How to make a trip to Valencia super fun for the kids
Valencia is a really great place for a family holiday or short city break. This beautiful Spanish city has activities to keep everyone, of all ages, happy. I
What you’ll find here is not an article that just rehashes all the regular ‘what to do in Valencia’ ideas, claiming that the kids will enjoy them. This is an article based on my personal experiences in Valencia with my kids. My kids are regular tweens/teens. They don’t care about visiting churches, they can just about be persuaded to spend time in museums but they’d 100% rather go to an escape room or chill with an ice cream than be forced to ensure too much culture.
In this article we’ll take a look at the best things to do and the best places to go in Valencia as a family because vacations are for the whole family, right? Everyone gets to enjoy themself on vacation.
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Valencia family vacation travel tips
🍼 Rent any baby / child equipment you might need before you arrive
⛑ Never travel without family travel insurance
📲 Pick up your e-sim before you arrive in Spain
🚗 Rent a car to make exploring easier
🏴☠️ Plan to explore Valencia with a kid friendly scavenger hunt
🍔 Help to figure out which items on a Spanish menu your kids will eat
Best time to visit Valencia City
🔆 There’s really no bad time to visit Valencia. The region receives 300 days of sun a year so even when it’s chilly, it’s generally still perfectly fine to walk around and explore.
🌼 In March, Valencia celebrates Las Fallas – a local festival with processions, fireworks, parties and more. The Fallas are held to celebrate the arrival of spring (originally with the burning of old furniture) and to commemorate Saint Joseph of Valencia – if your kids don’t love crowds then this might not be the right time for your family to visit.
🏖 If your kids are excited by playing on the gorgeous beaches then you’re probably going to need to consider a summer vacation in Valencia (although I’m a bit partial to wintery beach fun)
The Fallas are to Valencia as Feria is to Sevilla. They were declared a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2016.
🔥 You’ll find fallas (monuments) across the city. These monuments consist of sculptures (ninots) that tell a satirical story – often of current affairs. On the 19th March the sculptures are all burned. The 18th March is Nit del Foc (Night of Fire) and the 17th and 18th are the Offering of Flowers to the Virgin of the Forsaken. If you’re in town for this you’ll see thousands of people in traditional costume parading in the streets. It’s really special but gets extremely crowded.
What to do in Valencia with kids
There are plenty of awesome activities for young children and older kids in Valencia. Whether you’re looking for open spaces to run, museums to learn, or good old beach fun, Valencia has so much fun to offer families.
Other useful MexicoCassie guides to exploring Valencia:
→ How to spend 1 day in Valencia
Visit the City of Arts and Sciences
In Valencian: Ciutat de les Artes i les Ciències
In Spanish: Ciudad de les Artes y les Ciencas
In this fabulous part of Valencia (at one end of the Turia Gardens) you’ll find not only an awesomely cool place to walk around, but also the three following experiences:
🔬 Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe – Science Museum
🐠 Oceanogràfic de València – the largest aquarium in Europe
🎞 Hemisferic – IMAX on a giant screen
➕ concert hall (Palau de la Musica) and the Caixa Forum which hosts events and exhibitions.
The area is absolutely beautiful and well worth your time even if you don’t feel like experiencing any of the activities here.
This area of Valencia is one of the reasons people wondering about whether to visit Valencia or Seville might choose Valencia.
Science Museum
This is a fairly interactive science museum spread over 2 floors. There are classes and activities you can sign up for (cost extra) although these are all in Spanish.
→ Buy your skip the line Science Museum tickets now
Important to know
🔓 There are very few lockers available. They are located upstairs after you’ve shown your ticket to enter.
☕️ The cafe lines (when we were there) were extremely slow moving – to the point that we gave up trying to even get a coffee. Instead we walked out to the mall across the road where there are plenty of restaurant and coffee options.
🚾 There are good toilet facilities available.
✅ Definitely a good idea to buy tickets in advance, especially during school holidays.
