School Trips To Valencia

Bursting with culture and style, Valencia is a real up and coming destination for GCSE and A level Spanish language students. It has a fascinating old town, ultra-modern zones including the renowned City of Arts and Science, along with our language school and bustling marketplaces to put their skills to the test. Students cannot fail to be impressed with their stunning surroundings when visiting Valencia, the home of Paella!

Itinerary

Tour Day 1

Morning
Arrive in Valencia and meet your coach which will transport you to your accommodation
Evening
Evening Meal at Hotel followed by free time exploring the local area

Tour Day 2

Morning
Enjoy a 4 hour walking tour (in English or Spanish) of this wonderful city.
Afternoon
Visit the Oceonographic - a brilliant marine park and aquarium not to be missed!
Evening
Evening meal in your hotel. Shopping mall exploration

Tour Day 3

Morning
Spend 2 hours in our language school with a lesson tailored to your group. Next, explore the impressive Central Market - the absolute ideal location to put your language skills to the test!
Afternoon
Take a tour (in English or Spanish) of the impressive home of Valencia FC - the Mestalla Stadium
Evening
Evening Meal at your hotel. Use of meeting room where available

Tour Day 4

Morning
Free time exploring the wonderful Valencia Park and 'Gulliver' before taking your coach transfer back to the airport for your return flight home.

Accommodation

Accommodation

  • Valencia is quite a compact city and so it is quite easy to navigate on foot, meaning all our accommodation options offer good locations across the old and newer areas of the city. We can provide suitable options including hostels using bunk bed style rooms and also popular hotels offering with rooms from 2 to 4 students. These options can provide either bed and breakfast, or half and full board.

Restaurants

We recommend that our groups stay on a Full Board basis however we have selected a few restaurants for lunches or evenings should you wish to enjoy a meal or two outside of the hotel. Our most popular options are:

  • Necco – Mediterranean buffet
  • Fresco buffet
  • Bruselas Restaurant with set menu
  • Hard Rock Café
  • La Piazza Aaragon (Near Mestralla)
  • Fosters Hollywood
  • Dinner at the Flamenco

Study Visits

WST Language School

Our excellent Language School partners in Valencia provide the perfect platform for advancing student speaking and understanding skills on their trip.  Start the day with a session pre-tailored to your trip’s itinerary or study focus before putting the learning into practice afterwards in your other daily activities.  We can provide 2 hour sessions on 2 or more days to really enhance the learning of the language, Valencia, and Spain.

E3 Trail

We are delighted to have teamed up with E3 Trails, the UK’s premier educational trail writer, to offer an interactive activity for Spanish language students. An E3 Trail is a journey of discovery which empowers students to engage in an enjoyable learning adventure whilst visiting the chosen location. Typically taking two-three hours, a Trail is a self-guided walk around many iconic sights of the location of your choice, punctuated with a wide variety of interesting tasks and challenges which your students complete in their teams. The competition element adds an extra edge to the activity as teams vie for the right to be declared the winners. The addition of an E3 Trail to your school travel itinerary will make your time abroad a truly memorable and rewarding experience.

The Central Market

Where better for your students to explore and put their newly learnt language skills to the test! This huge marketplace has over 1000 stalls! Held within an impressive art nouveau building, the colourful Mediterranean fruit and veg is piled high in stunning displays,  and the aroma of fresh bread, coffee and oranges fills the air. Every day from 7:30am-2pm Monday-Saturday the market is packed with locals and tourists armed with shopping carts beneath the market’s ceramic tiles. There are some other smaller markets but we recommended the Central market for groups based on its size, location and a good number of English speakers around. 

Guided Walking tour of Valencia ( 4 hours)

A guided tour on foot is the perfect introduction to the city, giving you the opportunity to get your bearings around the city and to see all the major sights and landmarks. Our partners in resort are vastly experienced in delivering walks taking in the highlights.

