Things to do in Valencia

Nature · Runs west to east across the city

A nine-kilometre park built along the drained bed of the diverted river, threading through the whole city with gardens, sports pitches and running paths.

Local tip: The stretch through the Palau de la Música gardens is the prettiest, but the section west of the Torres de Serranos is where locals actually run and where the free outdoor gyms are. It is also the fastest way to cross the city on a bike, entirely traffic-free.

Landmark · Eastern end of the Turia

Calatrava's white concrete complex of science museum, aquarium, planetarium and opera house at the seaward end of the old riverbed.

Local tip: The exterior is free to walk through and is at its best an hour before sunset, when the reflecting pools go still. If you only pay for one thing inside, the Oceanogràfic is the largest aquarium in Europe and worth the ticket.

Neighborhood · Old city

The medieval core — the Llotja de la Seda silk exchange, the cathedral, the old gates, and a dense grid of bars and small squares.

Local tip: The Llotja is a UNESCO site and one of the great secular Gothic interiors in Europe, and it costs almost nothing to enter. Most visitors photograph it from outside and walk on.

Neighborhood · By the beach, north-east

The old fishermen's quarter of low tiled houses, saved from demolition after a long campaign and now the most characterful part of the seafront.

Local tip: The tiled facades on Carrer de la Reina and the streets either side are the reason to walk here. Eat at the covered market rather than on the beachfront promenade, where the paella is priced for tourists and cooked for them too.

Nature · 10 km south

A freshwater lagoon and rice-paddy wetland behind a pine-covered sand bar — the birthplace of paella and one of Spain's most important bird habitats.

Local tip: Take the bus to El Palmar and eat paella at lunchtime, which is when Valencians eat it — never in the evening. Then take a flat-bottomed boat out at sunset, which is genuinely one of the best hours available anywhere near the city.

Culture · Central, south of the Turia

A modernista iron-and-glass market hall converted into a food and drink space, in a district of ornate early-twentieth-century apartment blocks.

Local tip: Skip the market's restaurants and go for the horchata at the basement stall instead. Then walk the surrounding streets — the Eixample's modernista facades are almost unvisited compared with Barcelona's equivalent, and several are as good.