Is The Valencia Metro Or Tram Free For Tourists?
No, the Valencia metro and tram are not free for tourists. Here are the real fares, the temporary reductions, what the Tourist Card covers, and how to spend less.
No, the Valencia metro and tram are not free for tourists. Metrovalencia, the operator that runs both networks, charges by zone, and a visitor buying a single ticket pays the same fare a local pays. A journey within zone A or B costs EUR 1.50, and the airport ride into the centre is the top single fare at EUR 4.80. Nothing in the fare system gives a tourist a free ride, and the temporary discounts running through the end of 2026 do not change that.
The question is worth asking anyway, because the answer has edges. There is a card that includes airport metro journeys, there is a free-rides rule for children that does not apply to visiting families in the way people assume, and there is a city compact enough that many visitors never need a metro ticket at all. This article separates the confirmed fares from the rumours, and it does not print a price that has not been verified on an official source.
Is The Valencia Metro Or Tram Free For Tourists?
No, the Valencia metro and tram are not free for tourists, and no tourist exemption exists anywhere in the Metrovalencia tariff. Visitors pay the same fares as locals, so you will need a valid ticket or travel card before boarding either network. Free travel only applies in specific situations defined by Metrovalencia's own fare rules, not to tourists as a group. Metrovalencia runs both the metro and the tram network as one zoned system, and a visitor buying a single ticket pays the standard fare. A journey within zone A or zone B costs EUR 1.50, the AB ticket is EUR 2.80, the B+ ticket is EUR 3.50, and the AB+ ticket, which covers the airport ride into the city, is EUR 4.80, the top single fare on the network and the one most visitors ask about.
The tram lines are part of the same system. There is no separate tram fare, no free tram zone along the beach, and no tourist exemption anywhere in the tariff. If a blog or forum post told you the tram to the Malvarrosa is free, it confused Valencia with somewhere else, or it confused the free beach with the ride there.
Every walk listed on this site, all 36 free walking tours across GuruWalk and freetour.com, is genuinely free in a way the metro is not. If your plan is to spend as little as possible on getting around, the walks are the free half of the equation and the metro is the paid half.
The walks below are a good starting point if you want to build a trip around places the metro can reach cheaply, or around places you can reach on foot for nothing at all.
What Does A Metrovalencia Ticket Cost?
A Metrovalencia single ticket is priced by zone: EUR 1.50 within zone A or B, EUR 2.80 for AB, EUR 3.50 for B+, and EUR 4.80 for AB+. The AB+ fare is the one that covers the airport journey, so travelers heading to or from Valencia Airport should expect to pay EUR 4.80 for a single trip. On top of the ticket itself, the reusable travel card costs EUR 1.10 in cardboard form or EUR 2.10 in plastic, and the card is not optional for most ticket types. The EMT city bus, a separate network run by the city, charges EUR 2.00 for a single journey, and it is the other fare visitors most commonly need. These are the only confirmed prices, and every other figure in this article is built from them.
Here are the confirmed figures in one place. These are the only metro, tram and bus prices this article will state, because they are the only ones verified on official fare pages.
| Ticket | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Metrovalencia single, zone A or B | EUR 1.50 | One journey within a single zone |
| Metrovalencia single, AB | EUR 2.80 | One journey across the A and B zones |
| Metrovalencia single, B+ | EUR 3.50 | One journey across the B and outer zones |
| Metrovalencia single, AB+ | EUR 4.80 | One journey including the outer zone, the airport fare |
| Reusable travel card | EUR 1.10 cardboard, EUR 2.10 plastic | The card the ticket is loaded onto |
| EMT city bus single | EUR 2.00 | One journey on the city bus network |
Two things trip visitors up. The first is the card cost: a traveller who buys one single at EUR 1.50 is really paying EUR 2.60 the first time, because the cardboard card comes with it, and the card is reusable afterwards. The second is the airport fare: EUR 4.80 stings if you have not budgeted for it, and it applies to the metro ride in from the airport stations. Exact sums are worth writing down: two people riding from the airport pay EUR 9.60 for two single journeys at EUR 4.80, before the card cost.
