What you can see on the Valencia webcams
One camera sits on the promenade at Patacona, where Valencia's city beaches run into the town of Alboraia, and turns between several positions: the palm-lined promenade, the open sand and the shore break. A second camera looks down on Plaça de l'Ajuntament, the city's main square, with the City Hall and its fountain. Between them you can judge the weather on the coast and in town, see how busy the beach is and tell whether the sea is flat or breaking. A little further north, the beach beside the marina village of Port Saplaya has a camera of its own, which swings round as far as the cranes of the port on clear days: it is on the Port Saplaya webcam page.
Valencia beach webcam: Patacona promenade
This tourist-board camera stands on the seafront at Patacona, the stretch of sand that carries on north from Valencia's Malvarrosa beach into the town of Alboraia. It does not stay still: through the day it swings between a view up the palm-lined promenade, with the boardwalk, the dune plants and the beach on the right, and a wider view straight out over the sand to the sea.
Because the coast here faces east, the morning frames look into the sun and the water turns silver; by afternoon the light is behind the camera and the colours come back. It is a good first look for deciding whether it is a beach day: count the people on the sand, check whether the palms are moving and see how much white water there is along the shore.
Valencia city centre: Plaça de l'Ajuntament
Away from the beach, this camera looks down on Plaça de l'Ajuntament, the great square at the heart of Valencia. The City Hall, with its clock tower and flags, fills the right of the picture; the fountain sits in the foreground and the avenues lead off between grand early twentieth-century buildings.
It is the square to watch in March, during the Fallas: the daily mascletà, a deafening daytime display of firecrackers, is fired here at two in the afternoon, and the city's largest falla monument is built in the middle of the square before being burnt on the last night. The rest of the year it shows the everyday life of the city centre and the weather inland, a few miles from the sea.
Patacona and horchata country
Patacona is the natural continuation of Malvarrosa, about two-thirds of a mile (1 km) of fine sand and some 110 metres wide, built up as a residential district from the 1990s. Just north, Port Saplaya was laid out in the 1970s around a marina enclosed by pastel-coloured houses, which earned it the nickname "little Venice". Inland, Alboraia is the home of the tiger nuts that are pressed to make horchata, the sweet, milky drink sold in every Valencian horchatería.
When to watch Valencia
The coast faces east, so the sun comes up straight out of the sea: early risers get the best colours, while by afternoon the light is behind the cameras. Mainland Spain is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland all year. The sea is at its coolest in February, at around 14°C, and warmest in August, when it nears 26°C. In March the city-centre camera comes into its own during the Fallas, listed by UNESCO in 2016, when firecrackers shake the square every afternoon.
Around Valencia
From the beach, the old town, the Central Market and the City of Arts and Sciences are all a short tram or bus ride away. The Albufera lagoon and its rice fields, home of paella, lie a few miles south of the port.
Visiting Valencia
Valencia airport is about 5 miles (8 km) west of the centre, with metro trains into town. Trams run from the city to the seafront at Malvarrosa, and city buses reach Patacona. Lifeguards cover the main beaches in the bathing season; check the flag before swimming.
