Oh hello, remember me? 2022 was a BUSY year and I just could not get my life together enough to get my trips posted (see for example: me posting about my Feb Stockholm trip in July), but now I am unemployed and trying to break my TikTok addiction, so here we are!
Once upon a time (in May 2022) I had a full blown meltdown at work and decided I should blow this pop stand. I had two requirements in my search: 1. A country I’ve never been to, and 2. can use Marriott points. To marriott.com we go!
I ended up deciding on Malta, the Westin Dragonara Resort, to be exact. As you may have gathered, I am a winter baby and I love a cold holiday, but on occasion I can be drawn to sitting by the water with a mojito in my hand, and this was definitely the move for this trip.
I hopped on the plane and off I went! Malta is not a very big island, so the ride from the airport to my hotel in St. Julian’s was about 15 or 20 minutes. One thing I was a big fan of in Malta is they have taxi stands all around where they have a menu of how much it costs to get to certain areas and you just pay at the stand and go on your way. I had a bunch of Euros left over from another trip that I wanted to use so I paid cash every time I took a taxi, but I think they also took credit cards.
I got to my hotel and she was a beauty. The area around it is definitely more for those who want to go to clubs, casinos, or beach clubs, but the hotel itself was heaven.
Naturally I immediately got lunch via room service then I had to go out in search of sunscreen because I wasn’t trying to check a bag just for some sunscreen. This is when I found out that that area wasn’t really my favorite place I’ve ever been. Welp, back to the hotel! I headed to the pool bar and thats when the urge to drink mojitos hit me. Strawberry mojito in hand, I headed down by the water and found a chair. It was a bit windy and chilly so I had no plans to swim in the sea anyways, but I definitely wasn’t going anywhere near that water after seeing the jellyfish warning.
Before I left London, I had done a lot of searching for boat tours in Malta after seeing a lot of tours to Gozo and the Blue Lagoon on the interwebs. Now I’m sure you all also know by now that I am not really a group tour girlie so this search was difficult. I wanted to go, but also didn’t want to be trapped on a boat with a bunch of weirdos all day. Finally I found one that I liked the look of – Hornblower Cruises.
I booked the “Discover Gozo, Comino, the Blue Lagoon & Caves” trip. This left from another part of the island at 10:00am. It was an easy taxi ride over, and I was waayyyy too early because I have anxiety and I wanted to make sure I could get there in time to rent one of the lockers on board. This trip had the option to stay at the Blue Lagoon and swim for a few hours or to go across the water to Gozo to wander instead. I chose the Gozo option because it was not that warm and also I like exploring.
This trip was actually perfect for me! It wasn’t too crowded (I think mainly due to the time of year), I got a seat on the top deck, and we were on our way. The boat slowly passes by plenty of places that are surely harboring horcruxes (see below) on the way to Comino before docking at the Blue Lagoon
Next stop was the Blue Lagoon! Even if you chose to do the Gozo trip they still gave you some time to enjoy the lagoon. The boat has a slide on the side so you can jump or slide into the water, but I skipped that because the side of the island where the boat was was windy and not very warm + I did not want to be soaked while walking around later.
Once you get to the main part of the lagoon you are greeted by many stands selling food and drinks, so naturally I had to get a mojito inside a pineapple. It was delightful.
There is one main area of the Blue Lagoon where most people tend to go to swim (below), so naturally I went to all the places that weren’t that. I rented a chair for a few minutes and that side of the lagoon had no wind and was hot, so I did get in the water, but only a little.
The Blue Lagoon is beautiful, and going back and staying there longer with friends when it’s a bit warmer would be a lot of fun, but I’m sure in the summer I wouldn’t find as many empty chairs. Also, that water, though.
After about an hour and a half at the lagoon it was time to catch the boat to Gozo! You could pay ahead to take a bus into the Capital city on Gozo, Victoria, so I opted for that. I loved Gozo, would highly recommend this option!
