We didn’t enjoy our stay in José Luis’s place.
The apartment was described as having air conditioning. This was effectively untrue as the air conditioning in the shared kitchen and private bathroom were switched off. We had air conditioning in the bedroom but José Luis’s rules clearly state that it should not be used between the hours of midnight and 10 am. Since we were always out during the day this meant that we didn’t have air conditioning at all. The bedroom and kitchen face west, which means that those two rooms become intolerably hot in the late afternoon and night. Having lived in South East Asia for more than 12 years I have some experience of excessive heat without air conditioning and I know that with ventilation one can usually arrange it so that sleep is possible. Alas, the bedroom is rather small and only one third of the small window opens to let in air. Until the sun goes down completely it is not even feasible to open the roller shutters. The bedroom door opened onto a shared corridor so it is not reasonable to sleep with the door open. The result is that it is quite impossible to get a night’s sleep.
The week we arrived, Valencia was suffering it’s highest temperatures for more than 100 years. One night was so extremely hot in the bedroom that I turned on the air conditioning regardless and awoke around midnight in a pool of my own sweat to find that José Luis had pulled the breaker on the air conditioning. The most frightening part of this is that it meant he must have been spying on our use of his air conditioning!
In the morning we could open the two large doors in the kitchen and render that space usable but in the evenings it was not possible to use the kitchen because of the extreme heat. José Luis doesn’t do any cooking so he must be either unaware of the impracticality or chooses not to cook because of it. Though he’s happy to let it out to others under the banner “air conditioned”.
There are many details I could criticise about the accomodation. I’ll just list a couple of main ones: There are no door locks on either the bedroom nor the batchroom! José Luis was always ready to complain about every one of our actions and we felt acutely aware that whatever we did would be wrong. Many basic facilities and amenieties were not provided so you’ll need to supply your own salt, pepper, oil, etc., washing powder, soap and toilet roll. Towels were provided but not changed in the two weeks we were there.
We chose this apartment because of its swimming pool. Don’t be fooled by the photo. Maybe the pool is quiet during the day (I don’t know) when the kids are at school but in the evenings and on the weekends there are hundreds of people using it. We didn’t use the pool once whilst we were there.
Landlord
I can’t describe José Luis as unfriendly because he wasn’t overtly nasty. But he was certainly anything but friendly. We were uncomfortable the whole time we were there and lived in the expectation of being told off at any instant for some reason or other. His brutal way of demonstrating what we were doing wrong and what he expected of us may have just been due to our lack of a common language so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on that.
Nonetheless his despotic tendencies were apparent and only rendered tolerable by the fact that we hardly ever saw him.
Situation of Apartment.
This must be the only place in the whole of Valencia which is not served by the copious amenities available to everyone else. Count on a 15 minute walk to the nearest café, supermarket, etc. There is a petrol station with shop over the road so you don’t need to carry heavy bottles of water over long distances. Apart from the petrol station the only shop within a reasonable walking distance is a hair stylist’s!
Connections
Bus connections are excellent. Right outside the apartment a bus will take you every 12 minutes to the Estacion del Norte and the centre of Valencia. Also the City of Arts and Sciences and a couple of other directions. There are several other buses to other parts of town at bus stops within 5 minutes walk from the apartment. If your focus is the City of Arts and Sciences, this location is practical.
Valencia
We spent two weeks in Valencia doing some light research, a little business and we had dealings with government admin. Almost without exception everybody was friendly and very helpful despite our speaking very little Spanish and almost all of them speaking very little English.
The “historic city” (that’s the central bit) is truly superb and if you stay away from the tourist traps I’m sure you will just love it here. We did. But I can’t recommend the suburbs so much as a place to stay.