Latest Reviews for St Julians

We went to this dreadful place in August of this year with great trepidation having read the articles on this website after we had booked. (Big mistake!) My worrying was quite justified having spent a week there.

This may be ok out of season for a very low budget holiday, but do not go in late July or August if you want to sleep at night, because the clubs go on most of the night, the Black Bull pub has happy hour/s between about 3am and 5 am and then the clubbers arrive back in the hotel shouting, swearing and generally trying to get in your room. The management were deluged with complaints from morning till night. However if you are aged between about 16 to 23, then this is the place for you, as in the words of one youngster on our airport pick up bus ";this place just never sleeps man, it is soooo cool";....he knew, he'd been before.

Also the smell from the drains, even in our room, was truly awful. This was the worst holiday I have ever been on.

Our best decision was not to book to eat in the restaurant as we were told the food was not great.

The ten pin bowling was our salvation, we went there each day to get out of the hotel.

The hotel was dirty and very noisy. I thought it was like a youth hostel and would never ever go back to Malta. The streets are filthy and of a night were full of drunken teenagers. I went with my mates who had a four year old and we didnt go out of a night as we were worried what he would see and we are no prudes by far.
Malta is probably lovely but this part was terrible and i have never been to such poor accomodation!!!

Resort
The resort of Paceville was constantly dirty, pavements rarely being washed down. Although we knew the resort was lively it was sometimes a bit too rowdy. There were many very young Maltese children (12-16)very drunk and being sick in the streets. Contratory to the beliefe that all Maltese love the Brits, they don't, especially the younger ones. We found the older generation very polite and accommodating.

Hotel
Very dirty, very rundown and order needs to be placed at reception for even a brush to clean the dirty floors which had been missed by the cleaners/maids. We changed rooms after putting up with the noise for 3 days, and luckily we were not charged! Although the room we were moved to was filthy. My 65 year old mother had to wash the floor. We bought cleaning fluids to clean the whole room. The beds were thread bare, with springs sticking out and really needed trashing. The third bed for my rather tall son was inadequate. The complex was unsuitable for selfcatering, as the kitchen was not equiped to cook more than a cup of tea and a bacon butty! The poolside cafe was a disgrace and after seeing it i refused to eat there again. I can hardly believe the complex is only 12 years old. It has turned a 2 week holiday into a 2 month stay (hypertheticaly) and we still have 4 days to go! The entertainment programme was nonexistant and we had to find alternative ways of entertaining ourselves.

Holiday company (Choice)

This company was excelent when booking and the rep within the resort has been helpful, it is such a shame they only do Maltese holidays!!

The hotel: We arrived in malta for a wedding and had brought my mother to mind the kids. We had booked 2 interconnecting rooms, one for my mother and one for us, but when we arrived we were told one room was being serviced for a leak. So for the first night we were given a suite. After that the hotel asked us as a token of their appreciation for the inconvience would we like the suite for the 2 weeks and my mother would have a room just down the hall. this was perfect as we realised that one room for four of us would have been quite cramped as we had a travel cot with us. the hotel staff was great, they could not have been friendler or more helpful. the rooms were spotless and if the baby was havng a nap durning cleaning time the housekeeping staff came back when it suited us. the hotel restaurants were hit and miss, but that does come down to personal choice.

The beach is just a minutes walk away. Its clean and i saw the lifeguards test the water regularly plus its shallow enough for young kids. the beach is man made so the sand is gritty but it doesn't stick to you like at home. restaurants are nearby and they do take aways.

there's a shopping centre nearby. lots of clubs but i felt at 27 i was a bit too old. Go to the heart of st. julians lovely food, though the service is slow esp. if your with kids. you must eat in peppinos. best food in malta and brad pitt ate their while filming troy.

Whilst in England I booked a last min holiday. Since there was not much available we went to MALTA. Well why not?

We found this hotel still available and by booking the flight with first choice and and the hotel with cosmos we saved 400 pounds:-)Top move!! The hotel was of course the 3 STAR La Vallete.

