Hotel Mellieha Bay Reviews

We spent two weeks at the Hotel and overall would say it is good but not great. The air conditioned room was clean and functional complete with a small fridge to keep our "imported" bottles cool.

Food: Breakfast always the same choices and actually this was fine. Evening meals had a variety of Main courses each evening and I thought very good except for a couple of evenings when the food was simply not hot enough. We always took our meals as soon as the restuarant opened and this worked well during our stay.

Drink: A bit expensive and why we used our room fridge some of the time! A handy beach bar for getting drinks in the day. Pools likewise had local bars.

Beach: Excellent and clean but get there early for a sunbed as space is quiet limited. Safe swimming and sand all the way to wade out into the sea.

Entertainment: Very poor in my opinion, and a major let down as the hotel is not near local nightlife. If you fancing going out for a stroll there is another bar nearby down by the Main public beach but not really much better then the Hotel. The hotels own Limelight bar that looked as if it could create some atmosphere was closed for most of our stay leaving just a pool bar and the reception area bar open in the evening, both lack any atmosphere.

Staff: A mixed bunch, mostly friendly but just one or two that let their side down.

We would not use again simply because we like to visit the neighbourhood in the evenings and the only way to do that would be to drive, and I did not do that because I like a drink in the evenings and will not drink and drive. Otherwise a taxi may do but thats a pain to organise.

Watersports: Plenty on hand at the hotel so you can dive, sail or windsurf. I windsurf in the UK and can say the kit they have is OK for learners only.

Went last week (end of April 2008) for a week and had a great time. The staff were very friendly. Even the garden staff had a smile as they were sweeping the paths every morning. Reception staff were a bit rushed at times but never rude. Only one or two waiters in the dining room were a bit grumpy, but they still did thier job well enough.

The pools were lovely, very clean, and there were lots of sun loungers. The private beach is very small, but the gardeners work hard to clean the sand every morning.

The food was top notch for a buffet. Plenty of variety. Each day had a different main course and pudding with salad and cheese and biscuits. I have to admit that it would get a bit tired after a couple of weeks, but it was always tasty.

Andy, the Thompson rep was great. Always availabe to help.

Try the fruit and veg man down by the bus stop. Very good prices for bottled water and stuff compared to the hotel.

Also, go on the English Rose boat trip to comino and gozo. The caves are beautiful and the waters in the lagoons is so clear that fish can be seen like they are in a fish tank. It leaves from the other side of the main beach at 11 am every day, but the boat arrives at 9:30am and you need to get there early to be sure to get a place.

The beds were comfy, but the air-con was not on and the the room was 26C at night. Just the fan of the air con-worked, perhaps they only turn on the air-con in the height of summer. Also the TV was badly tuned. These are the reasons for lower room comfort scores.

Hope you have a good time.

Second time back here. Hotel decor has been updated, although some improvements could still be made. Hotel is kept clean, bedrooms serviced daily. Food has definitely improved, also with the addition of a barbeque served most evenings. Staff are always pleasant and friendly. Kids Club staff are brilliant. Did a number of trips. Beach Barbeque at little Armelia Bay which was super. Swimming with Dolphins - this is a must and we all thoroughly enjoyed it ! Wasn't so impressed with the Malta by Night trip though. However, enjoyed the rest of the Holiday.

Just returned from our holiday in malta and have to say am pretty dissapointed.

The hotel was very nice alittle shabby in the bathrooms but nothing major, the food was always very good, brian is great in the restaurant and most of the other staff aswell, outside areas good but could do with a lick of paint in areas, the hotel beach is not good this time of year all seaweed, doesn't look like the brochure pictures, the main beach is good but deserted in winter months. transport regular and cheap take advantage of it and see other places. went to sliema for the day was good for shops, and valetta less shops but it has alot of history there.

went to popeye village it was the worst place i have been to everything is falling apart, things are closed without warning, i would not recommend this place to my worst enemy. i only wish i had filled out the comment card and handed it to them, i wouldn't recommend this sort of holiday for anyone under the age of 50 especially in winter months, would imagine it could be better in summer when theres more children there, but they don't seem to do anything for kids in winter. the only activities they seem to do is bowls and bingo.

i won't be going to malta again.

We have just spent two weeks at the Mellieha Bay Hotel, after reading reviews before our holiday, I was very apprehensive about it, but I needn't have worried.

I agree the hotel is basic and not usual 4 star, but we are talking Malta here and not Spain, Italy or the Canaries. The Reception area is clean and bright, on arrival the staff were very friendly and helpful and very efficient. Our bags were taken to our room, and the chap who took them there refused a tip as we only had 2 Lire notes and he said that was too much.

The lounge was comfortable and near the bar and shop. Everywhere was very clean, the pool areas always had sun beds available, and the pool bars very efficient.

