During Valencia's *HUGE* grand city-wide festival,
Las Fallas, it is impossible to find a hotel room
in Valencia under $300 at the last minute. This
year Las Fallas's big weekend was March 18-19
and I started looking for rooms at the beginning
of March (big mistake).
Luckily, I did book a room at the Reconquista
Hotel for Mar. 18 and paid 154 euros for a
clean quaintly decorated double room.
Although the hotel itself was
impeccable, the English-speaking staff friendly,
the included breakfast buffet ample and complete
with hot dishes and abundant continental choices, the
hotel's location left much to be desired. The
hotel lies nowhere near Manises Airport (VLC)
nor Valencia itself but in the town of Alzira
which was a 50 euro (~$60) taxi ride from
Manises Airport.
The Alzira train station was around a five minute
taxi ride (5 euros) from the hotel although
a local and infrequent bus (at least on Sundays
it passes once every two hours or so) stops right
across the street from the hotel. While a couple
of web pages mentioned that the hotel is within
walking distance of the train station, it seemed
much farther (two miles or more including having
to cross a bridge, a roundabout, etc). Plus
the walk seemed like it would have been through
isolated areas away from the center of town.
The local train connects Alzira to Valencia's
popular North Station every half hour
(Spain's train system web site for the Valencia
area is horarios.renfe.es/cer/) and the ride takes
around a half an hour.
Also, the hotel room was pretty well soundproofed
from the noise outside (firecrackers lit every
two minutes, the customary Las Fallas tradition
for the whole weekend). However, the noise from the
plumbing and the other occupants in the neighboring
rooms was a bit audible but not overbearing.