Help

by **Toffee** on Fri Jan 12, 2007 17:13 pm

We are two 60ish old ladies who have never been to Malta but thought it might be nice for a holiday late March. We don't like it too quiet and enjoying going out in the evening. Can anyone suggest the best place to go and any hotels in the area that you can recommend.

It seems that most hotels have good and bad reports so it's nice to hear from anyone first hand.

Thank you in advance for your help.

by **davvo** on Sat Jan 13, 2007 20:30 pm

I went with my wife in 94 (st pauls bay) lovely-- Bugibba is nice plenty to do, our hotel the Mediterrania was nice (small but perfectly formed) mind you it might not be there now -- lol , if you do go make sure you visit Gozo , there's plenty of sites to get a more updated review on hotels best of luck Toffee. (by the way my misses is 64 she's not old) your'e only as old as you feel-- lol .

by **Toffee** on Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:14 pm

Thanks for the help Davvo. We have heard varying reports about Malta some love it some hate it, so we thought we would give it a try. At least I know of a couple of possibilities now.

I didn't mean we felt old at 60 just that we were 60 years of age!!!!!!

by **mike R** on Sun Jan 14, 2007 18:34 pm

my wife and I stayed in St juliens bay and had a lovely time but it is a little hilly, There are some great little bars and the people are very friendly. Valletta is very nice and we even found a english cafe there so had some home cooked meals occasionally. we went back the following year and stayed in Buggiba but we found it to be quite dirty in places, oh and "The malta Experience" is an experience if you enjoyed history lessons at school

by **dura229** on Thu Jan 25, 2007 05:06 am

Toffee, Malta and Gozo are those kind of places: either you like them or you hate them! Gozo is really fantastic. I ve been visiting Gozo from the young age of 2!! cant remember my first visit!! We ve been holidaying over there regularly and now i m visiting the place with my hubby, though i will be there back again with my numerous family in summer. I m off to Gozo in Feb as well! Ryanair is making it more affordable to us, since they are operating to Malta! We really like the place, safe island, friendly english speaking people, good prices for accomodation, cheap food at supermarkets, good restaurants, though take care what restaurants you go for! The very cheap ones are rubbish! as for accomodation we rather go for self-catering than a hotel. we find it more relaxing and find ourselves 'free' to plan our days! We have been using the services provided by gozobreak.com and i really recommend them since they are lovely people, always doing their best to please their customers. They offer good service and always offer us airport transfers, car hire and sometimes even reserve our flights for us! YOu might be lucky to get one of their beautiful houses for a good price in March/April. I recommend you send them an e-mail and try to negotiate with them! Otherwise if you prefer a hotel you have to choose from rather expensive hotels like Ta cenc and kempinsk and more hotels like Clypso, grand...Most probably if you go there and like the island, next year you will return!

by **Mal 54** on Thu Jan 25, 2007 08:35 am

Many years ago we stayed in St.Georges Park Aparments, St. Julians Malta....we absolutely hated it.

St. Julians was dirty, rubbish in the streets, which smelt awful.

St. Georges Park Apartments....The Noise at night was awful, loud music until 4am in the morning. We soon learnt not to leave anything on the balcony...you never saw it again if you did...Our bathroom was a joke, the toilet never flushed from day one...we had not hot water for most of our stay. Yes, we did ask to be moved. And, no they said we couldnt. Talk about the holiday from hell.

I would never go back to Malta.

And as for the locals being friendly, what planet do these people come from.

Like someone said...you either like it or hate it...we hated it!!

We our now in our 50s, we were then in our 30s.

by **dura229** on Thu Jan 25, 2007 09:08 am

Mal45, you were probably there at the worst days! Malta has developed into a wealthy nation! It now joined the EU as well! You were also at the wrong place, in the heart of Paceville, where there are all the pubs, and nightlife! Am sorry for you for having such a bad holiday! If you happened to meet 'bad' Maltese guys as well, you were so unlucky then! We never had anything wrong to say about the Maltese and the Gozitans. They were always nice to us! Once dad lost his wallet, containing most of the holiday money! We we really let down! He tried the police station to file a report! Can you beleive me when i tell you that when he entered the police station, there was a guy there with dad's wallet....and all the money! He found it at Marsalforn and was just consigning it to the Police! Dad offered him 20 Maltese liri but the guy insisted that instead, they shall go for a drink and ended up paying for dad's beer!!

Think you have to give it the second chance..........

by **Hils** on Thu Jan 25, 2007 10:21 am

Hi, I agree with Mal. We went to Malta 2 years ago and stayed at the Melleiha Bay Hotel (think I've spelt it wrong). It's a 4 star hotel, both by Thomsons and the Maltese Tourist Board. The food was half cold, the towels in the bathrooms were a very faded burgundy, staff quite rude, shower gels not replaced in the bathroom. We found Malta dirty, full of dog mess in Valetta, Gozo was even dirtier and we thought Malta was very expensive. We hated it and would never go back.

by **dura229** on Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:08 am

hils, where have you been to in Gozo? We visit Gozo regularly and can assure that Gozo is much more tidier than Malta! And Malta is not that disgrace neither! I better leave it in the hands of other contributors, maybe someone will have a good impression like i do! I assume that by booking direct is better than booking thgough an agent! When you book direct, you are dealing with the owner himself/herself. I have always found the people who we deal with sicere! I like to take advice from the owners themselves before i try a new restaurant. They will know the restaurants better than us. As as self-catering, we do not have towels changed daily, but since there will be a washing machine at the farmhouse, we wash them ourselves. Though when we needed extra towels and asked the owners, they helped us without any hesitation. Luckily enough i have never met any 'rude' people at restaurants (staff) neither. Neither at the car hire companies we had rented cars from. Am i the luck one, or you happened to be unlucky? Hope we will have more reviews and more opinions!

by **Mal 54** on Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:03 pm

Obviously Malta hasnt changed for the better Hils, Valetta as you say was also dirty, we couldnt believe how the lovely buildings were covered in graffitti.

We went on one of the local buses which I must say was an experience, we did enjoy it. When we were walking through the streets of Valetta we were stopped my a local dressed in a suit, he shouted at me in broken English that if I didnt cover up I would be arrested by the local police. I was wearing shorts and a tee shirt, for goodness sake we were on holiday. Why pick on me? loads of women were in shorts and tee shirts. That really put a damper on our holiday. After that I must admit I was afraid to even go out. If it was a Muslim country you could understand. When we went to Egypt I walked around in shorts and tee short, and had no problems. My shorts are always down to my knees and T shirt always covers me apropriately.

I still would not go back to Malta even if someone paid for me.