The Independent in the UK have just run a good article about why Malta is a top diving holidays destination - to read the full article click here

As I floated through the open hatchway into the engine room, it was almost as if the scene had been frozen in time. The ship’s charts were still in the rack and the phone was on the hook, but seaweed waved gracefully around the wreck, now home to octopus and fireworms.

On the seabed lay some Royal Navy china, smashed into pieces when the Lady Davinia, formerly HMS Greetham, was sunk. As I picked up one piece for a closer look, I was amused to discover it had been made in the Wedgwood factory just 15 minutes from where I grew up. Now 64 years later, it was half-buried in the sand, waiting to be rediscovered.

Just 15 metres above me, the busy cafés of Sliema, on Malta’s east coast near the capital Valletta, were full of tourists relaxing in the sunshine.

The Mediterranean island, along with neighbouring Gozo, was last year voted the best diving destination in Europe by readers of Diver magazine in America, thanks to its clear, warm waters, and more than 30 underwater sites, with reefs, fish, caves and lagoons as well as the numerous wrecks. There’s also a long diving season (from Easter through to November), and plenty of English-speaking instructors, so it’s ideal for beginners from the UK.

It was all a long way from the swimming pool in Waterloo, London, where I’d started my dive training with the London Hellfins Scuba Diving Club. Although you can do the complete course in Malta, I wanted to get the theory lessons and pool training needed for the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) qualification done in the rainy UK, rather than being cooped up in a classroom while the sun shone outside.

The chlorine-scented pool that I’d practised in seemed a world away as I headed to my hotel, the Maritim Antonine Hotel & Spa in Mellieha, in the north of Malta.

While the UK froze, the sun was shining on the small hillside town, dominated by its huge baroque church, which is still the focal point of life on the island – although, for younger Maltese, it often seems to be a meeting point to start a night out.

Mellieha is also home to one of the island’s best restaurants: Giuseppi’s Wine Bar. Despite the uninspiring name – and its less-than-obvious entrance on St Helen Street – the seafood and local fish on the menu are spectacular, thanks to local chef Michael Diacono.

Over some Maltese wine, it was time for a quick introduction to the island by dive instructor Dave, who moved here three years ago from Lowestoft, enticed by the laid-back way of life, the year-round sunshine, and the fantastic choice of dive sites. He revealed it’s the wrecks that make Maltese diving so special. And according to Dave, even on the rare occasions when there’s bad weather, or when the wind makes the sea too rough for diving in one place, there is always a more sheltered option to try less than an hour’s drive away.

The next morning, I shoehorned myself into a short pink wetsuit and some fetching black Neoprene boots as Dave led me into the calm waters of Qawra Bay, just along the coast from Mellieha, for my first ocean dive.

Things got off to a slow start when it turned out I was too light to sink, but, after a brief pause to fill my pockets with lead, I headed slowly down past shelves of seagrass towards the reef – while trying to keep an eye on my oxygen and my dive buddy, look out for landmarks to guide myself, stay balanced without shooting down to the seabed or up to the surface too fast, and still find the time to enjoy the scenery.

Once I’d worked out how to balance these various factors, I relaxed. After spotting a flying gurnard with its stunning iridescent blue markings hidden in the sand, I started to forget the strangeness of being completely surrounded by water.

The sea around Malta is home to grouper, rainbow wrasse and parrot fish, not to mention eels and more elusive barracudas and seahorses. Whether I dived one of the many wrecks or among the rock reefs and soft corals, there was plenty of underwater company, with shoals of brightly coloured fish darting over to investigate this curious bubble-blowing intruder.

With each dive I had more tests to pass, but also more exciting sites to explore. On Manoel Island, a spit of land opposite the capital Valletta, we strode off the sea wall to investigate a bombed barge, the Water Lighter X127.

Also known as the Carolita, she was sunk during the Second World War (probably after being mistaken for a submarine), and I could still make out the gaping hole left by the bomb that had finished her off.

The next day we explored the Lady Davinia. I got kitted up on the quayside, much to the amusement of a couple of local fishermen as I waddled to the shore weighed down with tank, lead and unwieldy flippers before vanishing under the waves. And when I emerged from the dive, my fifth, I was a certified Ocean Diver.

