Malta

I managed to get away for a week at the start of January to Malta. I hadn’t been there before, nor known much about it and I confess that we chose it partly because it’s one of the few places in Europe that has decent weather at that time of year. The weather was as expected – fairly consistent with only about a 4 degree variation from day to night and most days, about 16-18º. Depending on the wind, that generally worked out to be t-shirt weather in the sun and light-jacket or sweatshirt weather in the shade. Three things to mention, if you’re planning a visit at that time of year – watch out for the public transport shut-down on New Year’s Day – a lot of tourists got caught out by that. Secondly – Valetta does a massive fireworks display over Grand Harbour at midnight NYE. Well worth seeing. We didn’t brave the crowds or scramble for transport home, but we did have an excellent vantage point from the roof of our Sliema hotel. Third – one of the most popular attractions is the Hypogeum. If you’re interested in that, remember to book it at least a month before your trip – visitor numbers are very restricted and tickets disappear quick. In early Jan, one of the quieter times of year, the tix were only available two and a half weeks ahead.

There’s a lot to see and do in Malta, and I reckon a lot of it would be even better in autumn or spring when it was warmer. Being a small island (or cluster of small islands), there’s a lot of coastal area, and a lot of resorts and activities linked to the sea. In January, the breeze makes it a bit too cold to properly enjoy some of those things, but it’s still great to look at and walk around. We stayed in Sliema, adjacant to the capital Valetta and bought 7-day bus passes (great value at only €25 each). These covered all public buses on the islands of Malta and Gozo. We often used the ferry to hop across and back to Valetta – these go every 45mins or so and cost €2.50. Our hotel was great – really comfortable, great facilities, great location and excellent food. Valetta, Sliema and the nearby ‘3 cities’ are all beautiful. In addition to walking around, shopping and visiting some of the landmarks and attractions there, we also took trips to Marsaxlokk, Mdina, Rabat, Gozo and Comino.

Here are some of my favourite shots from the trip.