Xàtiva and its castle

From the ridge-top twin fortress, the plain opens wide; below, Valencia sits just about an hour away on the A-7. Xàtiva wears its Borgia past like carved dates: Calixtus III in 1455, Alexander VI in 1492. Between the Minor and Major castles, the Vernissa spine leads your eye to vanished mills and Gothic fountains. Santa María Collegiate Church, outsized for a 30,000‑resident town, intrigues with a transept unlike its original vaulting and a run of side chapels. In the lanes, tiled panels recall the 1707 fire ordered by Philip V.

Your driver collects you at your Valencia hotel and heads along the CV‑40, roughly 60 km. The vehicle stays on hand to reach the castle parking, skip the steep climb, then roll down to Plaça del Mercat for coffee and coca de llanda while he watches the bags. With our private chauffeur in Valencia, you set the pace in Xàtiva: the Collegiate, the Almodí museum, the fountains of Plaça de la Trinitat; the return eases through La Costera’s orange groves, with a quick photo stop if the light turns golden.