A funny thing happened at our audiobook recording recently. Our producer, told us that our new book is unlike any other finance book he’s ever read, and he’s produced a ton of them, including Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad Poor Dad”.
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Now, on to the post.
It’s taken me a long time to post this, because I was told by my Chautauquan friend to “shut up and don’t tell anyone about this place. I don’t want it turning into Lisbon or Barcelona”. So, at the risk of incurring his wrath, I’m still posting this article, because I simply cannot resist shouting about how much I love Valencia—even more so than Barcelona! I briefly even considered moving there, and it was one of the top contenders when looking for family-friendly cities for us to use as a home base going forward (Huge apologies to my friend. I promise if you read until the end, I show the downsides of Valencia as well.).
Let me back up a bit and give you a history of why I decided to visit Valencia in the first place, because it’s not exactly well known in the travelling space.
I first heard about it at a Chautauqua in Colombia, back in 2022. We were still a carefree childfree couple and were looking for more off-the-beaten path places to explore—especially given that the pandemic was over, and revenge travel was all the rage.
One of the attendees told me that he lives in a place in Spain called “Valencia”, which prior to hearing about it from him, all I knew was that they produced excellent oranges. Then he showed me this photo of the iconic, futuristic Science Museum his home is known for, and I was instantly intrigued:
The fact that the place gets approximately 300 days of sunshine a year didn’t sound too shabby either.
It wasn’t until after my son was a year old that we finally scheduled a trip to Valencia. But as fate would have it, a massive flood hit just as we were arriving and we had to scramble and change our plans last minute because it was no longer safe for my family to visit.
That’s when HomeExchange came to the rescue (again), and found us not just a replacement, but a bigger place that could house not just my family but 2 of my friends as well in expensive Barcelona, for free!
Fast forward one year, we decided to try visiting Valencia again, with my kid now even more rambunctious, at 2 years old. I reached out to the HomeExchange host we were supposed to stay with the previous year, to see if we could have a do-over. She was so kind and let me stay without new points!
Home Exchange uses a points system rather than cash, and since Home Exchange let her keep the points last time, she was happy to let me stay using those same points. I was shocked! Can you imagine if this ever happened on Airbnb? A natural disaster happens, Airbnb lets the host keep the money, refunds you, and then a year later the host voluntarily GIVES YOU the money back and so you can rebook again? WHAT? No way, Jose! This only happens on HomeExchange. I was blown away by the kindness of my host and couldn’t wait to meet her.
When she greeted us, she not only brought a friend to help translate, she give a stuffed bunny to my son as a welcome gift!
I was so touched I was speechless. This kindness and thoughtfulness towards children and families continued the whole time we were there.
Every single restaurant we ever visited (whether it was upscale or a dive bar), always had multiple highchairs available. There were Lego playgrounds in malls where children could spend a whole hour for free while parents shopped. There are ludotecas, or toy libraries, in essentially every mall we visited for children to play in, and they even made stroller-friendly escalators so you wouldn’t have to wait for the elevator.
I never had to overthink about where to go so my kid could run some energy out. Everywhere we went there were playgrounds within a stone’s throw, and everyone was very friendly and accommodating of families.
We even managed to score a spot at an international daycare that teaches in both English and Spanish. And the cost was a very reasonable €30/day, including meals! They even had an onsite nurse, child psychologist, and chef!
And that’s not all, here are some of the other reasons why Valencia felt like home:
Accessibility
One of the things I worry about as a mom in Europe is the narrow historical, cobblestoned sidewalks. Great if you’re childfree. Not so great if you have to lug a heavy toddler around all day long. I had to use my back carrier daily in Madrid, but Valenica was flat as a pancake and had wide sidewalks, so I had an easy time using my stroller.
Even going to the beach, there was a long boardwalk that extended nearly all the way to the waterline. No need to struggle with lugging all my stuff dragging my stroller across the sand. They also had an entire shaded resting area dedicated to those with disabilities. I could see this is a city that cares.
