Malta

oppiuy

Heya, im thinking of ending to malta late summertime. I was wondering if anyone could reccommend a good resort for both beach and as a base for sightseeing, day trips etc. 2 of us are going but dont want the usual sun holiday of relaxing all day and drinking by night. We would like to get out to see and do some cool cultural stuff.

Any recommendations would be great

Spook_ie

Malta does not have great beaches, most are very rocky. The nearest thing to what you are describing would be Mellieha bay or you could try Gozo

oppiuy

Well maybe the beach would be last on the list. I think id be happy with a great place from where it was easy to see the island and maybe travel to gozo and sicily. Some nice bars and resturants etc

blorg

To be honest I wouldn't rank Malta particularly high on the cultural stuff. Italy would be far better (for the food also) and probably cheaper in the south. But Malta is a pleasant, sunny place, if a tad overdeveloped (it really is tiny, and there is no free space.) I split a holiday 1 week in Malta (stayed in Gozo) 1 week in Sicily; if going there I would try to make a few days of it and hire a car to get around the island. Malta was nice and relaxing but Sicily is seriously impressive from a cultural point of view. Nicer landscapes too, Malta is very scrubby land in the few places there are no buildings.

tatli_lokma

blorg wrote: »

To be honest I wouldn't rank Malta particularly high on the cultural stuff. Italy would be far better (for the food also) and probably cheaper in the south. But Malta is a pleasant, sunny place, if a tad overdeveloped (it really is tiny, and there is no free space.) I split a holiday 1 week in Malta (stayed in Gozo) 1 week in Sicily; if going there I would try to make a few days of it and hire a car to get around the island. Malta was nice and relaxing but Sicily is seriously impressive from a cultural point of view. Nicer landscapes too, Malta is very scrubby land in the few places there are no buildings.

I noticed this post, as we too are heading to Malta this summer and are trying to decide where on the island to stay.

I have been to Malta before, although about 8 years ago. I would disagree with the above post. Granted, Malta is small, so realistically you are not going to get culture laden days for two weeks straight, but there are things of interest to see and do.

Valetta is really lovely and personally I could and happily take a couple of trips there during the holiday to wander around and enjoy lunch in a cafe.
Carravaggio's John the Baptist is housed in Valetta, and worth a see, as is the Cathedral where it is housed.
Then there is the silent city, Mdina which again is worth a visit.

At least one day trip to Gozo and Comino would be worthwhile.

Then throw in your planned visits to Sicily and you would have a pretty varied and enjoyable trip, with a mix of beach and sighseeing.

Mellieha is one of the main sandy beaches, but I believe this area is fairly quiet in the evenings. Personally we wouldn't be much for hectic nightlife, but we do like to head out for a drink and a stroll around, so hence our trying to decide where to base ourselves.

I previously stayed in St Julians, and while this is where the nightlife tends to be, St Julians itself is quite a small area, and a quick walk down the promenade to Sliema takes you away from that if you want. And its a good spot for a visit to Valetta.

I have been advised against hiring a car, as I have been told by many people (one of whom is Maltese!) that traffic on the island is horrendous and you can spend ages in traffic jams, although we might brave it for one or two days, but its a case of wait til we're there and see what we think. But I have been told that bus travel is cheap, reliable and quicker than the car. Plus hire cars have different reg plates to nationals cars, so expect parking tickets (even if you have time on your meter!) or plenty of honking horns when they know you're a tourist!

Our main wish list for our trip are - reasonable travel time to a sandy beach (like you we won't go everyday, but when we do go I don't want to be an hour away!), reasonable travel time to Valetta, clean accommodation and decent sized pool area for the days when you just fancy a couple of hours chilling out at the pool.
So if anyone has been to a hotel of that sort, your suggestions and feedback would be appreciated!

Totally agree with Little Ted, went to Malta for 10 days last year and it was a great experience. Such a cute, accessible little place with great weather and lots of interesting things to do all nearby. You need a rental car.

harvester of sorrow

I also have been to Malta beautiful island always wanted to go back....will do some day!
You have to take a trip on one of the buses just for the experience!They have real old style buses with lots of chrome from what i can remember.
As the above poster mentioned Valetta is a must,fabulous architecture.
There is a market there outside the walls of the city on weekends,worth a look also.
We stayed in St.Pauls Bay,there is a small beach there but very rocky.....all in all youll love Malta,the people are really friendly,the weather is great and the food is great,it really is the heart of the med!

oppiuy

Thanks for the above posts, sound kinda what im after. Relaxtion and lots to do and see.