Malta Travel Forum

Hi! I do not even know where to begin. My husband and I are planning on going to Malta in August. We would like to stay in a nice (3-5-star) hotel, but have no idea where! We are young (20s), no kids, so we would love to spend some time at the beach, do some sightseeing and possibly go to some clubs. I read somewhere that you could go to Sicily from Malta, but since we both will need visa to enter Malta, will we be able to enter Sicily? Anyway, ANY information would be greatly appreciated. THANK YOU!

Firstly, I would opt for branded hotel if possible, obviously this depends on your budget. If you want beach, nightlife and busy area go for ST JULIAN'S. It's in walking distance at night of bars and pubs in Paceville. Go for Corinthia or Radisson. Hilton is expensive and Intercontinental is too close to nightly noise levels. One thing though the beach is SMALL in St Julian's it gets very crowded with students during the day and the other part is reserved for Intercontinental guests.

If it's the beach you are after then stay in Mellieha, you can get a ferry to Gozo very easily. There are a few good hotels here RIU, Maritim and Solana hotel (they all have thier own websites). Although if you stay in Mellieha area at night you will need to head for Bugibba (10 mins away by car) or Paceville (25 mins by car) for nightlife. Otherwise you can stay in Mellieha with hotel entertainment and small bars.

If you want to do sightseeing it doesn't really matter where you stay as everything is easy to get to by car: Valletta, Temples and Mdina

Visa to Sicily http://www.willgoto.com/1/022746/liens.aspx

You don't tell us much about your nationality (passport).
If you need a visa for Malta you most probably will need a (Schengen) visa for Italy as well. Malta is not within the Schengen-treaty-countries (yet).

I take it you are not U.S. passport holders despite apparently living in the U.S., because if you were you would not need a visa for a short tourist visit to either Malta (http://www.learn4good.com/travel/malta_visa.htm) or Italy.
If you are, for example, Russian, then you need both a Maltese visa for Malta and an Italian (Schengen) one for Italy, which you would obtain from the relevant embassies in your home country before leaving. Airlines check that you have any necessary visas before they let you on, they may do the same with the ferry but if not and you didn't have a visa for Italy, they simply wouldn't let you leave the ferry terminal in Sicily so if you want to visit 2 countries instead of 1, you need to make arrangements now. At least you won't need a re-entry visa upon return to Malta from Sicily, see http://www.languagecourse.net/visa/malta.php3.
To check visa situation for Italy go to http://www.esteri.it/visti/home_eng.asp, fill in country of citizenship and country of residence, select as duration of stay "up to 90 days" and purpose of visit "tourism" (last selection in list).

Thanks so much! I am originally from Slovakia, and am a green card holder here in the US. Thank you so much for your help!

Hi, if you are from Slovakia, you do not need a visa because you are a european citizen, that is Slovakia, like Malta, is an EU member state....am I right? If you come to Malta, I suggest you spend one night or two in Gozo.

I will be visiting Bratislava for three night early in August, with my wife and two daughters in the early 20s. Are there any good places they can go at night for some music and clean fun? Hpefully we'll be staying at the Ibis Hotel.

Yes, that's right. If you have a Slovak passport you don't need a visa for Malta nor for Italy. The fact that you have a US greencard is not relevant.