Buñol

Introduction

Buñol is a small town about 30 kilometres to the west of Valencia and if it wasn't for one particular festival that takes place there, not a lot of people would know about its existence.

Sights and Activities

La Tomatina

© StephenJen

Events and Festivals

La Tomatina

La Tomatina, is a festival that starts the week before the last Wednesday of August. The week before people party and there is a famous paella cooking contest the night before the fight. On the last Wednesday of August the massive tomato fight begins with 20,000 to 50,000 tourists coming to participate in this epic battle in a town of just under 10,000 people. The fight starts at around 10 o'clock in the morning, with the greasing of a long pole on which a ham is tight. After one person is able to release the ham, the mayhem can begin. Trucks with tomatoes are hauled into the main square. Water canons firing water is the signal for the start of the fight. After the starting signal everybody's on their own for the next hour. It is mandatory to squeeze the tomato before throwing, as it otherwise would be to hard. After an hour, the water canons are fired again and the fight is over. Water trucks will clean the streets, but not the people! They have to be lucky to get hosed down by residents, or find a bathing spot at the river.

Getting There

By Plane

Valencia Airport (VLC) is the 8th busiest airport in Spain. The airport has flights to about 15 European countries with about 6 million passengers a year. Air Nostrum has flights to a number of Spanish cities, including Madrid, Bilbao, Seville and Málaga, and others include Casablanca, Dubrovnik, Madeira and Lisbon. Ryanair flies to/from Bari, Bologna, Brussels, Cagliari, Dublin, East Midlands, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Pisa, Rome and Weeze (near Düsseldorf). Other airlines have flights to places like Amsterdam, Paris, Geneva, New York, Prague, Zürich, Bucharest, Stuttgart and Marrakech.

The airport connects to the A3 motorway. If you have a car, you can reach Buñol in about 15-20 minutes.

By Train

There is a Cercanias connection (line C-3) from Valencia with Buñol, which takes you there in around 45 minutes (from Valencia San Isidre Station)

By Car

Buñol lies directly on the A3 motorway that connect Madrid with Valencia.

Sleep

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet is widely available within Spain. Most airports have wifi-zones and in most towns there are internet cafés or shops where you can use internet for a fixed price. Wi-Fi points in bars and cafeterias are available after ordering, and most hotels offer Wi-Fi connection in common areas for their guests.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

The international access code for Spain is +34. The emergency number for police, ambulance and the fire brigade is 112.

In cities you can find plenty of public phones, and 'locutorios'. The latter are small shops where you can use the phone and use internet. Most of them also sell prepaid cards for mobile telephones. These shops are used a lot by foreigners to call to their mother country.

The main mobile network operators in Spain are Yoigo, Vodafone, Movistar and Orange, as in most of Europe voice and data coverage is generally good in urban areas however it can be patchy in rural locations. Cheap mobile phones (less than €50) with some pre-paid minutes are sold at FNAC or any phone operator's shop (Vodafone, Movistar, Orange). Topping-up is then done by buying scratch cards from the small stores, supermarkets, vending points (often found in tobacco shops) or kiosks.

Post

If you want to post a card, you can head to the post office (Correos). The Spanish post is not yet as efficient as colleagues in other countries so receiving a card can take a bit longer than the number of days that it should take. On the website of Correos, you can find the locations of nearby post offices.
Post offices are generally open from 8:30am to 2:00pm, although times will vary according to the size of the city/town and the main post offices might be open until the early evening. Most will also open again on Saturday mornings, but in the smaller towns will close as early as 12 noon. When posting a letter, look for a yellow box and, if possible, post at the post office itself where there will also be divisions for local, national and international mail. Be prepared for long queues at the post office. This is why tobacco shops sell stamps and many will also have the facility to weigh packages. Standard letters/postcards of up to 20 grams sent within Spain are €0.34. However, non-standard letters/postcards of up to 20g are €0.39. Letters/postcards of 20 to 50 grams are €0.45. In the case of international shipping, the price is €0.64 to most countries within Europe for standard envelopes (letters/postcards) up to 20g, for a few European countries and outside Europe it is €0.78. If you want to send a package you are probably better off with a private courier company like TNT, DHL or UPS, as they offer quick and reliable services against competitive prices.

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