Valencia

Lonely Planet's Pocket Valencia is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Stroll around the old town and the bustling Mercado Central, explore the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, and sample tapas in Russafa; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Valencia and begin your journey now!

Of all the stories of ships lost in what has come to be called the "Graveyard of the Pacific," that of the steamship Valencia is among the saddest. In January 1906, the Valencia set out from San Francisco, bound for Seattle with 108 passengers and some sixty-five crew members aboard. Owing to bad weather and the captain's mistakes, the ship struck a reef eleven miles off Cape Beale on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. Rocks gashed open the ship's hull, and a series of further missteps soon compounded the tragedy a hundredfold. Only thirty-seven people survived, largely because of a lack of lifesaving infrastructure in the rugged area where the Valencia ran aground.