After swimming alongside them during the day, it felt almost rude to tuck into fish every evening. But specialities such as octopus carpaccio at harbourside restaurants around the island were too mouth-watering to miss.

Peppino’s in St Julian’s Bay, near Sliema, has tempted celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Madonna and Daniel Craig in the past, while they filmed in Malta (which has doubled as places such as Troy and Lebanon on film).

Meanwhile, in St Paul’s Bay, a short drive from Mellieha, Tarragon Restaurant has already started winning local awards for its modern twist on Malta’s classic favourites, such as black tiger prawns in champagne tempura.

For such a tiny island, there’s plenty to see on dry land. And as I could only safely dive for a couple of hours every day, I did plenty of exploring – when I could drag myself away from the hotel’s rooftop pool and the hot stone massages of its underground spa.

All roads lead to Valletta, around a half-hour drive from Mellieha. The fortified city, a grid of cobbled streets and steep steps, was built in the 16th century by the Knights of St John – otherwise known as the Knights Hospitaller.

Given the island as their base by a 16th-century king of Spain, and charged with protecting it against the Ottomans, they then built the new walled capital as a fortress to keep out the Turks.

The city is a Unesco World Heritage site, and walking through the streets takes you through centuries of history. Many of the façades of the auberges, the knights’ grand former palaces, are unchanged, and you can visit the Grand Master’s Palace, home to the Maltese government.

Most memorable for me, though, was the former capital of Mdina, the walled fortress in the centre of the island. Unlike Valletta’s wide, planned streets, the twisting alleyways date from around the time of the Arab occupation of the island in the ninth century.

The city is closed to all but residents’ cars. As I ambled to the bastion walls, past the Nunnery of St Benedict and the 700-year-old palazzos and casas of the Maltese nobility, nothing broke the quiet except the echoing clop of horse and carriage.

All too soon, though, it was time for my last dip: at Cirkewwa, in the island’s far north. One of the best beginner sites, the water here is astonishingly clear, and, although I couldn’t stray below 20 metres, the seabed at 36 metres looked temptingly close. One of the string of small underwater caves contained a statue of the Virgin Mary, and there was a natural stone arch in the rocks to swim through.

If you’re considering a diving holiday for next year, there’s no better place than Malta - and that’s according to the divers themselves.

As The Independent in the UK report:

As I floated through the open hatchway into the engine room, it was almost as if the scene had been frozen in time. The ship’s charts were still in the rack and the phone was on the hook, but seaweed waved gracefully around the wreck, now home to octopus and fireworms.

On the seabed lay some Royal Navy china, smashed into pieces when the Lady Davinia, formerly HMS Greetham, was sunk. As I picked up one piece for a closer look, I was amused to discover it had been made in the Wedgwood factory just 15 minutes from where I grew up. Now 64 years later, it was half-buried in the sand, waiting to be rediscovered.

Just 15 metres above me, the busy cafés of Sliema, on Malta’s east coast near the capital Valletta, were full of tourists relaxing in the sunshine.

The Mediterranean island, along with neighbouring Gozo, was last year voted the best diving destination in Europe by readers of Diver magazine in America, thanks to its clear, warm waters, and more than 30 underwater sites, with reefs, fish, caves and lagoons as well as the numerous wrecks. There’s also a long diving season (from Easter through to November), and plenty of English-speaking instructors, so it’s ideal for beginners from the UK.

It was all a long way from the swimming pool in Waterloo, London, where I’d started my dive training with the London Hellfins Scuba Diving Club. Although you can do the complete course in Malta, I wanted to get the theory lessons and pool training needed for the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) qualification done in the rainy UK, rather than being cooped up in a classroom while the sun shone outside.

The chlorine-scented pool that I’d practised in seemed a world away as I headed to my hotel, the Maritim Antonine Hotel & Spa in Mellieha, in the north of Malta.

Mellieha Malta

While the UK froze, the sun was shining on the small hillside town, dominated by its huge baroque church, which is still the focal point of life on the island – although, for younger Maltese, it often seems to be a meeting point to start a night out.

