Cost of Living in Valencia for a Month Plus Things to Do & My Impressions

Ah, Spain! This country has been on my list of places to see for years now, but there was always an excuse not to go there (the main one being that I hate flying!)

But this year I finally managed to check it off the list with an epic visit to Valencia. I spent the entire month of May there, together with my wife and our five-year-old son.

I’m here today to report about experience there: how much did our full month of living in Valencia cost us, how we felt living there, and what should you see, do and eat to have an amazing time in this amazing Spanish city.

Even though I am no longer a digital nomad by the standard definition, I still love to travel, see new places and work from my laptop, despite aching eyes and growing back pains.

But since I travel with my family, I prefer to take things slow: a month is the perfect amount of time to spend in a new place, in my opinion, as it gives you enough time to enjoy all the goodies, but also find some – or most – of the Cons.

I love to know the whole picture, because I want to relocate from my current country (Romania) sooner or later.

Therefore, every new place that I visit is judged based on an ultimate conclusion: would I enjoy living there full time? That’s why I travel, in the end: to find that perfect spot. So… could Valencia be it?

Where did we stay in Valencia?

Like always, we found our apartment on AirBnb (although lately, I find better deals, cost-wise on Booking.com).

The apartment had to tick some important things off our wish list, one of the main ones being air conditioning. We had an awful experience getting fried in Budapest with no air conditioning last August and we didn’t want to go through that as well.

We also needed two separate beds, as I am an insanely light sleeper and my son twists and turns in his sleep like a tornado: not a perfect match, especially for somebody who also has to work during the day.

And, of course, it had to be as close to the center as possible – since the city center is where you usually want to be, for all the goodies and attractions.

So we ended up getting a two-bedroom apartment on a quiet street, just couple of minutes of walking away from the Torres de Quart and several minutes of walking away from the heart of the city. It looked good, too:

As you can notice from the photos above, the apartment was in a good condition and had everything you needed for spending a month (or more) there.

Not super-modern, but still comfortable and nice. It was also really large and the fact that it had 2 bathrooms was a bonus. It also had so much storage space that I completely fell in love with it. At home, we don’t have half the storage space this beautiful apartment had!

We were also extremely lucky with our host, Ines. Although she spoke very little English, we managed to get together really well with the help of technology, and she was a truly charming lady, offering us valuable tips on what to see (but especially where to eat) and also treating us every now and then with some homemade Spanish foods.

If you know me, you know I like to eat traditional goodies wherever I go. If you feel the same, prepare to droll reading my guide to Finnish cuisine or the best traditional Danish foods you should try when visiting.

First impressions and thoughts about Valencia

A more seasoned traveler probably doesn’t have this feeling any more, but in my case, it’s still there. As soon as we walked out of the airport and hopped into the taxi taking us to our new home, I couldn’t stop smiling.

The joy and happiness of me being there with my family was huge. The sun was shining, the buildings our car was passing through were renovated and good looking and there were PALM TREES on the streets! And Orange trees on the sides! With REAL oranges!

For somebody coming from Eastern Europe, where you can only see palm trees on TV (or when you travel), this was huge to me. Pure happiness to see that and to imagine waking up every morning and seeing palm trees everywhere!

Palm trees aside, the weather in May wasn’t as warm as we had expected it to be. Not only that we have never used the A/C units in the apartment, but also spent most of our days and nights wearing jeans and long sleeves. It was unexpectedly cold and windy, although it’s not always like that.

But apart from that, I stick to my first impressions: Valencia is a city to keep on smiling in. A city to casually walk down the streets, deciding what tapas bar to choose for your next couple of hours of lazying around, enjoying a good coffee and a snack, people watching and letting stress fly away.

Top things to see and do in Valencia

In an amazing city like Valencia, you are right to assume that there are plenty of attractions. As it usually happens everywhere, most of them are nicely grouped together around the center.

If you’re not really a big fan of slow travel, you can probably see the most important stuff that Valencia has to offer in a week – maybe even less if you do some planning beforehand…

But we took it slow – lesson learned from our full month in Budapest – and spent more time than we should’ve in most of these places. Some absolutely awesome, some of them a bit over-hyped, but totally worth it overall.

Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Science)

The iconic attraction in Valencia, the thing you see on postcards and t-shirts and stamps and cup holders and everywhere else. This futuristic, sci-fi looking bunch of buildings is indeed jaw-dropping and a must visit, without a doubt!

We visited this attraction 7 to 10 days in, and it was one of those unforgettable moments that traveling the world rewards you with.

