When my kids were two, two, and four, we took an ambitious family trip to Portugal and Spain. This was-without doubt-the most difficult set of ages for traveling. We’ve been going on international trips with kids as young as five months, but the age of two was a special challenge.
Not old enough to be potty trained, to have patience for long flights, and to keep outbursts minimal. Old enough to be very, very mobile.
Now that you know the context of our trip, let me emphasize: I am real glad we spent a week in Valencia.
Spanish culture is as laid back as it gets. That’s important to counterbalance the demand of traveling with kids. On top of that, Valencia has family-friendly infrastructure. It has plenty of playgrounds and so much good food.
Let me highlight all the reasons why Valencia is such an ideal destination. Especially with young kids. Here's what's worth checking out.
The City of Arts and Sciences
The Cidade des Artes e Ciencias alone might make Valencia worth the visit with kids.
Really? A science museum?
More like a museum of museums.
It’s a futuristic whale-shaped complex on the Turia River with several attractions. It includes:
An IMAX cinema and planetarium
Prince Felipe’s Museum of Science. It's your classic science museum, except that the whole first floor is a basketball court
A biosphere known as L’Umbracle
The Oceanografico aquarium
An opera house
Even if you didn’t go into any of the attractions, the bridges and courtyards around the complex are fun. Though if you made it that close, it’d be odd not to go in.
Each museum within the complex could merit a whole day’s activities. We prioritized the science museum and the aquarium for our two-day pass.
Any guesses about my kids’ favorite part?
It was the café in the lobby of the Science Museum where robot cats serve as the waiters.
A lot of other museums
Sharing a city with the mother of all science museums must be pretty tough on other exhibits around town. But there’s a huge upside! Much smaller crowds.
Valencia’s Museum of Prehistoric History is information-rich. It's also full of interactive things for kids to get their hands on. It’s also built into an old Byzantine style church, so the structure itself is of interest. You’ll want to budget a good amount of time for this one.
L’Iber – You’ll remember this one as “the toy soldier museum.” It's a massive collection of tin soldiers and other miniatures. It can capture attention and imagination for much longer than you’d expect. It feels like you’re looking at every war Spain ever fought all at once.
L’Ento – The Valencian Museum of Ethnology, but think of it more as Valencia’s pop culture museum. Grown-ups might note how art and entertainment reflect its history and politics. Kids will find several displays featuring toys and cartoons, and other familiar things.
And while this isn’t a formal museum, I gotta shout out the Casa de los Gatos. I have a little girl who loves cats. Kids who share that fondness will love the tiny decorated facades. These decorate openings in city walls that house street cats.
Siesta culture 🤝 Naptime
To me, this was the most obvious reason to visit Valencia–or at least somewhere in Spain–with young kids. Nap time is still an important part of the day. Why not head to the country that seems to have perfected the art of napping?
That said, there is a flip-side to putting your family on the Spanish schedule. While the naps are decadent, prepare for the days to stretch out longer. Dinners often kick in around 8:00 pm or later. Don’t be surprised if bedtime gets rolled back a few hours.
At home, staying on schedule seems to serve us well. But when in Spain…
The beach was immaculate
We stayed in the Malvarossa neighborhood of Valencia. That meant that we were always a mere blocks away from the beach… and we took full advantage.
It surprised me that every single day, Malvarossa Beach seemed quite empty. We seemed to have several soccer pitches worth of open sand and water all to ourselves. The sand was smooth and perfect for building things. The Mediterranean waters were the perfect temperature.
We were there in April. Maybe that helped keep the beaches empty. They seemed capable of accommodating much larger crowds.
Every 200 meters was another unique play structure. The parallel sidewalk was lined with cafés.
In the mornings, this strip of beach worked well for a 10k run.
It is most likely a lot more packed in summer.
There were playgrounds everywhere
On the beach, you couldn’t go very far without running into a playground, and you know what? That was basically true for Valencia across the board. There are play structures everywhere.
Some playgrounds are in more central parks and plazas. These typically had more complex structures and lots of families hanging out. But even in low key walkways, it seemed like the City of Valencia figured out a way to squeeze in a slide and a jungle gym. There was one right outside the supermarket which made shopping a lot easier.
One observation of these Valencian playgrounds: there is no shortage of rocking horses. Or rocking motorcycles or dolphins. Whatever designed seat they decided to put on a giant spring.
At some point I imagine a Valencian city planner got it deep in his head that them kids love rocking horses!
There is one special playground I gotta call attention to: Gulliver’s Playground
Parque Guilliver, that is!
