Túria Park — Attraction in Valencia

This has to be the prettiest urban garden that I've ever seen and, definitely, the biggest of its kind in Spain. A huge green area that goes through the whole Valencia, like a river. The soil where it is built used to be a river indeed, but the city council decided to dry it up, due to the numerous flooding that were happening at the time. Nowadays it probably wouldn't be the case, since the climate there is increasingly getting drier and the little amount of rain that they receive, wouldn't be enough to cause such a natural catastrophe.

Anyways, what I recommend is to take a full day just to visit the gardens. Consider that it stretches from the beach all the way to the other side of Valencia. It's a long walk or, if you go by bike, a long ride. Grab water (a lot), sunscreen (a lot) and a big dose of strength (not too big though).

Your efforts will be highly rewarded by the beauty of the place, with its "little" forests of pine and palm trees, its many monuments (which includes the famous City of Science), its fountains and artificial streams, its cute cafes.

I'm not a big fan of the two wheels, so I usually stick with what nature gave me, but for those who love biking the park is incredibly well-equipped, with big bike lanes going through the whole park.

Spain is a very clean country and the Jardin del Turia is no exception. You won't see a single piece of trash, like in Switzerland. A gigantic standing ovation for the cleaning department then!

The chances that you won't like this Paradise are...

You will get robbed in this park. There are several different groups of professional thieves operating in the park. They take your bag/phone, even if you put them right next to you. Many of my friends and acquaintences got robbed. I am in the park almost every day. I caught a thief holding my bag, he thought I was sleeping. Almost every day, someone approaches me in the park to ask me if I saw someone taking their bag. Some say that one of the thieves asks for directions to distract them while the other one takes their bag. Most just quickly take the bag/phone if they believe you are not looking. Police should put a lot of warning signs and maybe even cameras. 3 stars cause it's a beautiful park and the thieves are...

This was the year when the city of Valencia was flooded after several days of heavy rainfall. More then 80 people died and parts of the city was devastated. It was not the first time, as even in medeavel times floodings were witnessed so the only real solution was to reroute the Turia river away from the city into a new to build canal...so what to do with the empty old river bedding? The initial plan to transform it into a highway was abandoned and transformed into the birth of a brand new parc. As of 1996 several modern buildings were added creating the the City of Arts and Sciences and put new landmarks of the city of Valencia on the radar. Rent some bikes and discover the different aspects of this...