As soon as I got there and saw the huge buildings that seemed to have dropped out of a sci-fi movie, the blue water surrounding them and the absolute perfection of that place, my heart filled with joy.

I know this is the second time I mention it happening in Valencia, but the truth is that I don’t experience this too often. This place was way too much to handle.

I simply told my wife and son that I need to sit down a bit, look around, take it all in and enjoy the moment. It wasn’t something for the blog, for Instagram, for anybody else but me. The pure happiness of enjoying the moment in a beautiful place.

In the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, apart from walking around and enjoying the surroundings, you should definitely the main attractions inside: the Oceanografic is the main attraction in my opinion (the largest aquarium in Europe), followed by the Museum of Science, the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, the Hemispheric (a large and impressive cinema) and the Umbracle which can be visited for free.

If you’re not spending much time in Valencia and you can only choose a place to visit – this is the one. Schedule at least a day to visit everything – although the Oceanografic itself can take a full day to truly enjoy.

Bonus tip: let your child enjoy some water walking balloons with what’s probably the best possible view. Our son loved it just as much as we enjoyed looking at him and taking in those views. Prices change yearly, but it was affordable. Here’s what I mean about the view:

Oceanografic

Europe’s biggest aquarium was the only attractions that we decided to visit out of those in the City of Arts and Science. We originally wanted to visit the Science Museum afterwards, but we were so tired (especially out son), so we decided to say pass.

As for the Oceanografic, the place is indeed humongous and well laid out. It also has a dolphinarium with free shows throughout the day and most of the tunnels you go through, surrounded from three sides by exotic fish or sharks are beautiful.

We’ve seen similar things in Budapest and Munchen – and for a fraction of the cost – and therefore, we weren’t truly blown away, but this is the risk when you start seeing multiple amazing things.

For my son, for example, it was for the first time that he saw such a treat and he oved everything, especially the dolphin show (which was short and more of a presentation of the dolphins instead of actual “show”).

But if you’ve already been to similar large aquariums in the past, don’t get your hopes too high with the Oceanografic! It’s huge, it’s good, but not as spectacular as some make it sound!

Valencia Bioparc (the zoo)

Another humongous attraction – spread out over 10 acres of land and going away from the traditional method of keeping the animals in cages, Valencia’s Zoo was a pleasant surprise with lots to offer.

Simply seeing so much space offered to all the animals there made things even better.

There are actually areas where you can walk around the animals (in the monkey area, for example), but we were unlucky to get there during the animals’ siesta time, so they were all sleeping and lazying around in trees.

But even so, it was a really pleasant and fun way to spend the day: we enjoyed a large variety of animals and did some exercise too, walking around the huge park.

We also ate there some surprisingly good food. Although not fancy, I enjoyed one of the best paellas I had in Valencia, for example, which was highly unexpected for “zoo food”. Plus, the restaurant has a terrace that offers you a view to the animals, so it’s a pretty unique experience as well, as you can see below:

Bioparc Valencia – How Much Time to Plan? Expect to spend at least 4 hours if you want to take everything in, plus enjoy a snack or eat at the restaurant. We spent around 6 hours there with our son and enjoyed every minute of the experience!

Make sure to bring a hat, sunscreen and plenty of water, as the place is HUGE and the sun can be strong.

The Turia Park / Gardens

A green oasis that covers no less than 9 kilometers, the Turia Park is the perfect place to spend some of your free time.

Our Valencia home was just 10 minutes away from this park, so I was lucky enough to be able to go jogging there on several occasions, while also taking our son for some walks and exploring the area.

Since this park is 9 kilometers long (built over the Turia river that had the bad habit of flooding the city), the Turia Gardens has a lot to offer: important attractions (like Gulliver’s playground pictured below, also the largest playground for kids), various events taking place here during the weekends and holidays, as well as various sports fields, tracks for joggers and bike riders and much, much more.

This park is clean, huge, beautiful and it is a joy to explore. Perfect and free of charge, so make sure to see at least some part of it (maybe the one close to the old town area if you don’t have time to explore more).

The City Center

Most of the main attractions that Valencia has to offer are in the walkable city center area.

Bordered by the Turia Gardens to the north and locked in by a long boulevard which actually has three names (Carrer de Colon, Carrer de Xativa, and Carrer de Guillem de Castro), this is where you will find most of the museums and plazas and restaurants and small, yet amazing things. It’s basically the circle-shaped area you can see in this Google Map.

