Cafés with Wi-Fi and power in central Valencia

Being out of Wi-Fi for a few days, I was forced to go on a hunt for Wi-Fi enabled cafés to work from in central Valencia. You’ll have no trouble finding cafés with Wi-Fi, but finding one with power outlets, and where they welcome laptops, is not as easy. I always ask up front if I can work with a laptop, so the ones I have listed here should be OK with that.

I’ve made this a community wiki, so feel free to add more cafés suitable for working on a laptop.

WayCo

A coworking space in old town with a nice courtyard café that has everything you’ll need to keep going. Relaxed atmosphere, free wifi and good food.

Where: Gobernador Viejo 29, right by the Túria (the riverbed)
Hours: 09:00-21:00 (closed in weekends)
Power: I’ll check next time I’m there!
Work enviroment: Good, different types of seats and tables, indoors and outdoors.
Menu: All the usual stuff on the menu.

Mon

It’s actually a semi-fancy restaurant (upstairs), but with a lounge area next to the bar with very comfy sofas, plenty of power and a calm atmosphere. A great place to work without being distracted, and you’re not distracting the restaurant guests either.

Where: San Vicente Mártir, 23 (between Plaza de la Reina and Plaza Ayuntamiento, across the street from Starbucks).
Hours: 12:00-00:30 (02:30 fridays and saturdays, for workaholics :P)
Power: Plenty of outlets in the lounge area.
Work enviroment: Comfy! Low coffee tables in the lounge, higher tables by the entrance. Good, quiet atmosphere to work in. Music is generic and low key, but gets old quick. Excellent service. (Do not use their restrooms though – did not live up to their image!)
Menu: Very good. You can order from the restaurant’s menu, or try their own special crunchy tapas (€1.80), or coffee, drinks, etc. from the bar.

Bocados

A local chain of modern, chill cafés serving homemade bocadillos, pastries and drinks. Relaxed music and atmosphere, good food, free and good wifi, but just a few outlets.

Where: Plaza de la Virgen, on the corner of Calle Conde Almodóvar (northwest), and in Mercado de Colón
Hours: 09:00-11:30 (for Plz de la Virgen)
Power: Only at a few tables
Work environment: Relaxed atmosphere, chill background music that’s perfect for working, good lighting.
Menu: Good food. They have affordable breakfast and lunch menus. It’s actually pretty cheap.

Secreter Sala de Estar

A friendly café with great food. Say the Norwegian sent you 😉

Where: Los Maestres, 5 (in La Xerea, near Plaza de la Virgen and Carmen).
Hours: 10-19 (but they often open at 09)
Power: 3 outlets inside, by either entrance, and a couple outside.
Work environment: Some times you can have the whole place for yourself, but it can get really packed and noisy during mealtimes, almost exclusively by local people. That’s always a good sign when it comes to the food. The people running the place are great. The music is good and at a low volume. They have a nice little terrace out back too. Only drawback is that their seats aren’t the best for working comfortably, but they’ll do.
Menu: Really good! They change their lunch menu every day, and it’s always delicious. Can’t complain about the price either (€9.90), considering what you get.

Cafe Compañía Del Tropico

Owned by Cafe & Té, a chain of cafés, this particular place is more of a restaurant. It’s possible to work from its two lounge areas or its tables by the windows, but beware – the staff won’t necessarily like it if the restaurant fills up around lunch or dinner.

Where: Plaza del Ayuntamiento (next to Burger King).
Hours: ?-00:00
Power: In the two lounge areas and on the pillars by the windows.
Work environment: The two lounge areas (one larger near the entrance and a smaller further in) have comfy chairs and outlets. It’s a lively restaurant in the evenings, so it can be a bit of an odd place to work, but it’s possible. Don’t overstay your welcome though, they may cut the Wi-Fi when the restaurant fills up to get rid of laptop wielding leeches.
Menu: Extensive menu, being more of a restaurant in the evening (lots of tapas). It’s not bad, but small portions and definitely not cheap.

Café & Te

The chain’s cafés all have free, unlimited Wi-Fi. But as a café they’re nothing special. There’s one right next door to Cafe Compañía Del Tropico on Plaza del Ayuntamiento.

Where: All over town.
Hours: No idea. Varies?
Power: You may get lucky, but don’t expect to find outlets.
Work environment: Fairly standard cafés with mostly latino and popular radio music. Decent seating and tables. Not the best work environment, but it might suffice if you just need Wi-Fi and a place to sit for a while.
Menu: A fairly varied menu of hot and cold drinks, pastries, smoothies, etc.. At mealtime they serve hamburgers, pizza, salads, pasta, paella and more. Very standard, nothing special.

Amorino

A chain of ice cream bars with two locations in Valencia. Good ice cream, pastries, hot beverages and lots of sweets. Good Wi-Fi connection and comfortable seats too, so not a bad place to do some work for awhile. Especially if you like ice cream.

Where: Paseo Ruzafa 11, and Plaza San Lorenzo 2 (across from Les Corts, near Plaza de la Virgen)
Hours: 10:00-24:00
Power: Yes.
Work environment: OK music. I suppose it can get crowded in summer though.
Menu: Ice cream, sweets, continental breakfast, Illy coffee and tea.

Not that suitable for working

Starbucks

Expensive “coffee”, 40 minutes of Wi-Fi at a time, and can get packed with noisy tourists. So far there’s a Starbucks at C/ Sant Vicent Màrtir 44, one at C/ de la Paz 44, and one at Gran Vía del Marqués del Turia 49. Expect one to pop up right behind you when you least expect it.

Subway, Burger King and McDonalds

Neither are good places to work (usually loud music and a constant flow of customers), but they do have free Wi-Fi. If all else fails?

In Valencia there are a few coworking spaces, where you can rent a working space for a few days, weeks or months.

• Workether is the only one I’ve been to. Their space is nice and they have a big room for events.

• InnovaEspai is near the city center, but I’ve never been there.

• And then you have Coworking Valencia.+

• A highly recommended coworking space to stay for a month is Garage coworking valencia, a quiet coworking space in the historic centre of valencia. If you want to enjoy yourself in the heart of the city, it is a wonderful place to meet people and enjoy working while you enjoy yourself.

I think there are more, but I haven’t heard about them or been in their offices.

Out of the coworking spaces, I don’t know any cafés or hacker spaces where you can work.

After that, there are little companies or offices where they may be able to give you a working space for free or for a cheap price.

BeCodeMyFriend used to do it, but recently they are changing the way they use their office. Anyways, contact them, as they may able to help you.

The last one is the office where I work, it’s a little office I share with other freelancers. Here I explain a bit more about it.