I'll be arriving in Madrid on March 18th and hear that Las Fallas in Valencia on the 19th are not to be missed. Any feedback?

you'll probably have alerady missed most of Fallas by arriving Madrid on 18, the festival finish at 19 after 5 days. Anyway you could try a weekend trip arriving 19 early on the morning or 18 in the afternnon you can still see a lot of things.

try a search on google about fallas
offcial web www.fallas.com

You'll be okay arriving early on the 19th. If you can get there before around 1pm, head right fot the square where the town hall is for a deafening assault of firecrackers. Then spend the rest of the day wandering around town to see the falla sculptures before they're burned. Just before midnight, pick your favourite and enjoy the conflaguration. Then rush back to the square for a dazzling fireworks display. That's what I did last year. The only problem is accomodation. We couldn't find any, though you might still have time to book something. It's worth a try. Have fun.

Actually, if you arrive on the 18th, you'll have missed most of the celebration days, but be just in time for the big day, March 19th, San José. If I'm not mistaken (can anyone confirm?), that's the day when they burn down all the different "fallas", culminating in the falla mayor that evening. It's awesome.

So, if you get to Spain on the 18th, find a way to Valencia, that very same day if possible. It's not that far (three hours by car) and there are plenty of trains too. However, if you decide to go, I'd book both transportation and accomodations now!

I came back to this topic and realize Barry said basically the same thing I wrote. I wasn't repeating; we just posted our replies nearly at the same time! His came in 2 minutes before. But I'm glad he confirmed my comments because I wasn't a 100% sure.

Muchas gracias for all your suggestions. I'll try to get there!

Everyone is right about getting to VLC asap to enjoy the last days, definately get to the main plaza in time, it gets packed - work your way as close to the action as possible but take nothing in your pockets that you don't want to "lose", lol. I recommend renting a car to drive from Madrid, on the way stop in a small town close to Valencia and try to get a room there to stay overnight since you will definatly find no accomodations in VLC until after the 20th. I have stayed in Saelices which is not too far from Valencia (Saelices is also near excellent roman ruins of Segobriga), but just play it by ear - most hostales along in any town along the way will offer more than adequate accomodations, and you may be pleasantly surprised by the local scene.