Valencia is the world's 'most liveable city' – here's why

“THE best thing that can be said about a city is that it's the best in the world to live in – and Valencia, from today, is just that,” says Sandra Gómez, deputy mayor of Spain's third-largest metropolis.

“That's what I call 'putting oneself on the map'. We've got reasons to be proud.”

If you're not one of the 780,000 or so inhabitants in this Mediterranean city that sits approximately halfway down the east coast, then it's still easy enough to find out for yourself why it tops the ranking in Forbes magazine – Valencia is served by frequent budget airline connections from all over Europe, and the metro running to the centre starts right inside the terminal.

And it's not the only Spanish location in the 10 'most liveable city' standings – Madrid comes in at number five.

Only one other country has more than one entry in the 10 best – the United Arab Emirates, with Dubai second and Abu Dhabi ninth.

Valencia also beats México DF, which is third, and the capital of Spain's neighbouring country – Portugal – as Lisbon comes fourth.

Both Valencia and Madrid come ahead of Bangkok, Thailand (sixth), Basel, Switzerland (seventh), former winner Melbourne, south-eastern Australia (eighth), Abu Dhabi, and Singapore (10th).

Barcelona came 14th, beating Lausanne, Switzerland (18th), Copenhagen, Denmark (17th), New York, USA (16th) and Nairobi, Kenya (15th).

Ahead of Barcelona were Tallinn, Estonia (11th), Miami, USA (12th) and Sydney, Australia (13th).

Toronto, Canada and Zürich, Switzerland complete the top 20.

Expat City Ranking 2022

Full-time inhabitants of the 50 cities featured in Forbes were not the ones who gave their views, as the annual study seeks to discover how the planet's largest metropolitan zones compare with respondents' home towns, or others they have lived in.

InterNations, which produces the Expat City Ranking report every year, is the world's biggest expatriate community, says Forbes writer Laura Begley.

Here, the term 'expatriate', or 'expat' for short, is taken to mean people who move temporarily to another country for work, either with a visa or via the European Union's freedom of movement facility for citizens of a different EU nation.

Often, 'expat' is a term used to describe citizens of one's own country who have emigrated, or to define EU citizens living in a member State that is not the one they hold a passport for, whether their move is permanent or temporary. 

In the latter case, the meaning of 'expatriate' seeks to differentiate European Economic Area nationals from non-EEA citizens who, as they do not benefit from the EU's freedom of movement facility, face greater restrictions when seeking to live abroad legally, normally requiring proof of income or of a job offer, as well as a work permit; they are typically referred to as 'immigrants', with the difference between them and the group colloquially defined as 'expats' being merely the administrative requirements involved in their entry and ongoing residence.

The European Union does not class its own citizens as 'immigrants' when they live in a different member State, since the main aim of free movement is that those native to the bloc are not, technically, 'abroad' when they cross borders within it.

Following Great Britain's departure from the European Union, its citizens who were living in Spain prior to the year 2021 continue to be considered EU nationals within the country they reside in, and for short periods of travel to other member States; only those who move to Spain from 2021 onwards are considered 'immigrants' and need to meet the same requirements as a newcomer from a nation outside the EEA.

But the Forbes and InterNations analysis of 'most liveable cities' uses the original definition of 'expatriate' – those who are on secondment abroad, or who intend their spell of working in a different country to be a finite period, for career progression, personal fulfilment, or greater prospects and income.

Why Valencia?

According to the Forbes article, Valencia is 'a 2,000-year-old city that lies on Spain's southeastern coast at the confluence of the Turia river and the Mediterranean sea'.

It is 'known for its pretty beaches, buzzing food scene, and rich culture', and the description is headed up 'Valencia: Liveable, Friendly and Affordable'.

Sandra Gómez, and mayor Joan Ribó, said they were pleasantly surprised to see their city rank considerably higher than the only two USA locations to enter the top 50 – Miami, at number 12, and New York, at 16.

