Holidays Malta, Visit Malta, Malta Vacations Tips

Malta. Third in the world for quality of life!

2011-01-12T09:08:00.000-08:00

Hey this is an interesting bit of news!

Times of Malta - Wednesday, 12th January 2011

Malta is the place for a holiday every day - International index rates island third in the world for quality of life. Article by Fiona Galea Debono

If you are seeking the best quality of life in the world, you won’t be missing the mark if you head for Malta.

The island has nearly topped International Living magazine’s Quality of Life Index for 2011, ranking third in the world, hot on the heels of the US and New Zealand, particularly for its sizzling temperatures, but not only...

To come out ahead, a country must be an all-around good pick, not just a standout in a couple of areas, and that explains why the top finishers are developed nations.

An English-speaking population is an asset for the expats in Malta.“...warm, dry, Mediterranean climate, low crime rates, good medical facilities...” – 2011 Quality of Life Index of International Living magazine. Photo: Jason Borg
The index identifies places where people live well on the cheap, pay less tax, enjoy better weather and take advantage of emerging markets; where they can best escape, retire, start over or take off on a grand adventure…

Published annually, the league table rates 192 countries in nine categories, including cost of living, culture, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, safety and risk, and climate, to present overall ratings for their comparative qualities of life.

“And for the record,” says International Living editor Eoin Bassett, “we’re biased. Our sources, staff and contributing editors are all influenced by a Western bias. We have definite, preconceived ideas about what constitutes a high or low standard of living, what constitutes culture and entertainment, and what climate is the most enjoyable.”

The criteria for 2011’s Quality of Life Index, which is the only one of its kind and has been produced for the last 30 years, have been revised and updated, he said.

Official sources and statistics are scoured so it is not surprising that the US, with the world’s biggest economy, tops the index – on a strictly statistical basis, it is hard to beat.

But several satisfied expats are living proof that, in return for sacrificing some of the convenience of the US, a truly healthy, happy and more affordable life overseas is possible, the index finds.

“Our Quality of Life Index cannot tell you where to find a midnight steakhouse, a 24-hour convenience store or a mall with everything under one roof. What it can tell you is that with a warm, dry, Mediterranean climate, low crime rates, good medical facilities and English-speaking population, Malta is a good place to start looking for a life overseas,” Mr Bassett says.

The first-world retirement haven is New Zealand; Iceland, Switzerland and Costa Rica top the environment category; while Zimbabwe and Malta tie for first place in climate, although they are not considered cheap.

Malta also beats the US and New Zealand when it comes to leisure and culture, and the environment, the index shows.

Barbara Bode, who lived in Malta for several years and grew to love its lifestyle, food and quality of life, maintains that “every day is like a holiday” here.

Highlighting assets such as its “history, sunshine, serene sailing and crashing waves along rocky shores”, she adds that communication is easy.

Real estate may be pricey and upscale stores too, but she has found ways of saving money – and making new friends – by shopping at the green grocers and butchers early in the morning

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110112/local/malta-is-the-place-for-a-holiday-every-day

Out and about...

2010-03-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

Its not easy being a tourist. Well unless you're the adventurous kind I mean. But if you're the type who likes to plan it all out the last thing you'd want to face are surprises and setbacks.
This is particularly true when booking tours and excursions. Holiday accommodation, particularly hotels, enjoy considerable reviews from which one can be guided. But excursions differ from season to season.

My only advice in securing a good tour is to shy away from sites provided too much automation. You want to be able to exchange a few emails and, why not, even a few phone calls with your guide/s before parting with your money. Let them earn your confidence. An excursion is not (well should not) be an off-the-shelf product. The best ones are more often than not practically tailor made for what interests you most.

A good place to start off exploring the best tours currently on offer is this Malta Tours and Excursions website.

Happy exploring!

Figures are Down but Hopes are Up!

2009-12-17T15:19:00.000-08:00

Lets face it. Europe-wide tourism was really not so good with the credit crunch and all. Unfortunately many establishments suffered poor business and some even down-sized considerably or even closed. Most travel and car hire websites also experienced the bitter taste of a very slow moving market.

But hey we're soon getting out of this and once its over only the best would have survived .. which is good news for travellers. So after all this gloom is over expect to be served by the best Hotels, Car Hire and transport companies!

Here are some movers and shakers that you kindly recommended to me:

Hotel Accommodation Direct Bookings
Malta Apartments and Villas
Excursions for Malta & Gozo
Gozo Lodgings & Holiday Accommodation
Fun e-cards from Malta
Things to do in Malta
Maltese Bargains
Hotels Malta
Malta Tourist Information
Map of Malta

Send in more useful sites any time!

DO VISIT US! MALTA & GOZO ARE GREAT HOLIDAY DESTINATIONS.

