs that are elaborated
in traditional Valencian wineries, some
producers have specialised in the
elaboration of cava, in which very high
levels of quality are reached and that
have a great demand.
GASTRONOMY
Paellas and stews
The recipes of rice coexist with the secrets of the
old stew pots
Gregorio Marañón wrote that in the
entire Valencian coast “the paella
reigns, with dazzling and varied glory”.
This land is, without doubt, the kingdom
of the rice dishes, which in Valencia
makes up the classical name of paella –
with vegetables and snails, chicken and
rabbit—and that afterwards opens like a
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beautiful fan, through which the traveller
wants to journey, in a hundred variety of
rice dishes, among which stand out
those with seafood. Arròs a banda or of
fish and seafood; fideuà (noodle dish);
juicy or dry rice dishes; baked rice, with
vegetables, with cod and cauliflower, rice
presented in all the seasons and with the
products from the land nearest to the
kitchen that serves us. But if the rice
dish es adapt to the land, and near the
sea they are cooked in thin paellas, in the
mountain we will find the cuisine of the
stew pots. It is the cuisine of the cold
lands, which awaits us in the Rincón de
Ademuz and farther to the west of
Requena and Utiel. It is the strong cuisine
of the inland, that which includes game
in the right season and that which is
devoted to pork and its variables. In the
Maestrazgo, in the highlands bordering
on Teruel, the stews slowly prepared
over firewood flames or the domestic
pots with their adorable aroma.
GASTRONOMY
Central Market. Valencia. 39° 28’ 23.82” N 0° 22’ 42.06” W
Designations of Origin
At present, the Designations of Origin of harvested and elaborated products in
the Region of Valencia are the following:
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Grasses, fruit
and vegetables
• Rice of Valencia.
• Artichokes of Benicarló.
• Chufa of Valencia.
• Kaki of the banks of the Xúquer.
• Packaged table grapes of Vinalopó.
• Medlar of Callosa d’En Sarrià.
• Oil of the Region of Valencia.
Protected Geographic Indication
• Valencian citrus fruit.
• Cherries of the Mountain of Alicante
Wines, Liqueurs and Cava
Sausages
• Alicante.
• Utiel-Requena.
• Valencia.
• Cava.
• Handcrafted and Quality sausages
of Requena.
Specific designations
• Wine from the land of Castellón.
• Traditional spirits from Alicante:
- Paloma Anisette of Monforte del
Cid.
- Coffee Aperitif of Alcoy.
- Cantueso of Alicante.
- Herbero of the Sierra de Mariola.
Sweets
• Jijona and Turrón of Alicante
FESTIVALS
Fallas. Valencia.
Valencian people love festivals. Men and
women, children and elders live
passionately, throughout the whole
year, with every type of festival, religious
and secular, ancient and modern.
Valencians submerge themselves in the
festivals with the same intensity and
creativity as they dedicate to work. The
participation, street ambiance, the use
of music and gunpowder and a great
ability for flamboyance and baroque
expression are characteristics that are
repeated throughout the entire Region
of Valencia when its time for a festival.
Once again, diversity and contrast will
be present in this sphere of life. Thus, in
the Valencian regions we will find a
celebration as ancient as the Misteri
d’Elx, a liturgical representation of
medieval origin, which evokes the
death and ascension of the Virgin...
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Cremà – Fallas. Valencia
Misteri d’Elx.
A people in love with festivals and tradition
The Misteri d’Elx, the Tomatina, Las Fallas, La Magdalena, Holy Week and Carnival
The sacral-lyrical drama is represented
each year in August, in the Basilica of
Santa María and is one of the most
solemn spectacles of popular
participation and fervour.
In another sense, a modern festival,
noisy, with powerful visual impact, has
noticeably grown internationally in very
few years. It is the Tomatina, in Buñol,
a festival in which thousands of
young people, men and women, get
involved in a unique ripe tomato
fight which results in flooding the
streets of the town in a sauce of no less
than 125 tons of tomatoes thrown by
the public, smashed and finally crushed.
Dozens of televisions around the world
come to the town the last Wednesday of
August to witness and broadcast the
unique battle.
FESTIVALS
Las Fallas of Valencia and the Romería
de les Canyes of Castellón de la Plana
are two festivals with a large popular
participation, but different in their
projection, style and objectives. In the
Fallas, hundreds of committees each
year are in charge of building an artistic
monument of cardboard and wood,
with images and scenes that satirise
and criticise matters of life, which will
be burned on the night of the 19th
March. Each day, at 2 p.m., thousands of
people meet in front of City Hall to
watch the mascletà, a noisy display of
pyrotechnics. Thousands of Valencians,
accompanied by dozens of music
bands travel the city streets towards the
basilica of La Virgen in order to make an
offering of flowers. In Castellón de la
Plana, the Romería de les Canyes
evokes the pilgrimage that the city’s
founders took from their old location to
the new one. Today, they return to the
hermitage of the Magdalena, where the
old city was. The pilgrim, who carries a
cane, receives the rotllo, a circular bread
that recalls the food of the old pilgrims
in their transfer from Castell Vell to La
Plana. The fireworks, music, traditional
clothing will also be typical of this
festival, where the memory of the
pilgrim’s lights will become Les Gaiates,
triumphal and colourful carts that are
profusely lighted.
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Romería de Les Canyes. Castellón de la Plana.
Holy Week is celebrated in many
towns and cities of the Region of
Valencia. And although it evokes
identical historical events and equal
religious mysteries, it acquires very
different nuances and forms wherever it
takes place. Austere in the northern and
interior lands, the religious festival
becomes more brilliant and colourful
on the seashore, as can be seen in
Valencia’s fishing quarters. There are
representations of the Passion in
Moncada and Benetússer, and
solemnity in Alzira, Gandia and Sagunt.
But the profound tradition of the
procession on Palm Sunday takes on
special meaning in Elx, from where the
palms of the festival come, as well as
the richness and high participation in
the processional parades of Orihuela
and Crevillent. In another very different
direction, the Carnival, which took
place in the cities during the 19th
century, has been recovered in some
Valencian towns, where it is
celebrated with very high public
participation and an unusual richness
of resources and clothing. That is what
happens in Vinaròs. Considering all this,
Villar del Arzobispo, in Valencia, and
Pego in the province of Alicante, also
celebrate eye-catching festivals with a
very long tradition.
In all of them there are satirical parades
with ancient origins and references to
His Majesty Carnestoltes.
FESTIVALS
Moors and Christians. Alcoy. 38° 42’ 07.23” N 0° 28’ 37.91” W
Dozens of Valencian towns, especially
of the province of Alicante and the
southern part of the province of
Valencia, celebrate festivals to
evoke the old struggles between
Moors and Christians in medieval
times. But it is evident that the
festival that is the oldest, most
unique, luxurious and well-known
throughout the world is the one
celebrated each year in the city of
Alcoy. It takes place in April, in
honour of Sant Jordi and is a
spectacular attraction because of the
richness and colour of the clothes of
all the “filaes” who participate, as well
as the accompaniment of musicians,
mounted riders and carriages.
Gunpowder makes up a substantial
part of the noisy festival: the entrance
of the Moorish and Christian squads,
the Alardo (battle), the Estafeta
(running of the Moor), the embassies
and the appearance of the Saint are
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Muixeranga. Algemesí. 39° 11’ 37.92” N 0° 26’ 05.13” W
The festivals of the Valencian people
Moors and Christians and La Muixeranga
key moments in the festival. In Petrer,
Elda, Ontinyent, Bocairent, Crevillent,
Cocentaina, l’Olleria, Villena, Callosa
d’En Sarrià and Vila Joiosa, among
many other towns and areas, the
traveller will find festivals of this kind.
