MALTA 2017.09

MALTA ...

The more I discover what the island is willing to offer, the more I get excited and impatient to get there! Although arid, it seems to offer a multitude of bays all prettier the one from the others ♥

The advantage of this island is its small size

→ short trips

→ more time for exploration

Le Guide du Routard and Pinterest helped me a lot in developing this program to make this trip a rich and amazing journey. The program may seem busy, but when you're on vacation, the hours do not count. We do not care to finish our explorations at 8pm every day, we will be on holiday, free and not in a hurry.

I let you discover what little Malta and Gozo Islands look like and what we’re about to discover ! Hoping it makes you wanna go to …

PROGRAM & BUDGET

ACCOMODATION

Our bad experience lived on Fuerteventura in March 2017 made it clear : we will never rent an all-inclusive hotel anymore. This is why we decided to chose a flat, with no swimming pool. This time, we sure are going to discover the island, to eat wherever and whatever we want, and we definitely will have a swim into the sea.

This is how we ended up into Portside Lodge Hotel, located in the South of Malta, in Marsaskala. After 2h driving to Toulouse Airport, 2h30 of Ryanair flight and 20 min left driving, we welcome our flat with much relief ! Everything is modern, well decorated and clean. Furniture have been well chosen. Staff is adorable, they even accepted to print our return flight tickets without any complaining.

All you need is at your disposal into your room : hairdryer, iron, plates, soap, etc … For 644€ the whole week (tax included), we never regretted our choice. The only thing that could have been much better : balcony view and climatization noises all around us.

You may need to know that we booked the hotel in May 2017, and it as already the last room available on Booking.com

Relative to Marsaskala town, it was very dirty and we can say it is what we expected from Malta. We only enjoyed walking around at night, when its weaknesses are not so much enlighted. Otherwise, Marsaskala town was really practical : numerous shops (one just in front of the hotel), ATM, and loads of bars and restaurants.

HIRING A CAR

When we booked our flight tickets in May 2017, we looked on internet to hire a car too. And it was possible for less than €100, with many companies available. My parents are one of HERTZ customers for years, and they never had any bad experience, so it would have chosen this company.

Unfortunately, we had problems with our credit card, so we had to redo our booking another day, but we forgot it until July, that is to say two months left before our trip ! And when we got back onto RentalsCar.com, the only available car with HERTZ would have cost us €500 a week ! No way, I’d rather discover the island with a bike than paying this much ! We had to find another company we knew nothing about : AVIS and it’s Fiat Picanto for €116 a week. Their desk was in the airport, so we got our car very quickly.

We were worrying so much about the €1000 deposit the company asks for when you arrive (in case you got the idea to retriever a damaged car), Nico and I decided to subscribe to a “deposit protection” insurance just when we were boarding, proposed by RentalsCar.com for a €79 extra payment.

What you must know before hiring a car :

When you get the keys, make sure you write on the hiring contract paper EVERY SINGLE scratch ! Then ask the staff to validate your notes with it’s signature. Otherwise, they can easily say, when you get back, that you scratched the car (even if you didn’t), and you will paid for something you never did. Don’t listen to their staff if they try to tell you that this or this scratch is not significant (got it from my parents experience)
The deposit is locked or debited from your account at your arrival. Make sure you have enough money left onto your account to enjoy your tripRetriever a clean car (indoor and outdoor), and full of petrol. Otherwise they will invoice that to you, but at a higher price than if you had done it yourself
If the driver is younger than 25 years old, €25/day will be added to your contract

Let me tell you just a few about Maltese’s driving : very important. Even if the speed limit is mostly 50km/h, NEVER think it’s impossible to get into a car accident. They don’t give importance to STOP, they get into a roundabout even if your already engaged, and don’t even know about flashing lights.

Still, driving was very easy, even though I never drive on the left side of the road (driving on the “wrong” side, wheel and gear lever left side, enter a roundabout « wong » way etc …). All you need is a good co-pilot, and to be focused on the road and other drivers.

WHAT YOU MUST VISIT

There is so much to see in Malta. And the island is very touristy. You will find the spots we selected just above in section « Program & Budget », and pictures of them just below in section « Holiday pictures ». But here’s a selection of what we enjoyed the most !

Blue Grotto

This was awesome, even if a little short (20 minutes on a boat, without any stop to dive into the bright blue sea). If you want to go, make sure you’ll be there at 9am, otherwise there will be too much tourists.

This place as a very special meaning to us now, as Nicolas proposed to me on Blue Grotto’s Cliffs ! He was taking pictures of myself seated on the edge, and when I got up and got my stuffs back to the car, I realized he was talking to me, but as I was focused on our next stop, I did not catch everything he said, but just the end of it

"Baby, I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while now, so here I go …”

I did not understand the point of him saying this, and I was like « what the hell is he talking about ?! », I paniced during few seconds wondering if he wanted to jump from this high ? And then, in front of a turquoise water, he kneeled and show the ring … OMG !

