Valencia Airport, Outskirts, Torre de Francia, Torre Mulitespacio, Melia Hotel, City of Arts and Sciences, metro

The outskirts of Valencia are more modern then the city centre. The further from the center you get, the less historic buildings you will see. Instead you will see impersonal modernist highrises and midrises, 8-12 floors high, wide avenues, large traffic circles with sculptures in the middle, wide parks but also interesting some modern buildings, built in the latest years, and a few old churches and other buildings. Even if most of the outskirts are not beautiful, everything looks fresh, not too grey and dull. There are some rough parts in the East though, with small, neglect older buildings.

In the Northwest outskirts you find Valencia's tallest building, the 35-storey Melia Hotel (former Hilton), the futuristic Palau de Congressos, even more traffic circles, shopping malls, a casino and modern apartment and office buildings. In the East outskirts you find the City of Science and Culture (Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències), with all its futuristic buildings and inspiring architecture by Calatrava, hosting a huge futuristic opera house, a huge science museum, a futuristic bridge, meeting halls, a tropical garden, an IMAX cinema and Europe's largest aquarium, but that is presented in its own section. Here you also find the second tallest building, Torre de Francia (also 35 floors high), Torre Mulitespacio and many other modern highrises buildings built during the latest years, most of them residential buildings. There is also a modern shopping mall, Centro Commercial El Saler with 160 shops on 3 floors, and a lot of restaurnats, right opposite City of Arts and Sciences.

To the far East you find Port of Valencia, one of Europe's most busy container ports, and a lot of nice beaches. The most famous beaches are Las Arenas, Malvarrosa and El Cabañal. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit them (but we visited a lot of beaches in Costa Blanca despite the low temperatures).

In the outskirts you also will find the 106m tall communication tower Torre Telefonica. The outskirts are filled with modernist apartment buildings, 8-12 stories tall, filled with services as supermarkets, restaurants, cafés etc. There is a modern metro system, though not very extensive, a few lightrail trams and buses, that connects the outskirts with the city centre.

Since most attractions are situated in the small city centre and City of Arts and Sciences, we only visited the outskirts when going to the attractions of the latter one, when approaching the city from the highway and when driving to the airport.

Valencia Airport (VLC) is situated in Manises, 8km to the West of Valencia and has about 5 million passengers annually. The newest terminal opened in 2007. Since it is much cheaper, and we also visited cities on Costa Blanca, we choosed to fly from Alicante Airport. We only visited the airport to leave our rental car at Centauro car rental, and took the metro to the city centre.

 

Views from Torres de Serranos 31 - Melia Hotel (right), Valencia's tallest building (117m, 35 floors, built 2006 as Hilton) Views from Torres de Serranos 30 - Skyline of West business district Torre de Francia, Valencia's 2nd tallest skyscraper (115m, 35, built 2002), in the East part. Highrise buildings near City of Arts and Sciences Aqua Multiespacio (95m, 22 floors, b. 2002) and El Corte Ingles in East Valencia, near City of Arts and Sciences. Aqua Multiespacio (95m, 22 floors, b. 2002) and El Corte Ingles in East Valencia, near City of Arts and Sciences. Views from the City of Arts and Sciences 04 - L'Oceanografic Highrise buildings near City of Arts and Sciences Views from the City of Arts and Sciences 05 Views from the City of Arts and Sciences 06 - Torre de Francia, Valencia's 2nd tallest skyscraper (115m, 35, built 2002) Views from the City of Arts and Sciences 07 - Torre de Francia, Valencia's 2nd tallest skyscraper (115m, 35, built 2002) Views from the City of Arts and Sciences 08 - Aqua Multiespacio (95m, 22 floors, b. 2002) and El Corte Ingles Highrise buildings near City of Arts and Sciences at night City of Arts and Sciences 002 Highrise buildings near City of Arts and Sciences Highrise buildings near City of Arts and Sciences Highrise buildings near City of Arts and Sciences Highrise buildings near City of Arts and Sciences Highrise buildings near City of Arts and Sciences Traffic at City of Arts and Sciences El Saler shopping mall, opposite City of Arts and Sciences El Saler shopping mall, opposite City of Arts and Sciences El Saler shopping mall, opposite City of Arts and Sciences El Saler shopping mall, opposite City of Arts and Sciences Buffé at El Saler shopping mall, opposite City of Arts and Sciences Highrise buildings near City of Arts and Sciences Highrise buildings near City of Arts and Sciences A small church opposite City of Arts and Sciences Highrise buildings near City of Arts and Sciences Highrise buildings near City of Arts and Sciences Apartment buildings outside the city center Apartment buildings outside the city center Avinguda de l'Autopista del Saler, the Opera Reina Sofia to the right. Driving outside the city center Driving outside the city center Driving outside the city center Valencia Airport, situated in Manises 8km West of Valencia. Valencia Airport 02 - we visited it only to leave our rental car. Valencia Airport - a modern airport with around 5 million passengers every year Valencia Airport Valencia Airport 05 - control tower Metro train from Valencia Airport. Metro train from Valencia Airport.