A Short Travel Guide to Malta

 

PfiiiooO!!! Well it did take me over a month and a half to write this post but I did it!!


So here is my recollection of a wonderful trip I took over Christmas in the tiny island of Malta in the Mediterranean sea, south of Sicily.

Where to start? I don't know... it was such a unique place.

Anyway, I guess I should first warn you that if you are the stereotypical tourist who doesn't care at all about what he sees but just wants to go places to be able to come home and say "dude I've been there" then this post is definitely not for you!

On the contrary, if you are planning your trip to Malta or just want to discover this amazing island, then I hope this post will be beneficial and will bring you at least part of the answers you are seeking and most of all, I hope it will give you the desire to go there and check it out yourself!

Maybe a little bit of history would be useful just to get you hooked!

A long time ago, well before 5500BC, the level of the Mediterranean sea was much lower than it is now. Animals coming from Africa or Europe could cross the Mediterranean on foot. When the water level rose, these animals got trapped on the island of Malta. But some of them were elephants, hippopotamus, rhinos... big animals who originally had come from Africa, while the rest were common wolves and deers. The pachyderms were clearly too big for such a small island so evolution started working! Only the smallest animals survived and over the years, the phenomenon of dwarfism appeared, the animals got smaller! Malta became the unique place in the world where you could find mini-rhinos, mini-elephants (the size of today's big dog), mini-hippos etc...

Then in 5200BC, human settlement appeared! Prehistoric men, from the Stone Age. It is believed they crossed by boat from Sicily. While no remains of the boats were ever found, some tools or materials such as paint were retrieved. These could not be found on the island so they had to be imported! It is now a sure fact that these Stone Age guys actually traded, exported and imported goods especially with Sicily and southern Italy.
Of course with the arrival of humans, the dwarf-animals went extinct. This is known because never after 5200BC, do you find remnants of dwarf-animals. The prehistoric men started growing cereals and had cattle. They were good at pottery considering all the statuettes found in Ghar Dalam, the oldest cave of the Island. They had small settlements, mostly in caves or open areas.

Then, around 3500BC things changed! No more caves, it became the time of the building of megalithic temples. Somehow these men, who did not know writing, nor the wheel nor metal, managed to erect these amazing gigantic temples, all made of stones. Some of these temples are polished, each stone sculpted, some of them being of colossal proportions and measuring up to 6.5m (20ft) high! Nowhere else in the world do you find such amazing structures which are still standing! How they did it all... no one knows, but there are some hypotheses around!

Mnajdra Temple

Model of Mnajdra Temple

Apparently this stone age civilization died off around 2500BC (why... who knows...) and it's only around 2000BC, that a new population emerged on the island, a bronze age population. A few settlements and villages were found, as well as many artifacts, proof of the existence of this population. They also built megalithic structures, however much smaller than the ones built during the Stone Age, such as dolmens and menhirs. These type of megalithic structures can be found throughout Europe, especially in what is today western France.
One of Malta's biggest mystery, the cart ruts, seem to be associated to the bronze age. These are tracks of some means of transportation which have been found throughout the island, but no one can tell what type of vehicle made those.
Eventually this civilization also died out and the island was once again left uninhabited for a while.

Example of Cart Ruts

After this, came the succession of conquest from about anyone!

With its position in the Mediterranean, Malta was pretty much invaded by any passing ship! This is what gives Malta a unique character and a melting pot of civilizations.
Around 800BC and for about 4 centuries, it was taken by the phoenicians, although with a lot of greek influences during this period. Then around 500BC, the carthaginians (north africa) took over for about 2 centuries, followed by the romans around 200BC. The island became christian after St Paul arrived there and converted everyone around 60AD. Around 400AD it was conquered by the Vandals (east germany people) but was taken back by the romans a century later. Then around 850AD, the Arabs took over, bringing a lot of new techniques especially in irrigation and cultivation.

