Valencia or Nerja?

[VisiblyNot25]

Looking for a family holiday May 2024 - thinking a villa in Spain but are torn between Nerja and Valencia.

Anyone have any experience of either?

Kids are aged 5, 10 and 12. Looking for a fairly chilled out vibe - mostly beach but with some culture/ days out mixed in…

I've been to each of those places precisely once but I can tell you that they're quite different. Valencia is a big city - very beautiful and with all the things a city has to offer. We stayed in a small town a short train ride away and had a few day trips into the city to do sightseeing and see the amazing aquarium. Kids were similar ages to yours and loved it.

Nerja is much smaller and more of a seaside resort town. I seem to remember the caves being pretty spectacular. I went there years ago, pre-kids though.

Also been to both. Agree with PP that Nerja is much smaller, but it's got nice beaches and pleasant to walk about in the evening. We felt that it was a fairly relaxed resort. For culture, you could take trips from Nerja to Malaga or Granada.

One thing to keep in mind: we went to Nerja one June and it was COLD! I mean not cold but nowhere near beach or pool weather. I remember just schlepping around muttering about where the hell the sol had got to!

It was nice and we had a good time - I just hadn't realised what a risk we were taking with the weather.

I was a bit bored in nerja

Thanks v much, those are all really useful perspectives!