Most families travel on a budget, and sometimes that budget is tight with the demands of all the family. Our mission for summer 2015 was to book a week for the 5 of
us in 5-star hotel with guaranteed sunshine for under £2,000 including all
travel and most of the food. With the help of Ryannair’s route map, we
rediscovered Malta. We had stopped off there in the days before children,
vowing to return after an all too brief run around a tiny part of its amazing
history.
And this history is visible history on a monumental scale – with
bloodthirsty tales through the crusades, and pretty much every War affecting
Europe and North Africa since. As the home of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean
Fleet since 1800, it was besieged by the Nazi’s and Italians until 1942, and
became the most bombed place in the world, ever. The destruction of the the
stunning capital city of Valletta (since entirely rebuilt) and fortitude of its
citizens earned Malta the George Cross, an honour of which the island remains
very proud. This piece of history is excellently recounted in the Lascaris War
Rooms under parapets of Valletta. We were shown round the welcomingly cool
subterranean corridors by a guide who never wavered from his view that Britain
really is the greatest country on earth (apart from Malta). The reality of
Europe of War is brought alive in this network of rooms, where Eisenhower and Montgomery
planned the invasion of Sicily, and where hundreds of military planners lived
and worked throughout the war.
Moving further back in time, Malta’s place in the British
empire from 1800 is re-enacted daily by a superb group of enthusiastic
historians in Fort Rinella. Dressed in Victorian military costumes, they
provide genuinely interactive demonstrations of signalling, weaponry, and
cavalry attacks which all our children were encouraged to actively participate
in. There can be few opportunities in the EU today for 10 year-olds to don a
pith helmet and fire a Victorian Musket, but this is one of them. Being about
half an hour bus ride from Valletta, and therefore slightly off the beaten track,
Fort Rinella feels like a hidden gem, right from getting off the bus and being
unable to see it concealed in the hillside; to being one of only three family
groups there during our visit.
And so the history goes back, through the Maritime History,
the Knights of St John, the great siege of Malta, Normans, Arabs, St Paul,
Phoenicians, and even further to Stone-Age settlements. But this is a holiday
rather than a history tour, the rest will wait for another visit.
Back to the original specification. There was sunshine, lots
of it. This is the Southern Mediterranean. Malta has a few beaches, but we
didn’t head to them as we could jump into a clear blue sea from a series of
little platforms and steps from the hotel. The hotel pool was welcomingly cool,
good enough to spend a few relaxing days there without venturing beyond its borders. I had the impression that most
of the guests never left the hotel complex at all, which seems a tremendous
loss.
We slightly exceeded the £2,000. Ryannair flights were just
under £200 each, but by upgrading to a suite big enough for the 5 of us, the
cost on a B&B basis stretched above £1,000. However eating out was cheap
and plentiful. Our hotel was close enough to stroll for 10 minutes into St
Julian’s, which (beyond the more obvious drunk British teenagers on the
seafront) provided plenty of excellent family friendly restaurants. There is a
strong Italian influence on the food, with numerous “proper” pizza restaurants
and a range of gelato bars. We also wandered along the beach one evening to a
local bar which seemed to be full of families, where we ate a delicious meal of
seafood for around EUR 5 – 10 each.
So sunshine, yes; £2K budget – nearly. Extras for interest – completely exceeded.
Malta is definitely a place to come back to, both to see the rest of it, and to
see it again through the eyes of the children as their ages and interests
change.