A Well-designed City Park
If you look up “Turia Park” on a map, you might think that it looks more like a river than a city park, and you’d be right. It used to be a river that flowed throughout the city, but due to a heavy flooding back in the 50s, the city decided to drain it and turn it into something else. At one point, a major 8 lane highway was proposed, but luckily the people of Valencia struck that down and instead voted for it to be turned into a gorgeous park that everyone can enjoy.
It was the best decision ever, because of all the city parks I’ve been to in the world (Central Park in New York, Stanley Park in Vancouver, Lumphini Park in Bangkok, Bosque de Chapultepec in Mexico City, etc), this one is hands-down my favourite and perfect for families. The fact that it used to be river means that it’s easily accessible from pretty much anywhere in the city. And that fact that it’s a bit below ground makes it feel like you’re transported away from all the city noise.
I absolutely loved it and it was my favourite spots to take a walk with my son. Of course, they didn’t forget to add playgrounds all throughout too, because families are always top of mind when the designers built this place.
So Very Shady
Whoever did city planning for Valencia deserves an award. Despite how sunny it is, I never had to search hard for shade because everywhere you go, trees and greenery lined the sidewalks and shielded the playgrounds. I never worried about my son getting a sunburn.
Delicious Food
I was not prepared for how much I’d love the food. I love Spanish food, especially Iberico jamon, but I was always kind of “meh” about paella. Since Valencia is the birthplace of paella, I thought maybe I was just going to be ok with it. Turns out I just haven’t had the best paella yet. Then I ended up eating the best one in a restaurant called “Restaurante Rocalla” near Las Ciencias Principe Felipe (the science museum). It might have something to do with the fact that steak was part of it (which isn’t traditional) but I’m not even that much of a steak person, so I’m not sure if that’s 100% it. We took a friend there, who is a professional chef and she agreed it was phenomenal! My son started asking for “paella” for every meal after we fed him black ink squid paella for the first time. It’s now one of his favourite words to say. He’s also a jamon fiend, so to say that he ate well in Valencia is an understatement.
Our friend, Mr.NomadNumbers also told us about “Labios Gourmet – Comida para llevar”, which is a homemade food takeout place with each dish costing between 4-6 Euros. It’s almost as cheap as cooking, super delicious, and convenient. We started to look for these Comida para Llevar (take out) home made restaurants throughout Spain after that. He also introduced us to “Horchata de Chufa” (the best place to get it is called “Horchatería de Santa Catalina”), which is made from a type of local tuber known as “tiger nuts”, not to be confused with Mexican horchata, which is a drink made from rice. I loved it and bought it often (but do not get it from a grocery store–it’s gross). If you ever try to eat the tiger nuts raw, soak them in water first, and they’ll taste surprisingly like water chestnuts.
Even the grocery store, Mercadona, had delicious ready-made octopus salad for 4.50 Euros that was delicious and healthy. It was hard to have a bad meal in Valencia.
That said, the other friends we travelled with preferred the food in Madrid, a vegan friend had a very hard time, while another friend from NYC said they had to eat out of Italian restaurants the whole time, so maybe I’m biased? If you’re not a fan of seafood and meat, you may be in trouble. Also, don’t drink the tap water in Valencia. It’s safe, it just tastes like ass.
Family-Friendly
As one of the most family-friendly places we’ve travelled to so far, we were blown away by all the green spaces, child-friendly restaurants, abundant playgrounds, accessible beaches, and childcare. One of my favourite places is the Nuevo Centro mall, which not only had a children’s amusement park outside, but also a ludoteca called “YOYO” inside where they will watch any child aged 2 and above for €8/hour while you shop. You get a pager and they will call you if your kid asks for you or needs to be changed.
Another family favourite is the “Parque infantil de Tráfico” in the Jardines del Real where they built a dedicated mock traffic zone, complete with child-sized street lights, traffic signs, etc where children can learn to ride bikes safely away from traffic. Of course, this area also had added multiple playgrounds, because God-forbid your kid ever has to put up with the horror of not having access to a playground for a single second.
