TOP CountryLine Hotel Fortina, Sliema

I stayed at the Fortina Hotel In Sleima Malta on the 9th june 2009 till the 16th june 2009.
As soon as I arrived to the hotel IO was very surprised to be asked for my photograph taken by the receptionist, I was very unsure on why he wanted a photo of me and found it rather bizarre as i’ve never been asked for my photo taken as soon as i arrive.
With messy hair and a very dull complexion ( i arrived at 2am ) i stood starring into a web ...
...card with the photo on and I then realized it was because you needed a photo on your card as prove you have paid for an all inclusive.. may i add my photo looked dreadful !

The reception looked nice, it was pretty modern and had several seats for people to sit down and get away from the heat during the day.
The temperatures in Malta were around 30 degrees when I was there and one day I heard it was 40 degrees, so as you can imagine ... more

I stayed at the Fortina Hotel In Sleima Malta on the 9th june 2009 till the 16th june 2009.
As soon as I arrived to the hotel IO was very surprised to be asked for my photograph taken by the receptionist, I was very unsure on why he wanted a photo of me and found it rather bizarre as i’ve never been asked for my photo taken as soon as i arrive.
With messy hair and a very dull complexion ( i arrived at 2am ) i stood starring into a web cam for my photo.
He then passed me a card with the photo on and I then realized it was because you needed a photo on your card as prove you have paid for an all inclusive.. may i add my photo looked dreadful !

The reception looked nice, it was pretty modern and had several seats for people to sit down and get away from the heat during the day.
The temperatures in Malta were around 30 degrees when I was there and one day I heard it was 40 degrees, so as you can imagine most people were sat in the shade whilst they were visiting Malta.

Anyway, the staff were lovely and spoke very good English, I found out on a bus tour that the reason that the residents speak such good English is because they learn English and Maltese at the same time at school from 5 years onwards so as you can imagine they speak it very well which makes it a lot easier when you need help.

So anyway we’d arrived at the hotel at 2am, me and my father wanted to go to a bar for a few drinks before we went to sleep but after going round the whole of the hotel (which may i add is pretty huge and has a load of facilities) we couldn’t find a bar open so as always our last restort is asking a member of staff, we asked one of the guys at reception and it turns out the main bar closes at 1am.

I was pretty disappointed in this, you may think its unnecessary for bars to be open till early hours in a hotel as you can visit bars and clubs in the resort but as i was all inclusive i wouldn’t of minded having a bar open 24/7 which had food and drink for those who arrived late from flying or simply couldn’t sleep, ive known people who have stayed in hotels which have done this.

But never mind.

The next day we woke up early to go for breakfast, when i say early im talking on the lines of eight o clock, im still young so this would be abnormal of me to wake up this early at home.
We used the lift to get to breakfeast which may i add is THE SLOWEST LIFT EVER! We went inside and when it arrives on a floor it takes ages for the door to open its ridiculous, after getting in the lift we ended up in reception which is floor 0 but then we had to walk down the stairs to get to the bottom of the hotel where the restaurant is which does self service the food there was average it wasn’t amazing but it wasn’t bad either, there’s the typical choice of food available, bacon, sausages egg, bread, cereal fruit and so on.

Theres 5 restaurants to choose from which include Far eastern food and Italian food.
I would like to add however that I only visited one of the restaurants which was called the La Vallette its is a self service buffet restaurant located on the lower ground floor, there were three over restaurants that i could of got free food from with my all inclusive card, two restaurants i would of had to pay a supplement of about 15 euros to dine there.

I heard though from two separate people that the Italian restaurant was lovely and served some nice pizza this was part of the all inclusive offer.

The food at lunch time in the la vellette (the main restaurant that people used) was nice i’d give it about 3.5-4 /5 for the food.
Some days it was great others it was average, The food served included: Pork, Chicken, Yorkshire Puddings, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Creamy cakes, Ice cream, Baked Potatoes, Carrots, Peas etc
So most of the food served there were food i was very familiar with which was nice because some countries ive visited ive disliked the food and have missed the food back at home.

