We arrived into Malta late on the 17th Dec and were picked up by our wonderful hosts Alessandra and George, it was only a 10 / 15 min trip to our apartment in Marsaskala, when we got in we were so stunned at how big and spacious our apartment was, it was the biggest apartment we have stayed in so far and really beautiful. Alessandra had a little christmas tree and 4 little presents underneath, how cute was that, the cupboards and fridge filled with everything you could possibly need and more.

They even had a toaster and decent potato peeler!! Pretty much a first for AirBNB hosts.

Marsaskala was about 30 mins (sometimes more in traffic) to Valletta, we could pick up the number 91 bus which was a 5 min walk from the apartment,  or we could walk about 10 mins to the main bus terminal and there we had a choice of about 3 buses.

I loved where we were staying, all of Malta to me felt like home, I’m not sure what it was about Malta but it had that homely feel, it could have been the fact that most people spoke English and even drove on the left, it could be the fact that you could buy everything you needed for any dinner you wanted to make, curry pastes, yorkshire puds for our New Years eve dinner, or just that it was super friendly and easy, the sun was stunning in December (Grant and Luke even had a swim on the 29th), I know it’s not like that every year, we were very lucky with the weather, again, but I could be happy here, I even started looking up the best places to live in Malta and was keen to check out St Jullian 🙂

Marsaskala

St Thomas Bay

St Thomas’s Bay is in Marsaskala, the little fishing village and beach, you can see in the summer would be gorgeous, unfortunately this time of year the beach is so filled with seaweed that the sand is covered in several feet of seaweed right up  onto one of the chairs (see photo below).

It was a beautiful place and really keen to see it again in the summer.

Christmas Morning

Our morning started around 8am, with the opening of presents, lots of lego, two really cool book comics (Deadpool for Lucas, and DareDevil for Jake), a few PC Games, lots of chocolate goodies and a new family member BB8 from Star Wars.

Christmas Day dinner at Tal-Familja Restaurant

Tal-Familja was a gorgeous Restaurant with stunning food, and good service especially given that it was very very busy, unfortunately we had totally over eaten on christmas chocolate and treats, so didn’t end up eating hardly anything that we had ordered, being a set menu for Christmas it was a very expensive meal for the little amount eaten, but that was totally our fault.

I think I would prefer not to do a set menu, next time we will eat at home and do one of these stunning restaurants when the menu is back to a normal price.

Gingerbread Men

Lucas was very keen on making gingerbread men, Grant made up some icing and we had some M&M’s for decoration, not a lot of thought went into this, just more icing the better for Jake and Lucas, Grant on the other hand got very into decorating his reindeer :).

In Malta with Maltesers 

We had this fabulous idea about playing games with Malteser’s, didn’t quite go to plan, but for the 10 mins this lasted, it was pretty funny, especially watching Jacob trying to pick up the Malteser with the straw.

A Swim in December

Jake had an afternoon playing football with our host’s son and all his friends, which was really awesome for Jacob.

Lucas and Grant wanted to go for a swim, it was a nice warm day…but still I thought they were Crazy…Lucas lasted all of about 5 mins…the sun was gorgeous, there were plenty of people sun bathing in swim suits..and a few other crazies in the water..

Sunsets

Moonrise on Christmas day

New Years Eve (Day)

Yummiest dinner yet, we got the smallest Turkey left which was a size 6, way to big for our family of 4, but we did it anyways…Such a successful New Years eve dinner..it was totally divine, I made stuffing..we had cranberry sauce, Yorkshire Pud’s and Grant made a perfect gravy..

The next day we had Turkey Sarnies for lunch and a Turkey Curry for dinner..

New Years Evening we celebrated in Valletta

Bread van and Delicatessen Van

Every morning you can hear the beeping of the Bread Van, it’s so adorable, we love going out to grab our fresh bread, everywhere should have one of these Vans.

On Wednesday’s another Van goes around with a selection of Delicatessen foods, we tried Olives and Bigilla , the yummiest Olives I have tried and the Bigilla was really good, it’s just crushed brown beans, garlic and olive oil.

Family Park Marsaskala

This park is huge, if you are close to Marsaskala and have littlies I definitely recommend a visit to this park, it has so many play area’s, it also has a maze, a climbing wall, an exercise area, a petting zoo, picnic tables and in the summer water play…

All in all we loved Malta, if you are wondering if it’s a good place to go for Christmas, then I would fully recommend it.  We were exceptionally lucky with the weather, one day in the New Year it was actually 21 degrees, on average it was 18…it couldn’t have been nicer, some afternoons I would sit out on our deck and let the sun beat down on me, it was perfect.

Airbnb Accommodation

Airbnb Malta – When we walked into this Apartment we couldn’t have been happier as to where we had picked to be for Christmas and New Year, the apartment was huge, beautiful, clean and had EVERYTHING you could possibly need.

Alessandra had filled the cupboards up with not only milk and bread etc, the cupboard were full…she had put a little Christmas tree up with 4 little presents underneath and had a box of chocolates by our bed.

Location was really nice, Marsaskala was really pretty, there were plenty of little super markets close by, enough restaurants and cafe’s, a little harbour with the colourful maltese boats, and the very cute fishing village St Thomas Bay.

Alessandra and George were perfect hosts, a really friendly couple and answered any E Mail straight away.  Jacob even had an afternoon playing football with their son, the kind of experience I wish we could have throughout our travelling.