Travel: Malta

What makes you really relax on holiday? Sun helps. Scenic splendour, great beaches, good snorkelling, historic places and affordable good food are bonuses. A curious absence of mosquitoes is a big plus.

Malta and Gozo (the two largest islands which make up the group, with little Comino sandwiched in between) tick all these boxes, but the truly remarkable thing about these “pebbles in the Med” is their people. If there are 400,000 more friendly people anywhere else on the planet, I haven’t found them.

Take Mellieha Bay – a great sandy curve of beach on Gozo in the north of Malta, backed by salt pans, small drystane dyke-bounded fields and the truly barking attraction of Popeye Village.

Film-maker Robert Altman installed this eccentric townscape on the rocky margins of Anchor Bay for his 1980 film Popeye. The film may have flopped but the rickety-looking Old Mother Hubbard houses remained and became a child magnet.

For an adult researching the history of holiday homes, however, 300 huts on the edge of Mellieha – Ghadira Bay – were more of an attraction. Reflecting that there is indeed no escape from a PhD, I hauled a reluctant husband through the entrance gates for a closer look.

The discreetly located, self-built huts at Ghadira – which were approved by the government in 1978 – mean locals aren’t priced off their own beaches by foreign demand for holidays.

Perhaps that modest but guaranteed stake in their own well-being is the key to Malta’s genuine welcome. The island – smaller than Arran – clearly belongs to ordinary Maltese people. And they’re delighted to share it.

Every night on the beach at Gnejna Bay – ten minutes from our hotel – Maltese families arrived hauling food, drink, antique portable barbeques, foldable chairs for grandparents and towels for kids still swimming after midnight as their families sat talking inches from the lapping waves.

A common sight round the coast are “house caves” carved into the soft, sandstone cliffs as shelters during the war. Now they offer shade, showers, storage for boats, fishing rods and diving gear and a weekend base for Maltese families.

There are no high-fashion swimsuits, OK! magazines, sucked in tummies or raised voices. It’s the relaxed, low-key, family day-out destination most of us remember from an era before package holidays. That era lives on here.

Two centuries as a British colony have given the Maltese near-perfect English. They use British plugs and drive on the left – part of the reason Malta first became popular with wary Brits and tagged as an “old people’s” destination.

The rise of scuba diving, snorkelling, yachting and water skiing in crystal clear waters with stunning sea arches means visitors today are younger and more active – even if the stereotype remains.

But the terraced landscape is quite different from the rest of the Med. There are no isolated tavernas, olive groves, or tall cypress trees.

The trees were felled for fuel during the wartime siege which won Malta the George Cross in 1942 – the only time it has been awarded collectively. Replanted saplings died during the hot, dry summers – now cuttings have been taken from Malta’s oldest olive tree to try to restore tree cover.

Scattered farms, homes and restaurants disappeared earlier when the dangers of piracy drove islanders into Moorish-style, densely packed hilltop fortifications for protection. Almost the entire population of Gozo was captured and taken into slavery during one raid in 1551. After that, people came in from the country to sleep in the steeply walled citadella every night – by law.

The main town on each island centres on a citadella – a silent, ancient world within each noisy, modern town. On Gozo, the Knights’ Battlements offer a 360-degree view encompassing every town, church, dome, steeple and coastal watchtower. Even in August – on a bank holiday with near-endless firework celebrations – there was time to stand quietly in the evening warmth watching the sun set and the moon rise.

Inevitably, the mind makes comparisons. Greece has more islands. Italy has more style. Tunisia has more space. But Malta has more life and fewer rules. Maltese culture is neither lofty nor exclusive.

“Come in,” whispered an elderly local man as we stood hesitantly, looking into the beautiful Cathedral of the Assumption in Gozo’s Citadel as priests conducted an Orthodox ceremony inside. He took me by the elbow and ushered us into visitor seats. Some older women opposite looked up – and smiled. Outsiders are always welcome. Even in shorts. Little moments like this happened every day.

Of course, our trip had downsides – none of which involved Malta.

We queued for two hours at Glasgow Airport – an hour and a half in the wrong queue because we “should have read the information properly outside the terminal” – to board our Thomas Cook flight after the computer system crashed.

Calmness had almost returned by the time we arrived, exhausted, at the five-star Radisson Blu Golden Sands hotel on Malta to discover confusion over dates – my mistake. We sat nervously in the cool, marble-floored reception area while staff searched for a spare room during the busiest week of the holiday season.

The result … upgrade to a fabulous, elegant, roomy, air-conditioned suite. Utter, unexpected bliss.

The Golden Sands opened in 2005 and proved so popular (65 per cent of visitors are British) that two more towers of time-share suites were built with 60 hotel rooms. The towers are connected by a ground floor with restaurants, a spa, gym, cafés and swimming pools. A lift takes guests five floors down from the cliff-top hotel to the perfect yellow sands (and hotel-managed private beach) of Golden Bay below – the best of both worlds. With so much in and around the hotel, many guests clearly didn’t hire cars and used the excellent poolside crèche for child-minding and the regular bus service for occasional day trips to neighbouring resorts. But for the curious traveller, the hotel was an ideal base.

The Golden Sands enjoys a striking, off-beat location between the sea and the haunting, empty landscape of the Il-Majjistral national park. It was such a peaceful contrast with busy Valletta – Malta’s capital, and a World Heritage Site – we didn’t actually visit the world-famous port.

Next time. And with that warm welcome and winter temperatures in the high teens, next time will be very soon.

THE FACTS Thomas Cook (www.thomascook.com) and Thomson (www.thomson.com) operate direct flights to Malta. Direct return flights from Edinburgh to Malta with Ryanair start from £259 (www.ryanair.com). Rooms at Radisson Blu Resort and Spa, Malta Golden Sands start from £302 (www.radissonblu.com/goldensandsresort-malta). Riviera Travel offer an eight-day holiday based at four-star Hotel Vivaldi in St Julian’s from £769pp.