There would be a lot to write about each of these attractions, but I’ll have more articles dedicated to them in the future.

Until then, I’ll leave you with some photos and the important names: the Plaza de la Virgen, with its beautiful fountain, the Cathedral and beautiful buildings around; the Plaza de la Reina with the nearby restaurants and gates and parks, as well as the Plaza Redona (the round plaza), and all the way to the well known Mercat Central (the central market – one of the main attractions), the Bullring and the City Hall near the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. And, of course, some photos:

There is a ton of awesomeness scattered here and you will always have something new and beautiful to discover – and the photos above only manage to barely scratch the surface.

And although touristy, it’s not a lot more expensive than the rest of the city (although some places are) – and as a result, there are many good places to eat at and shops to at least visit…

The bonus is, in my opinion, that the entire area is walkable and relatively easy to tick off the list during an unforgettable day, if you rush it. It is a place that you can visit and revisit and still find something new each time, though.

The beach

I wasn’t expecting such a large and beautiful beach in Valencia. Not very close to our apartment (or the city center) and relatively difficult to get to using public transportation (we had to take the metro for a few stops, then switch to the tram for a couple more), the beach has some amazing, soft sand and stretches out to infinity.

The water is beautiful and there are lots of nice restaurants to eat at, but they are more expensive (you have to pay for that view, right?)

We only went to the beach twice during our month-long stay, mostly because of the unexpectedly cold weather and especially the wind.

It wasn’t very crowded when we went, but towards the end of the month, there were more tourists there – a sign that the good weather was about to come.

The water was warm enough to take a bath, but not really pleasant either. So the month if May is definitely not the best time to visit Valencia if you want to enjoy the beaches and the water. But fortunately, there’s so much more to enjoy!

What we ate in Valencia

I love to eat and try new stuff and one of my main pleasures when traveling is to test the local cuisine. And we did plenty of that during our stay in Valencia!

You probably know that Spain has a solid tapas culture: small, bite-sized dishes usually served in bars together with drinks.

My idea of tapas was getting a million different things and grabbing a bite from each, but the truth is that their price adds up fast and you end up paying for tapas more than you would for a full course meal at a restaurant.

Sometimes it’s worth it, sometimes it’s not. Here are some of the tapas we have tried:

I was a bit surprised to see how unhealthy most of the food served in restaurants and tapas bars actually is. Extremely greasy, salted and usually fried – it’s tasty, but unhealthy and far from the Mediterranean diet I know of.

It was even more surprising because most of the locals are very fit and half the size I was expecting them to be. So maybe that food’s just for tourists! But look at it, it’s yummy!

Another surprising thing was that we ate the best pizza that we have ever tasted, despite visiting various Italian cities, like Verona and Trieste.

Of course, it was because we were lucky to meet fellow blogger Kemkem and her husband Federico – he is a lovely guy who knows his pizzas and who had time to find the absolute best pizzerias in the city. (Pro tip: They seem to be everywhere!)

Eating at a restaurant in Valencia is rarely cheaper than 12 Euros per person – the minimum price you can expect for a Menu del Dia (Menu of the day). Budget around 15 Euros per meal, to be safe.

Of course, it can easily go up a lot, especially if you’re in the more touristy areas, where a single serving can cost 30 Euros and even more.

But, if you look carefully, you can find great deals at various places, as we found at this small vegan restaurant we stumbled upon. All was around 12 Euros if my memory serves me well:

Everything was yummy and two Menus were enough to feed us three – and feel full.

We also went to a different type of tapas place during our stay – 100 Montaditos – which serves bocadillos, which are small sandwiches that you can mix and match.

100 Montaditos has a menu of 100 different sandwiches and goodies to eat and we did try several of those during one of their special days when every sandwich on the menu is priced at 1 Euro (on Wednesdays and Sundays).

I wasn’t particularly impressed by these bocadillos. Even though some were indeed tasty, you end up eating a lot of bread… so not really that fun.

Maybe the not-so-amazing quality was a result of the low prices, but it was definitely an experience that didn’t encourage me to try more bocadillos from other places.

I was also extremely surprised to find out that there’s China Town in Valencia, offering some of the cheapest food in the city. Huge portions too – and delicious! I am still smiling when I remember the looks on our faces when we saw the huge portions brought in after we ordered:

As a conclusion regarding the food in Valencia, I can say that it is absolutely delicious, although mostly unhealthy.

I am confident that I would end up doubling my weight if I were to live in Valenica (unless I learn the secrets of the locals for keeping fit).

