When travellers arrive at the port of Catarroja, the first impression is surprise that there should be a true port nearly 4km from the coast or the Albufera Lagoon. That is because the port of Catarroja is on a navigable canal that since Antiquity has allowed the inhabitants of Catarroja easy access to the lagoon for fishing or to travel between the villages around it. Together with Catarroja, there are six ports on the lagoon; the others are at Silla, El Saler, El Palmar, El Perelló and Gola de Pujol.
The port has hundreds of berths for the typical boats on the lagoon, which are known as albuferencs. They are small boats with a flat bottom and low draught, without a keel, which can be moved with a pole, sail or motor. When you stroll along the dock, you often meet expert calafates who repair or build new boats with the techniques handed down from father to son over the generations.
By the canal and the rice-fields a wide array of the typical birds in the area can be seen, above all water birds and waders, such as moorhens, ducks, black-winged stilts, glossy ibis, grey herons, cormorants, grebes, sparrowhawks and seagulls.
- Access by car: the port is in Cami del Rey, which can be reached from the town of Catarroja along the VV-1044 road that starts in Catarroja industrial estate and passes under the V-31 motorway. Travellers on the trekking or MTB routes of the Way of El Cid will go directly to the port as it is on the route half way between Sedaví and Silla.
- Access for people with limited mobility: there are no infrastructures adapted for people with limited mobility. However, the port has wheelchair access because the ground is firm and there is a wooden gangway.
- Legal protection: it forms part of the Natural Park of La Albufera, as well as the Natura 2000 Site of Community Importance and Special Protection Area called La Albufera.
- Seasonality: it can be visited at any time of the year.
- Recommendations, what to see and do: it is interesting to go on a boat trip on the lagoon (you should use anti-mosquito protection) or enjoy an exquisite rice dish in the local restaurants.
Rev.: PAB 10.05.23