Turia Gardens walk: from the Torres de Serranos along the old river bed, past its bridges and the Palau de la Música, to the City of Arts and Sciences

One of 2 self-guided walks in Valencia. See every walk.

In this guide

💡 The Short Version: Start at the Torres de Serranos and finish at the Àgora in the City of Arts and Sciences: 4.9 km, about 65 minutes of walking and a half day with the stops. The gardens are free and always open. Go on a Tuesday to Friday: the Museo de Bellas Artes and the Fallas Museum are shut on Mondays, and the Torres de Serranos close in rain, fog or strong wind. Parque Gulliver closes at 17:30 from November to February. The Museo de Bellas Artes, the park and the Umbracle are free; the Torres de Serranos and the Fallas Museum are €2, a guided visit of the Palau de les Arts €18 and single tickets for the Hemisfèric and the Museu de les Ciències start at €8.90. There is no station at the end: the tram stop is 430 m on. Or book a tour: the bike tour of the old town, the Turia and the City of Artsad is from €24.65 (GetYourGuide).

The route

Map of the walk numbered stops in walking order

Open the whole route in Google Maps - all the stops in walking order, set to walking directions, which is the version to put on your phone.

The walk follows the old bed of the River Turia, which was diverted south of the city after the floods of 1957 and is now a park nine kilometres long. It starts at the gate where the old town walk ends, runs south-east under the bridges and finishes among the buildings of the City of Arts and Sciences. The western half of the gardens, with the Bioparc, is a separate trip: the Turia Gardens covers the whole river bed and where to hire a bike. Prices are the adult rate in euros from each operator.

Do it with a guide

The riverbed is flat and signed, so a guide adds the stories rather than the directions. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

• Valencia: Bike Tour Through Old Town, Turia & City of Artsad: from €24.65, 4.5 stars from 776 reviews, 2.5 hours, on a bike or an e-bike.
• Valencia: City Highlights Guided Bike Tourad: from €28, 4.7 stars from 2,472 reviews, 3 hours.
• Valencia: Top 25 Highlights Guided Bike Tourad: from €26.49, 4.8 stars from 1,158 reviews, 2.5 hours.
• Valencia: Tuk Tuk Sightseeing Tourad: from €24.98, 4.7 stars from 1,656 reviews, 1 hour.

Valencia bike tours compares them, and Valencia walking tours covers the old town on foot.

1. Torres de Serranos

€2, free on Sundays and public holidays · Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 19:00, Sundays 10:00 to 14:00 · Plaza de los Fueros

The Torres de Serranos are the old northern gate, with terraces that look over the city and the old riverbed. The visit depends on daylight and closes in rain, fog or strong wind; entry is allowed until 30 minutes before closing, and the gate is shut on 1 January, 6 January, 1 May and 25 December. The old town walk has the tickets and the closed days.

Go down to the riverbed by the Serranos bridge, which Visit València dates to the 16th century. The path then passes the Trinidad bridge, built in the 15th century and the oldest in Valencia, which keeps its historical sculptures.

A statue on the Trinidad bridge, with the Museo de Bellas Artes behind. Photo: Rafa Esteve, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Walk to the Museo de Bellas Artes: 600 m.

2. The Museo de Bellas Artes and the Real Gardens

Free · Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 20:00 · shut Mondays · Calle San Pío V 9

Visit València calls the Museo de Bellas Artes the second-largest picture gallery in Spain. It holds the Valencian Primitives, a room of Sorolla and works by Goya, Velázquez, El Greco, Murillo, Van Dyck and Bosch, in the 17th-century building of the former San Pío V seminary. Valencia museums says what else is shut on Mondays.

• Tickets: admission is free.
• Hours: closed on Mondays, 1 January and 25 December, and open 10:00 to 14:00 on 24 and 31 December. The rooms are cleared from 10 minutes before closing, so the last entry at 19:30 allows a 20-minute visit.
• The Real Gardens: beside the museum, free, with the remains of the Royal Palace, a marble group of the four seasons and a small paleontology museum. They are open from 7:30, to 20:30 on weekdays in winter and to 21:30 at weekends and in summer.
• The Real bridge: the next bridge on the walk was the access route to the Royal Palace, which has gone.

The Real Gardens, beside the Museo de Bellas Artes. Photo: Joanbanjo, Wikimedia Commons.

Walk to the Exposición bridge: 950 m along the riverbed.

