A top tip to learn very early that holds for any travelling adventures is to watch the locals! See where they eat, drink, go for a day out etc. Just think about it for a minute. Who knows where you live better than you? Do you visit the worst bars and restaurants in your town? Well, do you?   Exactly the same thing applies in Malta. So, when you’re on your trip you should ask yourself the following question: “Where do the locals go if they want a day out, want...

If you’re getting overwhelmed by all the historical sites you’re visiting during the day and by the heat of the beach, not to mention the lively adventures into the Maltese nightlife, then it could be time for some peace and relaxation. So, reserve some quiet time for yourself and massage your soul by visiting the Chinese Garden of Serenity in Santa Luċija.   Grab the opportunity to soak up some tranquillity by spending a quiet afternoon in the soothing...

Tour any country around the Mediterranean and the chances are you'll eventually come across a road sign directing you to the ‘Blue Grotto’. You may even be tempted to think that once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all? Not really!   Malta’s Blue Grotto is up there with the best of them, if not the best. It’s a unique natural work of art, a masterpiece of geology. It’s stunning and that’s why it attracts so many...

As a very young child living in the UK, almost every weekend, it seemed, there would a documentary programme about diving. They would feature a legendary sub-aqua explorer with an impossibly thick French accent. His name was Jacques Cousteau. You may have heard of him? Jacques dived all over the world in every prestigious underwater site that has ever been discovered – hell, he discovered some of them himself!   So why are we blethering on about a Frenchman in a...

To males of a certain age, the mere utterance of the phrase ‘Blue Lagoon’ means only one thing. A dodgy ‘rites of passage’ film from the 1980s famed for Brooke Shields swimming topless but with not much else to recommend it. However, there’s also a Blue Lagoon on Malta, and thankfully you don’t have to fast forward through an hour and a half of cinematic piffle to enjoy this one’s highlights!   Malta’s lagoon is rare,...

Strange as it seems, the primary reason that Malta has been so popular with invading nations and civilisations has nothing to do with its fine food, plentiful fish, scenic views, exciting night life or stunning weather. Nope, historically it’s always been more to do with geography than hotels!   More specifically, it’s to do with the fact that Malta is conveniently situated in the middle of the Mediterranean - a handy stopover on the way from Europe to Africa....

For those of you who love a day by the sea but are not overly enthused by the idea of extracting sand from every bodily crevice afterwards, Malta is definitely the place to be. That’s because this wonderful island resort has an abundant supply of beaches of the sand-free, rocky variety.   These abrasion-less places, which are genrously scattered around the island, are ideal locations for taking your daily dip, toweling off and relaxing without the worry of sand...

From prehistoric times, the Mediterranean was a major source of arts and crafts that would go on to flourish across the whole continent and beyond. Unfortunately, when package travel became readily available to the Med’, tourists insisted on ignoring the fine arts and crafts and took home unbelievable tat for souvenirs. Malta’s Craft Village is on a mission to end this tawdry tradition!   So if, in the past, you let the hot weather addle your brain enough to...

Through the summer months Malta’s climate makes for a landscape that’s dryer than a desert camel’s toenail during an extended drought. As a consequence of this desiccated terrain, it’s a country not exactly famed for providing areas of rolling greenery or spectacular flowerbeds. However, that doesn’t mean the above do not exist for you to enjoy. Enter San Anton Gardens!   This oasis on the otherwise largely barren backdrop can be found...

There is a school of thought followed by some people, myself included, that you have to be vaguely masochistic (or mad) if you are willing to entertain the thought of going to a sandy beach for fun! For we all know that no matter how hard you wash and scrub, those abrasive, grating grains of hell will be coming out of every part of your body for days afterwards!   It’s a bit like saying that taking a sheet of sandpaper to your bum crack is fun, or rubbing a rasp...

Who was it that came up with the idea of ‘putting your shirt on a horse’? Have they not seen the size of those things? You’d have to be enormous if your shirt was to fit on one of them! And why would you want to? They’re covered in fur, they’d never get their hoofs down the sleeves and even if they did, they'd look ridiculous!   Joking aside, Malta does has a fine horse tradition. And there is somewhere on Malta that you can head for if...