Mellieha is also home to one of the island’s best restaurants: Giuseppi’s Wine Bar. Despite the uninspiring name – and its less-than-obvious entrance on St Helen Street – the seafood and local fish on the menu are spectacular, thanks to local chef Michael Diacono.

Over some Maltese wine, it was time for a quick introduction to the island by dive instructor Dave, who moved here three years ago from Lowestoft, enticed by the laid-back way of life, the year-round sunshine, and the fantastic choice of dive sites. He revealed it’s the wrecks that make Maltese diving so special. And according to Dave, even on the rare occasions when there’s bad weather in Malta, or when the wind makes the sea too rough for diving in one place, there is always a more sheltered option to try less than an hour’s drive away.

The next morning, I shoehorned myself into a short pink wetsuit and some fetching black Neoprene boots as Dave led me into the calm waters of Qawra Bay, just along the coast from Mellieha, for my first ocean dive.

Things got off to a slow start when it turned out I was too light to sink, but, after a brief pause to fill my pockets with lead, I headed slowly down past shelves of seagrass towards the reef – while trying to keep an eye on my oxygen and my dive buddy, look out for landmarks to guide myself, stay balanced without shooting down to the seabed or up to the surface too fast, and still find the time to enjoy the scenery.

Once I’d worked out how to balance these various factors, I relaxed. After spotting a flying gurnard with its stunning iridescent blue markings hidden in the sand, I started to forget the strangeness of being completely surrounded by water.

The sea around Malta is home to grouper, rainbow wrasse and parrot fish, not to mention eels and more elusive barracudas and seahorses. Whether I dived one of the many wrecks or among the rock reefs and soft corals, there was plenty of underwater company, with shoals of brightly coloured fish darting over to investigate this curious bubble-blowing intruder.

With each dive I had more tests to pass, but also more exciting sites to explore. On Manoel Island, a spit of land opposite the capital Valletta, we strode off the sea wall to investigate a bombed barge, the Water Lighter X127.

Valletta Malta

Also known as the Carolita, she was sunk during the Second World War (probably after being mistaken for a submarine), and I could still make out the gaping hole left by the bomb that had finished her off.

The next day we explored the Lady Davinia. I got kitted up on the quayside, much to the amusement of a couple of local fishermen as I waddled to the shore weighed down with tank, lead and unwieldy flippers before vanishing under the waves. And when I emerged from the dive, my fifth, I was a certified Ocean Diver.

After swimming alongside them during the day, it felt almost rude to tuck into fish every evening. But specialities such as octopus carpaccio at harbourside restaurants around the island were too mouth-watering to miss.

Peppino’s in St Julian’s Bay, near Sliema, has tempted celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Madonna and Daniel Craig in the past, while they filmed in Malta (which has doubled as places such as Troy and Lebanon on film).

Meanwhile, in St Paul’s Bay, a short drive from Mellieha, Tarragon Restaurant has already started winning local awards for its modern twist on Malta’s classic favourites, such as black tiger prawns in champagne tempura.

For such a tiny island, there’s plenty to see on dry land. And as I could only safely dive for a couple of hours every day, I did plenty of exploring – when I could drag myself away from the Malta hotels rooftop pool and the hot stone massages of its underground spa.

All roads lead to Valletta, around a half-hour drive from Mellieha. The fortified city, a grid of cobbled streets and steep steps, was built in the 16th century by the Knights of St John – otherwise known as the Knights Hospitaller.

Given the island as their base by a 16th-century king of Spain, and charged with protecting it against the Ottomans, they then built the new walled capital as a fortress to keep out the Turks.

The city is a Unesco World Heritage site, and walking through the streets takes you through centuries of history. Many of the façades of the auberges, the knights’ grand former palaces, are unchanged, and you can visit the Grand Master’s Palace, home to the Maltese government.

Most memorable for me, though, was the former capital of Mdina, the walled fortress in the centre of the island. Unlike Valletta’s wide, planned streets, the twisting alleyways date from around the time of the Arab occupation of the island in the ninth century.

The city is closed to all but residents’ cars. As I ambled to the bastion walls, past the Nunnery of St Benedict and the 700-year-old palazzos and casas of the Maltese nobility, nothing broke the quiet except the echoing clop of horse and carriage.

