I didn’t do a lot of research. I knew I needed to take my wife to a place that would likely be warmer and brighter than Paris in December. She stayed there to help with the grandchildren while I was in Madagascar. We had to find someplace to go because my daughter and her family were going to be entertaining friends for a week at their apartment. It would be a good time for my wife to relax and enjoy some downtime. I also knew I had timeshare points that were due to expire. Neither of us wanted to spend a lot of time in the air and the travel budget for the year was already overdrawn. That formula pointed me to Malta. (My wife doesn’t enjoy planning trips. She likes to be pleasantly surprised. Fortunately, she is pretty easy to please, as long as the location isn’t cold and the accommodations have an American-style bathroom.) I was able to find a good deal on Air Malta; December being considered out of season, and there was availability to use our timeshare points at a nice resort. The cherry on top – Malta has many good, affordable restaurants with plenty of seafood options.
What neither of us expected was that there was so much to see and so many interesting things to learn on this little Mediterranean island between Sicily and Africa. I rented a small car, because our accommodations were not centrally located and someone on a review of the place we had booked suggested that it was a good idea. What they didn’t say was that all the affordable small cars came with a manual transmission. Since Malta is a former British colony, driving is on the opposite side of the road from what I am used to. I am fine with manual transmissions, but I am more comfortable with the stick being on the right and the turn signal being on the opposite side. Fortunately, the gas, brake, and clutch pedals are all in the same place relative to the driver as I am familiar with, but trying to scan for traffic using the mirrors and signaling for a turn without turning on the headlights was tricky for me at first. It took a while, but I got used to it. My wife kept going to the driver’s-side door just about every time we went to the car, and I would jokingly ask: “Are you driving today?” even though she hasn’t driven a stick-shift car in more than forty years and she has never driven a car on the left-hand side of the road. It would have been a new experience for her, but it wasn’t one of the interesting things she wanted to learn or do in Malta. One of the nice things about just showing up in a new country is that you find surprises around every corner, and with the roads in Malta there are many corners.
Malta is a tiny country, which made me think I could see it all in a week. I think it is in the top ten in terms of smallest countries in the world and also in the top ten in population density; although it is way below Macau (if you consider it a country), Monaco, Singapore, and Hong Kong (if you consider it a country) in population density. I wasn’t successful in seeing it all, but I did learn a lot of things and both my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
One of the special things was the place we stayed. If all you set out to do was relax, Radisson Blu Golden Sands would be a good choice, especially considering that many hotel chains (apparently including Radisson) have a timeshare component and we were able to stay in a nice room, using points that probably would have expired. It was a good home base for our visit. My wife finished at least one book while poolside; taking in the sunshine with a great view. The outdoor pool looked beautiful, but the whole time we were there I only saw a couple of people get in because the water was a touch chilly and there was an indoor pool too. During December there is no feeling of being in one of the top ten most population-dense countries in the world. I won’t say we had the place to ourselves. We did meet many people from around the world; many of whom were on the staff. They had time to talk, because the resort was only one-third occupied. I like talking to people who have had different experiences from around the world and I enjoy hearing English spoken with so many different accents. We certainly got to do what I enjoy in a clean and well-maintained resort. There were also good hiking opportunities around the resort. On one of those hikes, I saw the island of Gozo and resolved to make it there too.
I knew that Malta had a strategic location, but really I had no understanding of how that figured into western culture. I like history, but mostly when I can actually visit the place and see things for myself. We didn’t travel much when I was growing up. Reading history books didn’t appeal to me then, but I did like geography, and I am sure the whole family looked at National Geographic Magazine. Once I looked at all the pictures and read all the captions, then I would decide which articles to read first. To encourage reading and further our education, my parents had a subscription to it; along with Time, Life, and a few other magazines. My dad appreciated history and encouraged his children to realize the importance of studying it and would say stuff like, Those who don’t study history are destined to repeat the mistakes of the past. The few trips we took usually had a historical underpinning.
So, getting back to Malta; when we arrived at the resort, I knew I wanted to see and learn as much as I could in the time that we had. For me, that meant finding a local guide. I have had good luck with GetYourGuide in the past. I put Malta into the search tab, to see what was available. A walking food and cultural tour showed up for the port city and capital, Valletta. From the tour description, it seemed to be exactly what I was looking for; so I clicked “book now”.
Our host Chris did an excellent job. My wife seemed to have a really good time, not only because Chris had a good itinerary with interesting food and drinks, but also because she enjoyed interacting with the other people on the tour. It took the pressure off of me to know where I was going and what we were doing. Chris was an expert in the history and culture of Malta, who has traced back his family history on the island for many generations. Everywhere we went, people seemed to know him. He was warm and welcoming, with a good sense of humor. You could easily tell he liked his job and was proud of his Maltese heritage. We learned so much on the short tour about ancient civilization, St. Paul and Christianity on the island, medieval history, the Knights of Malta, the invasion by Napoleon, British rule and the strategic position during World War II, Queen Elizabeth’s time on the island, all the way through modern politics in Malta. These were topics of discussion as we ate and met shopkeepers and restaurant folks. Of course in the short time we had we couldn’t go into depth, but Chris was able to answer every question that was asked of him. He was so good that we were eager to book another tour he offered in Mdina and Rabat, where Chris grew up. That walking tour was very good, too. It was similar to the walking tour of Valletta, without the tasting aspect. My wife and I both preferred the tasting tour, not only because the food was good, but also because it gave us an opportunity to sit and talk to other people. Both tours offered excellent value.
For photos around the resort where we stayed, as well as other places we went to in Malta with Chris, and on our own, click here. As you can see from the photo above, we had a bang of a good time in Malta and it is a very good place to go. I hope to post soon on our tour of Gozo, a sister island to Malta, visible in a few of the photos in the gallery linked above. Gozo is worth a post of its own.