Places on Malta have a specific purpose in life. Valletta and Mdina are where you go for history, Gozo is where you go for peace and quiet, Paceville is where you go for a rowdy clubbing night out. So where do you hang out if you want to see and be seen by the in-crowd? Easy … Sliema.   This may be an old colonial town on the edge of the sea across from the Maltese capital city of Valletta but since the end of the Second World War it has undergone a...

Time travel, as we are all too well aware, remains the stuff of science fiction. One day maybe but not for now. Sadly that means we will never be able to flick a switch and appear in the middle of a medieval joust armed with a six-pack and a video camera.   However, in Malta we do have one of the closest things you will ever find to time travel – all you need to do is hop on a bus bound for the ancient city of Mdina.   From the second you step...

It's a given that everyone should, and most people do, visit Mdina by day because it is a magical, beautiful place! But we have gone into that in more detail elsewhere. What we are looking at here is how the ‘Silent City’ changes and becomes a different but equally attractive proposition for the tourist once the curtain of night has descended.   Clearly, all the museums and attractions will be closed after the sun has set and disappeared below the...

You may already have done your homework and looked at a map, so you'll know that Malta is a small, hilly island slanting southeast to northwest. And thank goodness for that slant because it means most of the western coast has high cliffs and some beautiful panoramic views that go with them.   Dingli Cliffs, the sheerest and undoubtedly the most popular and dramatic, are a must for people who love walking, jogging and abseiling. They offer other opportunities, like the...

Eyebrows were raised, and the more sceptical among us quaked with dread, when it was announced that a row of deeply historic warehouses on Valletta harbourside was to be redeveloped. "This could be disastrous," we collectively thought. Well, we couldn’t have been more wrong! So credit where credit is due … this new development in the capital is fantastic!   When the completed project was unveiled, our flabbers where collectively gasted!...

For those of you who are self-confessed and incurable ‘foodies’ you’ll be only too aware that secret of great cooking is not a complicated one. As a famous chef once said: “It’s merely the application of heat to fantastic ingredients.” Put another way, it’s about using the best and freshest produce available. And that’s why, for foodies, the Marsaxlokk Fish Market is really going to tickle your turbots.    Marsaxlokk is...

Fort Rinella was built by the British in Victorian times to help protect the Grand Harbour of Valletta. Sitting like a tired dinosaur on top of the fort is a 100-ton Armstrong gun – also built by the British to protect naval shipping in the area from the newest generation of Italian battleships.   Luckily, the monster gun was never fired in anger, but an amusing tale about its first test still does the rounds much to the embarrassment of military experts and the...

How to describe a festa? Fiesta, carnival, festival? Well, they’re all of these and none of these, because festas are uniquely Maltese and so they will be unlike anything you’ve ever experienced in other countries.   When you attend a Maltese village festa as a visitor, and you are welcome to do so, you will instantly become an interested, intrigued and possibly baffled observer. We strongly advise you try and get along to one because it is the kind of...

If there was ever going to be the right time, place and activity taking place for notorious carouser and hell-raising actor Oliver Reed’s life to come to an end then it would be at the end of a serious drinking session in a pub on a bar stool.   The boozer in question, called simply The Pub, in Valletta, has become a fitting shrine to the great man, unlike some of the other memorials dedicated to writers, film stars, actors, heroes and eccentrics all over the world,...

Having a history as long and chequered as Malta’s you’d expect something a bit special from its capital city, wouldn’t you? Well, you won’t be disappointed! Proud Valletta is as impressive as any country’s premier city should be but it has the added advantage of being incredibly compact too!   When you walk into this city expect an explosion of activity, colour, noise and confusion. Valletta is the commercial and political centre and is...

The church, and particularly the Catholic Church, plays a major role in Maltese life. Latest statistics suggest that as many as 98 per cent of the island’s population are Catholic and that explains why there are so many churches here. In fact, there’s a saying on Malta that says you’ll find a church for every day of the year.   No-one seems to have taken the time to count them and whether the total reaches 365 is up for debate, but what is certain is...

“See Naples and die!” is how the famous saying goes. Bit extreme that isn’t it? And Naples aint so special, really, if we’re honest. I mean it’s OK! It has a nice bay and a castle but it’s certainly no Florence, or Rome, or Venice – and they’re all in the same country! So, if you did shuffle off this mortal coil after Naples you should be gutted because you’d miss so many other wonderful places.   Like Malta’s...