All too soon, though, it was time for my last dip: at Cirkewwa, in the island’s far north. One of the best beginner sites, the water here is astonishingly clear, and, although I couldn’t stray below 20 metres, the seabed at 36 metres looked temptingly close. One of the string of small underwater caves contained a statue of the Virgin Mary, and there was a natural stone arch in the rocks to swim through.

For information on diving Malta holidays visit yourmalta.com - they also have airlines with details of flights to Malta.

The icnetwork in Wales recently wrote about a vist to the island:

THE British influence on Malta is noticeable in more than the fact that virtually everyone speaks English.

Hidden down a back street of the capital Valletta is a small pub called, simply enough, The Pub.

This is the place where hellraiser (and actor) Oliver Reed enjoyed his final drinking session before collapsing and dying of a heart attack in 1999. An extra line – Ollie’s last pub – has now been added to the sign outside and the venue is a favourite with tourists. It’s definitely worth a visit.

But don’t get the idea this tiny island is just about partying. There are so many places to see.

Malta is blessed, although in the past that could read “cursed”, with a berth in the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Africa. It has been fought over by many nations in its long history. The result is a fascinating land of architectural and cultural variety.

And because it’s so small and easily reachable from Wales, Malta is ideal for a short break. I stayed in the centre of the island, in the fabulous ancient walled city of Mdina – the former capital.

Mdina Malta

With the luxurious Xara Palace hotel as my base, I spent three days whizzing around some of the island’s varied attractions before heading back to the hotel for top quality food and hospitality. And the hotel’s location is perfect.

Perched on a hilltop it forms part of the wall around Mdina. The 17 individually-designed rooms boast dizzying views down and across the island or into Mdina itself.

Malta is a favourite destination for people from the UK looking for warm winters and hot summers, a largely gentle pace of life (if you don’t venture out on the chaotic roads on your own) and some spectacular beaches. Holidays in Malta during the winter are taken by quite a few people.

One of the island’s main attractions is its history. This tempting spot was colonised by the Phoenicians around 1,000BC. They were followed by Greeks, Romans, Arabs, French and finally the British, before Malta became independent in 1964.

All left their mark but the main existing developments date from around the time of the military religious order the Knights of Malta who spent more than a century guarding Christian Europe’s southern borders from invasion by the Ottoman Empire.

They, like me, were based in Mdina, the Silent City. Stepping through the towering walls feels like moving back several centuries in time. Few cars are allowed inside and it is home to a few hundred people who live among the peaceful, ancient alleyways.

No visit to Malta would be complete without visiting Mdina. Outside its walls the rest of the island has moved with the times.

After a visit to the pretty fishing village of Marsaxlokk, complete with brightly painted boats and busy market, it was on to the island’s current capital.

Valletta is home to the booming business sector and some sparkling nightlife. The glitzy clubs are concentrated in just a few streets where the beautiful people congregate. There is much talk of Malta becoming a party capital – the new Ibiza. While that might be a way off, I did enjoy a night in Valetta’s Ministry of Sound club where superstar DJ Todd Terry was in residence.

Valletta Malta

Despite its long and eventful history, the city seems youthful and buzzing. But everywhere there is a mix of the old and new.

Incongruously close to Ollie’s last stand is St John’s Co-Cathedral, featuring spectacularly gaudy decoration as well as some gems including The Beheading of John the Baptist by Caravaggio and works by Malta’s own art superstar Mattia Preti.

After spending the days wandering around the island’s attractions, it was a pleasure to return to the Xara Palace. And after a rest on the comfy king-sized bed, it was time for a spectacular meal cooked by chef Kevin Bonello in the rooftop de Mondion restaurant overlooking the bright lights of the island.

The setting was spectacular, the ambience relaxed and the food perfection.

Visit yourmalta.com for a choice of Malta hotels

Malta

Can’t get to sleep at night? A trip to Malta might ensure relaxation if you do what Gail Porter did, and wrote in the UK Daily Mail:

A week before Christmas I flew out of a desperately cold Manchester for a much-needed weekend spa break in Malta. Little did I realise that a magnetic mattress there was about to cure my long-standing insomnia.