Our walks are tailored around you and can be adapted to your group.  Typical highlights include a tour around the old town. It’s one of the oldest and best kept in Europe.  Visit the old walls and towers and bustling plaza. See ‘La Lonja’ (The Silk Exchange), declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in December 1996, and the popular Central Market Mercado Central, full of vivacity and a great place to practice language skills. The North Station is another impressive building boasting a beautiful façade.

See the Cathedral, built on the site of a Roman that houses exquisite pieces of gold and silverwork, a collection of religious paintings from the Valencian school and other unique works. (small extra pre-payable fee to enter)

Other popular sites include the The Marquis de Dos Aguas Palace, the Fine Arts Museum, the Institute of Modern Art and the Beneficiencia Cultural Center.

If you want to work on your students’ Spanish language skills we can request the tour (or elements of it) to be delivered in Spanish.

The City of Arts and Science

An absolute must for all groups visiting Valencia. This iconic and stunning complex occupies a massive 350,000-sq-metre of former Turia River riverbed. This series of spectacular buildings are mostly the work of world-famous, locally born architect Santiago Calatrava. 

There are 5 different sections we can arrange individual or combined ticket entry for. The Hemisfèric (incredible 3-D cinema), the Science & Technology Museum, the Oceanogràfic (Europe’s largest aquarium) and the Reina Sofia Opera House.

  • The Hemisferic: 

The Hemisfèric is a memorising digital 3D cinema, with a huge 900 metre concave screen, which almost envelops spectators. Several films are screened daily, mainly educational documentaries of no more than 45 minutes which are suitable for all audiences. During the projection they'll give you headphones, so you can choose the language of the narration in Spanish or English. You will receive a pair of innovative 3D glasses with your ticket enabling you to change the screening language. We recommend that you check the film listings and reserve the screening that you would like to see before starting your visit to other buildings of the City of Arts and Sciences.

  • Oceanografic:

Don’t miss this incredible aquarium and Marine Park – the 3rd largest in the world. You are invited us to travel around the planet's main seas and oceans witnessing more than 45,000 examples of 500 different marine species - amongst which can be found sharks, Beluga whales, walruses, sea lions, penguins and manta rays - inhabit nine underwater towers that, structured in two levels, represent the most emblematic ecosystems of the planet.

The oceanographic park, created as a leisure, training and research centre, is structured into ten great areas. The marine areas reflect the Mediterranean habitats, the polar oceans - the Arctic and the Antarctic, the islands, the tropical seas, the temperate seas and the Red Sea. Moreover, the park also has a spectacular dolphinarium, with a show not to be missed. 

It also offers many different services such as shops and restaurants, amongst which should be highlighted the underwater restaurant where clients can have lunch surrounded by an immense aquarium.

4D: Scientific Film- Don’t forget to add a showing at Spain’s largest 4D cinema and enjoy a memorable science based film as the cinema re-creates conditions like wind, changes of light, aromas, snow, as well as vibration in the seats.

  • Príncipe Felipe Science Museum: 

With the philosophy "Not touching is prohibited" you can imagine what kind of museum this is. With more than 26,000 m 2 dedicated to exhibitions that are renewed periodically, each exhibition, workshop or activity opens a door to scientific knowledge in a modern and fun way. In addition, there are a wide range of guided tours to the exhibitions, thematic or general, always adapted to the curricular level of your students. 

The Príncipe Felipe Science Museum offers different interactive exhibitions around a huge range of science and technology. The Museum also offers scientific workshops if required.  Please ask your tour consultant for further details.

  • Reina Sofia Opera House:

If you are a music-lover then the Palau de les Arts is the place for you at the City of Arts and Sciences. From October to November, its programme includes operas, concerts, zarzuela and ballet. When not being used for performances, you can visit the building by booking a tour in advance.

  • The Umbracle:

This is a landscaped viewpoint covering an area of more than 17,500 square metres, from which to view all the buildings, ponds, paths, and landscaped areas of the complex. It houses the “Paseo de las Esculturas”, an open-air art gallery with sculptures by contemporary artists. Terraza Mya opens its doors at night during the summer months. 