My kids’ view
They enjoyed their day at the museum but were clear that it is by no means their favourite science museum (Papalote in Mexico City holds that title, closely followed by the Granada Science Museum). They told me they’d be happy enough to go again and that the area with experiments is better than the exhibitions about the body, health or space.
Over all, they were more excited about whacking buttons than actually learning from most of the activities because the text or scientific point wasn’t made in an interesting enough way to actually get them to stop whacking for long enough to learn anything.
They loved the robotics class they took (the highlight of their day) and they enjoyed the anti-gravity simulator we did.
Aquarium
The aquarium is large but no so big that you can’t see it in one day (even if you’re going to the IMAX as well). The shark tunnel here is apparently the longest in Europe.
→ Buy your skip the line aquarium tickets now
Important to know
❌ There are dolphins and beluga whales in captivity in this aquarium. The whales don’t have a very happy looking space and the dolphins perform for crowds of people multiple times a day. For me, this is a big no-no but we didn’t know until we got there. I felt super bad once I realised.
💦 Snacks are extremely expensive at the aquarium but there are water fountains available.
🚾 There are decent bathroom facilities.
🔓 There are paid locker facilities here.
My kids’ view
They absolutely loved the aquarium (more than the science museum) and said they’d love to return any time we would take them. They did understand my problem with keeping whales and dolphins in captivity and we used this an an opportunity to discuss the ethics of zoos and aquariums.
Hemisferic
This is the Imax cinema. The show will most likely be in Spanish but you’ll be given headphones for your language of choice should you require them. 3D glasses are also provided.
→ Buy your skip the line Hemisferic tickets now
Important to know
✅ It’s a good plan to get a combo ticket that includes the hemisferic and aquarium on the same day. I don’t recommend trying to do the aquarium, science museum and Imax all on the same day as it’s really too much.
My kids’ view
They enjoyed the show very much but told me they’d rather have seen one of the shows we saw advertised that wasn’t playing (😉), of course.
Jardín del Turia (Turia Gardens /Turia Park)
The Jardín del Turia is one of Spain’s largest urban parks. It is 9km long and runs around the city in the former riverbed of the Turia River. At one end you’ll find the City of Arts and Sciences and at the other end, the Cabecera Park and the Bioparc.
After a huge and devastating flood in 1957, the Turia River’s course was diverted south away from the city and in 1986, the park was inaugurated in the old river bed.
Playgrounds
There are playgrounds throughout the gardens although without a doubt, Gulliver Park is the best of them all.
Gulliver Park
This playground offers a 70m sculpture of Gulliver that includes slides, nets, bridges and more. Kids love climbing, running and playing in this safe space (photo above). I also enjoyed having a play here 😉.
There are toilets in this enclosed and monitored playground.
Bioparc Valencia
This is a safari-park zoo that gets great reviews all around. You can see giraffes, lions, elephants and more.
→ Buy your fast track Bioparc tickets now
Cabecera Park (Parc de Capçalera)
This is a natural park that most tourists don’t visit. Here you’ll find peaceful riverside walks, a delightful artificial lake that is home to plenty of fish and even to tortoises. Take a pedalo and enjoy relaxing on the lake with the kids. They’ll also enjoy playing on the artificial beaches before stopping in the cafe for a drink or snack.
🏴☠️ There’s a good pirate ship playground here, too.
Ciutat Vella (City Centre)
You’ll obviously want to explore the ciutat vella, the heart of the city while you’re in Valencia. Your kids may not wish to visit the cathedral or all the museums but it’s still worth heading into the beautiful old town.
⭐️ We took our kids to the Pre-History and Ethno museums, the Lonja de la Seda and climbed the tower at Portel del Quart. This was a good compromise of culture and fun. They were grateful we skipped the cathedral.
What are the primary cultural and historical activities in Valencia?
Valencia Cathedral – they claim that the Holy Grail (aka a cup Jesus apparently drank out of) is here in the cathedral. I know that my kids care as little about this as I do so we didn’t go to check it out. We did stop to say, “gosh, that’s the Cathedral” and to have a chat about why European churches turned their mother into a socialist as a teenager 😉.