However, during the first days of
September, in Algemesí, we will
find another festival with
profound religious roots, which is
expressed in the streets through an
attractive series of plastic paintings,
dances and human towers. The
festival, declarated Intangible Heritage
of Humanity, is organised around
Nuestra Señora de la Salud, and there
is proof of it in the 18th century,
although they are older than that,
without a doubt. The clothing of the
dancers, the music and the street
performances evoke battle
representations. Spectacular human
towers, dressed in colourful stripes,
where a boy climbs to the top of four
FESTIVALS
Festivals of tourist interest
Noisy and extroverted. Made for abundance, ostentation and noise. This is what the most famous Valencian
festivals are like. Dedicated to fire and gunpowder, to pyrotechnics, uproar and the pleasure of marching to the
beat of the music. Here we have the main Valencian festivals, for every taste and budget. Throughout the
decades the most important have been highlighted for their international, national and local tourism value. In all
of them the traveller will find guaranteed fun, friendship and entertainment in the streets.
104 - 105
Festivals of International Tourism Interest
• Alcoi. Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos
• Alicante. Hogueras de San Juan
• Buñol. La Tomatina
• Castellón. Fiestas de la Magdalena
• Crevillent. Semana Santa
• Elx. El Misteri d’Elx. Procesión del Domingo de Ramos
• Orihuela. Semana santa
• Segorbe. Entrada de Toros y Caballos
• Torrevieja. Certamen Internacional de Habaneras y
Polifonía
• Valencia. Fallas de San José
• Vila Joiosa. Moros y Cristianos
Festivals of National Tourism Interest
• Alcoi. Cabalgata de los Reyes Magos
• Alzira. Semana Santa. Fallas
• Bañeres. Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos en Honor de San
Jorge Mártir
• Bocairent. Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos
• Cocentaina. Fira de Tots Sants
• Crevillente. Moros y Cristianos
• Dénia. Els Bous a la Mar
• Morella. Anunci i el Sexenni
• Ontinyent. Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos
• Peñíscola. Fiestas patronales en honor de la Virgen de
Ermitana
• Sagunto. Semana Santa. Fallas
• Segorbe. Fiestas Patronales
• Valencia. Semana Santa Marinera
• Vall d’Uixó. Fiestas Patronales de San Vicente Ferrer. Fiestas
Patronales en honor a la Sagrada Familia y el Santísimo Cristo
• Villena. Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos.
• Xàbia. Ajedrez Viviente
• Xàtiva. Feria de Agosto
Festivals of Tourism Interest
• Algemesi. Fiesta de la Mare de Deu de La Salut
• Callosa d’ Ensarrià. Moros y Cristianos en honor de La
Virgen de las Injurias
• Callosa de Segura. La Pasión
• Cocentaina. Moros y Cristianos en honor a San Hipólito
• Elda. Moros y Cristianos
• Gandia. Semana Santa. Fallas
• Guadassuar. Danzas
• L’ Olleria. Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos
• Moncada. Misterio de la Pasión
• Petrer. Fiestas Hispano-Árabes en honor de San Bonifacio
• Requena. Feria y Fiestas de la Vendimia
• Sueca. Fiesta del Arroz
Festivals of Tourism Interest in Autonomus Region
• Alacant. Semana Santa
• Altea. El Castell de L’Olla
• Benicarló. Fallas. Festa de la Carxofa
• Benidorm. Escenificación del Hallazgo de la Virgen del
Sufragio
• Bétera. Festa de les Alfàbegues a la Mare de Déu d’Agost
• Buñol. Concierto Mano a Mano
• Calpe. Moros y Cristianos
• Canals. Fiestas En Honor a San Antonio Abad
• Cocentaina. La Fira de Tots Sants
• Cullera. Festa a la Mare de Déu del Castell
• Elx. Nit de L’Albà
• Forcall. Fiestas de Sant Antoni (Santantonà)
• Grao de Castellón. Festes de Sant Pere
• Guardamar del Segura. Moros i Cristians en Honor a Sant
Jaume
• Ibi. Festes d’Hivern
• L’Alfàs del Pi. Festival de Cine
• Manises. Cabalgata de la Cerámica y Festa de la Cerámica
• Oliva. Moros y Cristianos
• Orihuela. Moros y Cristianos
• Paterna. La Cordà
• Requena. Muestra del Embutido Artesano y de Calidad
• Sagunto. Falles de Sagunt
• Segorbe. Feria de la Purísima
• Torrent. Semana Santa. Fallas
• Vinaròs. Carnaval. Semana Santa
• Xàtiva. Fallas
More festivals of Provincial and Local Interest:
www.comunitatvalenciana.com
SPORTS
Port of Dénia. Alicante. 38° 50’ 16.93” N 0° 7’ 17.69” E
Sea and seamanship
The personality and beauty of the
coast in the Region of Valencia, the
characteristics of its winds, climate
and landscape make it ideal for
practicing every type of sport and
activity related to the sea. From
north to south, nautical clubs, marinas
and nautical companies from tourist
destinations are available with the best
quality and services.
The celebration in Valencia of the
America’s Cup, the oldest sailing
competition in the world, served to
renew old local hobbies for everything
nautical, to reactivate many sporting
projects and considerably increase
interest in sea sports, among
Valencians as well as among
thousands of visitors who decided to
practice their favourite sport the
waters of the Region of Valencia.
Valencia had thousands of visitors
during the four years of competition.
Alicante has joined the cities that feel a
106 - 107
passion for the sea and, since October
2008, it is known worldwide for the
honour of being the starting point for
the Volvo Ocean Race, the hardest
and most prestigious ocean regatta in
the world, which ended in St.
Petersburg in 2009 and the race has its
permanent headquarters in Alicante.
These events have reactivated the
sailing passion and have given
extraordinary prestige to the Valencian
coast, where there are several
available marinas or operative dry
docks and nautical clubs of which
some have been awarded with a blue
flag as a reward for excellence in their
nautical facilities and the excellent
service they offer to the users. The
nautical stations are the result of a
vocation to give excellent service to
those who practice nautical sports on
the Valencian coasts. In an exceptional
landscape, the nautical tourist can
always be assisted in sailing, renting
any type of craft, practicing surfing or
diving, or any kind of maritime
excursions. The nautical stations of
Marina Alta and Benicarló-Peñíscola
are available for the sportsmen of the
sea.
SPORTS
In recent years, the coast of the
Region of Valencia has become an
ideal place to practice the new water
sports. The good wind system, the
fidelity and regularity of the warm
breezes, make during a large part of the
year, not just in summer, numerous
beaches of the four Valencian tourism
destinations be ideal for this battle
against the waves and the winds that
many amateurs enjoy. Well marked,
with the uses duly regulated, the
Valencian beaches are prepared for
exercising sports such as surfing,
windsurfing or kitesurfing.
The extensive sandy grounds to the
north of the city of Valencia, as well as
those of the south of the province of
Valencia and those of the north of
Alicante, especially the beach of
Dénia, are very popular because of
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On the waves, under the water
the regularity and strength with
which the winds blow.
The coast, in turn, offers excellent
conditions for practicing scuba
diving and skin diving.
In safe and not very deep water, of a
crystalline transparency, the amateur
and professional will find all that
they have dreamed of: impressive
underwater landscapes and an
unbeatable wealth of flora and
fauna. In the protected areas, like the
Columbretes, the island of Tabarca,
Serra Gelada and the coast of the
Sierra de Irta, the possibilities of
diving make this sport a fascinating
adventure.
SPORTS
Golf as an attraction
The celebration in the Mediterráneo
Country Club of Borriol of the
Castelló Masters golf tournament has
meant a great support for the projection
of the facilities dedicated to the practice
of this sport in the Region of Valencia.
There are more than thirty golf courses,
designed by the most qualified
specialists in this sport, that wait for the
national and international players to
offer them the best practice of the sport
in a setting of their dreams. There are
those that have been located at the
edge of the sea, like that of El Saler,
in the city of Valencia, that is
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El Saler Golf Course. Valencia. 39° 19' 9.51" N 0° 18' 5.43" W
considered one of the best laid out in
Europe. From north to south, all the
courses of the Region of Valencia are
located in typically Mediterranean
landscapes, and guaranteed by a
climate that makes it possible to play on
them throughout all the seasons of the
year, with the best facilities.