Operation Freddy Ipad Challenge (2 hours)

A fantastically fun way for school groups to learn about and explore Valencia. 

Freddy will guide you through Valencia (in small groups each with own iPad). He’ll ask all kinds of interactive questions and assignments; it’s up to you and your team to find the right answers and be creative.

Along the way, you learn more about the highlights of the city, with text and pictures. The route and questions can be tailored to match your needs. There’s even a prize for the winning group!

The Target (Town Trail -Game) 2 hours

A second exciting and unique interactive game around Valencia. “The Target” is like a real life game, played with tablets with GPS and the historic centre of Valencia is the playground.

A dangerous gangster has escaped from prison, police teams (the students) are in pursuit armed only with tablets and satellites hanging above the city.

Can the agents catch the gangster before he reaches his ‘target’ of stealing £100,000?

Do not miss this exciting game in the city of Valencia!

Tour Valencia Football Stadium (Mestalla) 

The Mestalla stadium is home to the Valencia Football club team. This is a legendary stadium that has lived many important games and all the important teams of Europe have in some occasion or other, in some competition or friendly matches have played over here.

A unique visit to a Mestalla is full of history and emotions. Take a tour in Spanish or English (or a mixture of the two). Visit the most relevant places, including the changing rooms and the pitch. Take a seat on the benches where the best players in the history of football have been. Take a look at the private and presidential boxes, visit the press room where the players are interviewed and find out why a bat is the club and city’s symbol.

La Albufera Natural Park - with Optional Boat Trip 

La Albufera is a wonderful escape from the bustling city of Valencia, a great place to soak up some beautiful landscapes and be at one with nature.

The natural park of the Albufera is just 40 mins south of Valencia city and home to an enormous freshwater lagoon with some incredible nature, dunes, wetlands, birds, fauna and the beaches of El Saler. which is surrounded by rice fields- perfect Paella territory!

Take a boat ride in a typical Albufera boat for the perfect views of the park including the rice fields, traditional Valencian houses and fishing techniques established 750 years ago.

Cultural Visits

La Bulería Falamenco Show (with evening meal Option) Fri & Sat only 

The venue offers authentic performances for an experience which embodies the magic and charm of this ancestral part of Spanish culture. La Bulería presents flamenco shows on Friday and Saturday nights with options for the show with drink, tapas or dinner menus.

The show in La Buleria is approximately seventy minutes long and features four to five artists. The performance includes several of the most representative styles of flamenco. La Bulería continues to be one of the most important flamenco venues in Valencia, offering a unique combination of a show with quality artists and typical Spanish gastronomy, two of the most valued treasures of Spain.

Bioparc

This innovative zoo, in which the barriers are practically invisible and the animals feel right at home, covers some 100,000 square metres and is located in the Parque de Cabecera within the former Turia Riverbed. Contrary to traditional zoos, this park has the unique feature of bringing the visitor totally into the habitat of the animals. This is known as zoo immersion.

Bioparc’s main objective is to promote respect for animals and make the general public aware of importance of protecting the environment through a commitment to education and the preservation of the animals. Leopards, lemurs, hyenas, lions, giraffes, gorillas, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, porcupines, ostriches, elephants, otters… all coexist in this zoological world.

Valencia Cathedral 

Valencia Cathedral was built on the site of a Roman temple in the thirteenth century before being converted into a mosque. The incredible frescos above the alter were the first frescos in Spain which were rediscovered only in 2004! Throughout the building you can see a range of architectural styles. This is typified by three of the cathedral's main doors: Gothic, Baroque and Romanesque.

Inside the Santo Caliz Chapel you can find a Holy Chalice that the Vatican lists as he #1 mostly likely chalice used by Christ during the Last Supper. Inside the Saint Francis Borja Chapel you will find a famous painting by Goya.

Paella Workshop

Valencia is the undisputed home of paella. As one of the largest natural ports in the Mediterranean it has been one of the most important rice-producing areas in Spain since rice was introduced by the Moors over 1200 years ago.

