Where in Malta?

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Discussion

catman

Original Poster:

2,490 posts

174 months

Thursday 17th July 2014
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Hi all, I'm 60 next may, so I'm thinking about going to Malta for a holiday with my Son and Daughter.

I'm interested in museums, history, possibly learning to dive and nice food and drink.

I won't have a lot of money, as my Son also wants to go to Le Mans! Any ideas of where to stay would be great.

I don't want to be near any of the noisy, night club types of places either.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

Tim

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 17th July 2014
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May I suggest Gozo, or if not try and stay in Valletta. The best diving is over on Gozo in the far NE corner.

catman

Original Poster:

2,490 posts

174 months

Friday 18th July 2014
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Hi, thanks for the reply!

Tim

anonymous-user

53 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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Im ure Malt has ben mentioned on here before, so might be worth a search. Surprised a few more people haven't commented yet

mike13

715 posts

181 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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Before i went to Malta the most common phrase i heard was you'll either love it or hate it, i fell into the second camp so don't let me put you off.

58warren

589 posts

178 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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The northern end of the island is quieter. I have an apartment in Xemxija (pronounced Shem-sheeya) and it's peaceful at night, but with a number of good restaurants nearby (the Porto del Sol does excellent food with 10% off meals as a resident in one of their apartments above the restaurant). Other places nearby are Shaukiwan (a fantastic Chinese restaurant), Zeus (next door to Shaukiwan, but try and get a seat upstairs for glorious evening views across the bay) and The Star of India (great views of St Paul's Bay from the outside terrace).

Just behind this restaurant - up the hill (Triq ir Ridott) is the Porto Azzurro, which is a nice hotel with a lovely freshwater pool. In the hills behind Xemxija can be found a fascinating series of ruins, the oldest of which date back some 7,000 years. Things to see include burial caves, Roman apiaries, a Roman road and a Carob tree believed to be at least 2,000 years old.

Mellieha is not far away and features big, sandy beaches with water sports (all the decent sandy beaches are at the northern end of Malta). Cirkewwa for the Gozo ferry is about 25 minutes from Xemxija by bus.

Location wise, it doesn't matter too much where you stay as all parts of the island are reachable by bus fairly quickly. Valletta is about 45-60 minutes bus journey for all the museums and the impressive Grand Harbour - take a boat trip from the Sliema waterfront (Sliema Ferries) to see it at its best.

I'd definitely visit the Malta Aviation Museum at Ta-Qali (Takali) to see the amazing display of planes there including a Spitfire, Hurricane and one of the three original Gloster Gladiators (Faith, Hope and Charity), which were pretty much all they had to defend the island with at the beginning of the Battle for Malta until Hurricanes and Spitfires arrived, flown in from aircraft carriers further west in the Mediterranean. There is also a craft village adjacent, where you can see glass blowing etc and purchase hand made goods.

As mentioned, buses are the way to get around the island and you can buy an unlimited travel 7 day ticket for only 6.5 Euros, to explore the entire island. There is a bit of an issue with the buses at the moment, but this should be sorted in the next few months. Arriva won the contract to operate buses and Boris gave all the bendy buses free of charge to get rid of them (they struggled round London, so you can imagine how they fared on the narrow Maltese streets) - anyway due to several fires (sabotage is suspected), the buses have been withdrawn and there is a shortage of stock until the replacements arrive, so often they are full and go straight past the stop, meaning a frustrating wait! Hopefully this will be sorted and the bendy buses are being sold on to Sudan - where they will probably carry on self combusting!

I would avoid staying from mid-July to the end of August as it is oppressively hot and limits what you can do outside. The nicest manageable weather is during May/June and September/October, where it will be sunny and dry (the rain tends to finish around mid to late April and start again towards the end of September. Even then, it might be pouring for 30 minutes and then the sun will reappear and dry everything rapidly!

You'll find the Maltese very friendly and the crime rate is extremely low. I hope the above information is useful...



Edited by 58warren on Friday 25th July 23:06

catman

Original Poster:

2,490 posts

174 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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Hi, thanks for the replies, especially 58Warren. What an amazingly detailed response. My Birthday is 2nd May, so the timing looks perfect.

