Valencia is the perfect holiday for a Spanish getaway

Looking for a Spanish getaway without falling into the usual tourists traps? Valencia and its surrounding regions might be the perfect holiday for you, writes Dean Van Nguyen.

Many holidaymakers have become accustomed to the foil-wrapped tourist traps that welcome scores of northern Europeans every summer, but Valencia and its surrounding regions – located on the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea – feels half a world away from that comparatively soulless package holiday resorts.

The beaches are unspoiled, the architecture is a dazzling mix of Gothic, Baroque and Romanesque stylings, and the nightlife is relaxed.