Day 11 & 12 – Ibiza To Valencia: Eating Our Way Through Valencia

Day 11: La Pepica & Some Pizza

We begrudgingly woke up at 9am and packed our bags (after 5 days in Ibiza mine had absolutely exploded across our hotel room). With our bags ready, we walked to Prince, a restaurant down the block from our hotel that had a healthy breakfast menu. We ordered the detox water with lemon, cucumber and ginger (it was very refreshing and much needed after last night), the fit pancakes, and scrambled eggs to share.

After a solid meal, we checked out and got a taxi to the airport. We arrived 1.5 hours early but the gate to our flight still wasn’t posted so we relaxed in the Priority Pass lounge (an offer that I get through my favorite credit card – the Chase Sapphire Reserve, that gives you access to 1600+ airport lounges worldwide in 135 countries. Food and beverages are also included.) At the lounge I started to blog, while Stelios scrolled on his phone. I guess we both lost track of time because when I looked up it was 12:50pm – 20 minutes until our flight took off! In a quick panic we gathered our bags and luckily the gate was right outside of the priority pass lounge. FEWH! We made it through the gate during last call – that was a close one! 

Safely aboard the plane, I was able to jot down some final thoughts on Ibiza:

• I absolutely loved it here and didn’t want to leave. We will absolutely be back.
• It has some of the best clubs and nightlife I’ve experienced. It doesn’t matter what day of the week you go there, there is always a party happening somewhere 
• VIP service is the way to go and it’s more affordable if you go with a group. We used Taste Ibiza and they were extremely helpful and responsive. 
• It is probably the most expensive destination we’ll go to but there is SO MUCH MORE to the island than just the nightlife. The food is incredible, the beaches have crystal clear water, and the hiking is excellent 
• I would come back for a full week to experience more of the natural side of the island – more hikes, different coves/beaches, and do a day trip or even spend a night on Formentara 
• Overall the location of our hotel was convenient, and so was the private parking for our motorbike (shout out Sky Rent). Next time I would like to stay a few nights on the north side, and a few in Ibiza Town.

It was a quick 50 minute flight from Ibiza to Valencia. Once we landed, our bags came out fairly quick and we hopped in a taxi for a 20 minute drive to our Airbnb. We chose to do an Airbnb in Valencia instead of a hotel because we wanted a more authentic/local feel to our stay while we were here. The host Manuel greeted us at the door and showed us around. The apartment is a spacious rooftop loft, with a nice outdoor deck to enjoy views of the city below.

We quickly changed and went to lunch at La Pepica, a family run Valencian restaurant known for their seafood paella from 1898. We had waited our entire trip to order paella in Valencia and we were both ready for it. We ordered the signature La Pepica paella (a mixed seafood  paella) but to be honest it was a 3.5/5 for me. The paella was very salty to me and we don’t normally cook with a lot of salt at home. Nonetheless we finished the whole thing because we were hungry. After lunch we walked the promenade along the beach. This area reminds me of Huntington Beach, California with all of the palm trees, large walkways, and restaurants by the water. 

After walking off our meal we ubered back to our hotel and used the opportunity to do some much needed laundry after 11 days of being abroad. The laundry machine was actually outside on the rooftop deck and Stelios pointed out it is so much more enjoyable to do laundry outside on a roof than indoors like we have at home. The two of us were absolutely exhausted and rather than continue to push ourselves and go out tonight we decided to order dinner in, enjoy the sunset on the balcony, and get a full nights sleep so we could get an early start and a full day of exploring in tomorrow. We ordered pizza from a nearby spot called Siberias, the pizza was good but not as delicious as the slice we had at Sapori d’Italia in Ibiza. Satisfied and tired we called it a night and went to bed. 

Day 12: Casa Carmela & Churros

We woke up at 8:30am feeling much better after a full night of sleep. We walked to a cafe nearby called Cult and enjoyed our first pumpkin spiced coffee of the season. We also ordered the banana peanut butter toast and Greek yogurt bowl to share.

