Latest Reviews for Salina Bay

We have just returned from our holiday in Malta staying at the Coastline Hotel just outside of Bugibba. The first thing to point out is that if you like to pop out to a local pub for a quick refreshing beer then this hotel is not for you as this hotel is about 5-6kms from Bugibba, and you have to rely on the free courtesy bus to take you in or get a taxi (abt 5-6LMs = £8-£9). The bus is a good service but sometimes misses the timetable it also has a last return journey at 10pm so late-nighters will have to get a taxi. One hint, always ask the price before getting in and don’t accept the first one as we always managed to get it cheaper. One further tip go into Bugibba and get the local bus service (23c = 40p) into Valetta as that city is well worth a visit and the sights you will see on the journey are well worth seeing. Hiring a car is cheap too, loads of outlets for this almost every shop can do it. But drivers beware as they drive like madmen as do the buses. What an experience.

We only did two excursions, one a romantic evening cruise – hardly romantic juggling a plate of food and a drink whilst trying to sit on a 6inch ledge whilst avoiding the sea swells efforts to tip us up. The second was an experience of a lifetime – expensive but well worth it – the seaplane trip takes you right round the three islands of Malta Comino and Gozo. WOW, awesome – great photo opportunities and the Grand Harbour certainly acquires the term “grand” from the air. Magnificent – don’t pass this one up if you can afford the £70 each go it is truly a trip of a lifetime.

The hotel is clean and tidy although it does suffer heavily from flies, especially in the pool and pool bar areas where guests have snacks. The room we had overlooked the sea and was a great view – the room was cleaned properly every day and had clean sheets and towels each day too. But unlike other hotels we have stayed in, you will need to take your own towels for the sun-loungers. Also note there is no beach here – although there is a small cove opposite that the locals use but we noticed a couple of what looked like waste pipes feeding into the sea, so we didn’t use it again.

The food here is adequate and there is only just enough variety to choose from as it is a limited buffet style choice, some of which is actually served onto your plate and other foods are on a help yourself basis. The local wines are Ok, the lager is ok too, however being a beer drinker I was pleasantly surprised to find a local bitter beer – hopleaf and it was quite palatable. The local spirits Gin. Vodka, Whisky and Bacardi were also all very drinkable too. The Baileys equivalent was also quite nice. But do gibe the local “madeleine” liquer a try too – nectar. The Lacoste restaurant is available for both the AI fayre and other foodstuffs too at a 50% discount. But beware as the food here in our experience was often undercooked.

The AI service is not the best in the world and we often felt like 2nd class citizens here having to produce your AI card to get drinks – often very small measures – you have to rely heavily on demanding a decent measure to get what you want. The service was often provided without even a smile but there were notable exceptions – Michael Yolanda and James in the Lacoste Restaurant. Watch out to for the Danny Di Vito lokalike on the waiting staff.

As for entertainment – this consists of Johnny Gee and his Bean Bag Band for both daytime and evening entertainment – he tries hard and does his best to get guests into the spirit of enjoying themselves but regularly fails. .The evening entertainment is supplemented by the Mic duo a guy and gal on organs - and further supplemented by a local cabaret singer billed as No1 in Malta (I doubt it) and a selection of dancers too.

We did encounter a few glitches during our stay some of which were rectified almost immediately but others were not. Watch out for the noisy air con, the noisy ventilation and service shafts. Also be aware that on occasions the dishwashers are not in use so they regularly just use a rinse under cold water before re-using the glasses.

In conclusion 14 days here is far too long and boring and had it not been for a really nice couple we met (Paul and Tina from Norwich, pronounced Nahrich) we would have been bored rigid every night, so thanks Guys for making our holiday enjoyable.

This hotel is right out on a limb, not good if you want night life.

Excellent food and because of the hotels location i think all inclusive is a must. There was entertainment every night (for the over 50's) we loved it. Excellent curtasy bus service so no need to be stuck to the hotel. Hotel provided packed lunches if you were going out on a day trip. Took advise of previous reports on this site and booked a rear facing room. This was a mistake as the view at the front was good, not salt flats as stated, and we were too hot, had to sleep with the patios open (in November)! Yes there were a lot of flies round the pool, but to be fair there are a lot of flies where ever you go on Malta, but round the pool i admit there where more than most places. Would go back to this hotel despite the flies.