The bedrooms were basic, but clean and had t.v. fridge and hairdryer. What you aren't told is that there are two laundrettes at opposite ends of the hotel, and they have irons and ironing boards free of charge for anyone to use. You can also hire each towel's for a small extra charge. Our bathroom, though compact, had clean towels every day, plenty of hot water, and toiletries replenished every day. The bed linen was changed every day too, and the room maid was very helpful, exchanging pillows which our friends in the next room felt were too hard, nothing was too much trouble.

The dining room was bright, we never had to queue to go in, whatever time we went for meals, again the staff were wonderful. We always found something we liked on the menu, and personally, we were rather pleased that we weren't offered chips once (you could buy them when having snacks during the day if you had withdrawal symptoms). We all agreed the barbecue wasn't up to scratch, by the time you had queued for your food and taken it back to your table it was cold, but they are trying something different. Our only minor gripe was that there was very little room round the tables; four people had to move for one person to get up and fetch food as the tables were so close together.

The entertainment was very amateurish, though they tried and it was somewhere to sit at night as a change from the lounge. The daytime entertainment and activities, run by Carmen, are great, I advise everyone to have a go. Carmen is wonderful, never forgets a name, I tried bowls, and after 10 minutes tuition, and two practice games, actually managed to win a game.

The hotel is in a beautiful location, the views are to die for from your bedroom window, unfortunately it is so far from anywhere. we enjoy a walk after our dinner at night, and then a drink in a bar and a slow walk back, unfortunately, it is a long walk and up hill to the Village, and far to daunting for us, and we didn't fancy waiting for buses etc. There is a regular bus service from the hotel entrance to Valetta once a day or you can walk round the bay and catch busses everywhere.

The Village is worth visiting, a lovely church, and the war time shelters, looked after by a man who actually used the shelters when he was a boy during the war were very interesting, there are also a number of shops and bars there too.

The Thompson Reps were very friendly, they were there morning and evening, though the welcome meeting was a bit of a let down, we were all a bit in the dark about what we had to do to book trips etc, and weren't given enough information about times of trips etc. We had all been to Malta once before, so we hired a car for five days. We found car hire very expensive, it cost us more or five days than it did for two weeks in Spain last year. (This was using reputable companies like Euro Car, Hertz or Avis). Everyone we spoke to who had been on trips said they found them very expensive, and you can do them cheaper by bus or hiring a car. Don't pay the extra for the elite trips by mini bus, they have no air conditioning, and apart rom the fact that there are only about 15 on the bus, you do exactly the same trip.

We went on one trip to Gozo and everyone complained when we returned to the hotel. All the trips were quite expensive, it cost us about £32 each to go to Gozo but we thought we would learn more about the Island, and get so see more as we didn't really know much about Gozo. We left the hotel at 10.30 a.m. and returned at 7 p.m. and most of that time was spent on the coach or the ferry. We were given 20 minutes at the first two stops, a pretty sea side port and a craft village , and at Victoria we were taken to a film show (a waste of 20 minutes), then given 30 minutes to walk up 200 steps, to see the Cathedral, the Citadel and walk round the walls then walk the 200 steps back (all this in temperatures of 95%F, few people took advantage of this. The guide then managed to loose 45 people off the coach, so the rest of us sat in the car park for 30 minutes while he found them. We then went for lunch (4 p.m. - thank goodness we didn't have anyone diabetic on the coach) then had 10 minutes to see the nearby church which was so beautiful. We were than taken to a photo stop of some caves; we had ten minutes there, but couldn't take photos as it would have taken 15 minutes to walk to where you had to take the photo. It was a waste of a day. The Thompson Reps filled in a complaints form from all of us, but said we were told it was a sightseeing trip (obviously the sights were the inside of the bus and too and froing across the island to the various stops, but the sights weren't the places we had gone to visit?

We all enjoyed going back to Malta, though we found it terribly expensive, don't bother buying drinks to bring home, you can get them cheaper here, jewellery is very expensive (the hotel shop is as cheap as anywhere, cigarettes the same price as in other shops) even Marks and Spencer's is a couple of pounds dearer there
than here. We found it very expensive to eat and drink out.

We had a wonderful holiday, the hotel is great, the Staff wonderful, what a pity it can't be picked up and put somewhere else like St. Juliens, Sliema or Spinola Bay.

If all you want is a holiday within a hotel complex then this is for you, but don't forget Malta's 4 star is probably other countries 3 star or even 2 star plus. And don't compare Malta to other places, yes it is like a giant bomb site, and it is dusty, the roads are terrible, but the people are wonderful,when we went to Medina, a s we were parking the car, a very nice gentrlmen came over and told us we would get fined of weparked there, he told us where to go ad said he would wait for us. When we arrived at the car park, he tld us to follow him, then he moved his car so that we dould park in his space, would this happen in this country? Malta has so much history (read a book about it before you go),it makes everything seem so real when you are actually there.