The visitor will find abundant
information on what is necessary to play
on them: services, characteristics of the
course, location, accesses, map and card
for the courses, photos, weather
information and live pictures through
the webcams of the tourist portal in
Internet of the Region of Valencia.
SPORTS
Villamartín Golf Course. Orihuela. 37° 56' 42.12" N 0° 47' 06.39" W
112 - 113
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Elx
Escuela de
Golf Elche
ADVENTURE
Active tourism
Routes and paths
In the most beautiful and steep spots
of the Region of Valencia, the traveller
will find a complete network of paths
of Long and Short Routes. For those
interested in hiking, this is the surest
way to get into the Valencian nature:
perfectly marked, the so-called GR-7,
GR-10, GR-33, GR-36, GR-37 and GR125 cross the geography of the region
from north to south and from east to
west, while linking the large urban
masses. In any place, at any time, the
hiker will be safe, and he will be
enjoying enviable tranquillity in a
pleasant and healthy setting. The
traveller will find, in all the districts,
detailed information on the routes
that one can follow, both on foot as
well as on bicycle and other means of
transportation, in order to get to know
in depth the best spots of each
province. Springs, woods, rivers and
caves... everything allows us unhurried
discovery, near to nature. From the
Tinença of Benifassà, to the north, to
the Vega Baja of the Vinalopó, to the
south, the four Valencian tourist
destinations offer dozens of routes for
excursions, with very diverse degrees
of difficulty. It is the best way to get to
know the Sierra Calderona or that of
the Espadán, the proximities of Mariola
and the valleys and peaks of the north
of Alicante.
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Caves of Sant Josep. La Vall d’Uixó. Castellón. 39° 49’ 39.97” N 0° 15’ 7.97”
Caves and cliffs
The orography of the inland allows the
practice of highly specialised sports or
scientific endeavours, such as
speleology. The catalogue of caves of
the Region of Valencia includes 134
places especially interesting for their
beauty, their qualities and for their
fauna. Some of these caves have been
adapted for tourist visits such as that
of the Rull in the Vall d’Ebo, the
Calaveres in Benidoleig, Canelobre
in Busot and Don Juan in Jalance. In
La Vall d’Uixó, in the province of
Castellón, the underground river of
the Grutas de Sant Josep runs
through a spectacular natural cave
that can be visited in boats with one
of the longest underground river
courses of Europe. Other abysses
(avencs), caves and cavities have
significant difficulty and are reserved
exclusively for professionals equipped
with the best speleological means.
Leisure in the Region of Valencia also
offers the possibility of practicing
different adventure and open-air
sports. Besides the mountain
crossings, in the region’s inlands one
can practice mountain climbing,
classical and as a sport, ascent,
canoeing, crossing ravines and hang
gliding.
ADVENTURE
Cabriel River. Valencia. 39º 26’ 42.89” N 1º 31’ 23.73” W
Going down the river
The inlands of the Region of
Valencia have places that are
surprising for their variety and
areas little explored where the
traveller will find unusual
experiences. Among many others,
that go from hiking to climbing, there
is the possibility of getting to know
nature by following the course of a
river. The Valencian reservoirs offer, for
example, the possibility of navigating
through the dammed up water of the
Júcar, between Cofrentes and the
Cortes dam, enjoying a wide canyon
overlooked by forests, peaks and
castles hanging from the cliffs. On
board an inflatable raft, in the current
of a white-water river, it is possible to
experience an impressive adventure.
In the Region of Valencia, where
everything is possible, this option is
open. In an area difficult to forget, in
the Hoces, the Cabriel river runs
through narrow passes and the
voyagers catch all the passion of a
descent charged with emotion.
Although the inflatable rafts are a very
popular possibility, one can also
descend the Cabriel river in canoes.
For those who like adventure and
emotion, but also for those who look
for the peaceful contemplation of
nature, there are always charming
places prepared for the enjoyment of
the traveller.
116 - 117
Going everywhere by bicycle
Cycling conquers the thirst for
sports of thousands of Valencians,
on the routes on the coastal plain
as well as on those that go up the
inland mountains. From this generic
love of the bicycle has emerged,
naturally, the love of cycling
excursions, cyclotourism, which in few
years has managed to organise in the
entire region a series of routes that the
cyclotourist can get to know during
his stay. There are green routes,
especially for bicycles, that have
originated by means of a careful
process of adapting the former railroad
tracks into paths designed for
excursions on mountain or touring
bicycles. In Alicante, there are five green
routes prepared, with more than fifty
kilometres in all. In Castellón and
Valencia, the former mining route from
Ojos Negros to Sagunt offers 70
conditioned kilometres with an
excellent landscape, although then it
goes into the province of Teruel, nearly
100 kilometres more. In Valencia, finally,
there are two other sections, in La Safor
and the Xurra track, prepared for bicycle
excursions. Furthermore, the
Valencian Regional Government is
developing a network of ATB (all
terrain bicycle) centres for practicing
this tourism modality in the Region of
Valencia and for discovering the
territory in contact with the
environment.
HEALTH
Health through water
Since time immemorial, the
Valencians have known and enjoyed
the quality and the therapeutic
properties of a series of springs
backed by history. During the 18th
and 19th centuries, some spas
offered thermalism, calm and
wellbeing to successive generations
of families of the adjacent areas, to
which were added travellers coming
from all over Spain. If on the beaches
gathered those who had received
doctor’s orders for wave baths, the
inland spas received summer
vacationers that looked for the
beneficial effects of different types of
water and the added wellbeing of a
few days of vacation.
In this classical world stand out
accredited names such as those of
Hervideros de Cofrentes, Fuente
Podrida and the spas of Chulilla and
of Verche, in the district of the
Serranos, province of Valencia, and
the healthy waters of Benasal, of
Vilavella and Montanejos, in
Castellón. However, in just a decade,
the world of the spas in the Region
of Valencia has been radically
transformed in harmony with the
118 - 119
new demands of the society, so that
all the traditional installations have
become modernised and have
placed at the service of the visitors
the results of the strictest quality.
The classical balnearios are now
accompanied by numerous facilities
in which the three magical letters of
SPA (salus per aquam, health
through water) have taken on their
true meaning. In fact, all the toplevel and luxury hotels now have
magnificent installations in which
water treatments complement the
massage services and other
refinements.
In the tourism offices, the traveller
will find detailed information on the
establishments, and of the offer
available in all of them. They will all
offer the highest quality, whether
they are the recently renovated
classic installations or the modern
services located in newly built
hotels.
SHOPPING
Tradition and design
In the Region of Valencia, going
shopping is an added pleasure for
the trip. No matter where we may be,
a large city or a vacation town: the
variety of the offer, the quality of
whatever we may encounter will
always provide an added value to
dedicating some hours to shopping.
Because once more, in the Region of
Valencia, there is the double aspect
that makes everything compatible: the
large fashion stores and the warm
traditional markets go hand in hand in
the towns and cities.
In the principal capitals of the Region
of Valencia, the visitor will find
commercial streets where the most
demanding and exclusive taste will
have at its disposal the latest trends in
fashion on streets where the best
brands and the most select boutiques
gather. Fashion, household linen,
footwear, costume jewellery and fine
jewellery stores combine their offers
120 - 121
Shopping area. Pedestrian street Don Juan de Austria. Valencia. 39° 28’ 13.59” N 0° 22’ 24.86”W
with those of the stores dedicated to
decoration and design, with the most
exclusives novelties.
In the large cities, furthermore, the
traveller will find, together with the
national and international brands,
those of the Valencian designers
that have dynamically accessed the
world of fashion and design.
Valencian firms of prestige offer the
latest productions, whether in the field
of haute couture or jewellery or in
others no less attractive such as
furnishings, footwear and lighting.
Besides the large shopping centres, in
the historical centres of the Valencian
cities and towns, the small stores have
also known how to maintain the
tradition inherited from past eras and
continue maintaining the best of their
arguments in the personal service to
the client.
SHOPPING
El Castell de Guadalest. 30° 40’ 35.18” N 0° 11’ 55.02” W
Charming areas
A few steps from the most
distinguished stores, the traveller
will find a pleasant surprise.