We also decided to rent a car for the week which was very cheap. (Suncars arranged by first choice)

Due to some bad/good luck the travel agent mucked up the booking and we ended up in in a four star hotel in another resort for the first two days (lucky we had a car)

HOTEL

Anyway when we arrived at the 3 STAR valetta coming from the other hotel (which was excellent) it seemed like we has arrived in eastern Europe. Due to the amount of people in the complex the reception was constantly busy. But having read some of the reviews here we cunningly booked a SEA VIEW room beforehand so we would avoid the noise. WRONG!!!! The room was on the 7th floor and the furniture was old crappy chipboard stuff. Even the bed was a matress on a crappy chipboard base.

The kitchen was ancient and dirty, the workmanship of the bathroom would put a crappy DIT buider to shame. The floor was filthy so you would get back feet if you walked on it. We kept all our clothes in our suitcases. But the view was sensational:-) However right below the balcony is a bar called 7 something...An outside bar!! that starts to play music from about 8pm til 4am. The noise is like living above a bar in Ibiza. The only way we had a chance to sleep was to buy earplugs. WITHOUT THESE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SLEEP. I didn't see the food in the hotel but the smell of the dining room was bad enough. Thankfully we were self catering. (But We didn't resk using the kitchen). This hotel is used by loads of young italian men. Most of the brits were hiding it seemed

The pool area is overrun from about 2pm with young italian shaved hung over men with speedos:-O Most of the brits I saw were hiding round the edges.

Forget the brochure..This hotel is a one star hotel MAX. Very basic. Thankfully we got it cheap.

THE RESORT

I would say that St Julians and Paceville is like a KAVOS for young italians. Basically loads of young pi55ed italians road teh streets and bars at night. This in my opinion is not a place for groups of english girls or lads. I think they would be dissapointed.

We went on a couple holiday so Paceville was fun for the evenings just to have a few beers and a look around. One of the positive things of the italian influence is some very nice italian restaurants

THE ISLAND
If you go to malta RENT A CAR!
I cannot stress that enough. We went to all the best beaches on the island, some fish resturant in the untourist areas, also into the capital city. This made the holiday very interesting. If we had been stuck in Paceville all the time we would have been very unhappy.

Bottom line. The island is great, rent a car, never go to La Vallete Hotel, unless its dirt cheap.

We arrived at Malta, to find it was raining and only just warm. This was made worse as it was 29ºC at home (UK) but that was the one and only lukewarm day of the week. The rest of the time it was really hot, this was in early September. We stayed at the Bay View Hotel in Sliema. This was a nice hotel, situated on a busy road, however traffic noise was low and the view (If you got one over looking the harbour was great, but there were some really awful rooms which looked straight into the opposing rooms. Sliema was busy and quite nice; however the whole appearance would be better if the litter in the street was cleaned up, lots of dog-ends, etc, and the roads and pavements are diabolical. However a short walk around towards St Julian's saw a much cleaner part of town, really beautiful at night, lots of places to eat out along the street.

There are very few beaches in Malta but the lack of these did not matter at all. The whole coast line is accessible for swimming, with lots of ladders fixed to the rocks and loads of shallow flat rocks to wade out. The sea in early September was beautiful. There was lots of fish to be seen and if you intend to spend any time in the sea, do yourself a favour and buy a diving mask and snorkel, it unlocked a whole new world to my wife and I and we spent many happy hours exploring underwater. One word of warning though, buy yourself a pair of jelly shoes, or take some old trainers, as we went barefoot at first and later both found these little shivers in our feet, they were really tiny and painful to walk on and really hard to get out.

The bus service is brilliant and more important than all IT WORKS. It's usually around 20 cents to get to the adjacent towns and the buses come along every 15 minutes or so.

I was looking for a budget holiday and that was exactly what I got.
The room was very basic which was fine, although the maids laid back attitude meant one set of clean sheets in two weeks and no surfaces were ever cleaned. By the end of the fortnight there was an invasion of ants that had set up camp on the sticky surfaces in our room and the soles of our feet were black where the floor wasn't cleaned.