The food at lunch was the same as at dinner, i forgot to add that there was a salad buffet which had a wide selection of food such as ham, lettuce, olives etc.

The swimming pool, now oddly when you arrive at the fortina you may be surprised as the pool is actually across the road from the hotel its on the sea front, which may i add is the most gorgeous view ever! You just walk across the road and go through the gate and go down the stairs OR you can get to the pool by going into the hotel and going right to the bottom of the hotel and walking past the gym.

Theres two bars next to the two pools, one is an inside bar which is only open in winter and the other one is outside.

Outside bar is in the shade so after a sun bathing session people usually sit near the bar in the shade and have a few drinks and look at the spectacular view (seriously you’d be amazed)
The drinks available in the all inclusive offer include: stella, all the cocktails, house wine, most of the spirits except whisky.

The bar also gave away free sandwiches, and tuna salad which on the menu stated that the tuna salad is 7 euros to a person who isn’t all inclusive!

If theres a star next to the drink on the menu it means you have to pay, i thought id inform you of this as so many people didn’t know this as it is written in small writing at the bottom of the menu.

The entertainment was ok, it was mainly this guy singing and playing the keyboard well... he wasn’t really playing it he had a backing track on and he played a few keys, his voice wasn’t too bad though, it was bareable anyway.

The entertainment was every other day so you’d get a day where you’d just chill in the bar and not have to listen to a guy attempting to play the keyboard.. haha.

The rooms.
Well I was very pleased with my room it was very spacious and it was lovely and clean, i had a tv in the room which was a little bigger then the standard size of a hotel tv.
It had sky news on it im not sure if it had any other English channels i didn’t really watch television much as i was mainly outside.

The bathroom was a bit small but it didn’t really matter i didn’t need a big bathroom anyway, the water was nice and warm this is probably because no one will of had red hot baths because of how warm it was outside, so there was a lot of hot water left.
The maid constantly provided me with new shampoos, bath gels and so on she even gave me new shower caps every day which i thought was nice but kinda unnecessary.

The room included a safe which you didn’t have to pay for, which was a suprise as we usually have to.
It also included a fridge which you didn’t have to pay for either so i used to keep my free water bottles from the bar in it to keep them chilled for the next day.

So the room id give it a 5/5 my view out of my window was the same view i got by the pool which is truely amazing i would 100 % recommend a sea view, im not into views usually and i don’t usually appreciate that kind of thing but i was really amazed by the view i got you could see Valetta from my room, this is the capital city of Malta in case you are unware..

FREE TRIP.
Thomas cook gave us an envelope when we arrived with details of the holiday and so on.
In this envelope there were two tickets to the Capitan Morgan boat trip, the boats are only down the road from the hotel so it only took a few minutes to walk down there and go on the tour.
The tour lasted about 1 hour and 45 minutes it was very warm as usual and after so long people sat downstairs as the heat was too much for them.
The tour is worth going on its just i think its unnecessary for it to last that long as part of the tour took us to the industrial side of malta (where there were cranes and so on)

The hotel is very close to the shops. I was very happy to find my favourite shop Topshop there! There were other shops which include: Marks and Spencers, BHS, Peacocks, Miss Selfridges and Zara this was a shock to me that Malta had so many English Stores.
There was a view sales on in the shops so i managed to get the clothes a bit cheaper then what i would get it for at home!

The hotel was in a very good location it wasn’t near the beach however but you could easily get the bus down there as there’s a bus stop just down the road but it isn’t really necessary to go to the beach as theres a lot to do in Sleima anyway.

Over all i had a very enjoyable holiday please don’t hesitate to message me asking me questions about the hotel as i probably have missed tons of information on the hotel in his review, i will get back to you as soon as possible ï�Š

 

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