Top 10: the best five-star hotels in Malta and Gozo
An insider's guide to the best five-star hotels in Malta, featuring the top places to stay for opulent suites, outdoor pools, fine-dining restaurants, stunning views, tranquil spas, beach access and watersports in locations including Valletta, Sliema, Mdina and San Lawrenz.
Phoenicia Hotel
Valletta, Malta
8Telegraph expert rating
Malta's most iconic hotel has the best of both worlds. Standing just outside City Gate (the main entrance through Valletta’s dramatic 16th-century bastion walls), it has enough space for a garden and outdoor pool whilst still being within a 10-minute walk from most of the sights and restaurants of the capital. Service has dramatically improved since the hotel was bought by British hotelier Gordon Campbell Gray and facilities are improving too. The long six-acre garden has been planted with a mass of colour, and there's a kitchen garden where guests can sit and help themselves to the produce. At the far end of the garden is a stone gazebo with chess/draughts tables before the pool terrace complete with a new infinity pool beneath the bastion walls, looking out over Marsamxett Harbour. Read expert review From £111per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
• The best boutique hotels in Valletta
The Xara Palace Relais & Chateaux
Mdina, Malta
9Telegraph expert rating
The five-star Xara Palace is the only hotel in Mdina, so staying here gives you the chance to really appreciate 'The Silent City' in the evening, when all the tour groups have gone. The covered central courtyard acts as a lounge/bar, while on the top floor is De Mondion, one of Malta’s best restaurants. The hotel’s 17 individually furnished rooms and suites are like exceptionally high-ceilinged country-house bedrooms. Lower-floor street-side rooms look out onto a narrow Medieval alley so can be a bit dark by day, but higher floors on the bastion side have panoramic views over the island. Deluxe Suites even offer a private terrace with whirlpool tub and 180-degree view. Read expert review From £130per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
• The best beach hotels in the Mediterranean
Grand Hotel Excelsior
Valletta, Malta
9Telegraph expert rating
Built almost into the bastion walls of Valletta, between the capital and the sea, the Excelsior boasts panoramic views across the water to Manoel Island and Sliema. The hotel has its own marina for guests in Marsamxett Harbour, and the best facilities of any hotel in or around Valletta, including a spa, gym and sizeable indoor and outdoor swimming pools. The public areas are vast and decorated with an array of artistic works, from copies of Roman sculptures to elegant Chinese furniture, flower paintings to prints of old Batavia - and some almost psychedelic patterned carpets on the island. The traditional-style modern rooms are large and airy. Sea view rooms are larger still and have French windows leading to individual balconies/terraces overlooking the harbour with 200 degree views. Read expert review From £99per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
• The best resort hotels in Malta and Gozo
Corinthia Palace Hotel & Spa
Attard, Malta
9Telegraph expert rating
Corinthia Palace is in a quiet, traditional and classy residential area of Malta, just across the road from the President’s San Anton Palace and its public gardens with fountains, flowers, an aviary, hedge maze and free-range peacocks. The tranquil garden has a large pool-deck around a split-level swimming pool that echoes the shape of Malta’s Neolithic Hagar Qim temple. When the weather is cooler, slip behind the glass walls of the Athenaeum spa for a dip in the bath-warm indoor pool, or a sauna in the little garden. In the spa’s relaxing treatment rooms, a lengthy menu is available, from Shiatsu and Thai massages to facials and flotation therapies. There is also a tennis court (not in perfect nick but playable) and a well-equipped gym. Read expert review From £86per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
• The best hotels for spa breaks in Europe
Kempinski Hotel San Lawrenz
San Lawrenz, Gozo, Malta
9Telegraph expert rating
Built with local stone, this long low-rise hotel sits comfortably in the Gozitan landscape. Walls of limestone and floors of terracotta are set off with occasional pieces of traditional dark-wood furniture, limestone sculptures and colourful modern impressionist-style prints. With by far the most facilities of any hotel on Gozo, the Kempinski is known particularly for its spa, and you can smell its warm rich scent before you reach it. Treatment rooms are plentiful and spacious with genuinely calming music and qualified therapists. Not only is there a large indoor swimming pool but a fairly large ‘therapy pool’ (no children), whirlpool tub, steam room and hammam. Read expert review From £83per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
