transport from Marbella to Valencia by: Marbella Family
You can get to Valencia via all three of these transport channels. It just depends on how much time you have and how much you want to spend.
Although this doesn't vary too much either.
CAR You can drive to Valencia in about 7 hours. Depending on the car you have you will have to consider car rental and gas costs.
TRAIN There are no direct trains from Marbella to Valencia. You will first need to get to Malaga by bus or car. From there you can take a train to Cordoba (1 hour) and then transfer to another train to Valencia (3 hours), so your total travel time will be approximately 4 hours.
The cost varies between 100 and 180 euro per adult ticket.
PLANE You can also take a plane, which is only an hour and twenty minutes, but you need to count travel time and costs to the airport in Malaga from Marbella as well as pre-boarding time and cost from the airport to the city of Valencia.
The cost of a plane ticket is roughly the same as the train.
If my family were taking a trip to Valencia, I would prefer to take the train, but that's just my opinion.
If cost is an issue and you are a family, you are best off renting a small car (preferably diesel).