🇪🇸 Valencia · First days

First 48 hours in Valencia

The first two days in Valencia, in priority order: what has to happen, what should, and what can wait. Tick things off as you go.

For Valencia
How long you are staying

Must do

  • Movistar, Vodafone and Orange, and budget brands such as Digi and Lowi, sell prepaid SIMs in shops and some airports. By law a prepaid line is registered to your ID, so bring your passport. A Spanish number unlocks Bizum and most sign-ups.
  • Buy the card at a Metrovalencia machine (€1 cardboard, €2 plastic) and load a SUMA 10 for the first days. A SUMA Mensual is €35 standard for zone A and less while the discount runs to the end of 2026; check the price at the machine.
  • If you do not yet have a NIE or a registration certificate, book the cita previa on the national appointments portal now. Slots are released irregularly; check several times a day rather than once a week.
  • A resident account wants the NIE and an address; a non-resident account can open on a passport with a certificado de no residente. A Spanish IBAN is what landlords and utilities expect, and Bizum follows from it.
  • Empadronamiento at the ayuntamiento is free and needs the signed lease. Book it as soon as you sign: the padrón certificate is what the health card, school applications and residence files ask for.
  • Valencia's padrón wants a lease of more than six months plus proof of rent paid in the last two months. Pay the first month by bank transfer, then book through valencia.es or 010.

Should do

  • 112 reaches ambulance, police and fire, with operators who speak English. 091 is the Policía Nacional, the number for reporting a theft.
  • Cabify or FREENOW for rides, Renfe for trains, Glovo for delivery, and Bizum inside your banking app as soon as the account is open.
  • On a non-EU visa or authorisation, the TIE card needs a separate appointment at a Policía Nacional station within a month of arrival. EU citizens: put the EX-18 registration in the calendar before the three-month mark.
  • Look up the health centre for your address so you can register for the SIP card the same week the padrón certificate arrives.
  • The landlord must lodge your one-month fianza with the Generalitat on modelo 816 or 806 within a month of signing. Ask for the receipt.

Nice to do

  • Lunch runs from about 14:00 to 16:00 and dinner rarely starts before 21:00. The menú del día, a set lunch with a drink, is the best value meal in the country on weekdays.
  • Many embassies run a registration or alert service for nationals living abroad. Two minutes now saves a scramble in an emergency.
  • The old riverbed is a nine-kilometre park crossing the city, and the fastest bike route between most neighbourhoods.
Your first 48 hours in Valencia0/140% done. Ticks are saved on this device.
  • Must do0/6
  • Should do0/5
  • Nice to do0/3
Emergency112 · Police 091
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