• The best European city breaks
The Palace
Sliema, Malta
9Telegraph expert rating
A five-star contemporary hotel in the heart of an upmarket residential area minutes from the Sliema Waterfront. Staff are very helpful, friendly and give genuine individual attention. The infinity rooftop pool and terrace have great views and the indoor pool, sauna and steam room open onto another terrace. The Marion Mizzi spa offers a broad range of facials, massages, manicures/pedicures, Ayurveda treatments and even a children’s range, all delivered by qualified international therapists who update their knowledge at the company’s own training school. Most rooms look outwards with balconies overlooking the streets and upper-level rooms may have harbour views. Read expert review From £86per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
• Europe's best beach holiday hotels
Fortina Spa Resort
Sliema, Malta
8Telegraph expert rating
A large, modern five-star hotel with several swimming pools, restaurants serving different cuisines and one of the largest spas in Malta. At the latter you’ll find an indoor pool, thalassotherapy pool, whirlpool tubs, sauna, steam room, hammam, reflexology basins and even Cleopatra’s Bath (in which to bathe in milk and honey). The hotel’s Spa Bedrooms were the first in Europe, each containing a large mosaic whirlpool bath behind the bed, and in the expanded bathroom a therapeutic jet bath (nine programmes), a shower that doubles as a steam room, aromatherapy oils and a white pod – a Dermalife vibrating massage bed with infra-red lights. A few rooms also have their own rooftop terrace with plunge pool. Read expert review From £60per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
• The best boutique hotels in Malta and Gozo
Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Golden Sands
Mellieha, Malta
8Telegraph expert rating
This large modern five-star hotel dominates Golden Bay, a wide stretch of sand that is rightly considered one of the best beaches in Malta. All rooms have balconies, some with panoramic sea views, and the hotel's outdoor pools overlook the bay. There are four swimming pools – inside and out. Outdoor ones sit on a long limestone terrace, dotted with palms, overlooking the sea. The hotel has a small stretch of private beach, though outside peak times there is probably more space on the public beach. The Myoka spa – also with sea views through glass walls – offers wet and dry therapies with professional therapists from China, India (Ayurvedic) and Europe. The more active can head to the watersports centre for diving, snorkelling, jetskiing, paragliding and more. Read expert review From £99per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
• The greatest hotels in Europe
Corinthia Hotel St. George’s Bay
St Julian's, Malta
7Telegraph expert rating
This is a place of marble and high ceilings, traditional furniture and pool terraces full of sunbeds, two minutes' walk from the busy, party-time vibe of St George’s Bay. Seven outdoor pools (including one adults-only, one children’s and a lido) plus access to the sea via a rocky beach area make for plenty of swimming options. The pleasant indoor pool is connected via a little bridge to the outside pool terraces, and the gym also overlooks the pools and bay. There is a sauna, whirlpool tub and spa treatments – which you can receive in a little gazebo outside should you wish – along with personal training in a separate gym. The on-site watersports centre offers everything from jet-skiing to parasailing, and there is a dedicated dive school. Read expert review From £62per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
• The best boutique hotels in Malta and Gozo
The Westin Dragonara Resort
St Julian's, Malta
7Telegraph expert rating
A large, family-friendly, five-star resort hotel, The Westin Dragonara has plenty of facilities for all ages. The extensive pool terrace reaches down to the sea where rocky ‘beach clubs’ provide access to clear blue waters - and cold beer and cocktails. Two large outdoor pools overlook the open sea, while an indoor pool and whirlpool bath are overlooked by a substantial gym, and spa treatments are offered in the beauty salon. The hotel provides an extensive menu of watersports from diving to paragliding. The 24/7 Dragonara Casino also belongs to the hotel. All rooms have balconies, some with panoramic sea views. Read expert review From £99per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
