We love to visit new countries so when we spotted cheap flights to Malta during the Easter holidays March 2024, we decided that this would be our next new destination. After investigating places to stay and finding out about ferry crossings, we ended up staying on the small island of Gozo, just to the north of the mainland. We booked accommodation through Airbnb and the direct flights from East Midlands to Malta International were with Ryanair.
We are a family of six but travelled for the first time without our eldest daughter (who’s almost 17 and was visiting France with her Grandmother!). At the time of the holiday our children were 13 and 9 year old twins. We also travelled with friends who had a 10 and 8 year old.
During our stay we explored most of the island of Gozo visiting the main tourist attractions, went to the only sandy beach on the island, and caught a fast ferry to the capital city of Valletta on the main island of Malta. Read on to find out how we got on and what we thought of Gozo as a family holiday destination. You can see more photos of our stay by clicking on the Instagram and Facebook social media links at the top of the page.
- Why Malta?
- Malta facts and figures
- Gozo
- Xaghra
- Victoria old town and the Citadel
- Ramla Beach and Tal Mixta Cave
- Wied il-Għasri gorge
- Xlendi
- Day trip to Valletta
- Our Accommodation
- Holiday Run
- Overall Opinion
Why Malta?
The two main reasons for holidaying in Gozo were the availability of affordable flights and the fact that we hadn’t travelled to Malta before. With the Easter Holidays being so early in the year we also wanted a destination with a warm, dry climate at the end of March.
Malta facts and figures
- An archipelago in the southern Mediterranean, 50 miles south of Sicily.
- Made up of three main islands – Malta, Gozo and Comino.
- Former British Colony until independence in 1964.
- Cars drive on the left.
- Warm, dry climate with mild winters and hot summers.
- 122sq miles in size and with a population of 536,000 (2024) it is one of the most densely populated countries in the world.
- A majority Catholic country with 360 churches – one for every 1,000 residents.
- Just over 3 hour flight time (from East Midlands).
Gozo
Gozo is approximately 4km north of the main island of Malta. There is a regular ferry service running every 45 minutes between Malta and Gozo with a roll-on-roll-off car ferry and the crossing takes 25 minutes.
We decided to book a hire car which was very inexpensive and a great way to get around the island. We collected it from the airport and drove straight to the port for crossing to Gozo, followed by a short drive inland to our holiday villa.
The island of Gozo is very small and most villages and tourist sites were within a short drive from where we stayed in Xaghra. The weather was dry and mild but quite windy on some days. We spent the week mostly exploring the island and enjoying the local food and hospitality.
The areas we most enjoyed visiting include the following:
- Xaghra village square Good Friday procession.
- Victoria – the main town on Gozo.
- Ramla Beach and Tal Mixta Cave.
- Wied il-Għasri coastal gorge.
- Xlendi – a small village with restaurants with fabulous sea views.
Xaghra
Our holiday villa was in this small village located inland but only 2km from Ramla Beach. Built on a hill, you could see both the north and south coasts of the island from our balconies.
As with most villages on the island, the central square was dominated by a large Roman Catholic church. There were a number of small restaurants and a pub which also served food.
We walked to the village square on our first evening and had a lovely meal at Rubble Bar https://www.facebook.com/rubblebar/. Local delicacies included Maltese sausage, Gozon peppered lambs milk cheese and prickly pear liqueur. Burgers, pasta, fish and pizza was also on the menu at most of the restaurants that we visited over the week.
Whilst there we heard about an Easter procession in the village centre that would be happening on the evening of Good Friday which we were keen to see and it did not disappoint! Despite not being religious ourselves this was quite some spectacle, with the square packed out with locals and a large cast of people dressed in biblical costumes marching through the street, reliving the story of the Crucifixion. The procession was complete with Roman soldiers, donkeys, horses, disciples, many priests and a brass band to boot (see more at https://www.facebook.com/reel/749495583979697).
Victoria old town and the Citadel
Victoria is the main town on Gozo and well worth a visit for the medieval style, narrow streets in the old town and the Citadel, which dominates the area and can be seen from all across the island.