The Metrobus line 150 also serves the airport route, but its fare and journey time are not confirmed on an official page, so this article will not quote them. The same goes for the metro's airport journey time: no verified figure exists, so none is printed here. If a source gives you a number for either, treat it as unconfirmed until you see it on the operator's own page.
If your trip is built around the City Of Arts And Sciences end of town, the Free Tour of the City of Arts and Sciences is a GuruWalk listing rated 4.85 out of 5 across 92 GuruWalk reviews, meeting at CaixaForum València and running two hours in English and Spanish. It costs nothing to reserve, and it pairs well with a single metro journey to the eastern end of the network.
How Do The Temporary Reduced Fares Work?
Metrovalencia is offering temporary reduced fares on many multi-trip and season tickets through 31 December 2026, with percentage discounts varying by ticket type. The reductions do not make single tickets free, and the most detailed discounts apply to passes that tourists rarely purchase, so casual visitors should not expect major savings on everyday rides. The reductions sit on top of the standard tariff rather than replacing it, so a visitor buying single tickets still pays the zoned fares in the table above. The operator's own temporary fares page is the source for the scheme, and it is the page to check before you travel: the Metrovalencia temporary fares page.
The honest framing matters here. Some articles written for locals quote the discount percentages and leave the impression that transport in Valencia is nearly free right now. For a visitor on a two or three day trip, the practical fare is still the single ticket or the tourist card. The reductions mainly reward multi-journey and season products, which suit residents and long stays.
There is one free-rides rule in the system, and it is not a tourist freebie. Children under 15 ride free only with the Mobilis14 card, which needs proof of age or residency to obtain. A visiting family cannot simply board with a child and expect the child to travel free, and this article will not present the rule as a visitor benefit, because it is not one.
Unused discounted tickets from the scheme remain usable into early 2027 under exchange rules, which again matters to residents more than to a weekend visitor. The takeaway for a tourist is simple: budget the single fares, or buy a tourist card, and ignore the percentage headlines.
Does The Valencia Tourist Card Include The Metro?
Yes, the Valencia Tourist Card covers metro travel for its full validity period of 24, 48, or 72 hours, and that includes the metro ride from the airport into the city center. You do not need to buy a separate airport ticket, since the EUR 4.80 airport single is already included in the card price. The card is a paid product, with prices starting from EUR 17, and it is not a free transport pass. The 7-day version of the card has no transport included at all, which surprises people who assume longer means more generous. The card's transport coverage also has limits worth knowing before you buy, and the two biggest ones catch out visitors who buy without reading the small print.
The 24, 48 and 72 hour cards do not include the Cathedral or IVAM, the two attractions visitors most often assume are bundled in. The full detail, including what the card does cover across museums and monuments, is laid out in the Valencia Tourist Card guide, which runs the arithmetic on which trips the card pays for itself on.
Whether the card beats single tickets depends on how much you ride. A visitor who takes the metro from the airport and then barely uses it again will not clear the card's price on transport alone; a visitor who rides several times a day, and uses the card's attraction coverage, may do comfortably. This article will not print a pay-off verdict beyond the figures already stated, because the honest answer depends on your own itinerary.
One confirmed free transport fact does exist for a specific route: EMT lines 24 and 25 reach El Palmar and El Perellonet on the edge of the Albufera, and they are free with the 24, 48 and 72 hour Tourist Card. That is the one journey where the card turns a bus ride into a genuinely free one, and it pairs with the Albufera Natural Park guide, where the park itself is free and only the boat rides are paid.
Is The EMT City Bus Free?
No, the EMT city bus is not free. A single journey costs EUR 2.00, and there is no tourist category that grants free travel on the bus network either. You will need to pay the standard fare or use a valid ticket or pass each time you board one of the city buses. The bus is often the better choice for cross-town trips the metro does not serve directly, but it is a paid service in the same way the metro is. The bus and the metro are separate systems with separate tickets, so a metro card does not carry you onto a bus by default. For visitors staying inside the ring of the old centre, the bus is usually a convenience rather than a necessity, but for the beach and the Albufera edge it is the practical option.
The bus network does change, and one confirmed detail is worth flagging for late 2026: EMT lines 8, 10 and 11 are being redesignated and rerouted as lines 58, 50 and 51 from November 2026, to improve north-south, hospital and university links. If your map app shows an old line number after that date, the renumbering is the likely explanation. The city's own information pages at www.valencia.es carry the current line details.