These, like Valencia, are 'cosmopolitan and multi-cultural' and are home to 'multiple attractions', Laura Begley writes, and 'expats in both were happy with the work culture' there, but they had 'struggled with the healthcare system', finding access to it difficult.

Only 50 cities were studied, and Johannesburg, South Africa, came bottom, with Frankfurt, Germany second from bottom, Paris, France at 48, İstanbul, Turkey at 47, Hong Kong at 46, Hamburg, Germany at 45, Milan, Italy at 44, Vancouver, Canada at 43, Tokyo, Japan at 42, and Rome, Italy at 41.

Valencia, though, generated enthusiasm over its 'affordable public transport', its 'opportunities for recreational sports' and its 'safety'.

The city is served by metro, or underground rail, and the central part is fairly compact, manageable and walkable.

Also, it has a regular and cheap round-town bus network, the EMT, and taxis are a regular sight on the streets at any time of the day or night.

Within the wider metropolitan zone, the most expensive metro journey tends to be from the centre to the airport, some distance outside the city proper in the town of Manises; it costs approximately €5 one way.

Shorter journeys are considerably less, typically not more than €2, and a much more economical method – where you are not just travelling to one specific destination on a given day – is to buy a ticket covering multiple journeys, or unlimited use over a set number of days or weeks.

Safety on the streets – as is the case for much of Spain – has often taken visitors by surprise; the country as a whole, statistically, has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the world, and anecdotal evidence shows that lone women generally do not feel overly concerned about walking around Valencia at night.

Expats also praised the 'ease' with which they were able to settle in, said they were 'very happy' with their social lives, and 'felt at home'.

In fact, Valencia came third out of 50 for 'ease of settling in' and for personal finances, says Laura Begley, and number one for cost of living in general.

Although rent prices in large Spanish cities have been rising rapidly in recent years, they remain well below typical tenancy costs in most of western Europe – especially outside Madrid and Barcelona.

And in a country with more bars and restaurants per inhabitant than anywhere else in Europe, there's always somewhere different to meet up socially, wherever you are. Even in a very small village, you'll have at least one or two local cafés to relax in.

How Valencia's best features compare with the global average

Public transport costs were ranked at 85% positive, compared with the average for the world's cities as a whole, which was 70%.

For safety, and for recreational sports opportunities, expats were 92% happy on both counts, whilst the global average for these factors was 75% and 81% respectively.

Valencia came third overall in the 'Ease of Settling In Index', which covers 'feeling at home' (74% for Valencia next to 62% for the world as a whole), and quality of social life (72% for Valencia, 56% worldwide).

In terms of cost of living, the global average satisfaction rate is 45%, but for Valencia, 83% of expats gave a positive verdict.

In the 'Expat Essentials Index', Valencia comes 13th overall, out of the 50.

On the negative side, job availability and quality, and chances of career enhancement, ranked among the worst.

In the Working Abroad Index, Valencia came in at number 41, with 50% rating the local job market as 'poor', compared with 27% globally, and 30% being unhappy with opportunities available to them, next to 22% worldwide.

Overall, Valencia came bottom of the list – number 50 – in the Career Prospects section. 

What to see and do in Valencia 

Founded as a city in the year 1238 – meaning it will be celebrating its first 'official' millennium in just over 15 years' time – Valencia was already an inhabited settlement in the Roman times, when it was named Valentia Edetanorum.

Its ornate, neo-classical and baroque architecture in the central hub – multiple-storey mansions with elaborate balconies, floor-to-ceiling windows with wooden shutters – in pale and pastel colours has a noble, almost aristocratic feel to it; glass-and-chrome skyscraper office blocks are few and far between, and mainly on the outskirts, meaning the actual city retains its elegant, historic charm.

Side lanes overflowing with pavement cafés, olde worlde taverns, and restaurants serving the Comunidad Valenciana region's most famous dish – paella – intersect with sweeping boulevards and huge plazas lined with up-market boutiques, high-street chains, haute couture retailers, and branches of Spain's biggest department store, El Corte Inglés.

