Valencia · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Valencia is Spain's best-value big city — a park in a dry riverbed, a long beach and cheap weekday paella.
El Carmen and Ruzafa
Hostels sit in El Carmen inside the old town; Ruzafa, across the ring road, is cheaper, younger and full of bars. The beach is a tram ride out.
What a day costs
Dorm €18–30, a weekday paella menú €13–18, metro or bus about €1.50. Around €40–70 a day, roughly $45–80.
Getting around cheap
Valenbisi sells a week of bike hire for a few euros and the city is entirely flat; the SUMA card covers metro, tram and bus on one balance.
Free by day
The Turia gardens run nine kilometres through the old riverbed, the Mercado Central costs nothing to walk through, and Malvarrosa beach is public.
Plaza del Tossal
The centre of El Carmen's drinking, and where hostel groups start. In summer the whole thing relocates to the Malvarrosa beach bars.