On the way to Victoria, the bus stopped for a chance to take some photos and also go on an optional boat ride from the Dwerja Inland Sea out into the water. This area is where there used to be a rock formation in the sea, The Azure Window, but sadly it collapsed a few years ago. The boat ride was still really cool, it was about 10 Euro and you just hopped on the boats and paid the man there. Into the sea caves!
Next we headed to Victoria and were set free to wander for a couple hours. Did the bus driver tell us how to easily to get to some of the things like the UNESCO site, The Citadel? Yes. Did I pay attention to him? No. Wandering aimlessly ensued until I deployed Google Maps. And yes, I did wander way out of the way and go the longest way possible to where I was going, thanks for asking.
There is a rooftop restaurant in the Citadel, so naturally I stopped for some fried cheese and beer, as one does.
After I ate, I had to make my way back to the bus, this time I took the direct route, it was much faster, but not as cute. The boat went back to Blue Lagoon and picked up the others then we headed back to the main island, with a quick stop at Crystal Lagoon.
I’m really glad I got over my anxiety of going on a group tour by myself and went for it, this was such a good day trip and only 30 Euros! Shout out to the other girl traveling by herself on the boat for taking my pic. (here’s a little mash up of videos from the trip, should you be interested).
I got back to my hotel and wasn’t feeling the room service options for dinner, but I did recall seeing the golden arches somewhere near the hotel so, believe it or not, I went back out to pick up some Micky D’s. I am not ashamed, so dont even try to shame this decision. This is when I discovered that in Malta (and I assume/hope) in Italy, you can get a little Parmesan cheese snack with your meal. 10/10. Obv also had a mojito with that (from the hotel, I wish I could say McDonald’s had one) because this is actually a sponsored post for mojitos.
I saved the last full day to venture into Valletta to explore, I didn’t have much on my list there, so back to wandering we go. Did I have the taxi drop me off at the only Starbucks I could see on the map to get my little emotional support iced latte? Of course not, that would be so basic of me…
Let me tell you something about Valletta. That place LOVES stairs and hills. This is something me and my new red shirt that got its dye all over my backpack and life when I started aggressively sweating were NOT prepared for. WOOF. Still pretty though. I wandered a bit up and down a bunch of stairs.
I wandered into Upper Barrack Gardens for some views. I’d like to say I intended to go there, but I was on more of a “ooh what’s over there” path in life that day.
I did more wandering, and went up and down more stairs. They do make all these stairs nice to look at though.
By this point I needed to sit down so I found my way to the one and only thing I did look up in Valletta – you guessed it, food. I needed to try a sandwich from Grano, and I’m glad I did because it was delicious.
While sitting at Grano I looked up some other things to do in Valletta and found Casa Rocca Piccola, an old palace that is open to visitors, so I decided to head over. She was cute. Casa Rocca Piccola also had WWII air raid shelters below it which were accessed by the staircase hidden in the middle of the last photo below, mind your head if you’re going to go down there 😅.
After that, I felt I had seen what I needed to in Valletta, I would say you definitely only need one day there (or a half in this case). From there it was into a taxi and on to King’s Landing (or Mdina if you want to use real names for things, whatever). Mdina was a really cool part of Malta. It was mostly narrow streets and alleyways with no cars to get in your way. Also, King’s Landing.
I wandered there a bit, but it was SO windy, and being a massive wind hater I was over it, so I didn’t last long there, plus it is not very big.
I headed back to the hotel from there and hid in my room the rest of the evening/night because WIND and a day full of STAIRS. My last day, I took my time with my breakfast and coffee and enjoyed the view from my balcony in the morning, then packed up and headed to the airport. Overall, this was a good trip, but it was definitely the perfect amount of time. I saw all I wanted to and still had time to lounge. Mojitos were 10/10 too.
If someone could please tell Mojitos to venmo or bank transfer me for hyping them up in this post, it would be greatly appreciated.
Welp, I’m gonna go think about that parmesan cheese snack now. Bye.
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