St Julians itself is standard fare for young holiday makers. Europop clubs, bars and restaurants that offer the same menu everywhere you go seem par for the course. It is not a place for young families or the elderly but if a group of you are looking for booze, birds and burgers then it hits the spot.

If you are going to base your opinion of this hotel on any review, please let it be mine. I am a travel agent and have been in the travel industry for over 7 years. I have recently returned from the Radisson SAS hotel in Malta and had a superb holiday.
This is my honest and unbiased opinion.

Myself and my now wife picked the Radisson Hotel as our Wedding venue. We were extremely pleased. Malta is not the prettiest place, and there is lots of building work, especially in Sliema. However, you have to remember that it's an extremely old island with some buildings older than the pyramids! We are both travel agents and had heard very good reports on this hotel. The hotel is without doubt 5 star standard - new, modern, very clean with soft, subtle decor. The rooms are furnished to a very high standard. The standard rooms are some of the best I have seen. When entering the hotel lobby you instantly get the impression of class. While the hotel is 5 star, it's not what I would call a snooty 5 star. It's very relaxed. The staff are brilliant, nothing is too much trouble.

The food is absolutey superb and despite what some people have said in previous reviews, if you are on half board as we were, you are still allowed to eat in the other restaurants but there is a charge.

On half board the evening buffet is amazing. It's completely different every night. There is always 2 or 3 differenct carvery options along with fish and vegetarian options plus countless vegetables, fresh salads, meats and the largest selection of desserts I have ever seen. The sea views from the hotel are completey uninterrupted. Prices of drinks in the hotel are not cheap but considering you are in a 5 star hotel they are not unreasonable. A pint of beer will cost you approx £3. As will a large glass of wine. The prices of the main courses in the a la carte restaurants are very good value. In the 'Le Bistro' restaurant there is only 2 dishes that are above £10!

The hotel is actually in the St Georges bay area, along with 2 other Corinthia Hotels both of which also looked good. St George's is a quiet bay about 10 - 15 minutes walk into the centre of the Paceville area of St Julians which has its numerous bars, clubs and restaurants. St Julian's itself is a lovely bay with a handfull of great restaurants. Over 35 people came to our wedding in Malta and all were extremely impressed with the Radisson Hotel. We would definitely go back to Malta as there is so much to see and do and we would defintely go back to the Radisson.

We did not have particularly high expectations for Malta as all we wanted was a good rest. Unfortunately from what we saw of the island, St Julian's, St George's and Valetta, Malta seems to have little to offer, which is a shame as it has so much potential and quite a lot of tourists, even in low season. Everywhere needs a lick of paint, buildings need repairing and they could do with some solid shopping areas. Having said that, the people are very friendly, everyone speaks fluent English, food is cheap (by London standards)and very generous and the weather is great, although it gets pretty windy this time of year, but no signs of any rain. If you plan on hiring a car (we didn't) be warned that the locals drive like nutters, but on the left, like in UK.

The big plus is the hotel which is really excellent. In its own grounds overlooking the sea/Casino, it is beautiful in appearance without being snobby, very relaxed atmosphere. The staff are great and the room was very large and well appointed with large super kingsize bed, TV, sofa, desk and chairs, marble bathroom and balcony overlooking the huge swimming pool. And the plug sockets are UK style so no adapters required and same voltage etc.

The lounge/bar area was very restful and the dining area was large and comfortable. Breakfast is buffet style and they serve everything you could possibly think of from simple cereals and tea to cold salads, hot food, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, cheeses etc. Something for everyone and plenty of it, even if you came down late (they serve till 10.30).

The pool area is large and comfortable with countless sunbeds available. Large clean pool and some paddling pools for kids if required.

Within the complex are three restaurants. We regularly went to the Italian one, Palio's, which was very good and cheap.

Overall the hotel saved the holiday because the resort is pretty disappointing. We had the rest we wanted but would not return to Malta again.

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