All in all a very good holiday.

The Coastline Hotel was very nice on the eye, very nicely decorated, rooms very clean and public areas very clean. However due to the amount of cats (friendly might I add), when it rains the smell of cat pee is very strong. Before travelling, I was aware of a local landfill site somewhere behind the hotel. I did not see it (even from my 4th floor balcony) however the amount of flies around the hotel may be the result of this site. The hotel had a free courtesy bus which was beneficial and used many times a day.

This review is not really about the hotel, but the gentleman who ";sold"; us the holiday. I would like to make future holiday makers aware. Due to being a family of 4 and another family of 2, I was having difficulty in acquiring a room for 4 in any 3/4 star hotels in Malta. I was promised this fantastic holiday with 2 X Quad rooms, transfers, flights and B and B. However, from the time I booked the holiday, my problems started. To cut a long story short, I had to contact the hotel direct and explain what my ";travel advisor"; had not done therefore I had to do it myself. I received paper work from a company called FUTURE TRAVEL and whenever I queried mistakes with them, the same line I was hearing ";Please contact my advisor. I still wonder to myself, why was this company involved with this transaction? They could not assist with any queries, customer service was null. My flights were booked with First Choice and only a week before departure, I found out the accommodation was booked with HotelBeds!.

Arrived in Malta at 12am, very tired with 3 children and an OAP.....and guess what..... NO TRANSFERS as promised....... First choice knew nothing about us and there were no representatives from TRAVEL NOW/FUTURE TRAVEL who are suppose to be part of a well established business - Co-op. At about 2am, we eventually had a taxi however had to fork out an extra £50 for transfers.

I shall not be booking this way again.

The Coastline Hotel was lovely and the staff were very helpful and friendly.

The food was generally good, although our children often had to order ";children's meals"; in the main restaurant in the evenings.Despite what the hotel says about not reserving sun beds we noticed lots of towels getting really good sun tans! The air conditioning is not great in the rooms, cooler than outside but it can get really hot with four of you in a room at night. We used the hotel booked transport to Valletta and got lumbered with a mad driver who terrified all of us, in fact two couples caught the normal buses back - so be warned! Nevertheless Valletta is lovely and well worth at least one trip.Both the ";Malta Experience"; and the ";Seige of Malta"; were great.
Although you know when you book that Coastline is a bit isolated it does get a bit tiresome having to get a bus everytime you want to wander around the shops etc.

Just one other warning if you book a boat trip make sure you get on the right boat! Two of the cruise staff checked our tickets and directed us onto the wrong boat which was a big disappointment. I have a nasty feeling the trip we were supposed to be on was full......who knows, but beware!

The Splash and Fun water park is quite fun and the Dolphin park (Mediterraneo)is great. We booked the ";interractive"; swim with dolphins for our children which came to about £50 each but was worth every penny. My son and daughter are convinced it was the best thing they have ever done!I hope this is useful to you.

This being our 5th time at the Coastline, we were really looking forward to our holiday. On arrival we were pleased that our request for a room on a high floor was granted and that we had even a sea view at no extra charge.

Our room was found in the usual clean condition. as the maids have consistently done a wonderful job over the year. The first thing we noticed had changed since our last visit was that the fridge light was not working and that the fridge was empty. In previous years they used to be full of drinks, chocolate, peanuts etc and each day the fridge was checked to see what you had taken . Now you had to buy packs of goodies ranging from Lm5 to about Lm13. This year the standard and variety of food for the main evening meal has really gone down hill. Soups are still very tasty and enjoyable good, but the main courses were not very appealing and bland. Potatoes ranged from underdone one night to warmed up left over's on the night after. I soon realised a wiser choice would be to have rice. I am not over exaggerating when I say that for the first time in five years of visiting the Coastline I felt like getting the courtesy bus into Bugibba and paying for a decent meal in a restaurant. However breakfast time was totally different. Charles's *Ham and Cheese Omelets* as remarked in other reports, truly are excellent, along with other breakfast foods.

One of the things we really did notice was the air conditioning or perhaps I should say lack of it. Yes, air conditioning in the room worked very well, but in the rest of the hotel it was switched of in various area's at the whim of the management. The area's that no longer benefited from air conditioning are The Main Foyer, The Admiral's Bar and the balcony seating area over looking the Foyer. The Main Restaurant only had air conditioning on during the evening meal. The La Costa restaurant had air conditioning all the time.