My destination was a new style of hotel - the first in Europe - that uses energised magnetic mattresses, duvets and pillows to supposedly give you a better night’s sleep.

Well, as I usually wake up at 4am on the dot, no matter what time I crawl into bed, I wasn’t holding out much hope that a few nights at the Fortina Spa Resort hotel in Sliema would make any difference to my annoying sleeping habits.

My boyfriend Jonny and I arrived on the island at midnight, so we had little idea of our surroundings, but we did receive a warm welcome at the hotel before being escorted to our special ‘Wellness Rejuvenation’ room.

We were told there was a heated Jacuzzi on the balcony, from which there was a fantastic view over the harbour, and I couldn’t wait to see it in daylight, so we retreated to our magnetic bed.

The next morning I woke up and leant over to my phone to check the time and nearly fell out of bed, I was so shocked. It was 10am. I had slept right through the night - practically unheard of for me. I was elated.

I woke Jonny - who also managed to sleep like a baby - and we made a dash to breakfast before we missed it. We had to get a move on as we had massages booked for 11am. Jonny had never had one before so he was a mixture of trepidation and excitement.

I was having a Thai and Jonny a Lava shell massage. I have had a Thai massage before but this was one of the best I’ve experienced. It was exactly what I needed to relieve all the aches, pains and stiffness that my body had been holding on to. I also had the most wonderful head massage before I left. I was in heaven.

Jonny looked like the cat that had got the cream. His massage consisted of being massaged all over with hot shells. On our final day we were going to swap treatments, so I had this to look forward to.

The resort has many restaurants serving cuisine from around the world. After our treatments we went to the Hibiki Japanese restaurant for some beautifully fresh sashimi and a cooked tuna steak.

Then after lunch it was back to the room to get ready for an afternoon exploring the island. But first we had a look around. As we’d rushed down to breakfast after my fantastic sleep, we’d missed all the other gadgets.

There were mountain-fresh ionised air purifiers, a living water and shower system and hygienic bedding that kills dust mites. We also had a body energiser beside the bed, which massages your feet to help increase circulation and relaxation.

And, in the bathroom, there was a Dermalife Spa-Jet, a huge capsule-type piece of equipment with a spa shower with 20 heads, a ’steam experience’, coloured lights, and various water massage settings. I could see I was going to have a lot of fun with this.

We also had a Power Plate, a machine that can give you the equivalent of a full body workout in just 15 minutes.

Once my lunch had settled, I gave it a go. It is a strange experience as the plate vibrates as you do a series of exercises illustrated in a pamphlet. I found it exhilarating and my muscles certainly felt as if they had worked hard.

Massage, lunch and mini workout done, it was time to venture out to Mdina and then on to the capital, Valletta.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1279351/Spa-breaks-Gail-Porter-cures-insomnia-Malta.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0sdesagbZ

The UK’s Daily Telegraph ran a report recently about Valletta:

It was built in the 16th century as a city fortress capable of withstanding attacks by marauding Ottoman Turks, but 500 years on a new battle is raging over the future of Valletta, Malta’s historic capital.

A £90 million project envisages transforming the historic entrance to the World Heritage-listed city – a medieval gem which has remained little changed since it was built by the Knights of St John in the 1560s.

The avant-garde plan has been drawn up by world renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, who has worked on the Pompidou Centre in Paris and Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz. It was given the green light last month by Malta’s government and is due to be completed by 2012 but has sparked a ferocious row among the Mediterranean island’s 400,000 inhabitants.

It entails building a brand new parliament building, tearing down the existing city gate and turning Valletta’s ruined Royal Opera Theatre into an open-air performance space.

The theatre, constructed in 1866, was badly bombed by the Luftwaffe in the siege of Malta during the Second World War and has lain in ruins ever since.

The then British colony was collectively awarded the George Cross by King George VI in 1942 in recognition of its bravery and resistance to the German and Italian onslaught, which brought the island close to starvation and surrender.

Nearly 70 years on, opponents say that the parliament building is an unnecessary vanity project and that the redesigned city gate will bring unacceptable levels of traffic into Valletta’s narrow medieval streets, which are crowded with exquisite Baroque churches and palaces built by the English, French, Italian and German knights of the Order of St John.

