As a child, Malta was our regular family holiday destination. My parents invested in a holiday apartment on the south of the island, well away from the main tourist resorts and we would spend a fortnight or more there every summer. Revisiting some 30 years later for a
http://www.travelguru.tv/ location shoot, I was curious to see how the island had changed…
My memories of the island are of boiling summer heat, swimming in crystal clear blue sea, chips with everything and, my annual holiday highlight, knickerbocker glories at the Wimpy in Sliema!
As it happened on this trip, Sliema was to be our base. As we drove in from Luqa airport I barely recognised the place. This always was the main tourist hub and it still is but now it seems there is hardly a square inch of land left in between the tightly packed and chaotic jumble of buildings spilling down the hill onto the seafront promenade. And alongside development comes more people, more cars, more noise. The development in fact extends right the way up the east coast of the island – St Julians, St Pauls Bay, Bugibba and Mellieha are now what brochures would refer to as ‘popular and lively’ resorts. All this development of course means much more choice when it comes to hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs and casinos but picturesque it is not!
But there again Malta always has been one of those places where you need to look beyond face values. There are some pretty spots to visit – the ancient city of Mdina for instance, the Upper Baracca gardens with its splendid views of Valletta harbour and the scenic tourist haunts like the Blue Grotto - but by and large people don’t come here for the scenery. What they come for – and here is something that certainly hasn’t changed – is the virtually guaranteed sunshine and the warm familiarity of the place. The wartime connections are well known and the legacy is a population who seemingly love us Brits, who (in the main) can speak our language, drive on the ‘right’ side of the road and make us feel very much ‘at home’.
What is more, the Maltese people are truly a delight – expect to meet all sorts of different characters but it is rare indeed to come across anyone who would not go out of their way to help you out. A small example – I somehow managed to leave my mobile phone on the transfer bus from the airport to the hotel. Next day it turns out the driver had found it and answered a call from my husband which enabled him to find out where I was staying. He volunteered to bring it to the hotel and insisted on meeting me personally. The cynic in me assumed he was after a tip and, having gone to an awful lot of trouble on account of my stupidity, I was happy to offer one. To my surprise, he flatly refused to accept it. He genuinely just wanted to make sure personally that I got the ‘phone back.
Filming at the Qawra Palace Hotel up near Bugibba further re-inforced the point. The hotel is a pretty ugly concrete block on the Qawra seafront and yet we met guests who come back year after year – the record going to Andy and Lillian from Aberdeen who were there on their 14th consecutive 6 month winter stay! The reason for their loyalty? Value for money of course, but also the Maltese people and the sense of security they have on the island.
Another striking change is that the food has improved beyond belief. Fresh fruit, veg and seafood were never in short supply but somehow local restaurant menus never seemed to offer much beyond grilled fish or steak and chips with everything. Now there are dozens of international restaurants to choose from with the same quality and variety as you would expect from any Mediterranean resort. The Fortina Spa Resort where we stayed is a shining example with no less than 6 different themed restaurants serving everything from freshly made pizzas to sushi. The quality of both food and service is impressive.
The trip was hectic with 3 hotels to film in as many days but on a quick side trip to get some shots of the famous coloured fishing boats at Marsaxlokk, our guide kindly squeezed in a quick detour via Birzebuggia where we had our family apartment. To my horror as we came over the brow of the hill, so did the view of the massive sea container port which now dominates the town’s somewhat ironically named ‘Pretty Bay’. My Dad would turn in his grave!
Malta seems to be a place people either love or hate – which camp are you in?