It is the unexpected, perhaps the
unusual: carefree fashion, or the most
recent creation by a valiant designer
of a firm in expansion. Altea and
Peñíscola, Canet d’En Berenguer,
Gandia and Santa Pola; the
promenades of the coast boil with
activity in the summer afternoons.
Everything is possible, here and there,
in the places of the Region of
Valencia where commerce sprouts
each day and the creative activity
reconstructs itself with the urgency of
an alert and innovating sense.
Craftsmen of the traditional line and
ingenious creators of modern times.
All coexist in the shopping centres of
the tourist areas, where the most
recent is probably being created in
view of the purchaser. Next to them,
the Valencian handicrafts most
deeply rooted in tradition, fans, wood
and wicker furniture, ceramics, glass,
iron and leather coexist with the
122 - 123
2” W
handicrafts that work with costume
jewellery, gold and silver. The Centro
de Artesanía (handicraft centre) of the
Region of Valencia endorses with its
own seal the excellent quality
workmanship of the Valencian
products.
However, there is still space in the
cities and tourist areas for the antique
shops and the bargain markets.
The Region of Valencia also offers
flea markets in which the antiques
make way for the passion of
discovering great hidden values.
In the towns of La Marina in Alicante
these markets are famous and move
thousands of persons each week:
classical and specific pieces of
furniture for decorating rural areas,
clothing, paintings, books, lamps and
record go on sale together with farm
implements, pitchers and all kinds of
traces of the past suitable for
decoration and collecting.
THE NIGHT
The night is for everyone
Time stops at night on the coast of
the Region of Valencia.
With the help of an enviable climate,
the promenades, the ports and
terraces offer, during the greater part
of the year, an atmosphere in which
peacefulness takes over the senses.
The night, from north to south, at the
edge of the sea, but also in the inland
areas, becomes a parenthesis where
124
124- 125
the clock doesn’t count.
Benidorm is the main reference of
an intense nightlife. Cosmopolitan,
brilliant, always in movement, the city
of the high towers is as active during
the day as it is after sundown. All the
shows parade through its halls and
discotheques. And the tourist himself,
of a hundred different nationalities, is
at the same time part of a choral
event with an action-packed
collective rhythm.
The coast of the Region of Valencia is
full of peaceful sites where it is still
possible to find the serenity of a
candle-lit dinner. For a truly restful
vacation, you will find terraces that
overlook the sea, hidden ports, coves
with discrete lighting. The possibility
of enjoying a calm in which nature
still finds that its raison d’être is open
in any area of the coast.
But very close by, there is the other
side of the coin: the bars, pubs,
terraces and discotheques convert
free time in a series of opportunities,
rich in entertainment and surprises.
When night falls, thousands of young
people ready to have fun to the
rhythm of their favourite music, go out
THE NIGHT
Square Sant Jaume. Barrio del Carmen. Valencia 39° 28’ 34.78” N 0° 22’ 49.25” W
in search of some hours of diversion. In
this atmosphere, entertainment and
pleasure are guaranteed.
Being “under the Valencian moon”
meant, formerly, arriving late to the
walled city, finding the doors closed
and having to sleep on the ground,
outside the protected area. Nowadays,
the phrase forms part of a rite of
nocturnal and collective diversion: in
Valencia there are districts, like El
Carmen, where the city seems never
to rest. Between the plaza of Sant
Jaume and that of Tossal, there is a
flow of people that come and go from
one pub to another, in the proximity of
the street Caballeros. This street, along
with those of Serranos, Quart, Guillem
de Castro and Blanquerías, are of the
most attractive in the Valencian night.
Experiencing the night is one of the
most intensely exciting events that
one can have in Valencia.
During most of the year, the climate
126 - 127
invites you to go out, even if it is to
walk through solitary streets. Valencia,
which is one of the best lighted cities,
is safe at all hours. The most intense
life, the energy, is easy to find in Ciutat
Vella, a group of historical
neighbourhoods that were famous for
their activity hundreds of years ago.
Gandia and Cullera, Santa Pola and
Torrevieja, Altea and Xàbia,
Benicàssim, Peñíscola and Vinaròs.
All the Valencian beaches have a
promenade that becomes the
centre of attraction on the hot
summer nights.
In the city of Valencia the atmosphere
of the Malva-rosa beach is famous; and
along the entire coast, dozens of
places wait to offer the tourist
diversion and pleasure during the
night time hours, whether you look for
serenity and silence or your preference
is for a more intense enjoyment.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
www.comunitatvalen
A window to the Region of Valencia
Welcome to the portal of the
Region of Valencia, an online site
in which you can get to know first
hand the entire tourist offer and
comfortably your vacation from
home. Consult the information of all
the tourist sites in real time, simply
and pleasantly; participate and share
your interests with other visitors.
• You can get to know and enjoy
live, 24 hours a day, the best tourist
destinations of the Region of
Valencia through the largest
network of tourist webcams, and
the most updated weather
information. The most emblematic
places, the large events, the coves
with the most charm, the cleanest
and bluest waters of the
Mediterranean, the clearest skies of
the coast, spectacular places,
picturesque mountain towns and
the towns, streets, plazas and
monuments that form part of the
Heritage of Humanity.
• In the beach section you can find
all the information on hundreds of
kilometres of coast for enjoying an
unforgettable vacation. Beaches
with the blue flag, accessible, nudist,
and all the weather information for
enjoying the Mediterranean Sea
when you want and how you want.
• All the information on the golf
courses designed by the most
prestigious professionals of this
sport, with locations of your dreams
next to the sea or in beautiful inland
spot. All with an excellent climate
year round.
• A complete guide to any type of
nautical activity in the Region of
Valencia, privileged destination of
mild temperatures and beautiful
coast for practicing all the water
sports, both on the surface and
under the blue waters of the
Mediterranean. Regatta courses,
marinas, nautical clubs, scuba diving
and snorkelling areas, sailing,
windsurfing, etc. A paradise for the
lovers of nautical sports in all its
modalities.
128 - 129
alenciana.com
• Complete
information on each and every one of
the protected areas, natural parks,
sierras, coast, coastal or inland
routes … an Eden for any fan of rural
tourism. As well as the emblematic
areas dedicated to diversion, cultural
and scientific dissemination, the
theme parks or the protection of the
environment, such as Terra Mítica, the
Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias or
the Bioparc.
• And if what you like are the
gastronomic trips, Designations of
Origin, vegetables, fish, sausages,
sweets, wine...all the information of
the enormous wealth that the
cuisine of the Region of Valencia
holds. A true delight for the senses,
beyond the paella and the rice
dishes, with an infinity of recipes
resulting from the wisdom of its
inhabitants and of the natural
products that the land offers.
• Not to speak of the extensive and
detailed information on the
festivals, the centres that teach
Spanish, the areas dedicated to
fairs, conferences and business
meetings, suggestions of routes
and excursions and all the offer of
rural lodging, hotels, camp
grounds and tourist apartments
of the Region of Valencia.
• Videos, photos, specialised
forums, trip logbooks, downloads
of publications in PDF, guides for
mobile telephone, tablets ...
Discover the endless number of
services that we put at your disposal
and experience the Region of
Valencia for yourself.
[email protected]
Network of tourist information offices of the Valencian Regional Government
ALICANTE
AGOST
Av. Xixona,2 - 03698 Agost
Tel. 965691869
[email protected]
AGRES
C/ Mayor, s/n - 03837 Agres
Tel. 965510001
[email protected]
ALBATERA
C/ San Antonio,26
03340 Albatera
Tel. 965487902
[email protected]
ALCOY
Pl. de España,14
03801 Alcoi
Tel. 965537155
[email protected]
ALICANTE - AYUNTAMIENTO
Pl. Ayuntamiento,1
03002 Alicante
Tel. 965149219
[email protected]
ALICANTE
Av. Rambla Méndez Núñez, 41
(Torre de la Generalitat)
03002 Alicante
Tel. 965200000
[email protected]
ALICANTE - PLAYA SAN JUAN
Av. de Niza, s/n.