After breakfast we decided to walk to the Ruzafa neighborhood to explore. This area seemed very artsy and there were a lot of murals and fancy graffiti on the garage doors and walls which was cool. Unfortunately at 11am a lot of the restaurants and shops were still closed.

Since not much seemed to be open we walked 40 minutes towards the Jardín del Turia which was Valencia’s version of Central Park. We wanted to stop for a rest after all of the walking but we couldn’t find any benches to sit down on which I thought was odd. So we continued our walk into the Jardins del Real/Vivers which branches off of the main city park. We found a bench to sit on and there several locals painting landscapes in the park. 

Unfortunately we started getting attacked by flies so we left the park and grabbed a seat at a nearby cafe called Mar i Toni to try their horchata, a popular Valencian drink and La Trenza de chocolate (a delicious braided brioche with chocolate). The waitress only spoke Spanish so I did my best to order and the total was only €5 euro! What a difference in cost compared to our previous destinations. The horchata was like a dairy free milkshake but was grainy at the bottom and it made my throat scratchy after. I guess the sweet dessert attracted the flies because they came back. I HATE bugs and the flies here are crazy and seem more aggressive than the ones at home. They stay on you even when you swat them away, it was so annoying. 

After we were done enjoying our sweet treat we took a taxi back to the beach and rented two bikes for 2 hours for only €10 total. The woman at the bike shop recommended we bike to Port Saplaya, the “Venice” of Valencia. It was a perfect sunny day to ride along the beach, not too hot or windy. The port was small but very cute with lots of boats and canals. By the time we got there we still had an hour left so we biked to the other ends of the pier and back to the bike shop doing 8 miles in total. A nice light workout and it gave our feet a break from all of the walking. 

By 3pm we returned the bikes and walked down the block to Casa Carmela, a famous Paella restaurant in Valencia. Stelios and I both love paella and that was the main reason we came to Valencia. Back home, my favorite restaurant Lita, makes an incredible paella. We dine there pretty regularly and I’ve had at least 4-5 of their different paellas, so when I asked both of the managers what their favorite paella spot was from the team’s trip to Spain they both recommended Casa Carmela and I knew we had to go there. The journey was well worth it and you definitely need to make a reservation in advance. The restaurant was quite literally a paella house transformed into a huge dining restaurant. If you want their famous paella Valenciana you have to call or email the restaurant a day in advance to order it because of how long it takes to prepare. 

Once we were seated we ordered a bottle of 2016 Muga Rioja to enjoy with what was about to be an excellent meal. Our server told us the paella would take about 45 minutes to finish being prepared and we were hungry so for starters we ordered the Valencian cheese plate and grilled octopus. Finally our paella for 2 arrived – WHOA it was huge and took up more than half of our table. Every bite was delicious, but I personally think Lita does a better job of having the soccarat on the bottom of the pan. Regardless it was an incredible meal, I can’t believe we finished the entire paella. 

We were so full we both knew we wouldn’t need dinner later. At the end of our meal we talked to our server for quite awhile about the paella. He stated that we weren’t the typical American tourists because he liked that we appreciated the meal, took our time at lunch, and enjoyed it the European way. At the end of our conversation he turned to us and asked if we wanted to the see the kitchen in action for a behind the scenes sneak peek. We said SURE! He took us into the kitchen and showed us all of the paella being fired at once on the stoves and explained the whole process of how they start preparing the paella broth at 9am. This was not being done with every table so I guess he just really liked us or could tell that we were intrigued and it was apparent how much we appreciated the meal and overall experience at Casa Carmela so he wanted to show his gratitude. 

After the tour we thanked our friends at Casa Carmela, walked off our meal along the beach, and then took a taxi back to the Airbnb to relax on the rooftop deck and enjoy the sunset. Still full from lunch, we took a nighttime stroll and by 10pm we were craving a dessert. We ended up in the main Placita of Ciutat Vella and grabbed a table at Valor, a chocolateria. We ordered churros and a chocolate flight to share then got a small gelato after. A sweet ending to our last night in Valencia.