I was surprised to discover well after Jamie W and I came here that this massive complex was built…read morearound the turn of the millennium. Given the retro vibe of the swooping, skeletal design of the entire layout, I would've guessed it was designed in the middle of the 20th century when the Jetsons ruled the Saturday morning airwaves. Designed by local architect Santiago Calatrava, it was actually built over a 13-year period between 1996 and 2009. We knew the City of Arts & Sciences was a must-visit in Valencia, and we took a local bus to disembark at the most visited component, L'Oceanogràfic (Photo 7). It's Europe's largest aquarium, and by far, we spent most of our time here (review: https://yelp.to/WiK7NyEDnr). Our experience with the other key structures basically consisted of strolling the expansive grounds and appreciating the sophistication of Calatrava's organic design. We walked the length of the science museum, Museu de les Ciències (Photo 2) which was followed by a look at the eye-shaped L'Hemisfèric, which houses a planetarium and an IMAX theatre (Photo 3). On the opposite side of the reflecting pool was El Umbracle, an elevated open-air garden (Photo 10). We ended our urban hike at the striking opera house, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (Photo 9). One man's unique vision of Valancia's future. RELATED - Exploring Valencia? Here's a collection of places I've visited and reviewed: https://yelp.to/LLaHiolznn

Beautiful architecture. Worth visiting for this alone. I happened to be visiting during a Leonardo…read moreDaVinci exhibit. Just incredible the breadth and depth they went into. Very informative. I really appreciate the cleanliness of the building, the attention to detail within each exhibit, and most notably, the interactive experiences. Each exhibit I visited had multiple interactive opportunities to help engage the audience. Great way to capture the attention of young and old alike; not just walking through looking and reading copious amounts of explanations on the art presented. One star off because some of the exhibits felt disjointed between one another, signage could be better.