(Junto Cruz Roja)
03540 Alicante
Tel. 965266106
[email protected]
ALICANTE - RENFE
Av. Salamanca, s/n.
(Estación Ferrocarril Renfe)
03005 Alicante
Tel. 965125633
[email protected]
ALMORADÍ
Pl. de la Constitución, s/n
03160 Almoradí
Tel. 966783442
[email protected]
ALTEA
Pl. José María Planelles,1
03590 Altea
Tel. 965844114
[email protected]
BANYERES DE MARIOLA
Parque de Villa Rosario, s/n
03450 Banyeres de Mariola
Tel. 965567453
[email protected]
BENIDORM - EUROPA
Av. Europa, s/n
(cruce C/ Ibiza)
03503 Benidorm
Tel. 965860095
[email protected]
BENIDORM - CENTRO
Pl. Canalejas, s/n - El Torrejó
(antiguo Ayuntamiento)
03501 Benidorm
Tel. 965851311
[email protected]
BENIDORM - AUTOBUSES
Av. Francisco Llorca Antón, 1
Est. Autobuses
03502 Benidorm
Tel. 966831648
[email protected]
BENIDORM - RINCON LOIX
Av. Derramador, s/n
(confluencia C/ Gerona)
03503 Benidorm
Tel. 966805914
[email protected]
BENISSA
Av. Pais Valencià,97
03720 Benissa
Tel. 965732225
[email protected]
BENISSA - PLAYA
Av. de la Marina, 307
03720 Benissa
Tel. 966498361
[email protected]
VILA DE BIAR
C/ Cura Reig,1 - 03410 Biar
Tel. 965811177
[email protected]
CALPE - PEÑÓN
Av. Ejércitos Españoles,30
03710 Calpe
Tel. 965836920
[email protected]
CALLOSA D'EN SARRIÀ
C/ Sant Antoni,2
03510 Callosa d'En Sarrià
Tel. 965880153
[email protected]
CALLOSA DE SEGURA
C/ Mayor,31
03360 Callosa de Segura
Tel. 966198451
[email protected]
CASTALLA
Pl. Mayor,3 - 03420 Castalla
Tel. 966561018
[email protected]
COCENTAINA
Pl. del Pla, s/n.
Patio de Armas Palau Comtal
03820 Cocentaina
Tel. 965590159
[email protected]
DÉNIA
C/ Manuel Lattur,1, local E
03700 Dénia
Tel. 966422367
[email protected]
DÉNIA - PL. EL CONSELL
Pl. El Consell, s/n
03700 Dénia - Tel. 966423420
[email protected]
DOLORES
Pl. General Llopis,1
03150 Dolores
Tel. 966710363
[email protected]
EL CAMPELLO
C/ San Bartolomé, 103
Esq. Ruperto Chapí
03560 El Campello
Tel. 965634606
[email protected]
EL CAMPELLO - PLAYA MUCHAVISTA
Av. Jaime I, El Conquistador
(frente Urb. Tobago)
03560 El Campello
Tel. 965637200
[email protected]
EL CASTELL DE GUADALEST
Av. Alicante, s/n (aparcamiento)
03517 El Castell de Guadalest
Tel. 965885298
[email protected]
[email protected]
EL PINÓS
Carretera de Murcia, s/n
(Centro de Recursos Casa del
Vino)
03650 El Pinós - Tel. 966966043
[email protected]
EL POBLE NOU DE BENITATXELL
C/ Mercado,1
03726 El Poble Nou de
Benitatxell
Tel. 966493546
[email protected]
EL VERGER
Pl. del Ayuntamiento,1
03770 El Verger - Tel. 966439551
[email protected]
[email protected]
ELDA
C/ Nueva,14
03600 Elda
Tel. 966980300
[email protected]
ELS POBLETS
Carrer del Mestre Vicent,32
03779 Els Poblets
966475352
[email protected]
ELX
Plaça del Parc,3
03202 Elx
Tel. 966658196
[email protected]
AEROPUERTO DE ALICANTE ELCHE
Aeropuerto Alicante-Elche.
Terminal llegadas.
03195 Elx
966919367
[email protected]
ELX - ELS ARENALS DEL SOL
Av. San Bartolomé de Tirajana, 42
Arenales del Sol
03195 Elx
Tel. 966658119
[email protected]
LA MARINA D'ELX
Camino de los Ruices, s/n.
La Marina d'Elx
03194 Elx
Tel. 683375881
[email protected]
FINESTRAT
Av. Marina Baixa, 15
Cala de Finestrat
03509 Finestrat
Tel. 966801208
[email protected]
FINESTRAT - POBLE
Plaça del Poble,5
03509 Finestrat
Tel. 965878834
[email protected]
GATA
Av. Marina Alta,14
03740 Gata de Gorgos
Tel 965757317
[email protected]
GUARDAMAR
Pl. de la Constitución, 7
03140 Guardamar del Segura
Tel 965724488
[email protected]
IBI
C/ Doctor Waksman,5
03440 Ibi
Tel. 965551296
[email protected]
L'ALFÀS DEL PI
C/ Federico García Lorca, 11
(bajos Ayto.)
03580 L'Alfàs del Pi
Tel. 965888905
[email protected]
L'ALFÀS DEL PI - PLATJA
Paseo de las Estrellas
Platja de l'Albir,2
03581 L'Alfàs del Pi
Tel. 966867022
[email protected]
LA VILA JOIOSA
C/ Colón, 40
(Chalet Centella)
03570 La Vila Joiosa
Tel. 966851371
[email protected]
MONFORTE DEL CID
Pl. de España,1
03670 Monforte del Cid
Tel. 965626417
[email protected]
MURO
Plaça Matzem,s/n
03830 Muro de Alcoy
Tel. 965532071
[email protected]
MUTXAMEL
Av. Carlos Soler, 64
(Centro social José Bernabeu)
03110 Mutxamel
Tel. 965956441
[email protected]
NOVELDA CASTELL
Paraje Molinos, E-15
03660 Novelda
Tel. 965609228
[email protected]
NOVELDA
C/ Mayor,6
03660 Novelda
Tel. 965609228
[email protected]
ONIL
Pl. Mayor, 1- Palacio Municipal
03430 Onil
Tel. 965565365
[email protected]
ORIHUELA - PLAYA
Pl. del Oriol ,1
(Urbanización Playa Flamenca)
03189 Orihuela
Tel. 966760000
[email protected]
ORIHUELA - CENTRO
Pl. Soledad,1
03300 Orihuela
Tel. 965304645
[email protected]
PEGO I LES VALLS
Carretera de Dénia, s/n
(Esquina c/ Sant Rafael)
03780 Pego
Tel. 966400843
[email protected]
PETRER
C/ Cura Bartolomé Muñoz,2
03610 Petrer
Tel. 966989401
[email protected]
[email protected]
PILAR DE LA HORADADA
Pl. Campoamor, 2
03190 Pilar de la Horadada
Tel. 966767068
[email protected]
SAN FULGENCIO
C/ Amsterdam, s/n
Urbanización la Marina
03177 San Fulgencio
Tel. 966790021
[email protected]
SAN MIGUEL DE SALINAS
Juan Carlos I, 1
03193 San Miguel de Salinas
Tel. 966723466
[email protected]
SANT VICENT DEL RASPEIG
Pl. España, 1
03690 Sant Vicent del Raspeig
Tel. 965660104
[email protected]
SANTA POLA - CENTRO
Pl. Constitución, s/n
03130 Santa Pola
Tel. 966696052
[email protected]
SANTA POLA - GRAN ALACANT
Av. Escandinavia ,31
03130 Santa Pola
Tel. 966699762
[email protected]
SANTA POLA
Pl. Diputación, s/n
03130 Santa Pola
Tel. 966692276
[email protected]
TEULADA - MORAIRA
Av. Madrid,15
03724 Teulada
Tel. 965745168
[email protected]
TORREVIEJA - LA MATA
Ayuntamiento de La Mata
Pl. Gaspar Perelló, s/n
03188 Torrevieja
Tel. 966928835
[email protected]
TORREVIEJA
Paseo Vista Alegre, s/n.
