Elsa's 5th floor apartment in Botanic (literally a block from the university/city's fabulous Botanic Garden) is a calm respite from your daily explore of Valencia. (And still only 5 minutes from entering the old city at the Torres de Quart.) The flat is comfortable in every way, from a great couch, to quiet at night, to beds where we slept soundly. The small but very good kitchen was perfect for us and we cook at least half of our dinners in our rental apartments. It is an old building - thus the walk-up flight of stairs and no lift - but of curse, that is what you are paying for: vintage balconies overlooking the street and pedestrians walking below; high open ceilings with 100+ year-old wooden beams; traditional floor tiles showing all their wear and tear. If you want to feel like you are really in Spain, this is a great flat to do it in. And while it has been completely renovated with every modern need (washing machine, big refrigerator, new bathroom, good lighting, enough electrical outlets, etc...) it still has elements of being an old building that we found easy to work around (and we are in our 50s): we bring packable featherweight backpacks that we can use to bring groceries home along with good shoulder totes; we bought a can of room deoderizer that I used to refresh the bathroom on occasion; we took trash and recycling out daily- when we left to go do things- rather than let it build up. Elsa's flat is really a home-away-from-home, not a substitute hotel suite. We would stay here again in a heartbeat.
