Malta's Little Sister

By Jo Sidebottom

Finding myself with a week’s leave that had to be used up, and precious little time left in which to take it, we decided to squeeze in a last-minute trip away in mid-January. We looked for somewhere sunny, not too expensive, and ideally, one of those places we’d always said we must visit.

Malta soon emerged as the front runner, but we actually ended up booking a week on its smaller neighbour, Gozo, on an Air Malta package that offered a week’s half-board in a lovely looking hotel with good Tripadvisor reviews. The package included not only flights but also taxi transfers, the return ferry crossing to Gozo, and even a week’s car hire.

Azure Window

Everything worked very smoothly on our arrival – a taxi met us at Malta’s small airport, and the 45-minute ride across the island to the ferry terminal at Cirkewwa gave us a good introduction to the Maltese countryside. The taxi driver was an expat Brit, who loved Malta and spoke enthusiastically about the low cost of living, low crime rate and mild weather. We did the 25-minute ferry crossing as foot passengers and another taxi driver awaited us at the Gozo ferry terminal of Mgarr. By this time it was fairly dark so we didn’t see a great deal during the 20-minute ride to the central village of Xaghra (pronounced “Shara”) where our hotel, the Cornucopia, was located.

Our room was across an open courtyard where one of the two swimming pools was located. It was fairly spartan, but clean and comfortable, with a balcony and lovely views across the hills to the sea on the north side of the island. The hotel seemed quieter than we had expected – there were only about five tables occupied at dinner. The food was good and plentiful, and the house wine very reasonably priced.

The first morning we decided to take a ride on the City Sightseeing bus to get a good overview of the island and decide what we wanted to return to and explore in more detail. It was about a ten minute walk (uphill!) into the village centre, which was also fairly quiet except for extensive roadworks in the main square - so much for our visions of sitting out at pavement cafes soaking up the sun with a cold drink!

We had discovered whilst reading up about the island beforehand that Xaghra is home to the Ġgantija temples, at 5,500 years old the world’s oldest manmade freestanding buildings. After completing a full circuit of the island we got off the bus outside the visitor centre, where we paid our €8 entrance fee and spent some time looking around. The complex is deservedly a UNESCO World Heritage site and we were amazed by the size of some of the stones that its Neolithic builders had shifted into position. That was truly one of the highlights of our week, and I can’t understand why they aren’t more famous.

After a busy first day we started to plan the rest of our week. We soon discovered that although there was a good network of bus routes, the winter timetable wouldn’t really permit us to get around and see everything we wanted. Gozo is a great island for serious walkers, but it’s very hilly and the weather was a bit changeable so we also ruled out the idea of trying to walk everywhere.

We had previously decided not to take up the “free” car hire because we knew there would be additional insurances and excesses which would still make it fairly expensive. We were also a little unnerved by some of the narrow streets and the state of the road surfaces. However that ended up as the only sensible option and so on the second morning we found ourselves the proud custodians of a decidedly middle-aged Ford Fiesta for the week. Freedom at last to travel the island at our leisure!

Malta and Gozo drive on the left, like the UK, so it really wasn’t difficult, although the state of some of the roads, some amazing hairpin bends, and the likelihood of meeting an oncoming car round a corner on a narrow village street all presented interesting challenges. However, there wasn’t a lot of traffic and the drivers were fairly patient and courteous; hire cars have a recognisable registration number so they made allowances!

Our first trip was to Victoria, the island’s capital – also known by the locals by its previous name of Rabat. Following the signs from Xaghra, we turned a sharp bend on to what looked like a sheer drop down a farm track that led nowhere. I wondered how on earth I would get turned round and back up the hill again on to the right road. However, it soon became clear that this was the right road – after a half-mile of crazy bends and ridiculous gradients, the road flattened out and we bumped over the rough surface until we emerged in the centre of Victoria. I did not relish the thought of the return journey and the hill starts that might be required if we had to stop on the way, but fortunately we found a better route home.

Victoria is the size of a small British town, and its main attractions are the citadel and the main square – both also undergoing extensive maintenance work over the winter. After watching an introductory film about the island, we climbed up the hill to the citadel and explored the cathedral and its museum, and the narrow lanes around the cathedral precincts. The view from the town’s walls included both the north and the south coastlines simultaneously. We also unknowingly stumbled upon what we later discovered to be the town’s best recommended café, where we enjoyed a mezze-type lunch washed down with – in his case – the local lager, and – in my case – Kinnie, the local soft drink.  Described as an aromatic blend of orange and herbs, it tasted to me rather like Dr Pepper, but with an unpleasant bitter aftertaste. I wasn’t that keen!

Other expeditions included the Azure Window, one of Gozo’s main sightseeing spots – basically a rock formation with a hole looking out to the sea beyond. It was a Grey Window the day we visited! The inland sea is nearby but we didn’t like the look of the boat operations so gave that a miss. We did, however, enjoy just driving around through the small villages taking in the scenery. Many villages looked very similar, with pale stone buildings, narrow winding streets, and a town square with a huge oversized church. One day we found a lovely pizza restaurant overlooking the channel between Gozo, the even smaller island of Comino, and Malta, and we whiled away a leisurely lunch hour watching the ferries crossing back and forth. Another day we went back to a craft centre that we’d passed on the sightseeing bus where, amongst other things we watched some lacemaking being done, and I bought a lovely lace mat with a Maltese cross in the centre for my mother.

Would I recommend a trip to Gozo?  Certainly – though with a few caveats. First, don’t go in the middle of winter if you’re looking for sun – it’s only a little milder than the UK. It was almost spookily quiet and it was definitely the close season – though we did feel we saw the island “au naturel”, with the islanders just going about their normal daily lives. March/April and September/October are probably the best months weather-wise. I would definitely recommend the Cornucopia Hotel in Xaghra; I can imagine it being lively and fun in the summer, with its two pools and facilities for barbecues and buffets in the courtyard. We were told that the bus service is better in the summer, but I suspect that unless you are a keen walker – including pretty steep hill-walking – then you probably still need to hire a car. Don’t on any account miss the unique Ġgantija temples.

In summary, I’d say that unless you specifically want (i) quiet, and (ii) lots of walking, then stay on Malta instead, and take the ferry to Gozo a couple of times. Do one of the sightseeing buses and hop off at the main attractions, and you’ll see most of what Gozo has to offer. That sounds like faint praise – we did enjoy our week, but in hindsight I think we should probably have gone to the Canaries in January and saved Malta and Gozo for warmer months.

First published in VISA