It’s a large structure of tunnels, staircases, climbing walls, and slides... all in the shape of Lemuel Guilliver. You know, the sailor stranded on Lilliput who is then tied up and climbed all over by the tiny Lilliputians.
Gulliver’s Playground is only one part of the Jardin del Turia. Turia is largest urban park in Valencia and a place you can visit over and over for family walks and other outings. It was built into the old riverbed of the Turia. Back in the day, it flooded, making the city rebuild. Now it also features a model train, Centro Ferroviario Camp de Turia, that the kids can hop on.
But are kids these days even up on their Gulliver lore? Seems like a forgotten fandom to me. Have they no idea who they’re climbing on?
Probably not. Even that Jack Black movie adaptation was 15 years ago. He’s the Minecraft guy now.
Nonetheless, the playground is doing its part. And it’s still fun. And some of those slides are actually pretty intense, so keep an eye out if you have very small ones.
You can leave town for a little bit…
Here are a few of my picks:
Xativa – A medieval city on a hill with stone walls and ancient castles. If you’ve got castle-fixated kids, this is ideal as long as they can handle the walking. Lots of little shops and cafés.
Ruzafa – This isn’t even a daytrip where you’d leave Valencia. But Ruzafa is Valencia’s bohemian hipster suburb. Lots of vintage shops, used bookstores, and tapas joints.
Albufera Natural Park – This nature park is set on the Southern Spanish Wetlands. There are boat rides and plenty of wooden walkways to explore. It’s a great escape to take a break from the city.
…or head deeper into the heart of the city.
The historic center of Valencia is actually a good spot to get lost for a little while. Large parts of it are pretty pedestrian friendly. It’s easy to grab some essential Spanish eats while walking around. Here's what's worth seeing.
Plaza de la Reina – is the iconic central plaza. Sometimes I enjoy just embedding myself where all the action is and taking it all in. This is that kind of place.
On the northern end of what I’d consider Central Valencia is Torres de Serranos. Those Gothic towers once served as the city gates. It matches my childhood impression of what a castle should look like. Two rooks from a chessboard connected by a wall.
One other very Valencian thing I wish we had the chance to do was to catch a Valencia CF match at Estadio Mestalla. My favorite La Liga squad is the one untethered from Barcelona and Madrid. While the schedule didn’t work out in our favor, we did get to bop around the fan shop in central Valencia for a bit.
Public transit is pretty fun to ride around
I have a transportation kid. As in, a young boy obsessed with vehicles and ways of getting around. Trains, buses, all that. And the public bus system of Valencia was his idea of a good time.
Valencia's buses made it easy for us to get around. Our main routes went between Malvarossa and the City Center. The bus route enabled us to discover lots of restaurants and cafés, along with a look at ordinary Valencian life.
It’s also worth noting that Valencia is an excellent bike town. If my kids were riding bikes already , we would’ve borrowed some wheels. Rent Bike Virgen is a great spot to hire a bike to pedal around Turia Gardens and other spots.
Spanish food culture
We decided to not serve meat to our kids until they could understand where it comes from. Spain made that so much easier with the hanging pig legs at every grocer for jamon iberico. One of our kids had his first animal protein on the trip. Not ham, mind you, but escargot. A snail picked right out of a pan of paella.
The must-try items are well-known. Jamon iberico. Wine. Paella. Oh, and note that paella with seafood is generally seen as a tourist play. The local stuff will have chicken, or more likely, rabbit.
I do recommend the Mercat Colon as a food hall where you can try a good number of things. Valencia happens to be the origin site for horchata. One of my favorite spots to grab one would be Orxata Daniel, located within Mercat Colon. To top it all off, I’d visit a rival horchata-maker, L’Orxateria… but for their churros y chocolate.
Other Considerations
Once again, I am so glad we made Valencia a destination. Even during these years of challenging young-kid travel. There are a few other considerations I’d keep in mind:
Timing – We did very well by visiting in April. This was possible, of course, because our kids aren’t in school. Missing three weeks in the spring is easier in preschool than the higher grades. Our reward were those wide open beaches, as well as temperatures. Spain gets hot in the summer, to the point where I wouldn't recommend it anymore.
Las Fallas – It’s Valencia’s most popular carnival, and it’s definitely a memorable thing to experience. The drawback is that unless you stuck around for a lot longer, you might not experience much else. Expect way longer lines at the museums and higher prices for everything.
Ever do Valencia? With kids? Thinking about it? Let me know below!