The Palace

Laadukas hotelli hyvällä sijainnilla Sliemassa. Huoneena oli sviitti, josta mahtavat näköalat ja todella iso terassi. Huonekin oli ihan riittävän kokoinen:) Aamiainen oli myös hyvä! Ylimmän kerroksen baarin yhteydessä mukava infinity uima-allas, jossa paikallisten työajan jälkeen melkoinen vilske.

Respan henkilökunta väitti, että adapteria ei tarvita vaikka näin olikin. En siis saanut sellaista vaikka pyysinkin, mutta onneksi lähikaupasta sai helposti hankittua sellaisen.

Well appointed hotel with spacious rooms all recently redecorated and new bathrooms. We booked a double balcony room and the room was large with all the usual facilities inc a large bathroom with bath and separate shower. Useful feature was USB sockets built into headboard, 2 each side so didn’t need adaptors. The hotel has a pool and sunbathing terrace on the roof which we only used for a short time and didn’t go in the pool but was told it was very cold (September). There is also a spa but we didn’t use it. The breakfast was fairly typical of buffet breakfast the world over with nice outdoor seating area, we didn’t have any other meals so can’t comment. Staff were all most helpful and friendly and spoke excellent English. The hotel arranged taxi transfers from/to the airport which were excellent and competitively priced too. Sliema is a good location to stay for visiting Valetta, it’s better value for money and a short and not to expensive ferry journey to get to Valletta, every 30 mins €2.80 return but you can buy a 7 day pass for €10 so better value if you make more than 4 return journeys. We struggled to find nice places to eat in Sliema but maybe we looked in the wrong streets. We ate in Valletta at night and would hugely recommend Guze Bistro on Old Bakery Street. Other recommendations are Cafe Cordina for the experience and Cokneys bar near the ferry for amazing cocktails made with homemade syrups.

We were a bit disappointed to discover that our 2nd floor ‘balcony’ room actually had an enclosed patio so no view of anything except sky and hardly any sun. We only stayed a few days so it didn’t have too much impact but we do like a coffee on the balcony before breakfast. The biggest issue was with the room air con, it worked but was set up such that it was shut off it we opened the room door (this is pretty standard) but didn’t come back on when the door was closed unless someone was in the room to activate the PIR sensor. So basically the air con only operated if you were in the room, we realise this is an energy saving feature but it was horrible to try to sleep after air con only running for 1 or 2 hours in the evening before we went out and then once we got back (however it was really cold in the room by 3am) We personally didn’t like the very soft mattresses but that is a personal thing, we just like a firm mattress. The hotel is classed as 5* because of the spa we assume but to be honest leaving that out it’s a typical 4* property so we did think it was a little expensive but it was nice and we did enjoy our stay.