3. The Exposición, Flowers and Sea bridges

Free · always open · Alameda metro under the Exposición bridge

Visit València counts eighteen bridges across the gardens. Three come in quick succession here.

• The Exposición bridge: a white steel arch by Santiago Calatrava, one of the most photographed bridges in the gardens. Alameda metro station, on lines 3, 5, 7 and 9, is under it, which makes it the way out at about the halfway point.
• The Flowers bridge: one of the newest, from 2002, decorated with thousands of flowers all year.
• The Sea bridge: a river crossing since the 16th century, toward the maritime districts. The access staircases, added in the 20th century, give it its look.

The Sea bridge and the palm garden beside it. Photo: Diego Delso, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Walk to the Palau de la Música: 1.1 km, past the Aragó bridge.

4. The Palau de la Música

Concerts only · Passeig de l’Albereda 30

A glass building among ponds and thick planting, the Palau de la Música is the city’s concert hall for symphonic and chamber music. The programme and tickets are on its own site.

The Palau de la Música and its pond. Photo: Joanbanjo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Walk to Parque Gulliver: 410 m.

5. Parque Gulliver

Free · 10:00 to 17:30 from November to February · Pont del Regne 13

Parque Gulliver is a children’s park built round a giant figure of Gulliver, almost 70 m long and 9 m high, lying tied to the ground. It has stairs, ramps, fast slides and climbing ropes, between the Ángel Custodio and Reino bridges. The Reino bridge is the city’s longest, guarded by four large allegorical sculptures, and the golden gargoyles under it channel off the rainwater.

It is open 10:00 to 13:00 on 24 and 31 December and closed on 25 December and 1 January.

• Side trip, the Fallas Museum: 400 m extra. It is on Plaza Montolivet 4, in a former convent, and shows the ninots indultats, the figures saved from the Fallas fires since 1934. Entry is €2, free on Sundays and public holidays and free for under-16s, Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 to 19:00 (last entry 18:00) and Sundays and holidays 10:00 to 14:00 (last entry 13:00). It is shut on Mondays and on 1 January, 6 January, 1 May and 25 December. Tram line 10 stops at Amado Granell - Montolivet beside it.

Walk to the Palau de les Arts: 810 m, past the Montolivet bridge.

6. The Palau de les Arts

Guided visit €18 · audio-guide visit €14, daily 10:00 to 14:30 · Avinguda del Professor López Piñero

The Palau de les Arts is the opera house of the City of Arts and Sciences, and it sells visits as well as performances. The visits go through the performance halls, the helical stairs, the panoramic lifts and the terraced gardens. Tickets and the calendar of sessions are on lesarts.com.

• Guided visit: €18, €14 reduced, free for under-13s. In English at 13:00 and 15:30 from Monday to Saturday, with an extra at 11:30 from Monday to Friday, and at 10:15 and 13:00 on Sundays.
• Audio-guide visit: €14, daily from 10:00 to 14:30, on your phone, so bring headphones.
• Changes: the itinerary can change with the programme.

Walk to the Hemisfèric: 580 m.

7. The Hemisfèric, the Museu de les Ciències and the Umbracle

Single-building tickets from €8.90 · Museu 10:00 to 18:00 Monday to Thursday, to 19:00 Friday to Sunday until 31 March 2027 · Umbracle free

The Hemisfèric is an IMAX Dome and planetarium: one ticket is one film of 45 to 50 minutes. The Museu de les Ciències is a hands-on science museum; you can walk into the building freely, and a ticket opens its exhibitions. The City of Arts and Sciences page has the prices of each building, the combined tickets and the high-season dates.

• Tickets: the Hemisfèric is €8.90 and the Museu de les Ciències €9.90, on that page. The ticket offices close one hour before the Museu closes.
• The Umbracle: a 320 m landscaped walkway by Calatrava along the south side of the complex, with an art promenade of large sculptures and an astronomy garden. Both are free to enter.

Walk to the Àgora: 440 m.

8. L’Assut d’Or bridge and the Àgora

Free · the bridge is always open · Carrer d’Eduardo Primo Yúfera

L’Assut d’Or is one of the three bridges Calatrava built in the city, with a harp-shaped mast 125 m high. The Àgora beside it is a multifunctional cultural space and holds CaixaForum València. You can walk into the hall and its café-restaurant freely, and exhibitions need a ticket.

The walk ends here. Tram line 10 stops at Ciutat Arts i Ciències - Justícia, 430 m south-west. The Oceanogràfic, the aquarium, is the next building to the south-east: the Oceanogràfic has its tickets.

