When to Visit Valencia

Valencia enjoys a fabulous climate all year round so it is always a good time to visit this city. Traditionally, the hotter summer months attract the beach-lovers who prefer to spend most of the day lapping up the sun on one of Valencia’s beaches. As many of these are equally enjoyable during the rest of the year, a visit during one of the city’s famous festivals will provide a real taste of what true Valencia passion is all about.

A March visit will coincide with the most renowned of Valencia’s festivals, the famous ‘Fallas’. Held in honour of St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, the main celebrations are held from 15th-19th March and herald 5 days of earth-shattering explosions, processions, flowers, bonfires and a succession of sleepless nights as Valencians exhibit 20 m-high satirical effigies of celebrities (ninots) in the city centre. During these days, a brass band marches down the streets at 8 a.m. announcing the beginning of festivities with the resounding ‘La Despertà’ (reveille) to the accompaniment of thundering firecrackers. At 2 p.m., a display of even more deafening firecrackers (Mascletà) is carefully engineered in the city centre. During the night of the 15th, the effigies are distributed around the city and are left there for everyone to admire until the ‘cremà’ (burning) on the night of the 19th when all but the winning ‘ninot’ are burnt in a gigantic bonfire. The non-stop partying is briefly interrupted by the more solemn flower-offering to the ‘Mare de Déu dels Desamparats’ (Our Lady of the Foresaken), one of the Patron Saints of Valencia, when ‘falleros’ place thousands of carnations at the feet of the Virgin in a pile that reaches an average height of approximately 14 m.

Holy Week is naturally a more solemn celebration but the beauty of the processions and the intensity of the mood make it a memorable experience. The processions of floats depicting the Passion, followed by hood and cloak-clad penitents, are held in the old fishermen’s neighbourhoods of the port districts of Cabanyal and Grau.

The magnificent flower displays for which Valencia is so famous are shown in their full glory during the month of May when ‘Valencianos’ pay tribute to Our Lady of the Forsaken. The festival of the May Crosses sees Valencia’s streets decorated with beautiful crosses made of flowers and on the second Sunday in May, the image of the Virgin is paraded in a procession of flower petals from the Basilica to the Cathedral, the square in front temporarily transformed into a breathtaking colourful carpet of flowers. More flowers and more competition-entering floats signal the end of the July Fair with the most aromatic battle in the world - Valencia’s battle of flowers. The cavalry are sumptuous floats adorned with flowers, the battle fields are beds of petals, the ammunition is carnations and the most colourful and festive battle ever to be waged ensues between the occupants of the floats and the surrounding public.

Food-related festivals also rate high on the Valencian calendar, the most unusual perhaps being ‘La Tomatina’, held in August in the neighbouring town of Buñol. Described as “the mother of all food fights”, revellers spend hours hurling approximately 140 tonnes of ripe tomatoes at each other.

If motor racing is a passion, nowhere better than Valencia in the summer, when Valencia’s spectacular street circuit, staging the Formula 1 European Grand Prix, takes place in the port area of the city.

For more information on the climate, please visit the Valencia Weather page.