Why CNN thinks Valencia is one of 'the best destinations' for 2022

A GLOBAL television channel based in the USA has recommended 21 international destinations for travel in 2022, including a Spanish city which it claims is 'better than Barcelona'.

CNN advises those planning holidays across the pond to 'give the thronging streets' of Spain's second-largest metropolis a 'rest', and head a few hours' further south along the coast to 'the port city of Valencia', which the channel recalls has been nominated World Design Capital 2022.

In practice, despite what CNN says, it does not have to be a straight choice between the two – about four hours apart by car, two hours by fast train or three by slow train, a trip to Spain's east coast could easily involve taking in Barcelona and Valencia together.

The former, as lively, fun and colourful as a European capital – even though it is not, in fact, a capital – includes must-see attractions that resemble nothing else on earth, such as the wonderfully-weird Sagrada Família 'unfinished' cathedral, the psychedelic Parc Güell, both designed by Antoni Gaudí, the hectic 'tourist boulevard' known as the Ramblas, the Montjuïc mountain and cable-car up to the old Olympic stadium, and street upon street of excellent shopping and an eclectic array of restaurants and cafés.

'Futuristic' museum complex: So beautiful you'll forget to visit the inside parts

Valencia, the third-largest city in Spain with around 775,000 inhabitants, attractive and cosmopolitan with classical architecture and a very compact centre that makes sightseeing comfortable and simple, is flagged up by CNN in Where to travel in 2022: The best destinations to visit for its plans to become an 'emission-neutral destination by 2025', and reveals that its name in Roman times was Valentia Edetanorum.

The first of its visitor sites mentioned is the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, or City of Arts and Sciences (CAC).

“Designed by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava, [it's] a vast, futuristic complex featuring a planetarium, science museum and Europe's largest aquarium,” the article reads.

These are, in order, the Hemisfèric – which shows half-hour documentary films on fascinating phenomena on planet earth and beyond, costing just a few euros per showing – the Prince Felipe Science Museum, which was used to house the international Harry Potter exhibition when it reached Spain, and the Oceanogràfic, home to over 45,000 living sea species from all the world's oceans.

The Oceanogràfic is humanely and carefully designed to reflect the natural habitats of all its creatures, so they are unaware they are in 'captivity', and is the east coast's key marine veterinary hospital, attending to lost, sick and injured sharks, whales and dolphins who get close to the region's shores, and taking in rescued turtles to nurse them back to health before releasing them back into the wild.

These are the main visitor magnets of the CAC, although the complex also includes the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, an asymmetric 'ball' serving as an élite operatic and classical music concert venue, the Umbracle semi-covered 'garden tunnel', the Ágora sports stadium, and what looks like a massive outdoor swimming pool but is in fact a boating lake, where you can hire a craft and row yourself around the grounds.

Many tourists visit the CAC simply to see the outside of the buildings, not even stepping inside, given how spectacular they are.

For the first time, later in 2022, the CAC will be on Valencia city's metro network – currently, it is only reachable by urban bus, or by car from the ringroad, except those with plenty of energy and good hiking shoes, as CNN mentions.

Nine-kilometre river garden

“From [the CAC], you can cycle or stroll across the whole of Valencia through the nine-kilometre-long Turia Garden, built on the former bed of the Turia river,” the report says.

The huge river, which meanders through the city centre – the Thames or the Seine of Valencia – was diverted after the 'Great Flood of 1957' when it burst its banks, filling nearby homes up to a metre and a half (around five feet) with water.

As a result, such a weather disaster has never happened since, and the now-dry former river section was turned into a botanical garden, complete with a children's park dedicated to 18th-century literary character Gulliver when he becomes shipwrecked on the island of Lilliput, home to people of just a couple of centimetres tall.

Famous food

“Valencia is the birthplace of paella, and you'll find the iconic Spanish dish for sale everywhere,” the CNN report says.