Roman Scupture from Domus Romana

They kept the island only for 2 centuries as then it passed over to the kingdom of Sicily in 1100AD for another 4 centuries. Through sales and inheritances, the island ended up in the hands of the crown of Spain.
In the early 1500, the Ottoman empire was gaining power in the Mediterranean. The Knight Hospitaliers of St John, remnants of the First Crusade who initially owned a hospital and cared for the sick pilgrims in Jerusalem and who became a religious and military order in charge of the defense of the land between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean, had been beaten and kicked out of Jerusalem and were operating from Rhodes. Eventually the Ottoman Empire drove them out of Rhodes as well and consequently as a last defense against the turcs, the king of Spain gave the Knights the island of Malta. The symbol of the knights was the famous the eight pointed cross, the Maltese cross, which you can find on about any building in Malta, old or new. It became the symbol of Malta and is now on the flag of the country. The eight points of the cross refer to the eight languages spoken by the knights at this time.

Knight Armor

Maltese Cross made of Marble

The order became very prosperous, shaped Malta the way we see it today and built a lot, but ALOT of churches. They also expanded in the Mediterranean and really became what they were meant to be, the first defence against the invador.
Finally the Ottoman emperor got tired of them and decided to attack the Island. This is the period of the Great Siege of 1565, one of the bloodiest battle of the Mediterranean. But the knights were ready and they valiantly defended the city at 9000 against the 40,000 soldiers of the emperor. Finally the Ottomans gave up, the emperor died, and they did not conquest anything else in Europe. The Knights rebuilt the city, built fortifications to ensure no further attacks and created the capital of Valletta named after Jean Parisot de la Vallette, the Grand Master (so the ruler of Malta) who had led the army to victory. From then on, the Order of the Knights of Malta declined, as nobody attacked the island anymore and the situation was calm.

Ottoman Armor

And this how, the island was captured by the French. Napoleon Bonaparte on his way to Egypt, decided the island would be a nice addition to his collection and when the knights refused to give water to his fleet, he just invaded the island in a couple days. He left a pretty big garrison there and 6 days later, was on his way back to Egypt. However the men he left started stealing the treasures from the island, especially from the Church and the local population rebelled. The garrison retreated in Valletta and despite the locals attempts to kick them out they couldn't. So the Maltese turned for help to France's forever enemy, England.

Napoleon Bonaparte

The British led by admiral Nelson, blockaded the island for two years until the French surrender in 1800. The Maltese willingly decided to become part of the british empire, situation which worked well for about a century until riots started because of the increasingly high cost of life. Malta gained more independence from this day on...

Admiral Nelson

In 1934, Italian which until then and from 1550 had been the official language became unused and people were more reluctant to speak it because of its association with fascism. Thus, English and Maltese became the only two official languages. Malta stood heroic during WW2, despite several raids, and was qualified as a beacon of hope in the Mediterranean by the Allies. After the war, the UK tried to incorporate Malta directly as part of the kingdom but the attempt failed and it eventually led to the independence of the country in 1964.

General Introduction to Malta:

• Size: Malta is only a 316 sq km (122 sq mi) island, making it one of the smallest country in the world. For comparison the city of Chicago is twice as big. Despite being so small it has a very dense population and counts about 400.000 inhabitants.

• Government: It is an independent republic and is part of the European Union since 2004 and therefore uses the Euro as currency.

• Quality of life: It's a very rich country for tourists but the local population itself is rather poor with an average income of about 600 Euros/month.

• Education: School became mandatory with the entry in the EuroZone in 2008. As a consequence, the illiteracy rate is the highest of the EU, especially amongst young people aged less than 18.

• Weather: Winters are rather warm, never below 10°C (50°F) but summers are very very hot, over 35°C (95°F) in the shadow!

• Language: There are two official languages, English and Maltese. Maltese is a mixed language made of 60% arabic, 30% italian, and 10% of other languages such as spanish, portugese and greek.

• Religion: 95% of the population is catholic and Malta counts no less than 375 churches!

Typical things about Malta:

• Thanks to the British, they drive on the left side of the road! But try it out, it's pretty fun and really not so hard!