I've heard "you'll love it, or hate it" before, but that applies to anywhere really. I'm really looking forward to going and the information will be very useful.

Thanks

Tim

Silver993tt

9,064 posts

238 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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Don't forget the classic car museum in Bugibba (Bu-jibba). €7 entry and really nice, actually like a huge 2 floor very clean garage rather than museum, well worth the visit. Has its own small cinema that continuously shows manufacture specific videos all very interesting (Porsche, Jaguar, etc).

There are plenty of dive clubs all over the islands. Diving is the best in the Med as Malta has the clearest water due to no rivers or big industry on the islands. Full of underwater architecture such as caves, arches and loads of wrecks.

The 'love it or hate it' is rubbish. It was an expression coined by the older generation of Brits where some expected it to be like Blackpool in the sun (they hated it). Over the last 10-15 years it's much more aligned with continental Europe than the UK which is a very good thing.

It's an extremely international place now which makes it even more interesting, people from all over the world are here visiting or living, a very unique place.

I live in Malta for large parts of the year, there right now smile


Edited by Silver993tt on Saturday 19th July 19:19

catman

Original Poster:

2,490 posts

174 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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Hi, that's great! Thanks for the reply. I'm jealous!

Tim


Silver993tt

9,064 posts

238 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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catman said:
Hi, that's great! Thanks for the reply. I'm jealous!

Tim
This is a good website for starters:

http://www.visitmalta.com/

AJB88

12,263 posts

170 months

Tuesday 22nd July 2014
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Haven't been since I was 10 (2000) but booked a very late holiday last night to fly out on Thursday for 6 nights.

Quite scared about how much this place will have changed.

Ganglandboss

8,294 posts

202 months

Tuesday 22nd July 2014
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I've been to Malta the last three years on the trot with my diving club, and I'm off again in September. We stay in Bugibba, but I wouldn't recommend it to all. It is a bit tacky in places, but we are generally out diving in the day and pissing it up in the evenings, so it suits us.

If you are interested in learning to dive, I recommend Buddies in Bugibba. It may be worth doing a referral over here - you do the pool and theory stuff and then do the four open water dives (usually over two days) needed to qualify with a dive centre based at your destination. Otherwise, the course will take about four days (I've heard of it done in three, but I think that is really pushing it).

Another option is the PADI Scuba diver course - this takes a couple of days and qualifies you to dive to 12m under the supervision of an instructor or divemaster.

Diving is great in Malta, but a lot of it is quite deep. Wrecks you can shore dive, like the mighty Um el Faroud, P29, Rozi etc are in 25 to 40m (newly qualified divers are qualified to 18m). There are a few sites like the HMS Maori and a scenic dive at Anchor Bay that are quite shallow. With the exception of the HMS Maori and a few lying further away from shore, most wrecks are deliberately sunk as artificial reefs.

I haven't dived much of Gozo - only the inland sea and blue hole, and the wrecks of the Xlendi, Karwela and Cominoland. Most of the diving is scenic stuff rather than wrecks. I expect there is a lot more shallow stuff over there.

Another option is to do your full Open Water course over here (you can do it over two weekends) and then go out there and do your Advanced open water. There is no classroom work involved - just a bit of reading and some brief knowledge reviews and you will be qualified to 30m and able to dive some of the deeper stuff.

We tend to have a couple of free days at the end, so we do our cultural tour then (usually bus it to Valletta). I would recommend visiting the Lascaris War Rooms. They are a series of underground bunkers from where they ran Operation Husky (invasion of Sicily). The Knights Hospitalier exhibition is worth a look in. Then after all that culture, you can wander over to the pub where Oliver Reed died. It is quite a small bar in a little back street, but it is interesting to look at the navy memorabilia that visiting sailors leave, as well as Ollie's last bar bill!

AJB88

12,263 posts

170 months

Tuesday 22nd July 2014
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Nice, I did my first ever bit of diving in Turkey a few years ago never done it since but loved it.

Nezquick

1,453 posts

125 months

Tuesday 22nd July 2014
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I love Malta and have a timeshare over there for the 2nd week in June. We stay at Ramla Bay which is at the very northern tip of the island, a short walk from the ferry terminal to Gozo, and very handy for a quick boat trip over to Comino and the blue lagoon.

