Valencia city break

After a week of volunteering at Jacob’s Ridge animal sanctuary in Spain (previous post here), I wanted to indulge in a bit of luxury, so before we left I booked in a short city break to Valencia. After a week of camping and working with the animals, sleeping in a big, soft bed and taking hot showers with high pressure was just divine. Heavenly.

Valencia is one cool city! It doesn’t feel that big, but it is buzzing. More so than some bigger European cities I’ve been to. The architecture is so unique, and you could spend hours just wandering around the little windy roads throughout the old town, getting lost in the faded elegance of the city. And boy did we do a lot of walking. As with other travel blogs, I’m going to break this post into three sections: stay, eat, see. This is gonna be a long one, so you might want to get some popcorn!

 

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Stay

Hotel one shot Mercat 09

What can I say about this hotel apart from that it was spectacular and possibly one of the best hotels I’ve ever stayed in. There are a number of factors that contributed to our enjoyment of the place – the first of which was the big, spacious, clean, modern room. I booked in the standard suite which is one up from the basic room, which consists of a bedroom and separate living room. While we didn’t use the living room (there were tvs in both rooms), it did insulate us from the hallway and rest of the hotel which means it was QUIET. We were on the first floor, so we also had really high ceilings.

The room itself was perfect. We had a super kingsize bed that was so soft and full of big, fluffy pillows. Needless to say, our siestas were very comfortable. The bathroom was very clean and modern, and came with an overhead rain shower (think that’s what it’s called?!) that had really great pressure. Oh, and they give you robes and slippers. Those went to very good use.

The hotel has a restaurant which we didn’t eat at because it was a) expensive and b) not vegan friendly, but did look very pretty. There is also a very small rooftop pool which we did enjoy. The water was refreshing but not freezing, and you had views all around of surrounding buildings.

All of the above was great, but what really put the hotel above and beyond was the staff. There were three people on rotation at the front desk during our 4 night stay, and they were SO incredibly friendly and helpful. They booked us reservations, made recommendations for things to do and places to eat, booked cabs, chatted to us about our day…. They were lovely and such a credit to the hotel.

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Eat

Valencia was much more vegan-friendly than I thought it would be. There are so many different vegetarian and vegan-only restaurants, that it was tough to decide which ones to visit.

Sofart Café

For breakfast every morning we would find a café and have two coffees and two “tostadas con tomate” (toast with tomatoes) which is a regional dish to Valencia. We tried this dish at various different places, but the best one we had was at this adorable, eclectic café right next to the hotel called Sofart Café. They also had some other vegan dishes on the menu such as a hummus plate, but we went just for the toast and coffee.

The Vurger

On our first day we headed to one of two Vurger locations and loaded up on delicious vegan burgers and chips. I had the “grill burger” – a classic soy based patty with cheese and salad, while Andrew went for the “Hawaiian” – a chicken style burger with a slightly sweet, tangy sauce. I also had a side of normal fries while Andrew went for the rustic chips – plus a side of buffalo sauce and garlic aioli. The burgers were awesome. They were probably the tastiest burgers I’ve had at a restaurant in a long, long time.

Malmo

Malmo was the first restaurant I found in Valencia that I was excited to try. It is part of a group of vegetarian restaurants in Valencia, each serving up their own take on Asian fusion cuisine.

For our starters we opted for guacamole with plantain chips and these little aubergine rolls stuffed with cashew “cheese.” Oh boy were those rolls good. The guacamole was also very fresh and went down a treat – especially with our sumptuous rioja.

For our mains Andrew and I both opted for the same thing: “shrimp” pad thai. The pad thai was different to what I normally expect in that the sauce was thinner but still incredibly tasty. It was definitely a lighter, healthier version of the real thing. The shrimp was too realistic for me and I had to give my pieces to Andrew, who loved them. In all, the meal was delicious and our server was so sweet and very helpful with our terrible, broken attempts at speaking Spanish!

Aloha

We ended up at Aloha on the second day after walking for miles, so needless to say we were famished. Aloha is a vegan-only burger joint that does takeaways (they have a couple of stools but the room is tiny for eating in).

I went for the chicken burger this time which was so tasty – it was seitan-based and had a lovely, crispy coating. Andrew opted for the seitan kebab which had a lovely, sticky sauce and plenty of crispy salad. Both were just delicious, washed down with a beer and a side of rustic chips.