Check your change! Some coins may not be what they seem

2008-11-09T03:53:00.000-08:00

Lately I paid EUR10 for a EUR1 coffee and rightly got my EUR 9 change in return ... or did I?? Well I'm sure I took a fleeting glance at my change and all was in order. I had a EUR 5 note and two Euro coins...

Later during the day I specifically needed to pick out a EUR 2 coin. The one I picked out looked exactly like a 2 Eur coin at a glance but I suspected foul play when I couldn't spot the number 2 on either side.

However believe it or not its NOT a fake. It just happens to be one of Thailand's official currency coins!

To learn more about coins that look like Euro coins you can visit this interesting forum

http://www.eurobilltrackerforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=10008

So please be on the look out. Check your change COIN by COIN or you might get an unwanted surprise. The Thai coin is worth a fraction of a Euro roughly 25 euro cents!

Public Transport in Malta

2008-10-22T02:05:00.000-07:00

Lately I was invited to attend an exhibition launch in Valletta on a Friday at 8pm. I figured it could take till 9pm for the event to warm up, till 10pm to really get going and to fizzle out around 10:30pm

So I decided to take a bus to Valletta thinking I should be able to catch some 11pm bus on heading home. Unfortunately on arriving I confirmed with the driver that the last bus was scheduled to depart at 10:00pm !

This is naturally a huge setback for any tourist but also for us locals. It is also in contradiction to Malta's recent publicity encouraging people to make more use of public transport in order to safeguard the environment. If bus schedules can't even cater for a simple event in Valletta can you imagine how even more impossible it becomes to try and attend something in Mellieha!

Thankfully some kind tourists recently put pen to paper about this frustrating disservice. You can read their letter at this Times of Malta link "No night bus for major tourist attraction"

No small wonder that most tourists prefer malta car hire or making their own airport transfer arrangements!

Big loss of Kudos for Malta - RUBBISH RUBBISH

2008-08-26T06:37:00.000-07:00

I'm very proud of Malta but please teach her to wash at least once a week especially in the sticky and stinky summer months. Oh and do make sure she cleans those hard-to-reach bits like under the pavement and outside communal buildings (which tend to become no-mans-land)

And rubbish bins become so hard to use when the filth piles up three feet or higher. If you can get to them that is ... mostly inaccessible when totally surrounded by bag after bag of domestic rubbish ... tsk tsk ... now is that the right place to dispose of domestic rubbish ??

And can whoever delivers unwanted junk mail please refrain from dumping stuff on doorsteps. If it won't fit the letterbox just don't deliver it. There's no point in littering the streets with your junk. Why don't the authorities fine this blatant littering. It can very easily be traced back to the polluter and the polluter should always pay.

Certainly people need to do their bit and learn some good manners and good habits. But the authorities also need to clean their ears and their acts ... No we are not doing enough. More cleaning, more bins and more maintenance and upkeep are required. Come on Malta you can do it!

What to look out for ?? when renting a car in Malta

2008-05-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

Car Hire providers in Malta are wide and varied. Some are run by individuals while others are actually backed by an international car hire network. So does it all boil down to price?

The most important thing to keep in mind is to always read the small text in the terms and conditions section. Don't just compare prices at a glance. ALWAYS Compare the full service. Prices that are really cheap normally also come with unwanted surprises upon collecting your car ... particularly where insurance cover or certain extras are concerned. You might easily have to fork out TWICE the originally paid price to get decent insurance cover UNLESS you want to take the risk of course.

As in most cases trust is practically everything. According to a recent report by a prominent holiday portal the following are some top Maltese car hire websites committed to providing car hire value for money with quick or instant quotes, clear terms and and an easy online booking procedure:

Cheap Car Hire Malta
Low Cost Car Rentals Malta
Bargain Rent-a-car Services
Most Reliable Airport Transfers Malta
24/7 Auto Rentals
Malta Car Hire - Compare Prices
Small but Friendly Car Hire

Related links
http://www.realholidayreports.com/reports/reports.asp?id=273&carhire_id=22290

Does an imminent election effect you as a tourist?

2008-03-07T15:09:00.000-08:00

Lets say you're planning a Mediterranean Holiday and while googling around you come across Holiday Accommodation Malta and say Villas Short lets Malta but then you look up news malta and find out that your vacation would coincide with the country's election time which takes place every 5 years. What is your reaction?

a.) You dread the potential instability and tick off Malta from your list of potential destinations
b.) It doesn't bother you at all
c.) It actually interests you to see what election time looks like in Malta giving added value to your holiday

Share your views with me! As at time of writing the party currently in Government boasts of exceptional tourism experienced in 2007 and anticipates an even better 2008. Not so for the opposition.