Critics want the theatre to be rebuilt as a proper opera house, although British theatre impresario Cameron Mackintosh, whose mother was Maltese and who has a house on the island, has proposed that a new opera venue could be built in the former hospital of the Knights of St John, now known as the Mediterranean Conference Centre.

“This project is going to radically change the face of Valletta,” said Astrid Vella, the leader of a heritage group called Together For A Better Environment.

“The arrogance with which it has been passed by parliament, with no proper public consultation, is breathtaking. We are wasting millions on a huge white elephant in the middle of Valletta.

Valletta video

“Maltese are normally evenly split on issues along polarised political lines between conservatives and socialists, but amazingly they have united in opposition to this project.”

The noisy fiestas and fireworks display which are a big part of summer on Malta would make an open air theatre unworkable, she said.

“Maltese fireworks are not just colour and light like in the rest of Europe, they are massive bangs, almost bombardments. It’s like being under siege and it happens every weekend.”

The theatre was designed by British architect Edward Middleton Barry, who planned Covent Garden. It has lain in ruins since it was bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1942. Debate over its future has raged ever since, with no less than 47 attempts to rebuild or refashion the theatre collapsing in the face of bitter opposition.

All that remains of it now are the steps which once led up to a grand entrance hall, battered walls surrounding a grubby concrete square and the graffiti-covered stumps of stone pillars. The whole site is strewn with litter and infested with weeds.

Paris-based Renzo Piano and his Maltese partners, a company called Architecture Project, want to restore the remains and turn them into an open-air performance centre by night, and a public piazza by day.

Steel columns will support a sail-like canopy which will give shelter on the few occasions when it rains and muffle the sound of performances from neighbouring residential areas.

“It will evoke the design of the original building,” said Konrad Buhagiar, a partner with Architecture Project, who gave The Sunday Telegraph a tour of the site.

He said demands for the opera house to be rebuilt reflected a stagnated view of the past. “In the 19th century, when it was built, the Maltese were trying to show the British that they were not savages, that they had a Latin culture of their own. It became the focus of local identity. It’s been a political hot potato ever since.”

Proponents say the revamped site will help Malta move away from its reputation as a sun, sea and sand holiday destination, a market in which it faces stiff competition from cheaper countries like Tunisia, and reinvent itself as a cultural attraction.

But a group of 130 local actors and artists has signed a petition of protest, saying that Malta already has several open air arts spaces and that it is crying out for a proper theatre.

“We need an open air performance space like a hole in the head,” said Kenneth Zammit Tabona, a prominent art critic and columnist. “We have loads of them – it’s like taking coals to Newcastle.”

It would be better to turn the old theatre into a museum of contemporary art, a public library or a concert hall, he said.

“Our orchestra has been homeless for 15 years and the public library is located in a ditch. Some people are calling for a national referendum on this whole project.”

Although Valletta’s existing city gate will be demolished as part of the contentious plan, the architects point out that it dates not from the time of the Knights but from a brutal reconfiguration carried out in the 1960s.

It is indeed something of an eyesore, and will be replaced by huge limestone gate posts more in keeping with the great bastions and curtain walls which encircle Valletta.

The 60ft-wide, asphalt-covered bridge which leads to the city gate, carrying pedestrians above a chasm-like defensive ditch excavated by the Knights, will be stripped back to its much narrower 16th century dimensions.

“We’ll remove the additions made by the British in the 1850s and again in the 1930s and 1960s and bring back the feeling of entering a fortified medieval town,” said Mr Buhagiar.

Just inside the gate, in an open space which has been known since Maltese independence in 1964 as Freedom Square, the new parliament building will be built.

The design has been described by one opposition MP, Carmelo Abela, as “an ugly building built on stilts”.

It will replace the cramped Baroque palace which Malta’s MPs currently use, but opponents say that Valletta has plenty of other large, crumbling palaces which could easily be restored and converted into a parliament, without the need to construct a new building.

“It would be a fraction of the cost and it would serve to revitalise the entire lower half of Valletta, which has become a virtual slum area, neglected for the last century,” said Ms Vella.