Civera Marisquerias

On our second night we really wanted paella so the hotel staff recommended a highly rated restaurant called Civera Marisquerias. Yes, it was a fish restaurant but they were happy to accommodate vegans.

The restaurant itself was really cute (as long as you ignore the fish out front), and quite upscale. While we perused the menu they brought us little nibbles – olives, crisps and some bread with tomato. For our starter we had a salad and a big bowl of padron peppers.

For our main we split the veggie paella which was very… green. It tasted ok but my god, it was SO OILY. I don’t think paella is supposed to have that much oil but I’m no expert. As a result, I had just a couple small spoonfuls and ended up picking out the veggies to eat. In the end, for how much we paid and how so-so the food was, I don’t think I’d recommend it to anyone.

Mon Restaurante

We actually ended up at Mon two nights in a row, purely by accident. The first night we went because we mixed up our dates and thought the England World Cup match was on, but in fact it was France v Belgium. Because we hadn’t made any other plans, we got a table and ordered some food.

For our starters we had a big salad and chips. Both were good, but it’s difficult (although not impossible!) to mess up either. For our mains we each had a cheeseless veggie pizza. Although Andrew ordered the same thing as me, his came out with – no exaggeration here – 5 cloves of raw garlic! Regardless, the pizzas were very tasty.

The next night was the actual England match so we headed back. This time, however, we opted for a salad, padron peppers and veggie paella. The salad came out with tuna so we sent it back, and when it returned it STILL had small chunks of tuna in it because they had obviously just scraped it off thinking we wouldn’t notice. We did. We sent it back. The paella was pretty good, but not outstanding. Maybe I just don’t like paella as much as I remember?

Marina Beach Club

Down by the beach there is a large beach club that has a restaurant, pool club and bar/lounge area. Andrew and I stopped off here after a bike ride and had a late lunch.

Andrew and I decided to split the seaweed salad, edamame and a veggie sushi roll, plus a little sangria to cool off. The food portions were very generous and everything we tried was delicious. The service was terrible – took ages for anyone to come see us and when they did they were so grumpy. I can’t say I entirely blame them – it was very hot that day.

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To do

Walking

There is so much to see in Valencia, that my number one recommendation is get some good walking shoes and hit the pavement (with a hat and plenty of sunscreen). The little, winding roads in the old town are so sweet and constantly changing. There are loads of little independent shops worth popping into along the way, and make sure you look up as you walk around to see the pretty balconies of local residents. I won’t list out all the buildings to see, as that’s something you can easily look up, but most of it is doable in a day. Also, check out the Central Market – it is full of incredible looking produce.

Biking

I highly recommend renting a bike. Andrew and I rented two bicycles for a full day for €9 each. We headed out of the town and down into the Turia Gardens which used to be the river before the city diverted it and turned it into a park. The park goes on for miles and is full of people walking, running and cycling. It also takes you to the Center for Sciences, where there is a museum, little shops for drinks and pools where you can rent a canoe or even one of those bubbles that run on the water. There are plenty of places to stop for a rest or picnic along the way, or you can ride all the way to the beach, we leads me onto my next section….

Beach

Head to the beach! The beach is beautiful, clean and enormous – plus the water was incredibly warm when we were there. The boardwalk goes on for, I believe, 9km and is lined with little restaurants and shops. Andrew and I stopped at the Marina Beach Club for a drink and bite to eat after cycling from the city, and it was lovely. We had great views of the beach while we lounged back on comfy couches. The service was terrible, but we ate some really yummy sushi.

The Marina Beach club has a separate pool club that we returned to the next day. We rented one of the large, round sun beds which comes to €50 each for the full day. €20 of that is a cover charge which includes towels, and the other €30 is to spend on food and drink. The club was fun – it was packed, the music was lively, and the pool was refreshing and looked out over the beach. The downsides? The food was TERRIBLE for vegans (we had to make up our own dishes – which consisted of a dry salad sandwich, salad, and guacamole without cheese), and the service was also, so appalling. But we had fun.

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In all, we LOVED Valencia. It has that perfect mix of culture, beach and laid-back, Spanish vibes. It’s also a buzzy, happening city and so vegan friendly. I will definitely be going back some day! Be sure to check out my vlog, below, for some behind the scenes action of our time in Valencia.