• When in Malta, you can't fail to notice the huge plants of barbary figs all along the roads and about just everywhere... These grow naturally in the island and are so prominent that farmers use them both as wind barriers and as boundaries of their fields. You can buy the typical marmalade made of those fruits but watch out, they're a cactus species and are covered with spines!

• Farmers still use horses very much to go around. So even on freeways you sometimes get stuck behind a small two wheels horse carriage.

• Although Malta is a rather dog friendly place, cats are very much abandoned. No structures like shelters or kennels accept them. As a result they live off, freely, on the streets, fed by the people here and there. Actually many people have a place where they know there are a lot of cats, and they just go and bring food for all of them. So don't be surprised to see cats in the ruins, in the palaces, on your car, in the streets or just lavishly laying anywhere in the sun.

How to divide your time on a 7 days basis:

• 1.5 day in Valletta

• 1 day in Rabbat/Mdina

• 1.5 day in the East of the Island

• 1 day in the West

• 1 day in Center and South

• 1 day in Gozo / Comino

If we had stayed 14 days we would have split it the following way (and we would have taken the time to relax and eat well for lunch):

• 3 days in Valletta
• 1.5 day in the 3 cities
• 3 days in the East
• 2 days in Rabbat/Mdina
• 2 days in Gozo/Comino
• 1 day in the West
• 1.5 day in Center and South

 

What you should ABSOLUTELY do (amongst the things we've seen):

• the Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni in the city of Paola: a MUST. A prehistoric burial site dating from 3200BC found amazingly preserved by a guy who was digging to build a basement! This is where the famous "sleeping lady" who became a symbol of Malta, was found. Only 10 people per tour are authorized and you need to book the visit well in advance (a few weeks for winter period, a few months for summer period on the heritage malta website). This was the high point of our trip... there are no words to describe it... To preserve the site (which is underground) no photos are allowed but I managed to find a couple on the internet just for you):
  
  
  

  Paintings in the hypogeum. Incredibly enough the colors are still very bright!

  The Sleeping Lady

  
  
  
  
• The Megalithic Temples of Hagar Qim, Mnjadra, Tarxien, Kordin 3 and Gigantjia (last one is on Gozo): dating from 5000BC to 2500BC. Nobody knows what happened to the early human civilization who built those. Noone knows how they built these temples either for that matter. Hints were found in small round stones found all over. An hypothesis is that they used to roll the large stones on top of those to move the big stones around and erect the temples where they wanted. These temples often had specific locations and orientations, the most obvious proof of this is in the Mnajdra temple which is aligned with the solstice. Another feature of these temples is the many holes found in the side of doors, probably door hinges. No one has actually found the doors, they were presumably made of wood or some other material which was destroyed over time, but this proves once more the ingenuity of these people. Keep in mind that some stones are over 6m high, all in one block, made during the Stone Age, by men who did not know metal or writing! Definitely puts things in perspective!
  
  
  

  Hagar Qim Temple:

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Door hinges

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Mnajdra Temple:

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Temple is aligned with the solstice.

  
  
  
  
  
  

  Tarxien Temples:

  
                                       
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Round balls of stone were found all over the place.

  
  
  
  

  Gigantja Temples (in Gozo):

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The National Museum of Archeology in Valletta: contains all the artifacts that were found in the megalithic temples as well as many other objects from more recent eras in Malta.
  
