A walk through the huerta and its ancient water

ratings

Price: 100€ Duration 1

A seven-hectare estate with Clemenules mandarins and a kitchen garden that changes every few weeks, beside the Acequia de Quart.

A walk through the seven-hectare estate, with Clemenules mandarins in production, that surrounds the house, and through the kitchen garden, which changes every few weeks and is never seen the same way twice.

Alongside the estate runs the Acequia de Quart, one of the nine canals whose water is apportioned by the Water Tribunal of the Plain of Valencia, UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Its historic layout is what orders this huerta and what explains why the terraces sit where they do. The field today is drip-irrigated from the house's own well.

Along the way you pick whatever is in season. Orange blossom from late February to late March, depending on cold and hours of sun. Lettuce and cucumber from late May, tomatoes from mid-June, peppers, aubergines and maize through August. Watermelon, melon and pumpkin from mid-July to late September. Mandarins from late October to late December. In April and the first half of May the walk runs without picking.

You are also told how to attend the Water Tribunal's public session, held on Thursdays at noon at the Apostles' Door of Valencia cathedral, in Valencian and out loud, with no papers and no lawyers.

The experience is offered on the estate itself to those staying in the house. The house is let whole and always to a single group, from seven to fourteen people.

An experience offered on the estate itself to those staying in the house. The walk changes with the season and what is picked depends on the month; in April and the first half of May it runs without picking. The estate does not draw water from the acequia: it has its own well and drip irrigation. The house is let whole and always to a single group, from seven to fourteen people. Villa Paula is a five-star rural house of the Generalitat Valenciana, tourism register CV-ARU000608-V.

# Availability

All year

# Services included

Guided walk through the estate and the kitchen garden. An explanation of the historic and present-day irrigation. Picking whatever is in season.

More information

How to get

Five minutes by car from Valencia airport and fifteen from the historic centre. There is parking inside the estate. Exact directions are sent when the booking is confirmed.