Valencia does have its downsides though, since a place with that many days of sunshine per year is bound to be scorching hot in the summer. And when we were there in the September, the temperature frequently reached 33 degrees C or 91 degrees F. I was getting heat rashes pretty regularly and air conditioning was a must. I couldn’t imagine living through 40 degree weather during the July-Aug months. The public transportation is also a bit of a let down, considering how reliable and on time trains and buses are in the rest of Europe. If you’re strategic about where you are staying though, you have little to worry about. Our HomeExchange was in the Quatre Carreres area, which made it super walkable to the Science museum, which our son loved. They even had an area just for toddlers. We later stayed in the Patraix area, which was easily accessible via subway to downtown but still a short distance away so we could enjoy peace and quiet.
Hanging out with new friends at the Science Museum.
In the end, I don’t think my friend has anything to worry about. Valencia will never be overrun by tourists like Lisbon and Barcelona, because it’s made for people to live in, not for posting pretty Instagram pictures. If you focus on sights, food, and travel bucket lists, you will be disappointed. It doesn’t have world-renown historical sites like the Sagrada Família or jaw dropping views from the Miradouro da Graça. Its top attractions are a Science Museum, an Aquarium, a zoo, and a city park, which, not surprisingly, are things that parents with young children gravitate toward, but everyone else probably just thinks is “meh”. This is why, during the two months that we lived there with childfree friends, they thought it was boring as hell and enjoyed Madrid far more.
This just goes to show what we’ve said all along. Places you’ve loved as a childfree person could turn out to be the opposite if you come back as a family, and vice versa. We loved Valencia so much, two months felt short and we didn’t want to leave. I was done with Madrid within 2 weeks. Ditto with Zurich.
What do you think? Have you been to Valencia? Are there places you traveled to that you once loved that you no longer love because you’re in a different stage in life?
Here’s how much we spent in Valencia:
|
Categories |
USD/day/3 people |
CAD/day/3 people |
Notes |
|
Accommodations |
$2.14 |
$2.91 |
Since we used Home Exchange, the only fee we paid was for cleaning, which is a one time fee of 50 Euros. Amortized over 28 days that’s only $2 USD/day. |
|
Food |
$57.35 |
$78 ($46 eating out+ $32 groceries) |
We ate out A LOT in Valencia. I didn’t want to cook because the restaurants were so good and so family friendly, I never had to stress out. Also, since accommodations were nearly free, we had tons of room in our spending for food. |
|
Transportation |
$12.65 |
$17.20 |
Transportation inside Valencia is very inexpensive at only €0.50 per ride. This is because the government is subsiding the cost to help citizens recover from the flood. The remaining cost is the cost of the flight from Zurich to Valencia, amortized over the time we were there, which works out to be around $16 CAD/day. |
|
Entertainment |
$8.46 |
$11.50 |
There’s a ton of free and inexpensive entertainment in Valencia, so the most expensive thing was the Aquarium (which also had an outdoor playground, of course), which is Europe’s largest, at €37/adult. You could honestly spend a whole week just walking around Turia park and discovering various playgrounds on it. |
|
Toddler |
$5.88 |
$8 |
Other than diapers, diaper cream, milk, some toddler snacks, our biggest expense for our son was daycare, which was optional for us, but we decided to try it out so he could learn some Spanish. We split that cost out into the next section below. |
|
Daycare |
$36 |
$48.96 |
Daycare in Canada is subsidized and can be as low as $16 USD/day if you can get a spot. In the US, the average cost is $70 USD/day, so I was surprised that private daycare with no subsidies in Spain was just $36 USD/day. This only 50% of the avg US cost. |
|
Misc |
$5.54 |
$7.54 |
This includes toiletries, cell phone data, and clothing. |
|
Total |
$128.02 |
$174.11 |
The cost/day in Valencia for us was 28% higher than what Numbeo reports it to be ($100 USD/day outside of rent) because we choose to eat out nearly every day (since we didn’t have to pay rent), and chose to put our child in daycare, which is an optional expense for early retirees. If you’re living there long term, without childcare costs and choose to cook more, you can budget $100 USD/day to live comfortably, outside of rent. |
How about you? Have you ever been to Valencia? Did you love it, or were you just meh? Let’s hear it in the comments below!
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