In reality, the birthplace of paella is the Valencia region, known as the Comunidad Valenciana – the three provinces of Castellón, Alicante and Valencia, an area about the size of Wales in total – rather than Valencia city itself, but whether you're in the metropolitan area or hundreds of kilometres away in a rural village, this delicious dish will be authentic, and probably made from rice home-grown either in the salt-marshes of Pego (northern Alicante province) or the vast Albufera wetlands along the Valencia-province coast.

“For fine dining, local chef Ricard Camarena's eponymous restaurant has been awarded two Michelin stars, one of which is a green star for sustainability – the first eatery in the city to be awarded the honour,” the authors continue.

The city is, indeed, replete with top restaurants, mingling with traditional taverns, everyday eateries and coffee shops, meaning you'll never half to walk more than about two minutes in any direction before finding somewhere to stop for food and drink.

Noisy and colourful fiestas

“Finally, if you visit in March, you'll get the chance to experience the annual Fallas festival which, when Covid permits, is a five-day street party involving fireworks and the burning of wooden and cardboard sculptures,” the article concludes.

These sculptures, literally the height of a block of flats and with one on every street corner, are colourful caricatures of current affairs and famous people, each attached to a marquée where its 'team' of fiesta club members in traditional folk dress eat, drink and party round the clock until the ritual burning ends the show late at night on March 19.

Whilst Valencia city's is the biggest and its monuments the most recognisably-topical, the Fallas are in fact celebrated in the same way in almost every town, however small, in the province of Valencia, as well as a handful in that of Castellón and the north of that of Alicante (Dénia, Pego, and the hamlet of Pamís near Ondara which has just one sculpture).

And there's more: What else to see in the city

Although the article does not mention it, Valencia's best attractions are there for the photographing the second you arrive – the metro, or underground, right inside the airport building, runs to the main city-centre railway terminal, the Estació Nord, a journey of around half an hour to the stop named 'Xàtiva', costing €4.90 one way.

The Estació Nord is a beautiful and intricately-carved building covered with ceramic oranges, and next to it is the huge bullring, nowadays more likely to be used for pop and rock concerts.

Deeper into the old town is the cathedral, opposite the Basilica, and joining onto the Micalet bell-tower which you can climb for unrivalled views, then stop for an ice-cream in the square dominated by a giant fountain.

As well as great shopping – from designer to high-street, including a huge El Corte Inglés department store – must-see attractions include the colourful, mosaïc-patterned Central Market, the Lonja or silk exchange with its elaborate twisty columns and arches, the 'twin' Serrano Towers at the entrance to the Turia Garden, the IVAM and MUVIM modern art museums, and the houses of the 19th-century Benlliure artist brothers and, out of town beyond the Malvarrosa beach, the home of novelist Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, whose works include the world-famous Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, later adapted for screen in Hollywood.

Check out Valencia's key attractions – and a handful of those in the wider region – in our article on influencers' favourite 20 sites in the Comunidad Valenciana (you'll see why social media pros are so fond of them once you've been to them), and more in-depth information about the city, the region and the most colourful bits of its history and culture in our feature containing fun facts about the Comunidad Valenciana.

Well-connected and enjoyable in any season

Valencia can be reached from almost any major city in Spain by train – even though this might mean changing in Madrid – by long-distance coach, by car along the A-7 and A-3 motorways, or by short-haul internal flight.

Internationally, low-cost airlines regularly run to Valencia, with excellent deals to be found from all over Europe.

Best of all, any time of the year is ideal for visiting Valencia. Spain's Mediterranean coast becomes very hot and sweaty over the summer months, typically July and August, with beach weather from June to September, and the city does, indeed, have a vast stretch of golden, sandy urban shores dotted with paella restaurants and cocktail bars; during the rest of the year, the weather is always mild enough for exploring, even in deep winter – its tall buildings mean it is very sheltered from the harshest of the elements and from the wind, and temperatures that feel uncomfortably chilly elsewhere in the province are still pleasant in the heart of Valencia, where the sun shines brightly from a clear sky most days of the year.