Help with trip to Valencia
 

I have been searching around various areas of FT and basically am coming up blank. Can I ask any of you regulars to Valencia where exactly is the high speed railway station and how do you get into it. I have tried contacting tourist information and the head office of Renfe all who I have to say are a joke at giving you information. Renfe in Madrid actually told me they dont know where the station is.

I want to book a hotel within walking distance so I jump on the train to Madrid without having to battle my way through the city in a car.

Thanks in advance.

Fast trains from Madrid ought to leave from Joaquin Sorolla station. Reasonably central but not overly so. If you don't want to take a taxi or the metro, presumably any of the hotel booking websites like hotels.com can do a search based on proximity to the train startion.

This has to be the best kept secret in Spain. Just been on to Tourist Information again and they just hang up on you when you ask questions about high speed train. We even spoke in Spanish to them. If anyone has the exact location of how you get into the station to access High Speed trains please tell me.

The station is Joaquin Sorolla station but no one seems to know where it is.:mad:

You obviously have internet to be on FT, why not Google maps? Takes 30 seconds to find a Valencia map and the station...

Do not think I tried that ?

Anyway finally got to actually speak to someone and we got a hotel booked and its all sorted. Dont rely on the useless tourist information people who basically dont deserve their jobs. No wonder this country is such a mess, these people have had it to good with tourism for so long they are so complacent.

Thanks for the advise anyway.

The exact address of the station is Calle San Vicente Mártir, 171. There's only one hotel within a walking distance (Senator Parque Central located at Plaza Manuel Sanchis Guarner).

You can either walk (1km/0.6mi), get a bus 89 direction 'Rois de Corella' (stop is a stone-throw away in Avenida Giorgeta) or a taxi (<10 euros, don't let them charge you a station supplement it only applies to the port & airport).

There's a Metro stop at the AVE station (Joaquín Sorolla) with service on the lines 1, 3 and 5, if you are so set against having to "battle your way through the city by car".

http://www.metrovalencia.es/planos.php?page=103

Do yourself a favour and pick a nice hotel in a nice part of town - hotels near railway stations are rarely the nicest option. If you plan in advance and leave plenty of time to get to the station, there is no way you will miss your train, or need to "battle" your way through traffic.


From Google Maps:

http://i48.tinypic.com/2e6aomc.jpg

The AVE station is marked with a pin "I" in this map (See how close the metro station is to it - indicated by the white "m" in a red circle). Note that this railway station is close to, but separate from, the regular railway station "Valencia-Nord" at the top of the map. The hotel mentioned by JuanRos is indicated with pin "D". A more budget option is indicated with pin "A". There is also a youth hostel a little further away.

Also FYI, the distance between Valencia-Nord and Valencia Joaquin Sorolla is only a 10 minute walk (you can see both stations in the map that irishguy28 posted). If you don't want to walk this distance, there's a free shuttle bus that runs between the stations. But Valencia is a very walkable city - compact and flat. I think there are also several hotel options just north of Valencia-Nord.

Nothing personal, just some friendly advice: can you still cancel your trip? If you already get worked up like that on this issue, I'd hate to see what you will be like after a few days in Valencia (or other parts of Spain)...

Relax... things will sort themselves out eventually. :cool: In your case maybe there was no "issue", because for most people the AVEs leave from the normal mainline station (albeit from a separate building). So it could be that they simply did not "get" your problem.