  Prehistoric remnants:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Modern Era:

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Coffins:

  
  
                           
  
  
  
  

  Walls of Tapestries:

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Cart Ruts by the Dingli Cliffs: one of Malta's biggest mystery! Tracks sometimes 60cm (25in) deep in the rock, clearly made by some sort of vehicles... predates the romans and the phoenicians at least... noone knows by what they were made, nor what they were carrying to leave such important markings. More interestingly they can be found all over the island, some of them going off riffs some going directly into the sea... again showing that whatever their age, these are very very old. The nicest place to see them is the so called Clapham Junction, named after the famous spot in London because there are so many of these ruts. Note that the site is pretty hard to find but with a GPS (N 35° 51.186 E 014° 23.826) and a road map, it's doable!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Ghar Dalam cave and its little museum in Birzebbuga: earliest findings of human habitation, dating 5200 BC!! The cave was formed by a river which acted as a fossilizing agent and this is why plenty of bones from all the miniature animals of Malta were found there. Evidence of pottery and human settlement was found there as well. The cave is very interesting for the stratigraphic deposits. The museum is small but very well furnished! Not that this cave also acted as a bomb shelter during WW2!
  
  
  The Cave:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Museum:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The St John CoCathedral and its museum in Valletta: in the 16^th century (1573 to be exact), the knights decided to rival with Rome in the magnificence of their churches... and so they did. Gold everywhere, too much some would say, but no matter how you find it, it is a must stop if you're in Malta. Additionally, it is the home of several glorious paintings from the famous painter Caravaggio. Note on the facade of the church the three clocks indicating time, month and year. Unfortunately no pictures are allowed inside the museum.
  
  
  
  

  The inside of the cathedral:

  
     
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  The Museum:

  
  Here are some pictures I found off the web (http://stjohnscocathedral.com ). The museum mainly displays marble tombstones, paintings from Caravaggio in the oratory, tapestries, ecclesiastic clothing and an impressive collection of choral books hand written some thousand years ago! You can also see the urn made of massive gold and supposedly containing the relic of the arm of St John.
  
                                                     
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  
• The Casa Rocca Piccola, in Valletta... still inhabited by the Marquis de Piro, it's a 16th century palace that you can visit. Pretty amazing to see what some people still live in! It also has the first bomb shelter that was used during WW2. Unfortunately to preserve the paintings and furniture the house is pretty dark and many of the flashless photos came out very dark! But I still managed to salvage some and I am adding them to a few pictures taken from their website http://www.casaroccapiccola.com.
  As many other palaces in Malta, the Casa doesn't look much from outside but inside it is a little cavern of wonders. Everything is arranged so tastefully, it just doesn't look like a museum, it has the real charm and soul of an old family house. Added to this it's a very personal house and you can see for example portraits of all the members of the family for the past 300 years with the evolution in clothing and painting style, or the bedroom of an old ancestor.  I have to say that it was real delight to be able to step inside and visit this particular old Maltese palace.
  