For visitors, the bus's main role is reaching the places the metro misses: the beaches, some of the northern districts, and the Albufera edge via lines 24 and 25. If you are not holding a Tourist Card, the EUR 2.00 single is the price to budget, and the same rule applies as everywhere else in this article: no confirmed fare, no printed fare.
Can You Skip Transport Altogether In Valencia?
Yes, most visitors can skip transport altogether in Valencia, because the historic centre, the Turia Gardens and the City Of Arts And Sciences corridor are all walkable, and the free side of the city is mostly experienced on foot. If your hotel sits inside or near the old town, you can easily spend several days without touching a bus, metro or tram. The Ciutat Vella, from Torres de Serrans to Plaza del Ayuntamiento, is a compact district where a metro ticket buys you nothing a ten minute walk does not. The Turia Gardens, the former riverbed turned park, runs through the city as a free pedestrian corridor that connects the centre to the eastern end. The Turia Gardens guide covers the full route.
The free walking tours listed on Free Things To Do In Valencia are the clearest case: 36 walks across GuruWalk and freetour.com, all free to reserve, all pay what you want at the end. They cluster around the walkable core, so the transport question barely arises for them. The free things to do overview collects the rest of the no-cost side of the city, from the free Mercado Central to the free grounds of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciencies.
The one district where transport genuinely helps is El Cabanyal, the seaside neighbourhood east of the centre, and it rewards the trip. The Free Tour "El Cabanyal: the bohemian neighborhood of Valencia" is a GuruWalk listing rated 4.77 out of 5 across 58 GuruWalk reviews, meeting on Carrer d'Eugènia Viñes and running two hours in English, Spanish and Italian. It is one of the walks where a bus or tram ride out is part of the plan, and the walk itself costs nothing to reserve.
Closer to the centre, the Free Monumental Tour of Valencia is the one freetour.com listing on this site, rated 9.4 out of 10 across 280 freetour.com reviews, meeting at the Lonja de la Seda and running one hour 45 minutes in English and Spanish. The meeting point sits inside the walkable core, so no fare is needed to reach it, and the Lonja itself is EUR 2 to enter on an ordinary day and free on Sundays and public holidays under the municipal rule.
Common Questions About Valencia Metro And Tram Fares
Is The Valencia Metro Or Tram Free For Tourists?
No. Tourists pay the standard zoned fares: EUR 1.50 for a single within zone A or B, up to EUR 4.80 for the airport journey, plus the reusable card at EUR 1.10 cardboard or EUR 2.10 plastic. There is no free tourist category on either the metro or the tram.
How Much Is The Metro From Valencia Airport?
The airport journey is the top single fare on the network, EUR 4.80 for the AB+ ticket, plus the reusable card cost if you do not already hold one. The 24, 48 and 72 hour Valencia Tourist Card includes the airport metro journey, so no extra airport fee applies with those cards.
Do Children Ride Free On The Valencia Metro?
Children under 15 ride free only with the Mobilis14 card, which requires proof of age or residency to obtain. It is not a tourist benefit, and a visiting family should not expect free travel for children without the card.
Does The Valencia Tourist Card Cover Transport?
The 24, 48 and 72 hour cards include metro journeys, including from the airport, and cover EMT lines 24 and 25 to El Palmar and El Perellonet. The card is a paid product from EUR 17, and the 7-day version includes no transport at all.
Is The EMT City Bus Free?
No. A single EMT bus journey costs EUR 2.00. The bus is a separate system from the metro, and a metro ticket does not carry onto the bus.
Can You Visit Valencia Without Using Public Transport?
Yes, for most trips. The historic centre, the Turia Gardens and the City Of Arts And Sciences corridor are walkable, and the free walking tours listed on this site cluster in the walkable core. Only the beach districts and the Albufera edge usually justify a bus or tram ride.
If the answer to the fare question is no, the answer to the bigger question, how to spend a cheap few days in Valencia, is mostly on foot. The walks below cover the centre, the monuments and the modern end of the city, all free to reserve and all pay what you want.