What is your impression? Especially if you're a local hotelier or restaurant manager, perhaps you run a Malta or Gozo car hire firm? How was business in 2007? What is 2008 really looking like? Is the current tourist a planner and a spender or is he more of the late booking weekend break type who doesn't spend much? Is Malta only attracting ageing tourists or are we attracting more of the clubbing type to our very unique town of Paceville where partying never ends??

Bye Bye Maltese Lira. Hello Euro

2007-11-09T02:57:00.000-08:00

Hello World :)

As you know a big change is round the corner. Malta will be adopting the Euro in less than 2 months time!!! Come Jan 2008 the Maltese Lira will quickly get out of circulation and payments will only take place in Euro money.

What are your views about this happenning? Will it be advantageous for Malta to do away with its own Maltese Lira currency and adopt the Euro ?? What are the advantages? What are the disadvantages? Feel free to add your comment to my blog!!

Related links:

The Eurozone

Malta to join the Euro as planned – is it a bed of roses?

The official Euro Changeover Website

Nostalgic - The old Maltese coins - sob sob

Crazy Parties, Concerts, Festivals and Festas!

2007-08-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

Malta is such a hyped-up place! This year we've had an incredible number of massive events. Bryan Adams, Zucchero, Isle of MTV, Gigi D'Alessio and many many more

And don't forget the numerous festivals and festa's

Around July/August don't miss the beer and wine festivals

http://www.manicmalta.com/wine_festival_malta.htm

http://www.manicmalta.com/beer_festival_malta.htm

Hope it gets bigger and busier year after year!

New to Malta? I'll help out with some links

2007-07-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

If you're like me you're likely to feel disorientated when visiting a place for the first time. Well search engines can be of great help in locating 'reliable' websites. But does a good search engine ranking really tell you everything about a place ... This is why I feel obliged to recommend a good product/service when I come across one.

Ok.

1. Looking for a good car hire site? Here's one. This is what one happy customer wrote about their service: "Excellent customer service, called the Malta Car Hire helpline twice which was answered promptly, great value for money, a company that sure knows what the customer wants and needs. ... " .. review at this link http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews139720.html

This great car hire site with excellent service and instant quotes is maltacar-hire.com

2. Want to learn about things to do and places to go? Check out this unusual event site updated directly by the promoters themselves! Can't get closer to the source than this site. Every promoter, artist, organiser promotes his events for free on this site. There's also a cool calendar of events and regular prizes such as tickets to events and the like. And best of all, no boring events. Just art, music and entertainment. Its all there for you at manicmalta.com

3. How about some real nightlife fun? Or would you rather learn to dance salsa during the day? The best that Malta can offer for latin music and cheeky partying at Fuego in both Qawra and St Julians. Visit fuego.com.mt to learn about these crazy fun-packed clubs which are very busy all year round.

If you learn about any other reliable services please share with me.

Bye Bye for today xxx

Share your Holidays in Malta experience

2007-05-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

Hello. Please feel free to share your Malta Holiday experiences on my blog. You can also request a link to your personal website as long as it contains valid content. Let it all out good or bad! Experience is the best teacher.

To give you some ideas
Holiday Malta 1999
Malta recommended
Malta Q&A with dedicated expert!

Hope to keep adding more. Be sure to recommend if you come across any!

Malta - a diamond in the rough

2007-04-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

Malta could be a world class Mediterranean country being extremely rich in culture and heritage. What keeps us back from being a five star destination? In my opinion our drawback is a lack of attention to detail. Such as having an excellent hotel with sterling service but then a badly maintained promenade ... basic inexpensive little things like more frequent street cleaning or the odd pot-hole which is left gaping for months on end (if not years)

A case in point:

Taken from the Times of Malta online version of the newspaper Wed 11 Apr 2007

http://www.timesofmalta.com/core/article.php?id=257884&hilite=edwin+borg

"Promenade in bad state by Edwin P. Borg, San Gwann.

I need not write long letters about the lack of safety and cleanliness of the Ghadira promenade. Pictures say it all.

What tempted me to write, however, is that while Ghadira is supposed to be our tourist mecca, it is crying out for attention. A thorough clean-up is well overdue.

Sand dunes are everywhere, along the pavement and even along the road. And the fact that weeds are now growing on top of them proves that the sand has been there for months. What is more serious is the dangerous state of the pavement. At one end it is cracked and has caved in, depriving anyone, young and old, from a walk in safety.
Is it possible that nobody cares to supervise such places?"

But then, isn't Malta beautiful? Shouldn't we take better care of this little gem?

Scenic Malta photos

More photos of Malta

A holiday maker's photo album of Malta

Useful links:

About Malta - a concise History of Malta

Holiday Accommodation in Malta & Gozo

The official tourism website for Malta