The cathedral, with its Micalet bell-tower – which you can climb for outstanding panoramic views – and the neighbouring basilica sit in a pedestrianised plaza radiating out from a huge fountain and surrounded by ice-cream parlours and coffee shops.

Modern art galleries including the IVAM and MUVIM, as well as the original homes of Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse author Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and the painter and sculptor Benlliure brothers, the mosaïc-fronted Central Market building – spilling out onto pavement paella restaurants – the ceramic tile museum set in the house of the Marquis of Dos Aguas, with its tie-dye-patterned rendering, and the curious optical illusion which is the Lonja, or silk exchange, with its twisty columns tend to be some of the key features visitors head to when exploring Valencia for the first time.

One of Europe's biggest urban gardens, what used to be the Turia riverbed running through the centre – diverted after a devastating flood in 1957 – is now Valencia's 'green lung', a 10-kilometre-long, 160-metre-wide grassy parkland with footpaths and cycle paths, starting from the turreted twin Serrano Towers in the heart of the city and ending at the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, or City of Arts and Sciences.

Along the way, you'll find ornamental ponds, botanical gardens, the BioParc open-air safari – where animals live in environments carefully designed to match their natural habitats – and the popular Gulliver Park, where the globetrotter from Jonathan Swift's 18th-century classic is recreated, lying on his back as he wakes up in the land of Lilliput. In Valencia's case, though, the tiny Lilliput inhabitants who make Gulliver appear to be a massive giant are actually the children playing on the slides and climbing frames set within him.

Work started this year on extending the metro to the City of Arts and Sciences – previously, it was easier to reach by car from the ringroad, or required catching a bus – and the ultra-modern complex attracts just as many visitors to admire its outside as it does people actually stepping inside the buildings.

Temporary exhibitions are frequently held in the Prince Felipe Science Museum, shaped like a mesh Toblerone, and the half-open-eye-shaped Hemisfèric shows differing schedules of film documentaries on natural wonders – half-hour slots costing in region of €6 per showing, with audio headsets to change the language for those not comfortable with following them in Spanish, include ocean depths, volcanoes, outer space, and other fascinating phenomena that few of us will ever get to see up close in real life.

Shaped like a giant crown, the Oceanogràfic is Europe's largest aquarium, with over 45,000 amphibious inhabitants in sections representing all the world's major seas. Their environments are painstakingly created to ensure they reflect the creatures' natural habitats as closely as possible, so that they would not realise they are 'in captivity'; in fact, the Oceanogràfic and its on-site ARCA Foundation is the region's leading marine veterinary centre. If anyone reports an injured whale or dolphin washing up on a beach, Oceanogràfic staff will be called in to treat them, and if fishermen accidentally catch turtles in their nets, they drop them off in specially-conditioned tanks upon returning to port, from which they will be taken to the Oceanogràfic for recovery and medical care.

Once turtles are fully fit again, the Oceanogràfic releases them back into the sea, always in a ceremonial event off one of the region's beaches – school groups, nursing home residents, and the public in general make organised trips to 'see off' the turtles, sometimes with competitions to name them before they return home.

The Ágora building, which rises out of the ground like a giant fingernail, was originally constructed to house the Open 500 tennis tournament, and is now used for other sporting events; the Umbracle, which resembles a mesh tube with a slanting roof is a semi-covered botanical garden you can stroll through without paying an entry fee.

For fans of opera, classical music and chamber orchestra concerts, the up-market Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía ('Queen Sofía Arts Palace') is élite, comfortable and spacious inside, and its structure resembles an asymmetric ball.

All this, including the swimming-pool-like boating lakes in the grounds, was designed by world-acclaimed architect Santiago Calatrava, who was later commissioned to create the monument in homage to the World Trade Centre victims of September 11, 2001, in New York.

In January this year, TV channel CNN's article Where to travel in 2022: The best destinations to visit named 21 worldwide locations – unranked – as their recommended holiday hotspots, and Valencia was one of them. You'll find more detailed information about what to see and do there by clicking on the link here.