Malta’s luxury end is smaller than a big resort island’s and more interesting. Most of it is conversion rather than new building, so you get palazzos, townhouses and farmhouses rather than towers.
What the money buys
Palazzo hotels
There are a handful of restored townhouses inside the walls, usually eight or ten rooms with a roof terrace. They are the most characterful places to sleep in the country. They cost what they cost because there are so few of them.
The city empties after seven, so you get Valletta largely to yourself in the evening. Most of the price buys you that quiet.
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Farmhouses with a private pool
Thick stone walls, a pool nobody else uses and no neighbours, for less than the equivalent in Malta. This is the best value at the top end anywhere on the islands.
You need a car. The nearest shop may be a village away, and the ferry thins out badly after midnight.
Gozo farmhouses
The five-star resorts
They have full service, spas and private lidos, concentrated around St George’s Bay. They are comfortable and largely interchangeable. This is where you stay when you want the hotel to be the holiday.
Almost none of them are on sand. Malta has very little of it, and a resort advertising beachfront usually means a lido cut into the rock.
The kinds available
- Valletta palazzo hotels
- Small, restored, expensive, and the most characterful rooms in the country. Usually a handful of rooms and a rooftop.
- Five-star resorts
- Concentrated in St Julian’s, Sliema and around St George’s Bay. Full service, spas, private lidos, and largely interchangeable.
- Gozo farmhouses at the top end
- Private pools, thick stone, complete quiet. The best value at this level anywhere on the islands.
- Mdina and the Three Cities
- A very small number of high-end conversions inside historic walls. Book far ahead.
The money buys space, silence and architecture rather than beachfront. Malta has very little of the last, and the properties that claim it are usually on rock with a lido rather than sand.
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