The Weekend Plan: The Cherry Blossom Route
If you’ve driven outside Valencia lately, you may have already noticed that spring is here. Not just in the temperature, but everywhere you look — thousands of colourful wildflowers, and the strikingly beautiful almond and cherry blossoms that make this corner of Spain feel briefly, almost unreasonably, alive (before the scorching hot summer arrives, at least)
I’ve been meaning to do a walking route through the blossoms. It’s my last chance this year, so I’m heading out this weekend.
The display lasts around fifteen days, depending on the weather, and some orchards are already beginning to leaf out. So if you haven’t visited yet, you’re cutting it close. Go this weekend too.
The destination is the Vall de Gallinera — and with good reason. Sitting between Dénia and Alcoi, it was ranked the most beautiful cherry blossom destination in all of Spain by Condé Nast Traveler, beating out famous rivals in Extremadura and Castilla.
The Cherry Blossom Walk
Let’s keep it simple, head towards the town Benialí and park at the municipal car park in Benialí, near the restaurant Nou Tarrasó, and start from Carrer Raval, which takes you straight into the first cherry orchard.
There is a longer circular route of 13 km here that takes all around the Vall if you feeel like you want more
Prehistoric cave art & other highlights
SInce you are there, make a full day of it. There is much to see here.
The valley is home to two significant rock art shelters — one near Benialí and one near Benirrama — connected by a dedicated thematic hiking route. The Barranco de les Basses del Racó alone contains five shelters with macro-schematic, schematic, Levantine and engraved art dating from the Neolithic, between the 6th and 2nd millennia BC.
Shelter IV at Benirrama has panels for self-guided visits. The valley also holds the ruins of Castillo de Benirrama, built between the 11th and 13th centuries and destroyed by an earthquake in 1644, and Castillo de Benissili, formerly the stronghold of Al-Azraq, the last Moorish leader to surrender to King James I.
You may see all the info here in region touristic site.