  The various rooms of the Palace: The staircase in front of the entrance to the Palace. The chapel, still in use. Every sunday a priest comes to celebrate the mass. The great living room (Sala Grande) The statue of the goddess Diane in the dining hall. Obviously... the library Bedroom of an old ancestor. The Green Room Fireplace of the porphyry room The chinese room A beautiful sedan chair. Two slaves usually carried it. It was noblemen's favorite vehicle as they could be carried from one palace room to the other.                            One of the old manuscript found in the archives room.                             A few photos of just a few items of the palace that I loved: The table service for the Christmas diner. The cutlery is made of gold while the mats are made of fine Maltese lace. The corner of the fireplace of the porphyry room. This one just looked gorgeous to me! Complete set of surgery made of silver. This is the only exemplary in Malta. It survived Napoleon who ordered all the silver sets of the island to be melted to make weapons. One of the beautiful Murano chandelier of the palace. This one was just breathtaking. When you visit, don't forget to look up!                            As one of the last noble family in Malta, the Marquis was invited with his mother to Queen Elizabeth the 2nd coronation. So here is the invitation! You know in war movies when you hear the awful siren sound that warned people from air raid? Well that's what made the awful sound! The marquis is apparently a fervent chess player, and he sure has an impressive collection! Like all great families, the Marquis and his ancestors received many great honors... here are some medals to remember them. The advantage when you can track your ancestors for over 200 years is that you also keep a lot of written records. It's impressive to see how some books were so carefully kept. A page from an old archive book written in old Italian. Very hard to decipher, invaluable for scholars.              A masterpiece of ivory... A shame the photo didn't give a  better view of it but the craftmanship is just impressive. The palace is filled with little treasures like this one.                      The Palazzo Parisio in Naxxar: Bought back in the 19th century by a rich aristocrat, it has been called a mini-Versailles. Quite right if you ask me, it is the only place in Malta that gives you this impression of grandiose starting with a fantastic staircase made of one single piece of marble! Apparently it took three attempts to bring it there until the army itself did the job! Do not be fooled by its more than common facade from the street! The palace is today a museum but it also has a restaurant and is the host to many events. If you are rich and want to celebrate your wedding or any special occasion there, the Marquise offers her own catering services! The Palace: The Gardens: The Dome in Mosta, the 5th biggest free standing dome in the world... quite impressive especially once you're inside the church! Again note the 2 clocks on each side, the left one is for the day of the month while the right one is for the time! Mdina: a lovely tiny city, where you can find the famous Mdina glass. But it is really nice to just spend an afternoon walking around while visiting a few museums and churches... amongst them the Palazzo Falson and the St Paul cathedral should not be missed. While walking around you can certainly appreciate the view from the ramparts which is pretty fantastic. I really found the atmosphere of the place comparable with the little village of St Paul de Vence in southern France. The Outside:                                                              The St Paul cathedral: The Palazzo Falson: Unfortunately taking photos was forbidden inside, but I collected a few images from their website http://www.palazzofalson.com . It's a 13th century house, bought in the 20th century by a swedish art collector Captain Olof Gollcher (now passed away). The palace was then transformed into a museum by his will, to pass on all the fantastic pieces of art he gathered during his life. The Mdina Glass shop: St Agatha's catacombs in Rabbat (dated ~250AD). St Agatha was a christian who refused to marry a roman prefect. The legend wants that she fled to Malta and the catacombs (christian cemetery) were made in her honor. She eventually went back to Sicily to be immediately arrested and her two breasts cut off for punishment. The catacombs are absolutely incredible, going over 4000 m2 (40000 ft2) (however only a small part is open) with a set of 32 quite remarkable bysantian frescoes. Some of the remains/skeletons found there are actually still visible. The catacombs are right in front of the bigger, more famous St Paul's catacombs but I found the latter to be less interesting. You should also see the little but very furnished museum that goes with the catacombs. The Catacombs: The Museum:                                             A bit of shopping, at the Ta'Qali crafts village, not far from Rabbat: There are over 40 shops in this small village, from glass makers, to carpenters, to potters etc..!  The village is in fact made of the hangars and sheds of the old airport which gives it a very unique look. Each little shop being a metallic half cylinder! My personal preference went to the La Valletta glass shop which was pretty amazing! Note also the M'Dina glass shop a bit outside of the village. The outside: Working with the Malta stone:

  
                                                         
  
  
  

  The potters:

  
  
  
  
  

  The miniature houses designers:

  
  
  
  
  

  The carpenters:

  
  
  
  

  The glass makers:

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Island of Gozo: a tiny island by Malta, there are boats crossing from the main island to Gozo several times a day. In addition to the Gigantja temples (see the megalithic temples section above), there are amazing sceneries, nice museums to see and lovely walks around the capital Victoria to do.
  
  
The Outside:

The Azure Window:
From the boat:

Other things we did, that were nice, but not breathtaking:

• The Roman Domus: only roman vestige in Malta (along with a roman bathhouse which is left abandoned). It's quite nice, with a few very beautifully preserved mosaics but nothing really fancy in comparison to let's say Rome or Pompei. Unfortunately the outdoor ruins are closed to the public.
                                            
Inside the villa:
The Outside:

• St Paul's grotto in Rabbat. The legend says that after his ship sunk, St Paul arrived on Malta and took refuge in this small cave. In 30 days he had performed miracles and converted to Christianism most of the population and even the roman prefect of the island, Publius, who later became known as St Publius. One more interesting thing about the cave is that it was not natural but man made. To prove this, when looking at the ceiling you can see the marks of the chisel used to carve the stone. The grotto also served as christian cemetery during the roman persecution.