How much does it cost to live one month in Valencia?

We were reckless during our stay in Valencia in terms of spending. We ate out constantly and barely used the nice kitchen that we had in our apartment.

This is something that we rarely do, but also something that’s difficult not to do when there are so many inviting restaurants around you and you spend an entire day away from home, exploring the city. You will eventually go hungry and getting back home to cook no longer sounds that fun.

We also visited more attractions than we normally do and the prices for these family-aimed areas are not low.

The Oceanografic itself is pricey (around €110 for two adults and a child), just like the Zoo and everything else. Fortunately, there are free entry days in all museums on Sundays – but this also means that they’re a bit more crowded.

We also paid a lot for our accommodation (€1,423 for the month, but now you should expect to pay at least €1,800). Still better than the whooping amount we spend for our month-long stay in Prague during the summer.

We could’ve kept the costs lower in a place without air conditioning (we didn’t need it anyway), but you can never know beforehand what will you use and what you won’t.

We also learned that for a similar apartment you should expect to pay around 900 Euros on a long term contract… but you always pay more for a short term deal.

For everything else (food, entertainment, visiting the places in Valencia and gifts to bring home), we paid a total of 1,532 Euros. I usually keep track of costs based on the categories that we spend money on (food, eating out, entertainment etc) but I was too lazy to do it in Valencia. However, most of the amount was spent on food and eating out, with attraction fees coming in second.

All in all, it cost us €2955 to live an whole month in Valencia, Spain. It’s a large chunk of money and more than I am comfortable to pay (or afford to, if we’d be talking about doing it monthly), but it could’ve been much worse.

An interesting thing about these costs is that I always had the impression – and I am sure it’s not just my mind playing tricks on me – that everything is more expensive in Spain than it is back at home in Romania or in the Budapest I love so much.

However, accommodation costs aside, we spent almost as much as we did in Budapest when we lived there for a month but without eating out as much and splurging on so many occasions.

The costs were also similar to what we’re paying back home if we’re not adding the money we’ve spent on accommodation and attractions… so Valencia is, in the end, surprisingly or not, not VERY expensive, as you have the feeling when you first get there, or even at the end of the month, before doing the math.

Is Valencia worth it?

Valencia is a beautiful city. It’s vibrant, it’s colorful, it’s alive and the people there are absolutely amazing: always relaxed and smiling, polite and helful. But Valencia is not perfect.

Even more so for our family. We couldn’t live there long term and I will explain why – it’s purely personal and it wouldn’t apply for most of the people on this planet. But it just wouldn’t work for us and it wouldn’t be fair to say otherwise just to keep the positives piling up.

Our biggest problem with Valencia is the way the people there live their lives. Or, better said, it is us who have a problem and live like it’s the 1800s, ha!

You see, we are morning persons and we sleep early. We wake up sometime between 6 to 7 AM and our son starts his sleeping routine at 7 PM and by 8 he’s sleeping. We also fall asleep before 11 PM, usually at around 10.

With most of the people living in Spain, things are really different. Days start at 10-11 AM, then the siesta times come when everything but restaurants close between 1 to 4 PM (while many of the restaurants only open during this time).

There’s a bit of work done afterwards, up until 7 at most, when restaurants open their doors once more. From what I saw, people in Valencia start going out at around 9PM and I have no idea how long they stay out.

As a result, we were often walking around in an empty city, with all its shops closed – and when they opened, we were at home sleeping. We were rarely able to eat out in the evening simply because our son goes to bed when restaurants open. The streets are also a bit noisy during the night, although they usually stop at around 11 PM.

But we should completely change our way of living and sleeping and eating and doing things if we were to move there (and not be the odd ones out). And this would be the biggest problem and the main con with Valencia and Spain in general.

Of course, this is a problem just for us and I believe that 99% of the people considering moving to Valencia or going there wouldn’t consider it a Con.

For them, Valencia is a much better choice, offering affordable living and eating, beautiful streets and places to see, lots of ways to spend their free time and there’s always a fiesta of sorts happening somewhere.

I personally believe that Valencia is extremely well suited for a younger audience, for people looking to have fun and enjoy life – and maybe not as much for families with kids – at least not long term. Because short to mid term, it is still great no matter how you put it.

And even for us, with our strange schedule, there were a lot of things to do and we were still able to experience all the local flavors and attractions without going out of our ways.

As a conclusion, I’ll write what I told my wife a few days after leaving Valencia behind: Valencia is beautiful. The people there are beautiful. Everything is perfect there!