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Valencia's a cool place to visit, they did a number of interesting things in the last few decades: * after a devastating flood in the 1950s they "moved" the ri

Valencia's a cool place to visit, they did a number of interesting things in the last few decades: * after a devastating flood in the 1950s they "moved" the river out of the city and they used the original channel to build a 10km long park with tons of infrastructure for sports and recreation: https://metropolismag.com/projects/how-valencia-turned-crisis-river-into-park/ https://metropolismag.com/projects/how-valencia-turned-crisi... * they have a network of docked city bikes with ~300 stations around the city. Docked bikes are not perfect, but don't cause the mess that dockless bikes do. It costs €30/year and every ride is free for 30min. (it's not unique, as other cities have similar networks, but it's really well executed) * their Ciudad de las artes y ciencias (City of arts and science) is a beautiful complex with a museum, cinema, oceanographic park and iirc there's even a night club somewhere there. Really cool place for tourist and local residents to hang around: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Arts_and_Sciences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Arts_and_Sciences

narag 5y ago
The city is gorgeus in general. Their hobby of burning things and making a big noise with gunpowder is also a plus for me... I hope I can go to Fallas one of these years.
- arnvald 5y ago
  Oh right, I forgot about Las Fallas and waking up to the sound of firecrackers!
pier25 5y ago
> Ciudad de las artes y ciencias The Delos headquarters in Westworld were filmed there (third season). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5CT0DdenVU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5CT0DdenVU
- franciscop 5y ago
  I live in Tokyo, originally from Valencia, and while riding the train some times get surprised at seeing commercials that are recorded in the City of Arts and Science!
  - pier25 5y ago
    I'm from Mallorca!
aunty_helen 5y ago
>there's even a night club There's actually 3 :D Umbracle, the one that exists open air under the awnings is great in the summer time air. It only runs during the warmer months as the locals can't stand the 20C night temperature. Valen-bici is super convenient, they are pretty heavy steel framed machines but everythings flat so it's not a great bother. The real gem is the extensive bike lanes that stretch upwards of 20km out from the city. Every main road has a bike lane. Electric scooters were the real ticket and I had one while I was there. ALmost went a year carbon free transport.
- seer 5y ago
  You can get a bike rental from the city center, and bike on an uninterrupted bike lane to a nature preserve outside of the city - a literal forest. First time I’ve seen a bike highway in nature and I think its incredibly amazing. Definitely a highlight during my stay there. And to top it off the beaches are amazing too - they are “thicker” than most greek/italian beaches are long, and its kilometers long at that too. Most city beaches are a crammed affair with too much people for my comfort. Valencian ones made me feel a bit lonely even with thousands of people around, just because all of them are spread through this huge area.
seer 5y ago
To be honest, while “Ciudad de las artes y ciencias” looks amazingly cool at a distance, its kind of “shallow” when you come up close. In the sence that there isn’t much to do or discover once you’re inside the whole thing. For me it felt like something built for cars - while driving past it in a car or looking at it from a hotel skybar its breathtaking, but the more you get close the less interesting it becomes. I remember taking a look at Gaudy’s architectural masterpieces in Barcelona - those were much more inspirational for me as they were more fractal in nature, the more you got close the more you could discover, the guy designed the outside look down to the doorhandles on the interior doors. It was a endless maze of detail, which looked very futuristic from a distance too. I’d liken Gaudy to Steve’s Jobs where he _had_ to control all the details. Whereas Valencia’s ciudad de las artes to something designed by a committee - amazing for its purpose, but not much beyond that.
- te_chris 5y ago
  Easily one of the weirdest places I've ever been! Old town fantastic though.

narag 5y ago

The city is gorgeus in general. Their hobby of burning things and making a big noise with gunpowder is also a plus for me... I hope I can go to Fallas one of these years.

arnvald 5y ago
Oh right, I forgot about Las Fallas and waking up to the sound of firecrackers!

pier25 5y ago

> Ciudad de las artes y ciencias The Delos headquarters in Westworld were filmed there (third season). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5CT0DdenVU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5CT0DdenVU

franciscop 5y ago
I live in Tokyo, originally from Valencia, and while riding the train some times get surprised at seeing commercials that are recorded in the City of Arts and Science!
- pier25 5y ago
  I'm from Mallorca!

aunty_helen 5y ago

>there's even a night club There's actually 3 :D Umbracle, the one that exists open air under the awnings is great in the summer time air. It only runs during the warmer months as the locals can't stand the 20C night temperature. Valen-bici is super convenient, they are pretty heavy steel framed machines but everythings flat so it's not a great bother. The real gem is the extensive bike lanes that stretch upwards of 20km out from the city. Every main road has a bike lane. Electric scooters were the real ticket and I had one while I was there. ALmost went a year carbon free transport.

seer 5y ago
You can get a bike rental from the city center, and bike on an uninterrupted bike lane to a nature preserve outside of the city - a literal forest. First time I’ve seen a bike highway in nature and I think its incredibly amazing. Definitely a highlight during my stay there. And to top it off the beaches are amazing too - they are “thicker” than most greek/italian beaches are long, and its kilometers long at that too. Most city beaches are a crammed affair with too much people for my comfort. Valencian ones made me feel a bit lonely even with thousands of people around, just because all of them are spread through this huge area.

seer 5y ago

To be honest, while “Ciudad de las artes y ciencias” looks amazingly cool at a distance, its kind of “shallow” when you come up close. In the sence that there isn’t much to do or discover once you’re inside the whole thing. For me it felt like something built for cars - while driving past it in a car or looking at it from a hotel skybar its breathtaking, but the more you get close the less interesting it becomes. I remember taking a look at Gaudy’s architectural masterpieces in Barcelona - those were much more inspirational for me as they were more fractal in nature, the more you got close the more you could discover, the guy designed the outside look down to the doorhandles on the interior doors. It was a endless maze of detail, which looked very futuristic from a distance too. I’d liken Gaudy to Steve’s Jobs where he _had_ to control all the details. Whereas Valencia’s ciudad de las artes to something designed by a committee - amazing for its purpose, but not much beyond that.

te_chris 5y ago
Easily one of the weirdest places I've ever been! Old town fantastic though.