Make your own paella and bring back home the taste of Spain, sign up for a paella cooking workshop with a master chef. Valencian paella is not made with seafood but with rabbit, chicken, beans and some secret ingredients.

You just need some ingredients to get started, a cup of fun, a dash of enthusiasm, the tips from the Chefs!  

Aquopolis Water Park

This park has something for everyone whether you like to faster slides or just to float along in relative tranquillity.  The attractions are divided into three categories, “moderate”, “high emotion” and “children. The rides are well supervised and height restrictions apply.  It around 45 minutes south of Valencia and is typically open Mid June –end August.

Terra Mítica Theme Park

This theme park is located in Benidorm, approximately 90 minutes’ drive from Valencia. The park is divided into 5 themed zones: Egypt, Greece, Rome, Iberia, and the Islands. It is typically open mid-May until the end of summer, and most weekends in September and October too. We can also pre-arrange lunch if required.

Museum of Fine Arts San Pio V (Bellas Artes) (Free)

Located in a Baroque building recently renovated in its entirety, the Fine Arts Museum San Pio V is one of the most outstanding painting archives in Spain, renowned for its collections of primitive Valencian painters, although there are also works by El Greco, Velázquez, Murillo and Goya. The Fine Arts Museum also exhibits sculptures by Mariano Benlliure and some interesting archaeological pieces.Closed Tuesdays

Valencian Institute of Modern Art

The Valencian Institute of Modern Art was created to explore and disseminate 20th century art through a comprehensive and attractive programme of activities such as exhibitions, conferences, courses, workshops and publications. Perched on the banks of the River Turia, with its back to the historic centre of Valencia, the IVAM comprises the Julio González Centre, opened in 1989, and the Sala de la Muralla, which was opened in 1991 and is located in the basement of the previous building alongside the remains of the city’s medieval fortifications.

The National Ceramics Museum

The National Ceramics Museum Gonzalez Marti is housed in a palace that dates from the 15th century and was refurbished in 1740 on rococo style with a magnificent alabaster entrance. Inside, you can find the 18th century carriages, the 19th century rooms, medieval ceramics and an important collection of tiles made in the Royal Ceramics Factory in Alcora. Closed Mondays

Las Fallas Festival 

Every March Valencia gets ready to welcome the spring. The streets fill up with joy and the hustle and bustle of the Fallas festival, the upmost expression of the merger of tradition, satire, art and sentimentality for one's homeland. The Valencian people live their most international fiesta to the maximum and their kind and natural character invites you to visit the city and join in this fiesta, where everything that is bad is burnt and reborn from the ashes to welcome a new season.

Museum of Las Fallas

If you are not here for Las Fallas, here is your chance to get a very good idea of what it is. This festival, internationally known, is unique to Valencia and so spectacular and strange that your visit will be incomplete without having a taste of it, whatever time of year you come. Every year one ninot (a figurine of a falla) is saved from fire and placed into this museum. They are so well made, that it is like being in the wax museum of Madamme Tussauds, only much more amusing (the fallas are traditionally humorous). Monday closed.

Benlliure Museum House 

In 1957, Doña María Benlliure Ortiz, donated the family home where her father, the famous painter José Benlliure Gil (València 1855-1937). The main building recreates, on the ground floor, a series of domestic rooms in which you can enjoy the genuine furniture of the end of the 19th century, as well as interesting works by renowned artists of the time such as Sorolla, Muñoz Degraín, Rusinyol, Luna Novicio, Nagy, etc.

Museo de la Magia – Magic Museum

Come to a place of fantasy, with a museum, optical illusions, enigmas, impossible rooms and the best Magic Shows. An intimate place, with reduced capacity, for a personalised magic experience.  Special passes that include Visit + Magic Show for all audiences.

 

 

Carole's Expert Tip

Liven up your evening by taking them for a traditional tapas meal or see a flamenco show where you’ll see more of the real culture of Spain.

Top tip from Carole, our Specialist Tour Consultant