03181 Torrevieja
Tel. 965703433
[email protected]
TORREVIEJA - CENTRO
Pl. Constitución,1
03181 Torrevieja
Tel. 965710250
[email protected]
TORREVIEJA - PASEO MARÍTIMO
Paseo Marítimo. Playa del Cura
03182 Torrevieja
Tel. 966702284
VILLENA - ALTA VELOCIDAD
Estación Ferrocarril Villena-AVE
Partida San Juan
03400 Villena
Tel. 672741271
[email protected]
VILLENA
Pl. de Santiago,5
03400 Villena
Tel. 966150236
[email protected]
XÀBIA - CENTRE
Pl. de la Iglesia,4
03730 Xàbia
Tel. 965794356
[email protected]
XÀBIA - PORT
Pl. Almirante Bastarreche, 11
03730 Xàbia
Tel. 965790736
[email protected]
XÁBIA - ARENAL
Ctra. Cabo de la Nao-Pla, 136.
Residencial La Pl.
03730 Xàbia
Tel. 966460605
[email protected]
VALL DE POP
Paseo de la Alameda, s/n
(Carretera de Alcalalí)
03727 Xaló
Tel. 966481017
[email protected]
XIXONA
C/ Alcoy, 34-40, local 2 izquierda
03100 Xixona
Tel. 965613014
[email protected]
VALENCIA
ADEMUZ
C/ Fuente Vieja,10 - 46140 Ademuz
Tel. 978782267
[email protected]
AIELO DE MALFERIT
Av. del Santísimo Cristo,1
46812 Aielo de Malferit
Tel. 962360720
[email protected]
ALBORAYA - PORT SAPLAYA
Paseo Marítimo, s/n - Portsaplaya
Posta Sanitaria Alcamp
46120 Alboraia
Tel. 963726673
[email protected]
130 - 131
ALBORAYA - PATACONA
Pl. General Basset, s/n
(Posta sanitaria)
46120 Alboraia/Alboraya
Tel. 661453284
ALGEMESÍ
C/ Nou del Convent, 71
(Museu de la Festa)
46680 Algemesí
Tel. 962018630
[email protected]
ALMÀSSERA
Pl. Mayor,1 - 46132 Almàssera
Tel. 961853750
[email protected]
ALPUENTE
Av. José Antonio,19
46178 Alpuente
Tel. 962101228
[email protected]
ALZIRA - PL.
Pl. Mayor,s/n - 46600 Alzira
Tel. 961116776
[email protected]
ALZIRA
Pl. del Reino, s/n - 46600 Alzira
Tel. 962419551
[email protected]
ANNA
C/ Mayor, s/n
46820 Anna
Tel. 962210136 (Ayto.)
[email protected]
AYORA
C/ San Francisco, s/n
(Casa de la Cultura)
46620 Ayora
Tel. 961890658
[email protected]
BELLREGUARD
Paseo Marítimo, s/n
46713 Bellreguard
Tel. 962819320
[email protected]
BOCAIRENT
Pl. del Ayuntamiento, 2
46880 Bocairent
Tel. 962905062
[email protected]
BUÑOL
Casa Señorial del Castillo de
Buñol
46360 Buñol
Tel. 962503886
[email protected]
CANET D'EN BERENGUER
Paseo 9 de octubre
46529 Canet d'En Berenguer
Tel.962607806
[email protected]
RINCÓN DE ADEMUZ
Paraje Los Centenares, s/n
46141 Castielfabib
Tel. 978783227
[email protected]
COFRENTES
Pl. de España, 6
46625 Cofrentes
Tel. 961894316
[email protected]
[email protected]
CULLERA - FARO
Pl. Faromar, s/n
46400 Cullera
CULLERA - PLAYA
Pl. Constitución, s/n
46400 Cullera
Tel. 961731586
[email protected]
CULLERA
C/ Mar,93
46400 Cullera
Tel. 961720974
[email protected]
CHESTE
C/ María Carbonell,14
46380 Cheste
Tel. 960616261
[email protected]
[email protected]
CHULILLA
C/ de las Eras, s/n
46167 Chulilla
Tel. 961657979
[email protected]
DAIMÚS
Pl. Alcalde Francico Castelló, s/n
46710 Daimús
Tel.962803822
[email protected]
ENGUERA
C/ Patriarcas,4
46810 Enguera
Tel. 962226026
[email protected]
GANDIA - PLAYA (FARO 2)
Paseo Neptuno, s/n
46730 Gandia
Tel. 962842407
GANDIA
Av. Marqués de Campo, s/n
46701 Gandia
Tel. 962877788
[email protected]
GANDIA - PLAYA (FARO 1)
Paseo Neptuno, s/n
46730 Gandia
Tel. 962842407
[email protected]
JALANCE
C/ Targer, 2 - 46624 Jalance
Tel. 961897171
[email protected]
LA FONT D'EN CARRÒS
Pl. Ajuntament, 1
46717 La Font d'En Carròs
Tel. 962833338
[email protected]
[email protected]
LA POBLA DE FARNALS
Pl. París, s/n
46137 La Pobla de Farnals
Tel. 961460928
[email protected]
CAMP DE TÚRIA
Pla de l'Arc
Edificio Sede Mancomunidad
46160 Llíria
Tel. 962793619
[email protected]
LLÍRIA
Pl. Mayor, 1 "Ca la Vila"
46160 Llíria
Tel. 962791522
[email protected]
LLUTXENT
Av. de València,66
46838 Llutxent
Tel. 962294386
[email protected]
VALENCIA - AEROPUERTO
Terminal Aeropuerto Valencia
46940 Manises
Tel. 961530229
[email protected]
MANISES
Av. del Tramvies,15
46940 Manises
Tel. 961525609
[email protected]
[email protected]
MIRAMAR
Av. de la Mediterrànea,60
46711 Miramar
Tel.962819101(Ayto.)
[email protected]
MONTESA
C/ Dr. Fernández Villapedroso,5
46692 Montesa
Tel. 962299080
[email protected]
MONTROI
C/ la Pau-Edif. Multiusos-Museo
Valenciano de la Miel, 35
46193 Montroy
Tel. 671644445
[email protected]
NÁQUERA
Paseo de las Delicias, s/n
46119 Náquera
Tel. 961684398
[email protected]
OLIVA
Passeig Lluis Vives, s/n
46780 Oliva
Tel. 962855528
[email protected]
OLIVA - PLAYA
C/ Roger de Lauria,38
46780 Oliva
Tel. 962850391
[email protected]
OLOCAU
C/ Sant Josep, 28
(Casa de la Señoría)
46169 Olocau
Tel. 962739650
[email protected]
ONTINYENT
Plaça de Sant Roc,2
46870 Ontinyent
Tel. 962916090
[email protected]
PATERNA
C/ Médico Ballester, 23
46980 Paterna
Tel. 963053124
[email protected]
PILES
46712 Piles
Tel. 674218265
[email protected]
PUÇOL
Av. Mediterráneo, s/n
Espai Voramar
46530 Puçol
Tel. 669740119
puç[email protected]
EL PUIG
Av. de la Estación, s/n
(Centro Cívico)
46540 Puig
Tel. 961959029
[email protected]
QUESA
Av. Valencia, 74 - 46824 Quesa
Tel. 962256142
[email protected]
REQUENA
C/ García Montes, s/n
46340 Requena
Tel. 962303851
[email protected]
RIBA-ROJA DE TÚRIA
C/ Cisterna,30
46190 Riba-roja de Túria
Tel. 962772184
[email protected]
RÓTOVA
Pl. Mayor,7 - 46725 Rótova
Tel. 962835316
[email protected]
SAGUNTO
Pl. Cronista Chabret, s/n
46500 Sagunto
Tel. 962655859
[email protected]
SAGUNTO - PLAYA
Av. del Mediterráneo, 67
Puerto de Sagunto
46520 Sagunt
Tel. 962690402
[email protected]
SERRA
C/ Sagunt,31, bajo
46118 Serra
Tel. 961688404
[email protected]
SILLA
C/ Castell, s/n
46460 Silla
Tel. 961219797
[email protected]
SIMAT DE LA VALLDIGNA
Paseo 9 d'Octubre, s/n
46750 Simat de la Valldigna
Tel. 962810920
[email protected]
SUECA
C/ Mercat, s/n
46410 Sueca
Tel. 962039150
[email protected]
EL PERELLÓ
Av. de Sueca, s/n
46420 El Perelló
Tel. 961772627
[email protected]
SUMACÀRCER
Pl. Mayor,1
46295 Sumacàrcer
Tel. 962595280 (Ayto.)
