Private tours in Valencia

Valencia is two cities that happen to share a name. One is medieval: a silk exchange that is a UNESCO monument, a cathedral claiming to hold the Holy Grail, and a water court that has met outside its door every Thursday for a thousand years. The other is Calatrava's white city of arts, built in the bed of a river that was diverted after the 1957 flood. Tour Travel & More organises 100% private tours of Valencia with a licensed official tour guide, a luxury vehicle with chauffeur and a travel coordinator available 24/7.

The old town: silk, saints and horchata

The Lonja de la Seda is one of the finest civil Gothic buildings in Europe, with twisted columns that rise like palm trees, built when Valencia's silk trade ran the Mediterranean. Nearby, the cathedral keeps the chalice that many scholars accept as a genuine first-century cup, and every Thursday at noon the Tribunal de las Aguas settles irrigation disputes in the open air, in Valencian, with no written record.

The City of Arts and Sciences, inside and out

After the river was diverted, the old bed became a nine-kilometre park, and at its far end Santiago Calatrava built the complex that redefined the city's image: the Hemisfèric like an eye that opens, the Oceanogràfic, the opera house. It photographs well and explains even better when someone tells you how a flood ended up producing a park and a skyline.

The Albufera, where paella was born

Ten minutes south, the Albufera lagoon is where rice has been grown for centuries and where paella was invented — with rabbit, chicken and beans, never chorizo. A flat-bottomed boat at sunset over water that mirrors the sky, then lunch in El Palmar where they cook it the way the argument says it should be cooked.

Xàtiva, Peñíscola and the coast

Inland, Xàtiva's double castle stretches along a ridge above the town that gave Spain the Borgia popes. North along the coast, Peñíscola's walled town sits on a rock surrounded by sea, once home to a pope who refused to stop being one. With a private vehicle both are unhurried day trips rather than train timetables.

With Tour Travel & More, Valencia unfolds as the two cities it really is. Send us your dates and a travel expert will design your private tour, with an official guide and everything arranged around your pace.