Malta?

[wheretonextyear]

Looking for thoughts, my DH has suggested going to Malta for holiday next year, probably around Easter. Me, DH and DS, 11.
He went there years ago and has fond memories.
The tourist websites e.g. the Visit Malta pages all make it look good but when I start looking in to accommodation, it all looks like concrete block type hotels around a pool or really basic looking apartments in quite built up areas, going right on to dual carriageway type roads, which is really not appealing to me in the slightest.

Not knowing much about it, I thought there would be beaches and/or quaint towns, but it looks to be more of a volcanic island like Tenerife, which I went to years ago on an 18-30 holiday and hated (that was probably more to do with the company TBH).

I don't want to dismiss it out of hand so if you have been there with kids and loved it, show me what I am missing!
In terms of budget, it's not really fixed but I suppose we normally spend about £1500 for a week away inc. flights and accomm and wouldn't want to spend much more than that unless it was something special, which would be largely wasted on an 11 year old anyway!

We love Malta but because it is small the hotels can be in quite built up areas. If you want something quieter look at staying on Gozo.
There are loads of things to do if you like history, look into the heritage malta pass.

we like lanzarote (so have nothing against quite baron places, but didnt enjoy malta). the weather was terrible, and didnt like that it was built up, not much cheaper to eat out than here with lots of people/traffic everywhere. And lots of high rise and building work. You dont get many beaches - was rock with little swimming pools in where we were. dont hire a car as the drivers are mad.

good things are the people, and they all speak english and seemed to like us (from the war i think). Also lots of buses. And valetta was nice, espec when the cruise ships werent docked. boat trip around the 3 harbours was good. Pool complex and inside of our apartment also good (though had to walk through shopping complext to get to pool).

Thanks, from a very quick looking on apartment rental websites, Gozo does look a bit nicer.

What time of year did you go? When you say the weather was terrible, did it pour down the whole time, or just cold?
Everything else you've said basically confirms my fears though.... maybe back to the drawing board.

I think it was early october - trying to miss the really hot bit and get in before winter. it was our main summer holiday....so not in the winter as such.

leaving the airport there was a tornado over the sea (this didnt really affect us). We had a few lovely days of sun and then it just rained really heavily and was super windy. The lower bars by the sea got flooded, the roads were flooded, the pool area was closed. Not sure how many days of continuous rain we had, but that is my over-riding memory of the holiday. And maybe we were unlucky, but it didnt help that we didnt like the place much anyway. i know a few people who go regularly.....so each to their own.

what about spain, croatia, italy, france, portugal.....there are so many lovely places to visit.

We went at Easter a few years ago and had lovely weather, the buses are great and we used these to get around and visit museums and churches, we went to the local strawberry festival and took a day trip to Gozo, spent lots of time on the beach (there aren't many sandy ones so do your research) we are thinking of going again next year

I went once but wouldn’t go back

If you want beaches go somewhere else. It has one proper beach which is awful. Some of the historic stuff is nice to see but not enough to make it worth visiting the island.
I wouldn't go again & I wouldn't recommend it

I’d recommend Gozo too. There are loads of what are called ‘farmhouses’, traditional, or modelled on traditional, houses, very thick walls so cool in summer, a sort of North African feel to them, fairly blank exterior, often an inner courtyard, often a pool. Xaghra is an attractive town, inland but close to some beaches and the site with the megaliths. I’ve only ever got the bus through Malta to the ferry port and never (Valletta excepted) much liked what I saw.

We stayed at the AX Victoria hotel in Sliema which was a lovely hotel with a rooftop infinity pool. The people were charming, the food was good, it was baking hot (as we went in August) and we had a fabulous time. The ferry to Valetta runs regularly from Sliema and the buses were easy to use. All that being said, we’ve been once and won’t go back. It is very built up and also very uncared for in places with building work and hoardings haphazardly placed just about everywhere. It almost looked a bit “war torn”. I think we were so used to lovely little French seaside villages and small, Spanish coastal towns. It remains one of our favourite family holidays though as we did enjoy our time there and the people are so very welcoming.