[email protected]
TAVERNES DE LA VALLDIGNA
Av. Marina, s/n
Playa de Tavernes de la Valldigna
46760 Tavernes de la Valldigna
Tel. 962885264
[email protected]
ALTO TURIA
Carretera CV-35, km.73
46177 Tuéjar
Tel. 961635084
[email protected]
UTIEL
C/ Puerta Nueva, 11 A
46300 Utiel
Tel. 962170879
[email protected]
VALENCIA - PAZ
C/ Paz, 48
46003 Valencia
Tel. 963986422
[email protected]
VALENCIA - JOAQUÍN
SOROLLA
Estación Valencia Joaquín Sorolla
46007 Valencia
Tel. 963803623
[email protected]
VALENCIA - PLAYA
Paseo de Neptuno, 2
(frente a Hotel Neptuno)
46011 Valencia
Tel. 963555899
[email protected]
VALENCIA FERIA
Av. de las Ferias, s/n
46035 Valencia
Tel. 963986422
VALENCIA - PL. DE LA REINA
Pl. de la Reina,19
46002 Valencia
Tel. 963153931
[email protected]
VALENCIA - AYUNTAMIENTO
Pl. del Ayuntamiento, s/n
(frente al Edif. de Correos)
46002 Valencia
Tel. 963524908
infoturistica-ayuntamiento@
turisvalencia.es
VALENCIA - PUERTO
Muelle de Poniente, s/n
46024 Valencia
Tel. 96 3674606
infoturistica-puerto@
turisvalencia.es
VALENCIA - MARINA REAL
JUAN CARLOS I
Muelle de la Aduana, s/n
Edificio del Reloj-Tinglado 2)
46020 Valencia • Tel. 961 207 749
[email protected]
XÀTIVA
Av. Alameda Jaume I, 50
46800 Xàtiva
Tel. 962273346
[email protected]
XERACO
Av. Migjorn, 2
Playa de Xeraco
46770 Xeraco
Tel. 96 288 82 61
[email protected]
CASTELLÓN
ALBOCÀSSER
Carretera CV-15, La Pobla
Tornesa-Vilafranca, km 32
12003 Albocàsser
Tel. 964428127
[email protected]
ALCOSSEBRE - ROMANA
Playa La Romana, s/n
Alcossebre
12579 Alcalà de Xivert
Tel. 964761195
ALCOSSEBRE
Pl. Vistalegre, s/n
Tel. 964412205
[email protected]
ALCALÀ DE XIVERT
Pl. de la Iglesia, s/n
Alcossebre
Tel. 964410647
ALMASSORA
C/ San Vicente, 47
12550 Almassora
Tel. 964561328
[email protected]
ALMENARA PLAYA
Pl. del Mar
(Playa de Casablanca), s/n
12590 Almenara
Tel. 962623100
[email protected]
ALMENARA
Av. País Valencià, s/n
12590 Almenara
Tel. 962623345
[email protected]
ALTURA
C/ Calvario,17
12410 Altura
Tel. 964147075
[email protected]
ARES DEL MAESTRAT
Pl. de la Iglesia,1
12165 Ares del Maestrat
Tel. 964443064
[email protected]
BEJÍS
C/ Virgen de Loreto, 2
(bajos del Ayto.)
12430 Bejís
Tel. 964120161
[email protected]
BENASSAL
C/ la Mola,8
12160 Benasal
Tel. 964442004
[email protected]
BENICARLÓ
Pl. de la Constitución, s/n
12580 Benicarló • Tel. 964473180
[email protected]
BENICÀSSIM - TORRE SAN
VICENTE
Paseo Marítimo Bernat Artola, s/n
12560 Benicàssim
Tel. 964300102
[email protected]
BENICÀSSIM
C/ Santo Tomás, 76 - bajo
(Casa Abadía)
12560 Benicàssim
Tel. 964300102
[email protected]
BENICÀSSIM - HELIÓPOLIS
Av. Ferrandis Salvador, s/n
(Playa Heliópolis)
12560 Benicàssim
Tel. 964300102
[email protected]
BURRIANA
Pl. Mayor,1
12530 Borriana • Tel. 964570753
[email protected]
CABANES
Pl. de la Iglesia, 4
12180 Cabanes
Tel. 964657032
[email protected]
GRAO DE CASTELLÓN
Paseo Buenavista, 28
12100 Castelló de la Plana
T el. 964283621
[email protected]
CASTELLÓN
Pl. de la Hierba, s/n
12001 Castelló de la Plana
Tel. 964358688
[email protected]
CATÍ
C/ Llarguer, 68 - 12513 Catí
Tel. 964409015
[email protected]
CINCTORRES
Carrer Nou, 6
12318 Cinctorres
Tel. 964181428
[email protected]
FORCALL
Pl. Mayor, 36
12310 Forcall
Tel. 964171290
[email protected]
JÉRICA
C/ del Río,2
12450 Jérica
Tel. 964128004
[email protected]
L'ALCORA
C/ Teixidors,5
12110 L'Alcora
Tel. 964033099
[email protected]
TINENÇA DE BENIFASSÀ
Carretera La Senia-La P. Benifassà,
km. 5
(junto Molí l'Abad)
12599 La Pobla de Benifassà
Tel. 977576259
[email protected]
LA SALZADELLA
C/ Mayor,5
12186 La Salzadella
Tel. 964419282
[email protected]
LA VALL D'UIXÓ
Paraje San José, s/n
12600 La Vall d'Uixó
Tel. 964660785
[email protected]
MONCOFA
Av. Mare Nostrum,143
12593 Moncofa
Tel. 964588557
[email protected]
MONTANEJOS
Carretera de Tales
(Vestíbulo Balneario)
12448 Montanejos
Tel. 964131153
[email protected]
MORELLA
Pl. San Miguel,s/n
12300 Morella
Tel : 964173032
[email protected]
NAVAJAS
Pl. del Olmo,1
12470 Navajas
Tel : 964713913
[email protected]
NULES
Pl. Mayor,1
12520 Nules
Tel. 964670001
[email protected]
NULES PLATGES
C/ de l'Estany, s/n
12520 Nules
Tel. 964675202
[email protected]
ONDA
C/ Ceramista Peyró, s/n
12200 Onda
Tel. 964602855
[email protected]
OROPESA DEL MAR
Pl. de París, s/n
(Playa de la Concha)
12594 Orpesa
Tel. 964312320
[email protected]
[email protected]
OROPESA DEL MAR AMPLARIES
C/ Moscatel, s/n (Marina d'Or)
12594 Orpesa
Tel. 964314134
turismoamplaries@
oropesadelmar.es
PEÑÍSCOLA
12598 Peñíscola
Tel. 964480208
[email protected]
PEÑÍSCOLA - TOBOSO
Confluencia Av. Estación y
C/ Huerto, s/n
12598 Peñíscola
Tel. 964480208
[email protected]
PEÑÍSCOLA - PUERTO
Av. Marcelino Roca, s/n
12598 Peñíscola
Tel. 964480208
[email protected]
PEÑÍSCOLA - PEÑISMAR
Paseo Marítimo Norte, s/n
(Faro de Peñismar)
12598 Peñíscola
Tel. 964480208
[email protected]
SANT MATEU
C/ Historiador Betí, 13
12170 Sant Mateu
Tel. 964416658
[email protected]
SEGORBE
Pl. Alto Palancia,3
12400 Segorbe
Tel. 964713254
[email protected]
TÍRIG
Av. Gabriel Puig Roda,34
12179 Tírig
Tel. 964418668
[email protected]
TORREBLANCA PLAYA
Av. Castellón, s/n
12596 Torreblanca
Tel. 964425184
[email protected]
TORREBLANCA
Pl. Mayor,1
12596 Torreblanca
Tel. 964421212
[email protected]
TRAIGUERA
Santuario Fuente de la Salud
12330 Traiguera
Tel. 964765869
[email protected]
VILA-REAL
C/ Raval de Sant Pasqual, 68
12540 Vila-real
Tel. 964547248
[email protected]
VILAFAMÉS
Pl. Ayuntamiento, 2
12192 Vilafamés
Tel. 964329970
[email protected]
VILAFRANCA
C/ San Roque,1
12150 Villafranca del Cid
Tel. 964441432
[email protected]
VINARÒS - ZONA SUD
Av. Pablo Béjar, s/n
(Playa del Clot)
12500 Vinaròs
[email protected]
VINARÒS
Paseo Colón,s/n
12500 Vinaròs
Tel. 964453334
[email protected]
XILXES
C/ Colón, 11
12592 Xilxes
Tel. 964583446
[email protected]
COMUNITAT VALENCIANA
BRUSELAS
AV. Edmond Mesens, 7 A-B
1040 Bruxelles
Tel. +32 (0) 22 824 160
[email protected]
132
132- 133
Accommodations
Store hours
Climate
What better way to get to know the
Region of Valencia than to enjoy a
pleasant stay in one of the numerous
accommodations distributed throughout its territory, that year after year
increases in number and level of
quality, with a wide and diverse range
of possibilities, with alternatives for all
types of public and budgets, and with
establishments that offer everything
from the basic services to the most
complete, that can include culinary
tastings, health and beauty facilities
and the practice of sports activities. A
total of nearly 1000 hotels and inns,
more than 100 camp grounds and
around 1,100 rural tourism
establishments complete a broad
tourist offering of the first magnitude,
considered among the best of Europe,
which allows the visitor to enjoy
quality service and careful attention.