Where to eat

Contrapunto Les Arts

Palau de les Arts · Mediterranean · terrace · book on lesarts.com

The restaurant of the Palau de les Arts, with a terrace that opens on to the City of Arts and Sciences. The chef is Pablo Ministro, and the cooking uses fresh seasonal produce. Book through lesarts.com.

Where to eat in Valencia lists the restaurants back in the centre.

The best day to go

The timing that works, on a Tuesday to Friday: the Torres de Serranos at 10:00, the Museo de Bellas Artes from 10:30 for about an hour, the bridges by 12:30, Parque Gulliver by 13:30, lunch, and the Palau de les Arts visit at 15:30 or the Museu de les Ciències. Between November and February Parque Gulliver closes at 17:30 and the Torres de Serranos close with the daylight.

What closes:

• Mondays: the Museo de Bellas Artes and the Fallas Museum.
• Sundays after 14:00: the Torres de Serranos and the Fallas Museum.
• In rain, fog or strong wind: the Torres de Serranos.
• 1 January and 25 December: the Museo de Bellas Artes, Parque Gulliver, the Torres de Serranos and the Fallas Museum. 6 January and 1 May: the Torres de Serranos and the Fallas Museum.

What does not close: the gardens and the bridges, which are always open.

Getting there and back

• To the start: the Torres de Serranos are where the old town walk ends. Buses 6, 16, 26, 28, 94, 95 and C2 stop beside them, tram line 4 stops at Pont de Fusta, 520 m north-east, and the walk from Xàtiva metro station is 1.6 km.
• Halfway: Alameda metro station, on lines 3, 5, 7 and 9, is under the Exposición bridge, and the Fallas Museum has its own tram stop, Amado Granell - Montolivet, on line 10.
• From the end: tram line 10 stops at Ciutat Arts i Ciències - Justícia, 430 m south-west of the Àgora, and reaches Alacant, by way of the Russafa stop, in four stops. The City of Arts and Sciences lists EMT buses 13, 14, 35 and 95 as running to the complex, and bus 95 links it with the Torres de Serranos. Valencia public transport has the fares.

What to do with the rest of the day

• The old town: the old town walk ends at the Torres de Serranos, where this one starts.
• The City of Arts and Sciences: the tickets page says which buildings to pay for, and the Oceanogràfic is the aquarium at the far end.
• The rest of the gardens: the Turia Gardens covers the Bioparc end and bike hire, and Valencia with kids sorts the family stops.
• The days: 3 days in Valencia fits the City of Arts and Sciences onto a day, and what to book before you go to Valencia has the closed days for every sight.
• Where to sleep: hotels near the City of Arts and Sciences and where to stay in Valencia compare the areas.

Common questions

How long is the Turia Gardens walk?

4.9 km from the Torres de Serranos to the Àgora in the City of Arts and Sciences, measured along the paths: about 65 minutes of walking, and a half day with the museum and the visits. The whole river bed is nine kilometres, and this walk covers the stretch from the old town to the City of Arts and Sciences.

Is the Turia Gardens walk free?

The gardens are free and always open, and so are the Museo de Bellas Artes, Parque Gulliver and the Umbracle. The Torres de Serranos and the Fallas Museum are €2 each and free on Sundays, a guided visit of the Palau de les Arts is €18, and single tickets for the Hemisfèric and the Museu de les Ciències start at €8.90.

Which day is best for the Turia Gardens walk?

Tuesday to Friday. The Museo de Bellas Artes and the Fallas Museum are shut on Mondays, and the Palau de les Arts has an extra English visit at 11:30 from Monday to Friday. Parque Gulliver closes at 17:30 from November to February.

Can I shorten the walk?

Yes. Alameda metro station, on lines 3, 5, 7 and 9, is under the Exposición bridge about halfway, and EMT bus 95 follows the river bed from the Torres de Serranos to the City of Arts and Sciences.

Where does the Turia Gardens walk finish?

At the Àgora, in the middle of the City of Arts and Sciences. Tram line 10 stops at Ciutat Arts i Ciències - Justícia, 430 m on, and EMT buses 13, 14, 35 and 95 run to the complex.

Can I do the Turia Gardens walk by bike?

Yes, the river bed is flat. The Turia Gardens guide lists where bikes are hired along it, and GetYourGuide sells a 2.5-hour bike tour of the same stretch from €24.65.