We found a small public car park on the edge of the old town which was free with unrestricted parking all afternoon. A short walk through the narrow, winding streets soon led us to St Georges Basilica in the centre of the old town where there was a small square surrounded by restaurants.
We didn’t all go inside the church as there are signs advising that a modest dress code is in place – legs and shoulders should be fully covered but if you do get a chance to visit it’s well worth a look.
On the short walk from St Georges Square to the Citadel we passed several small shops selling local produce, tourist souvenirs and ice creams. There is a visitor centre at the Citadel with an entry fee but the walls and grounds were free to enter.
The area of the Citadel is thought to have been occupied since the Bronze Age and was the site of a Roman Forum. The current fortifications date from 1599 – 1629 and take the form of a gunpowder fortress (find out more here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cittadella_(Gozo).
There are a lot of steps but it was worth the effort for the spectacular views across the town and the rest of the island.
See more photos on our Instagram page – https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5BgYkWMYKn/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
On the outskirts of Victoria we found a reasonably large Lidl supermarket where we were able to stock up on essentials for our self-catering villa. There were a few small convenience stores a few minutes walk from our villa but it was good to be able to do a ‘big shop’ for breakfast items, snacks and drinks at Lidl, which was just a five minute drive away.
Ramla Beach and Tal Mixta Cave
Ramla Beach is one of the few sandy beaches in Malta and was just 2km from where we were staying. It was within walking distance but as Xaghra is built on a hill the walk home would have been too steep (I did jog there and back one morning but this nearly killed me, see more below).
The beach is in a picturesque bay of fine red sand and is approximately 400m wide.
Tal Mixta Cave is a large cave high in the cliffs overlooking the bay. It can be reached up a steep path from the beach or from the road above, down some steps into the back of the cave. This is one of the most photographed attractions on Gozo and was great for a quick visit.
Wied il-Għasri gorge
We visited Wied il-Għasri on our last full day on Gozo as we’d seen lots of images of it in tourist guides and on social media. It is a 300m canyon with a small pebble beach accessed down over 100 steps which have been cut into the rock.
It was a windy day and the sea temperature was cool but we took the opportunity for a bit of open water swimming while the few other tourists on the beach watched on wrapped up in coats and jumpers (see photographic evidence here – https://www.instagram.com/p/C5JOG1_Mg0C/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)
Xlendi
We enjoyed a lovely lunch at a restaurant right on the sea wall in this small seaside village. The views from the table were great and the waves crashed up right next to the table which was a great source of entertainment for the kids!
Day trip to Valletta
Whilst we spent most of our time exploring Gozo in our hire car, we didn’t want to miss the chance to visit the Maltese capital of Valletta. We decided to catch the passenger ferry direct from Gozo to Valletta which was much easier than catching the car ferry, driving and then trying to park in the densely populated city.
The historic walled old town was built from 1566 following the ‘Great Siege’ of 1565 where the Knights Hospitaller of St John (Maltese Knights) fought off the invading Ottoman Empire. The city was named after the Grand Master of the order Jean de Valette who masterminded the defence of the island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valletta). The town is laid out on a grid pattern and most of the buildings date from the 16th century.
Our ferry tickets included a pass for the Barrakka Lift which takes passengers up the 58m from the Grand Harbour to street level of the city centre. We rode the lift and were just in time to watch the firing of the midday cannon over the harbour.
We really enjoyed strolling through the streets of the old town and along the walls, looking at the architecture, churches and fantastic views out to sea. We had lunch on a large square outside the St Johns Co-Cathedral and also visited the World War Two siege memorial and amongst other sites. Walking down to sea level on both sides of the peninsular is quite steep but it was worth seeing the views from either side.
We didn’t go into any of the numerous museums around the town but did feel like we saw most of the old town in about four hours including time for lunch. The lift ticket down to the harbour again wasn’t included so we took the scenic route – counting 300 steps along narrow streets.