The Grotto:

The Church above the Grotto:

• St Paul's catacombs in Rabbat: like St Agatha's, the catacombs are an immense network of little passageways and small chambers used as christian cemetery around 300AD. They are the oldest proof of Christianity on the island. When visiting them you will mostly encounter rough tombs carved in the rock but also some sort of flat tables by the tombs. It was indeed the tradition to eat one last meal with the departed before laying them to rest forever. Although the catacombs are definitely impressive in size, I found them not so original and became boring very quickly. The main interest of these catacombs lays in the two big main chambers and a set of chair and bench carved in the stone. 

• The western part of the island, mostly wilderness but with some pretty views and a few nice church. Just take your car and go around it in half a day. It really is worth it if you have the time.

Mgarr Parish Church

St Paul's bay

Ta Hagrat Temples:

Views from and of the coast:

Mellieha:

Troglodyte's houses in Melieha:

Selmun Palace:

• The Ramparts (St Paul and St Peter's bastions)and the view on the Battery in Valletta: this is an extremely nice walk to do. You get off the bus in front of the Auberge de Castille, an old inn where knights would meet (which unfortunately was closed for renovations), and you just follow the signs! You soon cross an adorable garden to get on the ramparts where a splendid vista of the bay lays. These 16th century cannons were used to mark the beginning, middle and end of every working day.  If you're lucky, and get there at noon everyday, they still use it and fire off the noon day-gun as they call it.

Auberge de Castille in the background

Auberge de Castille

Les Gavroches

View of the fort

• The Armory and the State Rooms in Valletta: the State Rooms is the actual palace where the president of Malta and his advisors still meet. Compared to many other palaces in Malta, this one is actually pretty empty and not so beautiful.  As for the Armory, it is as its name indicates, a museum containing many arms and armors of the diverse periods in Malta. If you like guns and war stuff you'll love it. 

The Outside:

                                          

State Rooms:

the Armory:

What we didn't do (unfortunately) and really would have loved to see:

• The Three Cities
• Temples of Kordin 3
• Temples of Skorba
• The Blue Grotto
• The Tal Pilu Basilicata in Gozo
• Comino
• The sightseeing bus tour
• More time in Mdina

Practical Informations:

When to go?

Despite what most travel books say, going there in the off season is definitely the best time of the year. It is not tourist crowded, everything is open like in the summer, the weather is nice, sunny with 15-17 degrees (around 60F), everything is cheaper than in the summer and you don't need to book stuff 1 month in advance to get anything. Even more, you end up often alone in some spectacular sites which allow you to enjoy them much better than if you were in the middle of 3 tour buses filled to the last seat. Honestly, I don't see the point of going there in the summer, it's way too crowded, the beaches (except for 1 or 2) are not overly beautiful and they're very dirty. Additionally, the island is so packed with history that it would be a shame to go there just for the beach and neglect the actual wonders that there are to see.

How long to stay?

As you now know, this tiny island contains more history than North America so you can imagine that you could easily stay 3 weeks and still have stuff to see! However, I think the best duration is 10 to 15 days. We stayed there for 7 days and I found it a tad bit too short. There were a few things that I really wanted to see and that we didn't get a chance to go to... very unfortunate... with 5 or 6 more days, we would have seen most of the things we wanted and it would also have allowed us to take some time to breath and do some shopping! Indeed, in 7 days, you just run and run and run...

Note that most museums and sites close around 4.30 pm, which is incredibly early, while they open at 9am, which is pretty late! So you really only have 7.5h a day to see stuff; remove lunch and the transfer times, you end up with only 4 or 5h... which is really not a lot. So you REALLY have to leave your hotel around 8.30 every morning!

How to move around?