Consult the information offices of the
Tourist Info Network and in
www.comunitatvalenciana.com.
Not only do snapshots of the places that
are visited make a trip survive in one’s
memory for a long time, so do all those
souvenirs that the traveller acquires for
family, friends or for himself in the
department stores and commercial
streets in the cities, or handicraft markets
on promenades or in historical centres of
small mountain towns, where tradition
and innovation go hand in hand. In the
Region of Valencia going shopping is an
incentive to add to your visit.
The open hours of small stores are
normally, from Monday to Saturday, from
10 h. to 14 h. and from 17 h. to 20 h. The
large department stores and hypermarkets,
also from Monday to Saturday, are open
from 10 h. to 22 h. On some holidays and
in special seasons (such as Christmas)
these store hours are usually increased.
The banking institutions are normally
open from Monday to Friday from 9 h to
14 h.
The mild Mediterranean climate lets
itself be felt in the entire Region of
Valencia, with slight variations between
the coast and the interior. During nearly
3,000 hours a year the sun shines on the
coast and the average temperature
during the day varies between 12º-20º
in winter and 24ºC - 32ºC in summer.
The warm water temperature of the
Mediterranean makes it possible to find
bathers on its coasts from spring to
autumn. All this under the dome of clear
blue skies that make the Region of
Valencia a privileged tourism destination
of mild temperatures, with long and
warm summers, and an excellent
climate during the entire year, even in
winter, which allows carrying out all
types of activities.
Communications
By car
By airplane
By bus
The AP-7 motorway crosses, parallel to
the coast, the Region of Valencia and
connects with the European network.
The national highways connect the
coast with the principal cities of the
interior and the rest of the country.
A-3 Dual carriageway from Valencia to
Madrid.
A-35 Dual carriageway from Valencia
to Albacete towards Madrid.
A-31 Dual carriageway from Alicante
towards Madrid.
A-7 Dual carriageway from AlmenaraValencia-Alcudia de Crespins-Alcoy-Elx
to Pilar de la Horadada towards Murcia.
N-232 from Vinaròs to Morella towards
Zaragoza.
A-23 from Sagunt to Segorbe towards
Teruel.
N-340 crosses the Region of Valencia
from north to south towards
Barcelona-Cádiz, various sections of
dual carriageway.
N-330 from Ademuz to Ayora, cross
the western part of the Region of
Valencia.
For any information, call the Highway
Help line 011 or the web page of the
DGT (Traffic Department)
www.dgt.es
Airports of Alicante and Valencia with national and international flights:
Airport of Valencia (Manises),
Tel. 902 404 704
Airport of Alicante (El Altet),
Tel. 966 919 100
www.aena-aeropuertos.es
Airport of Castellón (Benlloch),
Tel. 964 578 000
Estación de Autobuses:
Valencia, Tel. 963 466 266.
Castellón de la Plana, Tel. 964 240 778.
Alicante, Tel. 965 130 700.
www.aena-aeropuertos.es
By train
Renfe (National railroad network)
Valencia, Castellón de la Plana
y Alicante,
Tel. 902 240 202. www.renfe.com
AVE (High-speed rail) Madrid-Valencia
and Sevilla-Valencia.
Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat
(Regional railroad network)
(www.fgv.es)
Valencia: Metro Valencia
Tel. 900 461 046
www.metrovalencia.es
Alicante. Tram 900 720 472
www.tramalicante.es
By boat
In the ports of Valencia, Dénia and
Alicante there is a passenger maritime
service with the Balearic Islands as the
destination.
Port of Valencia, Tel. 963 939 500
Port of Alicante, Tel. 965 130 095
Port of Castellón de la Plana:
Tel. 854 281 140
Port of Dénia, Tel. 965 780 067
Excursions and trips by boat to the
Tabarca island, the Benidorm island,
the Columbretes islands and different
routes on the coast from different
towns, organised by companies.
Consult information in the offices of the
Tourist Info Network.
134 - 135
Information of interest
Location: Western coast of the
Mediterranean (Spain).
Between 40º47’N and 37º51’N
(latitude) and 0º30’E and 1º33’W
(longitude).
Surface area: 23,255 km2.
Coast: 632 km.
Population: 4,995, 216 inhabitants
(INE 2014)
Cities (with more than 100,000
inhabitants): Valencia, Alicante,
Castellón de la Plana and Elx.
Tourist areas: Costa Blanca, Benidorm,
València Terra i Mar and Castellón
Mediterráneo.
Nº of towns: 542.
Climate: Moderate Mediterranean.
Average temperatures during the day:
12-20º C in winter and 24-32º in
summer.
Nº of hours of sun each year: 2,730.
Land altitude: : Between 200 m, 26.2%.
De 201 a 600 m, 38.8%.
De 601 a 1000 m, 32.3%.
De 1000 a 2000 m, 6.7%.
Land transport infrastructure:
• AP-7 Motorway of the Mediterranean.
• A-3 Dual carriageway (ValenciaMadrid).
A-31 (Alicante-Madrid).
A-23 (Valencia-Zaragoza) and
A-7 (Valencia-Alicante-Elx).
• Railroad of the Valencian Regional
Government (FGV) and RENFE
(National railway system).
International airports: 3
Valencia (Manises) / Alicante (El
Altet)/Castellón (Benlloch).
Passenger maritime ports: 3
Valencia / Alicante / Dénia.
Tourist sector
• 1185 hotel establishments with
135,387 beds.
• 119 camping grounds with space for
68,831.
• 3 Tourist Paradors.
• 8 spas.
• 1,121 rural tourism establishments,
with 11,383 beds.
• 14,543 restaurants.
• 35 golf courses.
Useful contacts
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
Emergencies: Tel. 112.
TOURIST INFORMATION
[email protected]
PORTADA INGLES.pdf
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pdf - Costa de Valencia

Transcription

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