The pool area once a dream to use and totally relaxing has been turned into an over crowded free for all where all rules, Hotel or Health and Safety are totally ignored.
There are signs stating sunbeds cannot be reserved, yet I have witnessed money being handed to staff to ignore the rules and not remove towels from sun beds. There is also a rule stating that people are not allowed to use inflatables in the pool, again the rule is ignored and the staff and management have simply given up trying to enforce it. There just is not enough space for 20 li-lo's, 1 plastic shark, 1 plastic crocodile and a dinghy in the pool, and 50-60 people. It is also dangerous, as some young children who cannot swim ARE venturing into the deeper end of the pool and getting into trouble requiring
Help to get them back to shallower water. Warning there is a sign NO LIFEGAURD.

This year we had only been in the hotel three days when were asked (due to overbooking) if we would move to the new Golden Sands Hotel for the last 4 days of our holiday. I found this offensive considering that last year the same thing happened and we were asked if we would mind moving to a hotel on Gozo due to their over booking of their hotel.

The only good point about the hotel is that some individual staff do still try to maintain the highest standards possible against the cultural changes currently being pursued by the island hotels group. Currently the hotel boasts a 4 star service but with experience we can only rate as a 3 star due to the decline in standards.

My advice for anyone thinking of staying at the Coastline for a quiet relaxing time thinking it's still the same hotel as in the old Thompson Gold day. Think again.

I'm not even going mention the problems that hotel security had with the100+ rowdy French school children being roomed at the hotel and creating havoc for guests on floors two and three.

We love Malta We love the Maltese, We used to love the Coastline.

Sadly the Coastline has gone CRP.

Booked direct on internet with Thomsons holidays about 2 weeks before travel for 2 of us, got it at £349 per person all inclusive so was worth waiting till the last minute. Good Hotel with excellent staff always smiling and giving very good sevice, this hotel's location is not very good and you can't really go far for a walk, they run a shuttle bus to the near resort of Buggiba every 20 minutes and there is also a daily shuttle bus to Siliema and Valleta at a cost of 2 lira per person and well worth it, goes at 9.00 am and comes back at 2.00pm, Valleta is a beautifull place with loads to see. The Captain Morgan boat trips are very good , we went on the Fendezies and it was spot on, the down side was the captain or Jimmy as he likes to be called, he gives you a sermon on his ideas of how to the world is been ruined by us, a lot of what he says is true but you don't really want to hear it on your holiday but he and his crew are a very friendly butch and he looks like the a captain off a pirates ship.

Back to the hotel the food is excellent and very well presented, the rooms are of a high standard with daily maid service, the swimming pools both outside and inside and very good and the sunbeds very comfortable and no fighting for sunbeds, probaly because there are not a lot of germans visiting Malta!!! The entertainment was very good apart from one night ( it was the hotel entertainment rep who was an Italian with his friends )which was rubbish so I suppose 6 out of 7 is not to bad these days

The only downfall is you can see the landfill site or rubbish tip as we call it over here from the pool area and is not really what you would expect to see from a 4* hotel pool, never got any bad smells butf there was a lot of flies on odd days.

Our air conditioning unit was not working properly and after numerous complaints to staff and one to the rep nothing was done, in the end I asked for a fan for the room which was delivered straight away and it gave us some relief from the 90 plus heat.

But all in all a very good holiday but would say nto for families with young children as there is not enough to do

Booked direct on internet with Thomsons holidays about 2 weeks before travel for 2 of us, got it at £349 per person all inclusive so was worth waiting till the last minute.

Good Hotel with excellent staff always smiling and giving very good sevice, this hotel's location is not very good and you can't really go far for a walk, they run a shuttle bus to the near resort of Buggiba every 20 minutes and there is also a daily shuttle bus to Siliema and Valleta at a cost of 2 lira per person and well worth it, goes at 9.00 am and comes back at 2.00pm, Valleta is a beautifull place with loads to see.

The Captain Morgan boat trips are very good , we went on the Fendezies and it was spot on, the down side was the captain or Jimmy as he likes to be called, he gives you a sermon on his ideas of how to the world is been ruined by us, a lot of what he says is true but you don't really want to hear it on your holiday but he and his crew are a very friendly butch and he looks like the a captain off a pirates ship.

