🇪🇸 Valencia, Spain — Cruise Port Guide
Spain's third city, where paella was actually invented, with a dry riverbed turned into a five-mile park running through the middle of it — and a set of white futuristic buildings at the end that look borrowed from another century.
Updated September 2026
Quick facts
Getting ashore
When to visit Valencia
April to June and September to October are ideal. July and August are very hot, and the city empties in August as locals leave.
Good to know
Paella is a lunch dish and most kitchens stop serving it by mid-afternoon — if that is your plan, do it at 2pm rather than after the sights. Book, because the good places by the beach fill up.
Things to do in Valencia
City of Arts and Sciences
Calatrava's white shells and skeletal arches around reflecting pools. Even without going into the museums the architecture is worth the trip out.
Central Market & La Lonja
A 1928 iron-and-glass market hall opposite the 15th-century silk exchange, whose twisted stone columns are among the finest Gothic interiors in Spain.
Eat paella where it was invented
Book a beachside restaurant at Malvarrosa for lunch. It arrives at the table in the pan, and the crust stuck to the bottom — the socarrat — is the best part.
Turia Gardens by bike
Nine kilometres of park in the old riverbed, flat the whole way, with bike hire everywhere. The most enjoyable way to cross the city.
Old town & the cathedral
Climb the Micalet bell tower for the rooftops, see the Holy Grail chapel, and be outside at noon on a Thursday for the Water Tribunal.
Malvarrosa beach
A wide city beach with a promenade of paella restaurants, about 20 minutes from the port and reachable by tram.
What to eat
- Paella valenciana
- Horchata with fartons
- Agua de Valencia
- All i pebre
- Buñuelos
Weather by month
Best time to visit: Apr–Jun and Sep–Oct; Jul–Aug is very hot
| Month | High | Low | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 61° | 45° | 1.4" |
| Feb | 62° | 46° | 1.4" |
| Mar | 66° | 49° | 1.4" |
| Apr | 70° | 53° | 1.4" |
| May | 75° | 59° | 1.4" |
| Jun | 82° | 66° | 0.9" |
| Jul | 86° | 71° | 0.3" |
| Aug | 87° | 72° | 0.8" |
| Sep | 82° | 67° | 2.2" |
| Oct | 75° | 60° | 2.9" |
| Nov | 67° | 51° | 2" |
| Dec | 62° | 46° | 1.8" |
Local phrases
A little history
Paella is Valencian and the original has rabbit, chicken and beans rather than seafood. Ordering paella after 4pm, or with chorizo in it, marks you out instantly.
The Turia river was diverted after a catastrophic flood in 1957. Rather than build a motorway in the empty bed, the city turned it into a nine-kilometre park that curves right through the centre.
The City of Arts and Sciences, designed by the Valencia-born Santiago Calatrava, sits at the far end of that park — an opera house, a science museum, and Europe's largest aquarium.
The Water Tribunal has met outside the cathedral every Thursday at noon for over a thousand years to settle irrigation disputes among farmers. It is the oldest functioning legal institution in Europe.
Valencia's cathedral claims to hold the Holy Grail — an agate cup that archaeologists date to somewhere between the fourth century BC and the first century AD.