Travel guide: Malta

A beautiful Mediterranean island where English is one of the official languages. This makes Malta the ideal place to enjoy the sunshine and practice your English!

We visited in April and had the most amazing time!

To save you time looking on a map, Malta is located to the south of Sicily and to the north of Africa. Given this location you can understand why it enjoys around 300 days of sunshine per year! For 150 years it was a colony of the British Empire who brought the English language with them. For this reason English is still one of the official languages of Malta.

Whatever your interests, from water sports to history, there is something for everyone to enjoy on Malta.

Getting there

The airport on Malta welcomes flights from many destinations, but it's also possible to reach Malta by ferry from Sicily. It's not a big island so it's easy to get from the airport to the coastal resorts by bus or taxi. We arrived very late in the evening so I pre-booked a taxi to take us from the airport to our hotel.

My experience

We went as two adults and a teenager and had a brilliant time! We stayed in a hotel in the St Paul's Bay area which meant we could easily access other places on the island using the local bus service. This was very cheap and in April the bus was not too busy. The roads on Malta are quite heavy with traffic though, so be aware that the busses don't always run to time.

Mdina

We are very interested in history so visited the beautiful city of Mdina in the centre of the island. This was the capital from Roman times until 1571 when Valetta, the current capital, was established. The medieval streets were beautiful to walk along, the battlements gave us fantastic views across the countryside and the buildings provided us with lovely cool shade.

On one of the days we splashed out a little on a private guided tour of the megalithic structures on the island. These large stone monuments were built between 3600 BCE and 700 BCE and are impressive as being some of the oldest free standing structures in the world! This period of history is not one I'm particularly interested in, but the tour guide made it so fascinating, plus we stopped off at other sites including fishing villages and the Blue Grotto. This balanced the day out and made it one for us all to enjoy.

As well as the historical and cultural we also had time for just relaxing, walking along the coast, and swimming. The temperature at the end of April was just about ok to swim in the outdoor pool of the hotel.

Pros and cons

Pros

Malta is a beautiful, rugged, island which is small enough to get around easily using public transport. There are pretty fishing villages to explore and historical sites to visit. The food is amazing with cuisine from all over the world. Depending on what you want to do on holiday you can visit all year round. Although the winters are not cold, they are not warm enough for sunbathing. The summers are very hot so if chilling by a swimming pool is on your 'to do' list Malta could be the place for you.

Cons

The summer months can be incredibly busy, especially in Valetta where cruise ships dock. The island is not big and so can get very crowded with cars, busses and taxis. We were advised not to hire a car, and you don't need one. Public transport is a great way to get around the island. Malta doesn't have any beaches so if this is important to you on a Mediterranean holiday, then this island is not for you.

Final word

Visit Malta and practice your English with the locals! Aim to go during the spring or autumn months when it should be quiet enough to get around easily using the bus, and not too hot if you want to do some walking or sightseeing. If hot, sunny, days are what you are looking for then Malta in the summer would be the place for you.

Looking to practice your English before you travel?

Click here to talk to me about conversational English coaching.

Chantal followed an English speaking course before her holiday to Australia and this is what she had to say:

“Very happy that I made the choice to learn to speak better English with Joanne.

My self-confidence has improved as a result. Joanne is very friendly and brought up really nice topics. Recommended."