Valencia Transportation

Getting There:

By Air: The Valencia Airport (http://www.aena.es) offers travel services to destinations throughout Europe. Airlines offering service to and from the airport include:

Air Berlin ( +45 30 41 47 75 10/http://www.airberlin.com ) Air Europa (http://www.air-europa.com ) Air France (http://www.airfrance.com) Blue Air ( +40 40 21 208 86 86/ http://www.blueair-web.com ) British Airways (http://www.britishairways.com) Brussels Airlines (http://www.brusselsairlines.com ) Easy Jet ( http://www.easyjet.com/ ) Hapag-Lloyd Express ( +180 509 3 509/ http://www.hlx.com ) Iberia Air (http://www.iberia.com ) Jet 2 ( +44 207 1700737/ http://www.jet2.com ) Ryanair (http://www.ryanair.com) Spanair (http://www.spanair.com) Thomson Fly ( +43 0192 89 598/ http://www.thomsonfly.com ) Transavia ( +312 0406 0406/ http://www.transavia.com ) Vueling ( +34 93 378 78 78/ http://www.vueling.com )

There are a number of ways to get from the airport to your destination. Taxi services are provided by Radio Taxi Manises (+34 961 521 155), Radio Taxi Valencia (+34 963 703 333), and Teletaxi (+34 963 571 313).

Major car rental companies include:

Avis (+34 944 869 649/ http://www.avis.com ) Europcar ( +34 944 869 780/ http://www.europcar.com ) Hertz ( +34 944 869 897/ http://www.hertz.com )

By Train: Valencia is accessible by Renfe. For information on rail service, see http://www.renfe.es.

By Bus: Numerous coach carriers offer service to Valencia. One of the most popular is Eurolines (+34 976 306 858/ http://www.eurolines.es).

By Car: Valencia is accessible by the N-220, A-3, and N-335 Motorways. Getting Around: Metro Valencia (http://www.metrovalencia.com) offer efficient and inexpensive transportation. EMT (http://www.emtvalencia.es) offers bus service to numerous destinations.

Check out Valencia VIP for English-speaking tour guides and chauffeurs to take you around Valencia in style. They offer airport transfers, leisure packages, city tours and more.

Planning a Trip

Getting There

Iberia flies to Valencia from Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga, and many other cities. There are also flights between Palma de Majorca and Valencia. For flight information contact the Iberia Airlines office, Calle Paz 14 (tel. 90-240-05-00). You'll land 15km (9 miles) southwest of the city. To travel between the airport and the city center, take Metro line 3 or 5, a one-way ticket costing 1.30€ ($1.90). For more information call tel. 90-046-10-46. A taxi (tel. 96-370-33-33) from the airport to the town center goes for around 15€ ($22).

Trains run to Valencia from all parts of Spain. Estación del Norte (North Station), Calle Játiva 2, is close to the heart of the city, making it a convenient arrival point. Its information office on Calle Renfe (tel. 90-224-02-02; www.renfe.es) is open Monday to Friday 8am to 9pm. From Barcelona, 15 trains -- including the TALGO, which takes 3 1/2 hours -- arrive daily. Thirteen trains daily connect Madrid with Valencia. The new Alaris high-speed train travels at 221kmph (137 mph) and has shaved travel time between Madrid and Valencia to less than 3 1/2 hours. From Málaga, on the Costa del Sol, the trip takes 9 hours.

Buses arrive at Valencia's Estació Terminal d'Autobuses, Av. de Menéndez Pidal 13 (tel. 96-346-62-66), about a 30-minute walk northwest of the city's center. Take bus no. 8 from the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. Thirteen buses a day, at least one every hour, run from Madrid (4 hr.), 10 buses from Barcelona (5 hr.), and five buses from Málaga (8 hr.).

You can take a ferry to and from the Balearic Islands. Ferries to Palma de Majorca take 6 hours. Ferries leave Valencia for Ibiza at midnight Tuesday to Sunday from March to September. In winter, there is one ferry per week. Travel agents in Valencia sell tickets, or you can buy them from the Trasmediterránea office at the port, Estació Marítim (tel. 90-245-46-45), on the day of your departure. To reach the port, take bus no. 4 or 19 from the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. Ferries from Majorca to Valencia leave from Estació Marítim 2. Call tel. 90-245-46-45 for details.

The easiest route if you're driving is the express highway (E-15) south from Barcelona. You can also use a national highway, E-901, from Madrid northwest of Valencia. From Alicante, take the E-15 express highway north. If you're coming from Andalusia, the roads are longer, more difficult, and not connected by express highways. You can drive from Málaga north to Granada and cut across southeastern Spain on the 342, which links with the 340 into Murcia. From there, take the road to Alicante for an easy drive into Valencia. The Barcelona-Valencia toll is 20€ ($29).

Visitor Information

The tourist information office is at Calle Paz 48 (tel. 96-398-64-22; www.comunitatvalenciana.com). It's open Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm, Saturday 10am to 8pm, and Sunday 10am to 2pm.

Getting Around

Most local buses leave from Plaza del Ayuntamiento 22. You can buy tickets at any newsstand. The one-way fare is 1.20€ ($1.75); a 10-ride booklet sells for 5.65€ ($8.20). Bus no. 8 runs from Plaza del Ayuntamiento to the bus station at Avenida Menéndez Pidal. A bus map is available at the EMT office, Calle Correo Viejo 5. It's open Monday to Friday 9am to 2pm and 4:30 to 7:30pm. For bus information, call tel. 96-315-85-15. The Metro system (tel. 90-046-10-46) is more efficient than the bus. It covers the Old Town rather well and also branches out to the outskirts. You can purchase tickets from automatic machines in any station, costing 1.30€ ($1.90) for one zone or 1.80€ ($2.60) for two zones. A bonometro, good for 10 trips in the zones indicated, is a better deal, selling for 6.10€ ($8.85) for one zone or 8.70€ ($13) for two zones.

If you need a taxi, call tel. 96-370-33-33.

Special Events

Fallas de San José, honoring the arrival of spring and the memory of St. Joseph, is held March 15 to March 19. It is a time for parades, street dancing, fireworks, and bullfights. Neighborhoods compete to see who can erect the most intricate and satirical papier-mâché effigy, or ninot. Some 300 ninots then appear in the street parades. The festival ends with la nit del foc, or "fire night," when effigies are burned. Historically, this inferno was to exorcise social problems and bring luck to farmers in the coming summer.

Fast Facts

The local American Express representative is Duna Viajes, Calle Cirilo Amorós 88 (tel. 96-374-15-62). It's open Monday to Friday from 9:30am to 2pm and 4:30 to 7:30pm.

In a medical emergency, call tel. 112; or go to the Hospital Clínico Universitario, Av. Blasco Ibáñez 17 (tel. 96-386-26-00).

Don't be surprised if you see signs in a language that's not Spanish or Catalan. It is Valenciano, a dialect of Catalan. Often you'll be handed a "bilingual" menu in Castilian Spanish and in Valenciano. Many citizens of Valencia are not caught up in this cultural resurgence and view the promotion of the dialect as possibly damaging to the city's economic goals. Most street names appear in Valenciano.

There are many Internet cafes in Valencia, the most reliable of which is Work Center, open 24 hours at Xátiva 19 (tel. 96-112-08-30), lying in front of the bullring and Estación del Norte.