BY CAR with a GPS!!!! Seriously.... ok they drive on the wrong side of the road (thank you British influence) but you get used to it really easily! If you can't drive manual, you can rent automatic transmissions as well. It is the only way you can get to wherever you want in under 30 min (you can go around the whole island in less than 1h!). Parking is easy to find and free. And a car just gives you complete freedom to explore the whole island. The only place where it's not advisable to go by car is the capital city of Valletta, but you will spend at most 1 or 2 full days there.

There are quite a lot of buses taking you everywhere so you can really move around by bus and they run pretty often (every 10-15min) but they are soooo inefficient. Takes you over an hour to go where it would take you 15min by car. Added to that, the drivers are nutcases (not overly sympathetic either) and you get sick very easily in the buses.

Taxis are all over the island but pretty expensive.

Where to stay?

We stayed in Sliema, which is right across Valletta. It was actually pretty nice, had a great vista from the hotel. Close to St Julian if you want nocturnal hipe, and 5min from Valletta by a little boat pretty fun to take! Otherwise 15-20min from Valletta by bus.

We personally were at the 4* hotel Fortina, which is a 3* hotel on international standard. But it was pretty cheap (70 euros per night for 2 people in december). The rooms were acceptable, were missing a few shelves etc, but extremely clean... the staff at the reception was amazingly nice and helpful and offered a lot of services which made the stay so easy! For example, we just went to them, said we wanted to rent a car for 2 days at 9am the following morning, and voila, that's all! So practical, no time wasted. Also, they had 5 good restaurants right in the hotel which is extremely practical when you come back dead tired and you just want to eat good food without walking another 15min. They had a delicious japanese restaurant (Hibiki), a delicious indian one (Saregama), good thai and mediterranean ones (Taste, CanThai). However do not go and eat in their buffet restaurant called La Vallette. The food was disgusting and the staff rude and incompetent.

In general I would not recommend to stay in Valletta as the hotels are often more expensive and do not offer a wide range of services. It's extremely difficult to park a car and the view is not so beautiful. Try to get a hotel by the sea with seaview, it really is worth it! St Julian is the cool noisy place to be... . It's the young and sexy place of the island so obviously hotels are more expensive there. We personally didn't care much for nightclubs and such so we would have been very unhappy staying there. All in all, I think staying in Sliema is a good choice. It's quiet and it's the departure points of the ferries. You have all the buses you want which go by there. And again, it has the nicest vista of Valletta!

Where and what to eat?

There are restaurants all over the place, usually open pretty late for both lunch and dinner. We did not find maltese food so amazing however you should definitely try out some rabbit, the local food! But overall, restaurants are pretty good and not overly expensive. There are also plenty of sandwiches shop or fast food for the tourist in a hurry! What we did was eat sandwiches for lunch and have a nice dinner in the evening in a nice restaurant. However be warned, restaurants make a lot of money on wine so they will bring you the wine list really early and often take awhile to bring you your food so that you finish your bottle before having food on the table!! So order your food first then order your wine!

Note that Valletta is pretty dead at night and some restaurants will be open only for lunch!

Ok, now that we're done with the practical info, let's move onto the real deal! We have seen so many wonders it will be hard to fit it all here, but I'll try!

Tips and tricks!

• Everything is terribly indicated, so be ready to be organized if you don't want to waste hours every day trying to find the sites! 
• I encourage everyone to buy the heritage malta books called insight heritage, they are small, about 6euros per book and are absolutely great to have nice pictures and detailed information about specific sites.
• Most of the sites are maintained by heritage malta. Upon arrival just go to the museum of archeology in Valletta and buy their multipass for 30euros. Every visit is otherwise around 7-9 euros so buying the pass saves quite a bit of money.
• Book well in advance to visit the Hypogeum on the heritage malta website.
• If you book a cruise with any of the boats companies, make absolutely sure that the offer exists and that what they advertise is correct.
• If you go to Gozo, be careful not to miss the last ferry or you'll be stranded there (which would not be so awful to tell the truth!).

Well here it is! I'm about done I think... I hope you enjoyed this post and learned a few stuff! And don't forget to go check this little piece of land if you ever get the chance!!