The full article can be read by clicking here

Malta is perfect for a spring holiday, according to the Daily Telegraph in the UK, who comment:

Malta has an extraordinary, 7,000-year history that has left a remarkable legacy. Its little-known Neolithic temples are the oldest sophisticated stone buildings in the world (older even than Stonehenge). These, combined with the remains of Roman occupation, opulent churches and massive fortifications of the Knights of St John and the many reminders of Malta’s crucial role in the Second World War, mean that the tiny country has one of the highest densities of historical sites anywhere. And it’s all bathed in warm Mediterranean sun (it’s currently about 18C in the afternoons) and surrounded by crystal-clear blue sea. It’s a great destination for an early-season break.

Wandering around the charming capital Valletta. Built by the Knights of Malta in the 1570s, it is surrounded on three sides by sea and on all sides by massive fortifications designed to repel further attempts at invasion by the Turks who nearly took the islands in the Great Siege of 1565. The whole city is a World Heritage Site.

Then look down from the Upper Barracca Gardens and the bastion walls at the Grand Harbour, which was crucial to the Allied victory in North Africa, and remained the Mediterranean home of the Royal Navy until 1979. Be dazzled by the…to read the rest of the article click here

For more information and a Malta profile including Malta hotels visit www.yourmalta.com

Valletta Malta

Good news for Malta - ABTA - the Association of British Travel Agents - has chosen the island for their next annual conference.

Last year it was held in Tenerife.

Travel Weekly report:

The Malta Tourism Authority hopes ABTA’s decision to hold this year’s Travel Convention in the country will help reverse a fall in visitor numbers.

British arrivals fell by 8% last year to about 420,000, said Alex Incorvaja, the tourist board’s director for the UK and Ireland.

While the credit crunch and the pound’s fall against the euro both played a part in the downswing, he said hosting the convention would help boost the UK trade’s awareness of the Mediterranean destination.

Incorvaja added: “Just over 35% of all visitors are from the UK, and tour operators and travel agents represent a big chunk of that.”

About half of British arrivals book packages, but official GfK Ascent-MI statistics suggest Malta is not taking advantage of an increased demand for all-inclusive holidays and more flexible eight to 13-night durations, possibly due to a lack of airlift.

The convention will be held at the Hilton Malta Hotel at Portomaso St Julian’s near the island’s capital Valletta.

ABTA chairman John McEwan said: “The Malta Tourism Authority was extremely keen to host the ABTA convention; not only is it a lovely island but they have given us an extremely competitive package.”

The choice of Malta ends a four-year run of the convention being hosted by Spain.   It will be held on October 18-20 and is expected to attract 1,000 delegates, about a third of whom will be travel agents.

A good article about the capital of Malta - Valletta - appeared recently in the Daily Telegraph.

They comment:

Elsewhere, in the sunshine of Republic Square, Caffè Cordino’s waitresses ferry cappuccino while an enthroned statue of Queen Victoria looks on impassively. At the rear of the square the 18th-century Bibliotheca’s vaulted, book-lined reading room resembles a forgotten film set. Here, among the entire written history of the Knights of St John, is Charles V’s Deed of Donation detailing the Maltese falcon lease.

Crossing Strait Street, I note that the crumbling naval bars and dance halls, once Malta’s Red Light district, are deserted. A little farther though, at the 18th-century Manoel Theatre on Old Theatre Street – where else? – Josette Portelli is showing a group of Spanish visitors around the tiered Neapolitan-style auditorium – I tag along.

“Our season runs from September to May. We’ve had all kinds of performers, from Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja to percussionist Evelyn Glennie, to the National Theatre and the Reduced Shakespeare Company, and soprano Tatiana Lisnic arrives late this month. We’re the oldest theatre in Malta and the third oldest in Europe.” I’d like to chat longer but have an appointment with a cannon.

Just before noon, I am at the Upper Barrakka Gardens, which overlook the Saluting Battery where at 12 o’clock sharp each day, 2lb of black powder is discharged from a British cannon – enough to produce a shocked smile on most faces. To read the full article click here

For more information about Malta, including Malta holidays visit http://www.yourmalta.com

Writing in the UK’s best selling daily quality newspaper The Daily Telegraph recently, Matthew Teller praised the Ghajn Tuffieha beach near Valletta as one of the best in the world.