Visiting Malta after lockdown
Hello! Per usual, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. But, it’s been for a good reason — against the odds, this summer has turned out to be a fun and busy one for our family, albeit quite different than summers past (more on that in another post). Earlier this month, we were able to leave the island for the first time since Italy’s long lockdown. Actually, this was our first time flying since the beginning of December — definitely the longest stretch of us staying exclusively on Sicily since we arrived here in 2016. It was so nice to be able to travel again!
First, I want to start by talking a little about our decision to travel. Only a few months ago it felt like we’d never be able to go anywhere again. Italy’s numbers were very bad (although Sicily’s were always much, much lower than the rest of the country) and our lockdown was strict. As in, our children did not leave our home for months. Chris and I could essentially only leave to grocery shop once in a while. Even people with dogs (not us) were allowed to venture no more than a few hundred meters from their homes if the pet needed to be walked. Failure to comply could lead to big fines.
The thing is though, the lockdown accomplished what it was supposed to. While letting down our guard would absolutely be a mistake, our numbers have plummeted. People here are (ahem) very compliant with wearing masks and as such, things have opened up here considerably. Because Sicily’s numbers in particular have been so low, Malta — when it opened on July 1 — included it on a list of countries in a “safe corridor” from which it would accept tourists. Malta also happens to be one of the European countries that best avoided Covid-19; as of this writing, the island had suffered 9 total deaths from the virus. On top of that, while airplanes aren’t actually known for being clean, we knew that masks were being required for all passengers from ages 3 years and up. All in all, we felt that if Malta was comfortable accepting us, we were comfortable going.
Anyway, I will get to the airport experience a little later but first — the fun stuff we did in Malta!
Three days in Malta with kids
- Popeye’s Village!
- Splash pad in St. Paul’s Bay
- Swam in the pool at our AirBnB
- Ate (I know, you are all just shocked!)
I’ve written before about our last visit to Malta two years ago, when we stayed at the Hilton Malta for five days and had a great time celebrating Fiona’s fourth birthday. This was an absolutely low-key trip, so if you are looking for more activities definitely check out that post — we visited various sites in Valletta, went to the Malta National Aquarium and more.
Once again, we did not end up going to the Blue Lagoon. We had considered taking the Hornblower tour to Comino, Gozo and the Blue Lagoon — a trip that was highly recommended by a friend and includes a SLIDE from the boat into the sea — but all the options were seven to eight hours long, and that seemed possibly a little overwhelming with the baby. Next time!
By far our entire family’s favorite activity was our visit to Popeye’s Village in Mellieha! The village was built as the film set for the 1980 Popeye movie, and since then it has been converted into a kids’ tourist destination. We went into it not really knowing what to expect and thinking we’d maybe spend half our day there, but instead we stayed almost until closing.
The place was charmingly cheesy, with various Popeye characters running around interacting with kids, periodic musical performances and the like. But we ended up having so much fun! The kids like playing in the (relatively small) pool and especially running around in a playground set on top of a baby pool, which was basically perfect for Lochlan but still amusing enough for the bigs.
Other activities included a small mini-golf course, a small museum of Popeye memorabilia, a screening of the movie (we did not do this) and a whole bunch of oversized games, including giant Connect Four and Checkers.
The thing we were most excited for was a series of floating water trampolines and obstacle courses in the sea, which Chris took the kids to do while Lochlan slept on my chest on one of the nice beds set up in the shade. I will say that if you are going to do this one, water shoes are a must — all three of them hurt their feet because of all the rocks. They also found it more challenging than expected (especially for Chris, who also managed to get a giant scratch on his leg), but the kids loved it!
We also had a fantastic lunch at the Popeye’s Village, with a view that could not be beat.
All in all, I think that our extremely positive experience at the Popeye’s Village was also helped by the fact that there were so few other people there. While that’s not great for business, it was great for us in terms of basically having the run of the place. 
Since this was such a short trip — really only two full days — this was our big activity of the weekend. Saturday, we mostly spent swimming in the pool at the apartment we rented, walking around the St. Paul’s Bay downtown, dining outside at restaurants (yay!) and visiting the local splash pad.
St. Paul’s Bay seemed a lot quieter and more family-friendly than St. Julians, the busy town where we stayed last time. Obviously some of that “quiet” was that we were there just 10 days after the country had reopened to tourism, but one of our cabbies also told us that it is more of a family place than St. Julian’s, so I imagine it will still be true for you future-readers.
Our apartment was about a two-minute walk to Bugibba Square, a busy area packed with restaurants and shops, as well as to the sea. The beachfront was quite small over there so we didn’t end up spending any time on it, but we enjoyed the beach breeze all the same.
Our best meal was Thai takeaway from Benjawan Thai, but we also enjoyed Fat Harry’s Pub and particularly The Donut Factory, where we ended up every single morning.
Traveling to Malta from Italy after lockdown: how we got around
While there are ferries that can take you between Sicily and Malta, we flew. It is cheap and takes about 20 minutes in the sky, so for us it was a no-brainer. The Catania airport has made some changes post-covid, my favorite of which was warning signs advising us to avoid the “promiscuous use of water bottles.” As of now, only people who are actually flying are allowed inside the airport and masks are strictly required. Per usual, check-in at the Catania airport was a bit of a zoo with only a couple people working a long line. Also as usual, it was absurdly hot in there — so much for our theory that fewer bodies = reasonable temperatures!
The airport in Malta was an absolute dream, we were through both check-in and security literally within minutes. AND it had adequate air-conditioning!
Once we were in Malta, we used eCabs for anywhere we couldn’t walk. This is far from the cheapest option, but Malta in July is HOT and we were not at all inclined to figure out the public buses. Reserving taxis was super easy using the eCabs website, which also allowed us to request car seats. If you are looking for the easy way around, I recommend this!
Overall, visiting Malta was a great first jump back into travel! I have no doubt we’ll be back again some day. 
