A short week in Malta

We booked our Malta vacation with Airtours. Although we had a bad experience with them in Santorini, the price was to good to pass up.

We booked our tour in January 2010 and paid the full price 7,498 kr in February 2010. At that time the price in dollars was 1,072. This price included round trip air (coach) from Stockholm on SAS, round trip coach transfer airport/hotel, 4 nights in a 5 star hotel (Corinthia Palace), 4 full breakfasts, free shuttle to three locations on the island from the hotel (several times daily).

Additional expenses included:

Stop on our mail 100 kr 10 € $ 12
Cat hotel 780 kr 78 € $ 97
Parking 300 kr 30 € $ 36
Gasoline 250 kr 25 € $ 30
Dinners (3 at the hotel) 1166 kr 116 € $ 145
Bus transportation on Malta (5day pass) 222 kr 22 € $ 265
Misc. food and entertainment on Malta 1300 kr 135 € $ 162

STTL 4118 kr $ 511
STTL 7498 kr $1072
TOTAL 11616 kr 1205€ $1583

The flight was smooth as silk. SAS did a great job as always.

Air Tours gets high marks for providing exactly what they promised.

Corinthia Hotel was not 5 star although by Malta standards it was an excetionally nice hotel for a very reasonable price. The room was large, clean and comfortable. Jackie, our housekeeper, get top marks for taking such good care of us. Her english was great. The inventory for the mini-bar was incorrect. I had it emptied and we used it to keep our goodies cold. The front desk was great. Very responsive, helpful, and again great english which is so helpful when it is the only language you speak. The concierge service was not very helpful. They were unable to provide the level of detail we needed. The hotel is old and has a formal feel to it. The dining room staff are a bit stiff, but that seemed fine in this formal setting. The smart casual dress code was not really enforced, which was fine with us. It must be said that the breakfast was very good as were all the meals we ate at the hotel. The pool area is very nice but not if you have a handicap. The poolside staff were often missing so you had to serve yourself. We had no problems and although the pool water was way to cold for my wife, I enjoyed it. The indoor pool area was not to our liking. We both felt the hotel was a 3+ on an international standard and although we would not stay there again (because of location) we would recommend it to someone who was looking for a nice relaxing place to spend some time.

Sunday - I purchased a large bottle of Bailey's at the Malta airport for €14. It was great with the coffee in our room each morning and evening. After a smooth trip to the hotel and a painless checkin, we went to the bus stop near the hotel and headed to Kirkop for the "Cottage Cheese Festival". The people on the bus and at the festival were very helpful and friendly. We walked around, ate pasta, drank beer and wine, listened to music and talked to the locals. We bought 2 bottles of local wine for €3. The wine was not so great, but for €3 what could we expect. We
had dinner at the hotel and it was very nice (starter, soup, main, and dessert cart. We had a nice quiet evening and slept like babies.

Monday - The hotel shuttle took us to Sliema in the morning. It is a busy place with lots of bars, restaurants, and shops. We walked around and to tell the truth we found nothing of great interest. It is on the ocean and it was nice to sit and watch the waves. We met with our internet friends Mark and his beautiful wife Mette. They are the best. We had coffee and they gave us a briefing on the wine bars on Malta. They also gave us a list of their favorites including addresses and phone numbers. This couple are full of fun and energy and love Malta. Mette is Swedish and she and my wife had a great time talking about the Swedish community on Malta. By the time we finished our coffee, my wife was ready to move to Malta. After coffee it was off to Valletta for a late lunch and to see the sites. We visited St. John's Co Cathedral which cost €12 which we thought was fair. The cathedral is beautiful. We ate lunch at Da Pippo Tratoria, 136 Melita Street. This was a real find and I would like to thank those who recommended it to us. We were served antipasta and bread, ordered a local red wine and had pasta and "red sauce". Everything was delicious, everything. The place was packed, with lots of chatter. Lots of local families and friends. The entire meal for 2 with wine and an after dinner drink was €35, I added a €5 tip and they probably should have received more. We will return there when ever we are in Malta and recommend you find the place if you are in Valletta. What a place! After eating we walked around Valletta. It is a nice place but IMO does not require more than an hour or so. We went back to the hotel, had dinner and went to bed.

Tuesday - Today was fun. After another great breakfast we walked to Balzan from the hotel. We were looking for a bus to Mgarr. We never found the bus but did meet a very helpful man who drove us to Mosta. We wanted to see the Domed church, but there was a double funeral, an old politician who was very well known and a 19 year old boy. There were hundreds of people dressed in black so we decided to forget the church and go to Mgarr to see the ancient ruins. The ruins ended up being a pile of old (5000 BC) rocks. The rocks we of no interest to us, but we did stop in and have a cold beer at the local hole-in-the-wall. There were several locals having coffee and they were interested to talk with Maria and I about anything and everything. The Maltese that we met were as friendly as any locals we have met anywhere in our travels and they all speak great english. One of them drove us Mosta where we caught the bus to Mdina. The walled city in Mdina was nice, but we got there at about 2pm and there were hundreds of tourists and hundreds of school children. Maria like the place, I would have been happy if we skipped it. We got back to the hotel and spent some time in the sun by the pool before chinese dinner and bed.

Wednesday - After breakfast we walked to the San Antone Gardens across from the hotel. Beautiful place. There is a great exhibit there which shows the history of the people of Malta. If you visit the gardens you should visit the exhibit. We left a €6 donation which is more or less expected. Again we met a very nice local lady who added lots of first hand information about Malta. From the gardens we walked to Attard. It is a small, quiet village. We had a great cold coffee, and then walked to a wine bar for a great bottle of wine and some more friendly conversation. Maria and I would be happy to live in this small village. We took the bus back to the hotel and spent the afternoon by the pool. That evening we had an early dinner at the restaurant across from the hotel. Although many have
recommended it, we thought it to be overpriced, the food was below standard, and the service bad. It was a €65 mistake, and the only one we made while on vacation. After dinner we took the hotel shuttle to St. Julian's and took a long walk to Tiffany's wine bar. It used to be called Portovino. It is a very nice place and we would have stayed longer if we had not made arrangements to be picked up by the hotel shuttle at 9 pm. We had 3 glasses of very good local wines and would return to this wine bar again on our next visit to Malta.

Thursday - After breakfast we checked out and the trip home was great. Overall we enjoyed Malta and will go back. There was so much we did not see. We will try to stay in Valletta because most of the buses start and stop there. We will also go for a longer period of time (a week to 10 days). We did not save money with the bus pass, but it was worth it because we did not need to carry coins. If you go to Malta and stay at the Corinthia Palace and if you eat at the restaurant across the street, stick to the pizza.