This article originally featured in Write Your Way Around the World.
Turning a Visit to Valencia into a Series of Travel Stories
When you arrive in Valencia, the first thing you notice is the light. The way it filters through the orange trees, glints off the white bones of Calatrava’s futuristic buildings, and glows on the tiled domes of medieval churches. It blinds you as you stare out at the sea, the city stretching along the coast. A place like this resists being captured in a single essay. Instead, it offers myriad stories waiting to be told.
That’s what I want to show you here: how a travel writer breaks down a trip into stories, angles, and headlines that can each live on their own – and how you can train your eye to see not just a place, but a dozen possible narratives.
Story is everywhere – if you know how to look for it.
Notice the Friction
The best travel writing thrives on contrasts. In Valencia, it’s everywhere.
- A medieval silk exchange where merchants once made fortunes, only a short bike ride from a gleaming opera house that looks like a spaceship.
- Paella cooked over wood fires beside contemporary tasting menus served in Michelin-starred dining rooms.
- The Mediterranean rhythms of siesta and food markets colliding with the laptop clicks of digital nomads in co-working cafés.
Each contrast is not just a detail – it’s a story waiting to be written.
Imagine the Articles
Think of the city as a notebook spilling open. Here’s how one trip could become five very different pieces:
Food & Culture:
Headline: “Where Paella Begins – Inside Valencia’s Rice Country.”
Opening: A bus out to Albufera, walking through rice fields at sunset, and listening to a farmer describe how climate change is reshaping an ancient dish.
Architecture & Design:
Headline: “From Silk to Sci Fi – Valencia’s 600 Year Transformation.”
Opening: Stepping into the Lonja de la Seda, the gothic columns like palm trees frozen in stone, before fast-forwarding to Calatrava’s gleaming planetarium across town.
Hidden Past:
Headline: “Underground Valencia: Unearthing the City’s Hidden Past.”
Opening: Following an archaeologist down a narrow staircase into the crypt of San Vicente Mártir, where Roman ruins and Arabic baths lie stacked beneath Gothic arches.
Lifestyle & Travel Trends:
Headline: “How Valencia Became Spain’s Next Digital Nomad Hub.”
Opening: Ordering a cortado in creative Ruzafa, surrounded by laptops.
Personal/Narrative:
Headline: “Slowing Down at Valencia’s Mercado Central.”
Opening: In the Central Market (know as ‘the cathedral of the senses’ for its grand Modernist architecture and hundreds of stalls) in the heart of the Ciutat Vella (Old Town), I buy oranges from a vendor, Mari Carmen. She says they taste better eaten outside in the sunshine. Taking a break from her work, she joins me to talk about the city, how it has changed over the last 30 years, how climate change is challenging her livelihood, and how it’s also taught her to appreciate living in the moment.
Think Like an Editor
Each angle finds its own home:
- A food magazine for paella and Albufera.
- An architecture or design journal for Calatrava’s sweeping visions.
- A newspaper for the hidden city story.
- A lifestyle blog for Valencia’s rise as a nomad city.
- A literary outlet for the orange-seller vignette.
The trick isn’t to pick one—it’s to pitch them all, reframing the city each time.
Serve the Reader
At its heart, travel writing is not just your journal or a diary. It’s a gift. We reveal what’s hidden, we turn the familiar into something new, we frame stories so readers feel an urge: “I want to go there. I want to see for myself.”
Valencia (just like anywhere else) is not one article—it’s dozens of articles.
A great travel writer steps into a new place and asks, again and again: What’s the story here?
Language Insights for Travel Writers
As someone with a lifelong passion for learning languages, I’m always fascinated by the meanings of words in different languages. I love how language opens the door to communication across cultures, and how connecting through language can transform your travel experiences.
Here’s the first in a mini-series: Valencian
In Valencia, the main language you’ll hear isn’t Spanish, it’s Valencian – a dialect of Catalan distinct to Valencia.
So to say hello or good morning it’s not: ‘Buenos Dias.’ Instead it’s ‘Bon Dia!’
A few iconic Valencian words:
Albufera
A lagoon south of Valencia city, but also the word means “lagoon.” It’s key to Valencian identity and cuisine (arròs de l’Albufera / Albufera rice).
Orxata
(Spanish: Horchata) A sweet drink made from tigernuts (xufes). Hugely Valencian.
Falla / Falles
The huge papier-mâché figures burned during Les Falles festival in March.
Xufa
The tigernut, base of orxata. A tiny tuber that carries big cultural weight.
Paella
“La paella és més que un plat, és un costum valencià.”
Paella is more that a dish, it’s a Valencian tradition.
Barri del Carme
Historic neighbourhood in Valencia’s old town, often called just El Carme, full of narrow alleyways, murals, and streets filled with music at night.
Esmorzaret
The mid-morning meal unique to Valencia: a sandwich (entrepa), olives, peanuts, and beer or wine. A ritual more than just food.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this snapshot of finding story as you travel and connecting through culture and language.
Laura McVeigh is an internationally bestselling Northern Irish novelist and travel writer. Her work is widely translated. She has authored books for Lonely Planet, DK Travel, bylines in the Irish Times, Irish Independent, featured by the BBC, Newsweek, New Internationalist & many more. A former CEO for a global writers’ organisation, working with writers from 145 countries. She is founder of Travel-Writing.Com and Green Travel Guides. Laura writes on storytelling, travel writing and mindful travel on Substack.