The passenger ferry between Valletta and Gozo is a fast catamaran and whilst the journey there was fine, the trip back in the afternoon felt quite choppy and we were all glad to get back onto dry land after 45 minutes.
See more images from our trip to Valletta on our Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/reel/949767546561595
Our Accommodation
After extensive research on Airbnb we found that the main types of accommodation within our budget, consisted of flats and apartments on the main island of Malta and town houses or small farm houses on the island of Gozo. You seem to get more value for money on Gozo and most of the places that we looked at had small private swimming pools.
We booked a three storey end-town house in Xaghra which had an outdoor pool and a hot tub. The house was very spacious with large living area, dining and kitchen and five large bedrooms each with an en-suite shower or bath and WC. There were also two further WCs on the ground floor! https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/778066782546236182
The house was modern, clean and tidy internally with all the utensils and appliances that we could have needed. It would have been nice to have been provided with some of the basic cooking essentials like oil, salt and pepper though to save us from buying things that would only be used for that week.
The outside space was fairly small but included a large outdoor cooking area and the back garden was dominated by the swimming pool which the kids loved – even if it was freezing! There was no off-street parking but we were able to park our two hire cars on the street right outside the house.
The house is in a built up area on the outskirts of this large village but has views of the sea from the front and rear 2nd floor balconies. There was a small convenience store nearby and it was a twenty minute walk into the village centre. It would have been difficult getting around without a car but it was only a short drive to most of the tourist attractions, towns and the supermarket on the island.
The only downside of the accommodation was that there was a large building site next door and the workmen arrived at about 07:15 every morning and seemed to do a disproportionately high amount of pneumatic drilling at certain times which was not particularly relaxing! This wasn’t mentioned by the owner until we got there….
Holiday Run
When away from home I love to get out and go for a run around the sites or local countryside. I run a lot at home around the same few routes so it is really good to go for a run with more interesting sites to see along the way.
Unfortunately, I suffered a double leg break playing football for an over-35s 11 a side team at the end of October 2023. This required surgery and and I’ve now got a metal plate and ten screws in my right leg. Since getting the cast off mid-December I set the target of going for a run during our Easter holiday. The recovery has been a lot slower than I had hoped for, however my Physio gave me the green light to start light jogging on a treadmill two weeks before the holiday.
After three 5km treadmill runs at the gym I tentatively set out for my first outdoor run on the 2nd day of the holiday, heading to the beach from our villa. This was my first outdoor run for 155 days (not that I was counting). It felt great to be out again and I was pleased to be able to go about 5km – although I had to walk part of the way home as it was all up hill and really steep. I paid for it with a sore leg for the rest of the holiday!
You can find details of my route on Strava on the following link – https://www.strava.com/activities/11040265425
Overall opinion
We really enjoyed our six night stay in Malta. After the cold wet winter in the UK we really appreciated the warm, dry weather. Malta, and Gozo in particular, was beautiful and there were plenty of interesting places to visit to keep us occupied as the weather wasn’t quite hot enough for long days at the beach or in the pool.
Making the extra effort of getting the car ferry and staying in Gozo we found was well worth it as the island is slightly less densely populated than the main island and the accommodation and restaurants were more affordable. Being a former British colony we found that the locals spoke English and it was nice to be able to drive on the left.
Holidaying with friends was also great as the children had plenty of time to play together and the adults enjoyed spending quality time with the kids playing games, exploring new places and cultures but also relaxing when the kids were occupying themselves. It was nice to see the kids having fun organising and hosting evening entertainment for everyone which included a quiz, karaoke and a comedy night.
Would we go back? Yes, absolutely, if we found more cheap flights then we would definitely consider returning to Malta for a half-term or Easter holiday in the future. It would be nice to visit when the weather is slightly warmer to make the most of the pools and beaches.
About Us
After the shock of finding out that we were expecting twins in 2015, one of the first things that we realised was that …we’re gonna need a bigger car!
We’re a family of six with two girls and two boys aged 16, 13 and 9 year old twins.
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