Mercado Central – this is the biggest fresh food market in Europe so if your kids are interested in markets, definitely stop in (in the mornings or for lunch as later on in the day it’s closed). It’s an incredibly impressive building.
Lonja de la Seda – the medieval silk exchange. We did go. My kids did not care one bit except when we lost their dad, which they thought was funny. This building is beautiful and the pillars in the main hall are gorgeous but kids don’t want to see that necessarily.
Museums – as you might expect from a city the size of Valencia, there are numerous museums and art galleries. We took our kids to the pre-history museum / Ethno museum (located in the same building and FREE). The kids found these museums fairly interesting and didn’t complain too much.
Making the Ciutat Vella fun for kids
Street art – Valencia is a vibrant city with some great street art that older kids will love to check out.
Torres dels Serrans / Portal del Quart – climb up one of these two medieval towers with the kids. They aren’t too strenuous and the views are lovely. Both my kids loved this experience.
Botanical Gardens – this is a good place to relax with the kids, particularly if anyone gets overwhelmed and needs a moment of peace and quiet.
Ethno museum – again, for the older kids, this museum showing gadgets from their parents’ youth (sigh) will make them at least stop to point and laugh at you. My kids certainly did.
Horchata and cake – horchata is a traditional drink in Valencia and you can pick up some to try as you wander around. It’s generally imbibed with an accompanying pastry. And, of course, there are churros for everyone!
Bike ride – if anyone enjoys riding, take a bike tour of the city.
Find the fun shops – such as El Doctor Sax where the kids and teens can pick up some cool souvenirs
Fun scavenger hunt – if you want to get your kids interested as you explore Valencia, why not download a scavenger hunt app?
Valencia with kids: regular fun
Trampoline parks – there are at least 4 trampoline parks around the city of Valencia, all incredibly imaginatively named: search for Super Jump, Animal Jump, Fun Jump and Jump Next Levels.
Climbing wall – there are numerous climbing wall options including Laif Climbing Gym, Climbing Bunker and Indoorwall.
Go-Karting – Karting Racing Dakart
Nature and outdoor activities around Valencia
Beautiful beaches
Sitting on the Mediterranean Sea, it’s not surprising that Valencia and the surrounding area is a popular beach destination.
The two easiest beaches to reach from Valencia are Playa de la Malvarrosa and Playa de las Arenas. Both these beaches have beachside restaurants (chiringuitos).
Of course, there are beautiful beaches to be found simply by jumping in the car and driving up or down the coast. We chose to visit the nearby beach village of Altea for our beach day.
➡️ Check out the very best day trips from Valencia
→ Read the full MexicoCassie guide to driving around Spain
Albufera Natural Park
Just south of Valencia is this gorgeous natural park where you can explore on foot or take a boat ride.
Tours from Valencia that the kids will adore
🛻 4hr jeep and boat tour of Albufera (lagoon and beaches)
💦 Visit Valencia’s Bridal Veil waterfall and Blue Lagoon thermal springs (swim at both spots and marvel at the canyons)
🚤 Explore the San Jose caves by boat and enjoy the longest underground river in Europe
Best places to stay in Valencia with kids
🏨 MexicoCassie recommended best value hotel: Venecia Plaza Centro – 5⭐️ accommodation at 2⭐️ prices in this beautifully maintained and well located hotel in the centre of Valencia. Don’t miss the buffet breakfast here – my kids are buffet obsessed!
🏨 MexicoCassie recommended beach front fun hotel: Las Arenas Balenario Resort – if you’re looking for a gorgeous beach front resort, this one can’t be beaten. From the beach facing balconies to the breakfast and gorgeous pools, this beach resort is just a few stops on the metro from central Valencia. It’s a great option if your family loves to split their time between beach and town.
🏨 MexicoCassie recommended family apartment: Victoria Site-Luxury Center – this central apartment is clean, light and airy. It is well equipped and even has the luxury of 2 bathrooms.
🗺 Or, if these don’t work for you, use the MexicoCassie Valencia accommodation finder to choose something more aligned with your needs.
