Le Meridien Phoenicia, Valletta

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Good
Quality of Rooms	Good
Standard of Service	Excellent
Cleanliness	Excellent
Quality of Facilities	Good

Advantages:	Great courtesy, large, comfortable room, peaceful, well - located
Disadvantages:	Some rooms could usefully be modernised

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Le Méridian Phoenicia has for a long time styled itself as the premier hotel in Valetta, and there are certainly grounds for agreeing with that verdict. It boasts many famous vistiors, and when there were all the documentaries about the 80th birthday of the Queen, they showed some footage of a ball hosted by (the then) Princess Elizabeth and Duke of Edinburgh in this hotel. Prince Phillip was stationed in Malta in the Navy after they were married, and Princess Elizabeth was a frequent visitor to Malta and regularly had afternoon at the Phoenicia Hotel.

The hotel is situated just behind the massive city walls of Valletta, not far from the main bus station at Floriana. From the hotel, the heart of Valletta is just a leisurely stroll away, taking you past the prime minister's residence, the Barrakka Gardens and into the bustle of Republic Street and St John's Co-Cathedral.

Although it nestles behind the city walls, the hotel is not dwarfed by them. Instead, the two wings of the hotel fan out overlooking a surprisingly spacious garden, with a heated outdoor pool. From the terrace by the pool, with its bar, you can look out across Marsamxetto Harbour. This is a great spot to settle down with a book and a long drink in the late afternoon sun - a small patch of calm amid the frenzy of Valletta.

Everything about the hotel when you arrive transports you back to the image of opulence around the Mediterranean of the 20s and 30s, such as you'd find in Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile or even in the film Casablanca. In the lobby, you have the white wall, marble floors and fans whirring round. There is a feeling of space as you see the lounge area, which almost feels as if it is an enclosed courtyard. Beyond the lounge is the breakfast room.

The bedroom was large, with a large bedroom, which could probably do with being modernised. Indeed, much about the room and the hotel suggested the need to revitalise and refresh the hotel. Incidentally, one interesting feature I noticed was that there were sockets for both UK and Continental European plugs.

The staff were friendly, helpful and efficient - which was our experience everywhere we went on Malta. Breakfast was good, if not overly cheap, while the food in the restaurant at lunch time was very good. The afternoon tea was highly recommended, but unfortunately we never had time to try it.

So what is the overall verdict? It is a great hotel for revisiting an old-fashioned high life. All that was missing was a sighting of David Niven or Peter Ustinov in a white suit. If the rooms were modernised, there would be very little left to improve on. The location is ideal for being close to the heart of the city without being submerged, and the staff really do show great courtesy and warmth to the visitor.

At around £90-100 a night, it is by no means over-priced, and as an extremely comfortable base for a city break it is well-worth considering. Overall, I found Malta had much less of a British colonial character than I had been expecting, and felt very, very Mediterranean. This hotel, the pillar boxes and phone boxes were the things that reminded me most strongly of that lost period of British gentility. That is part of the charm of the place and I can heartily recommend it.

Update 7 July 2007
We were visiting Valletta late in the afternoon and wanted to have a drink inn a peaceful setting, so we headed for this hotel. Even though the bar by the pool was closing, the staff were willing to serve us as non-residents. The drinks weren't cheap - around 2 maltese pouns (£3) each, but thesetting was magnificient and peaceful, and we were left to enjoy our drinks at our own pace. The gardens were very well maintained, with some very interesting cactus bushes.