The Ramla Bay hotel is very nice (4 star). The Riviera is opposite Ramla Bay (also 4 star I think) but isn't as big. I saw an all inclusive deal for a week there for £399 a while ago so it's not expensive. The Riviera also has a dive shop underneath it.

Agree with the above though - buses are the best way to get around and are dirt cheap. If you want to see lots though, hire a car. We always use Drifters Car Hire who are great.

Apparently, the diving is meant to be great - some of the clearest waters in the Med in Malta.

catman

Original Poster:

2,490 posts

174 months

Tuesday 22nd July 2014
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Thanks for all of the information supplied, I really appreciate it. It sounds like a wonderful place to go to!

Cheers

Tim

TX1

2,348 posts

182 months

Tuesday 22nd July 2014
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Like others have mentioned July and August are not for the faint hearted as you will be chasing the shade which can become unpleasant.
Was there in May this year which was ok however was there in October last year and it was excellent weather around 23-25, the sea was still very warm and the beaches deserted so had a great time.
I go to visit family so have stayed all over the place, my advice is to keep away from St Julians and Bugibba as they can be pretty noisy places.
My advice would be either Gozo however this means a ferry to go to Malta or else the north of the island around Mellieha way.
Car hire is pretty cheap and cars drive same side like here, if you want contact me and I shall give you the name of a family run car hire company who will look after you.
Good luck.

Wacky Racer

38,099 posts

246 months

Tuesday 22nd July 2014
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Hi,

I used to have a villa in Mellieha, and have holidayed there since the 1980's at all times of the year, maybe thirty or forty times so I know the Island pretty well, and have a lot of friends there.

Nearly everything you need to know on the net.

Best Months for weather are April-October, however if you don't like it hot avoid June/July/August. Severe thunderstorms can start any time after 10th September, and they can be as bad as anything seen in England, buy usually clear up quickly.

I would Google the following:-

Mdina (The silent city)....pronounced Imdina

Malta drag racing

Malta car museum

The two WW2 war museums in Valletta

The grand Harbour...(magnificent)

Fort Rinella near Kalkara.

Popeye's Village...(For the kids}

Best beaches are Mellieha and Golden Bay, if he is still there "Charlie" takes you out on his speedboat for around ten euros, around the caves and also to Comino.

The quaint old 1950's buses have all but disappeared to be replaced by modern one...(Unfortunately) and some of the old dusty potholed roads have been replaced by new ones UK standard..funded by the EEC usually.

Maltese people are very friendly, 99% speak English and they drive on the same side of the road as the UK.

If you like nightlife...Paceville...( Pronounced Pash a ville) in St Julians is the place.

HTH....smile

catman

Original Poster:

2,490 posts

174 months

Tuesday 22nd July 2014
quotequote all
I'm genuinely bowled over by the thoughtful, in-depth replies. I'll be spending my Birthday there (early May) so the weather should be perfect!

I've already discounted Bugibba, as I'd read about it being noisy. As we'll be using a hire car, then one of the quieter places would be ideal. TX1, I may take you up on your kind offer with the hire car, thanks!

Cheers all

Tim

AJB88

12,263 posts

170 months

Tuesday 22nd July 2014
quotequote all
Wacky Racer said:




The quaint old 1950's buses have all but disappeared to be replaced by modern one...(Unfortunately)
Alot of them that didn't get chopped up in the 2003 cull are now stored in the docks (access cant be got mind you), Around 15-20 have been fully restored and are hidden away, 1 called "souvenir bus" parks up most days at Sliema front.

Around 5 which have been fully restored are in the UK now

Wacky Racer

38,099 posts

246 months

Tuesday 22nd July 2014
quotequote all
catman said:
I'm genuinely bowled over by the thoughtful, in-depth replies. I'll be spending my Birthday there (early May) so the weather should be perfect.

Tim
May will be lovely, my favourite time to go.

For me it is far too hot in July/August in the middle of the day, but I accept some people like that. Against that, it is lovely in the early evening when it cools down.

I forgot to mention Gozo, half an hour away on the ferry. If you hire a car you can do it in a day........ (or two).

See Xlendi Bay..(Beautiful), Marsalforn, Victoria, Ramla Bay...(amazing coloured sand)

Have fun.