Back to the hotel the food is excellent and very well presented, the rooms are of a high standard with daily maid service, the swimming pools both outside and inside and very good and the sunbeds very comfortable and no fighting for sunbeds, probaly because there are not a lot of germans visiting Malta!!! The entertainment was very good apart from one night ( it was the hotel entertainment rep who was an Italian with his friends )which was rubbish so I suppose 6 out of 7 is not to bad these days

The only downfall is you can see the landfill site or rubbish tip as we call it over here from the pool area and is not really what you would expect to see from a 4* hotel pool, never got any bad smells butf there was a lot of flies on odd days.

Our air conditioning unit was not working properly and after numerous complaints to staff and one to the rep nothing was done, in the end I asked for a fan for the room which was delivered straight away and it gave us some relief from the 90 plus heat.

But all in all a very good holiday but would say nto for families with young children as there is not enough to do

Our third Visit to the Coastline and sad to say that whilst (for Malta) it is still a little above average for a 4* standards are falling and we are divided as to whether we would go back.

First rate booking service with Malta Direct, ditto flights with Air Malta (Plane only 15 days old!). 'Standard' in-flight food, quick transfer/registration to/at hotel.

We had requested our previous higher floor (sea view highly recommended) room and whilst they did not promise this could be done we were delighted to find on arrival we had been allocated our preference.

Staff as before were superb. Reception, waiters, managerial et al. Maids were incredibly hard working and kept the rooms very clean indeed. Ditto all other areas of the hotel.

Food (all inclusive a 'must') good to v. good at times for a week but a bit repetative for two or more.

Now the complaints: Flies around the pool area were the worst we have experienced in three visits and made lunch times a bit of a nightmare, this despite our expectations that going earlier in the year they would be less prolific. Even the barmen were becoming annoyed by them.

With our second week booked during a bank/school holiday we expected the usual influx of kids (this used to be Thomson Gold....no kids) but they were so rowdy and unruly, most sad to say Brits, that as is in life the minority somewhat spoiled things for us and the majority of others. (No fault of the hotel of course)

To add insult to injury on at least three nights loud 'instant migraine thump, thump' parties were being held in one of the hotels suites.

Finally we think the most telling remarks were those we overheard whilst trying to find a little peace and quiet with other guests present. Quote: 'We came here for a weeks quiet, relaxing peace and rest....little chance of that....the hotel should make its mind up whether its for tourists or if its commercial'...the latter seams to be taking over now as the group has obviously invested in its flagship new hotel in Golden Bay. Perhaps may we suggest to the detriment of the Coastline and its return/regular clients whom have known and experienced it to be so much better.

If so it really is indeed a great pity as the staff are wonderful, standards of hygene so very, very good as used to be the hotel itself which is now also becoming a little worn and tired looking around the edges.

(For more Malta details and further comments on the hotel etc please read our previous report or look at others on this excellent site as it does I believe convey a genuinely balanced view having reviewed them myself recently....just disguard the worst and the best and all our gramatical/spelling errors here too!!)

A very good hotel that looks after guests in a professional, caring manner. Nothing is too much trouble for the courteous and efficient staff who always make you feel welcome. The excellent food is well presented, varied and plentiful. The rooms are spacious, well maintained and very clean. Please note that an extra charge is made for tea and coffee in the rooms, like many others, we took our own travel kettle and ingredients, The indoor pool was a little cold as was the jaccuzi but the sauna and fitness room were of a good standard. Table tennis was provided free. The Hotel is out of town but the views over the bay are delightful and the free shuttle bus service is regular and convenient. We chose to hire a car which was a hairy experience on terrible roads and poor signposting but great fun. The bus service is cheap and extensive and since the islands are small you can save money compared to expensive organised trips.

All in all a very good holiday and we rate the Coastline very highly.

My stay at the Coast line Hotel was excellent in every way. The hotel is clean and well run with spacious rooms and excellent cuisine, the desserts are to die for! The staff are friendly and helpful but not 'in your face'. Although the hotel is situated out of Bugibba the hotel shuttle runs frequently into Bugibba right up to 10 30 at night. The sea is down a flight of steps and local buses run from just outside the hotel. The location is quiet with wonderful sea views. The indoor pool is heated and the outdoor looks very good but we did not attempt to use it March! Overall I would rate this hotel very highly and hope to return there.