Welcome to Valencia! Old Town Guided Walking Tour

Love at first light. Valencia greets you with a soft, honey-colored glow: oranges in the market stalls, palm shadows on warm stone, a breeze carrying salt from the sea. It’s a city that walks in two tempos at once — Roman foundations under Gothic ribs, Renaissance courtyards beside Art Nouveau ironwork, and futuristic white shells glinting down by the riverbed-turned-park. Step in, and you feel it: the rhythm of a place that reinvents itself without losing its voice.

It all began in 138 BCE, when Roman soldiers founded Valentia Edetanorum — “the place of valor” - a small colony, and a retirement site for the soldiers. Coming centuries brought destruction and rebirth: from the fall of Roman colony to Visigoth outpost, from the Moorish Balansiya — a flourishing city of gardens and irrigation canals — to the Christian capital reclaimed in 1238 by King James I of Aragon, El Conqueridor. The following centuries saw Valencia rise to unprecedented wealth during its Golden Age in the 15th century, when silk, ceramics, and trade filled its port and coffers, making it one of the richest cities on the Mediterranean. The Lonja de la Seda, the Silk Exchange, stands as a proud reminder of that era, a gothic masterpiece and UNESCO World Heritage Site where merchants once sealed deals under the forest of palm shaped columns. Wars, floods, and fires followed, yet Valencia never stopped creating: baroque churches rose over Gothic walls, modernist domes sparkled beside medieval towers, and today every spring during Las Fallas, the streets are filled with light, noise, and art before burning it all away.

Our Welcome to Valencia tour follows this living timeline. We begin at Plaza de la Ciudad de Brujas, the Square of the City of the Witches, and step into the beating heart of old Valencia. From the bustling stalls of the Central Market to the Gothic grandeur of the Silk Exchange, from the curious narrowness of La Estrecha to the majestic Cathedral of Santa María, said to hold the Holy Grail itself — with every stop we will peel off another layer of the city’s soul. We’ll explore the Roman foundations at La Almoina, feel local devotion at the Basilica of the Virgin Mary of the Forsaken, and rest beside the Turia Fountain, where the river god still reigns. Our path ends at the mighty Serrano Towers, once guarding the medieval walls, gazing toward the Turia Gardens — the old river turned into a green oasis, a living symbol of Valencia’s transformation. And of course, our journey wouldn’t be complete without discovering the city's most signature flavors. Valencia gave the world Paella, born in the rice fields of the Albufera, and horchata, its sweetest refreshment. Your guide will share where to find both — and how to enjoy them like a local.

Come walk with us through sunlight and shadow, stories and scents of Valencia. Feel the pulse of a city that never stops reinventing itself. With Walkative guides Valencia doesn’t just tell its history — it lets you walk right through it.