" Would you marry me ? "

I cry so much, and still I believe all this is a joke ! I keep saying “I don’t believe this is happening”, it’s such a surprise for me ! Nicolas ended up like « Darling, please, can you at least say something like yes or no ? ^^ »

And I said YES ! I was so excited all day ! And I should even say the whole week, because since then, Nicolas kept kneeling each day just to see me excited again.

Diving

I highly advise the French club we chose there : the staff is lovely and getting explanations, instructions and exercises in French is much more useful than it seems. It was really great, for only €70 per person, we got what we paid for. The baptism lasted all afternoon, including 1 hour of actual diving.

Malta’s National Aquarium

Small, but the ray were surprising, and the glass corridor was hypnotizing (website).

Wied il-Ghasri

The view, the color of the water, the waves, all of it made this place a great place ! The beach is made of big pebbles, so it's not very comfortable. But, to me this place is mostly made to stay in the water and get swayed.

Balluta Bay

I personally liked the place, just beautiful. Note that the only room to put your towel down and tan will be the steps that go down to the bottom. The sand is fine, and the place is relatively clean.

St Peter's Pool

If you like jumps of 5 meters, go for it! Luckily, the place was totally deserted during our passage due to the threatening storm, but even without sun, it was great. If you wish to jump even higher, I advise you to go to the Coral Lagoon (also called Ahrax Point). Unfortunately we did not have time to go there, and I quite regret it.

Blue Lagoon

Soooooooooo touristic ! We arrived at 10:30 am on Comino island and the island had already become an ant-hill.

Note that the islands (Malta, Comino and Gozo) are in fact large pebbles. None of the beaches are natural, all have been “constructed” (except beaches of Blue Lagoon). The beaches with golden sand as you can see on the Golden Bay were created with sand imported from Jordan for example.

On site, from June to September, good luck finding a place near the water where to leave your belongings ! All the spaces have already been requisitioned by providers renting deckchair and parasol (€20 per lot).Thus, only by taxi-boat, you can reach natural beaches of white sand present around Blue Lagoon (€5 return each).

However, the place is so exceptional and worthy of heavenly beaches, that I would advise you to go. According to the locals, best is to go there around 5:30 pm and the place should already be almost deserted. Do not worry about the water temperature, at 10am, the water is already reaching 25°C or 26°C and it will not increase much more during the day.

Mdina (Malte) & Victoria (Gozo)

If there are two cities you must see on the islands, these are the two. Warm colored stone, ramparts, a real charm and a whole lot of history. It makes you feel good, it makes you become curious, ... Highly advised.

For Game Of Thrones fans, many scenes have been shot in Mdina and elsewhere on the island of Malta (see list here)

RESTAURANTS & ICE-CREAM

For each lunch, our program gave us no choice but to eat outdoors. We never used Tripadvisor to choose a restaurant, but we were never disappointed. Overall, prices are 40% cheaper than in France, with larger quantities. We never had to pay more than €20 for both of us (drink included, no dessert though).

But there are at least three restaurants that we really enjoyed :

Palazzo De Piro, Mdina (Malta) : Ask for a terrace table, a breathtaking view awaits you, offering you a warm and loving setting. They offer good sandwiches, hamburgers and salads. The service is a bit long, do not be in a hurry. Far less noisy and less popular than its neighbor, the Fontanella Tea Garden, and yet just as pleasant. The terrace is even nicer.

Fior di Latte, Mdina (Malta) : Do not take dessert in your restaurant, go to the best artisanal glacier of our life ! Creamy and tasty, we couldn’t believe it. They were so nice, that we only had this ice in a week's holiday. In addition the square where the provider is located is magnificent.

It-Tokk, Victoria (Gozo) : Make sure you have a table upstairs on their country-style terrace overlooking the Independence Square. We ordered nice pizzas for less than €8 each, and we keep a great memory of this restaurant due to the atmosphere that created its setting.

Take-off Pastizzis : this was for sure our most fatty, and the most spicy, but one of the best ! Our pastizzis were purchased from MC Sims, and they were very good. No need to order the whole card (even if it is easy to do for €10), because you would sulk. We tasted 4 or 5 specialties that we shared in two, that was more than enough. The croissants field with beef & vegetables, chicken & mushrooms were spicy and delicious. The pastizzis (ricotta / mashed peas) were good, but somewhat sickening, one per person is enough.

CONCLUSION

We loved our stay on Malta and its islands, but we will not be returning. The island is very dirty, not maintained, except for tourist attractions. In our opinion, the word describing Maltese lands the most is "contrast": you will have very nice stone buildings, and next to it a dilapidated facade, or even worse, a "cube" building as I call them . You will find here the nice pictures taken for social networks, but also what is hidden from you.

Many roads are smashed, watch out while driving (if Google advises you to go through a small road that does not inspire you with confidence, do not go, take the next one!)

If we had to redo our trip, we would stay a few days on the Gozo island. This one is much cleaner, more maintained and less distorted by recent constructions. If you choose the Gozo island to complete your stay, keep in mind that you will have to wait for the ferry in order to reach the Malta island and then drive about 40 minutes to the airport.

HOLIDAY PICTURES

Departure + Day 1 : La Valletta