My Extreme Day Trip to Malta
Was it worth it? What did I do? How much did it cost?
The day began very early, in fact 0200 in the morning.
To give you a little context, I live roughly 3 miles away from Manchester Airport. It’s a nice, easy, straight forward flat walk through the mean streets of Wythenshawe, a walk that I’ve done many times to visit the Airport Pub or the Aviation Viewing Park.
I probably wouldn’t walk it if I had to wheel a suitcase with me but given I was just taking a small rucksack of bare essentials with me, I enjoyed a nice leisurely hour long walk under the street lights. It’s very quiet at that time, I saw more foxes than people.
Manchester Airport have invested a lot of money in renovating Terminal 2, which is where every airline except Ryanair departs from. It didn’t take long to whiz through security. The new, more powerful scanners mean you don’t need to separate your liquids.
I went for a walk around the terminal to find somewhere for breakfast, and I had yoghurt with granola, fruit and honey, along with an orange juice.
My flight out was the 0540 Easyjet flight to Malta, on an Airbus A320. I did decide to pay for seat reservation at the time of booking, adding £12 to the cost of the flight but I’m very fond of sitting in a window seat, in fact, I always seem to choose a seat on the right hand side, just in front of the left wing, so I can see the engine and slats on the front edge of the wing. Yes, I know, very sad and geeky.
In the past, I would have had to buy two seats, unless sitting next to a partner and I would bring my own seatbelt adapter along with me to avoid the embarrassment of having to ask cabin crew. The crew are always very good about it but you do feel it as it draws attention to you.
I had my seatbelt extender in my coat pocket ready to pull out once I got to my seat, but this time was different. I didn’t need it, it just fit. I can’t begin to describe what a good feeling that was. Even better, when I put the tray table down in front of my seat without an issue. There was a passenger sat immediately next to me, which used to be one of my big worries.
The flight was very smooth and on time, I managed to get a little rest. When we landed, I was already prepared for delays through border control. The EU has rolled out a new entry and exit system that uses biometric data (fingerprints and facial scans) to track visitors to the area. In some countries the new system has caused lots of delays, but it was very smooth in Malta.
Once through security, I followed the signs towards the taxi pickup area and used the Bolt app to get a taxi. It only took 2 minutes for my ride to arrive, and it was a 20 minute journey to Valetta, the Maltese capital.
Malta is one of the most densely populated countries in the EU and there is a lot of traffic. It felt familiar as the Maltese drive on the left, as we do in the UK. The weather was very pleasant, around 22 celsius. In fact, I changed from my joggers to shorts in the airport.
Malta uses the euro as its currency and card payments were accepted everywhere, even for small transactions, which was good as I didn’t bring any cash with me, just my digital revolut card pre-loaded with euros.
Normally for a trip abroad, I spend a lot of time planning a detailed itinerary but because this was only a single day trip, I had booked a boat tour at 1230 and had a rough idea of when I needed to head back to the airport, but the rest of my time was just going to be exploring on foot.
The taxi dropped me off near Tritton’s fountain and I walked towards upper barrakka gardens, where you get a good view of the harbour. At the time I was there, the Enchanted Princess cruise ship was coming into port. It was massive, and a very impressive sight. If it wasn’t for my pre-booked boat tour, I would have stayed to watch the ceremonial cannons being fired at 1200, but instead I made my way to the ferry to cross from Valetta to Sliema, where my boat tour departed from.
The ferry crossings are every 30 minutes and only cost 3 euro per person. Generally Malta was a very affordable place compared with prices in the UK. Unfortunately, due to the swell in the harbour, the ferries had been suspended for the day. There was a very small yellow sign saying this, but I couldn’t see it from where I was queueing for the ferry. When the 1200 ferry didn’t arrive, I got anxious and rang the boat tour operator and it was actually them that explained that the ferry wasn’t running and I should instead get a bus or taxi. Very kindly, they agreed to switch my booking from the 1230 boat tour to the 1430 boat tour.
I got my second Bolt of the day over to Sliema and with time to kill before my boat trip, I got some traditional Maltese pastries from jeff’s pastizzeria. I tried a ricotta cheese pastizzi, a small fried puff pastry dish that was very crunchy. I’ll be honest, since losing weight, I’ve gone off rich pastries a little bit, the cheese wasn’t particularly flavourful. It was nice, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get one. I also tried a Maltese date pastry that reminded me of a fig role. That was quite nice.
To wash it down, I bought a local carbonated drink called Kimmie. It’s a bitter orange drink with a bit of an aftertaste. I can’t say I was a huge fan. At first it tasted a little like iron brew, but then with a grapefruit kind of bitter aftertaste. It’s good to try these things anyway. I never really understand people that go to a different culture, then only want to eat and drink things that they would get back home.
I found a tourist souvenir shop and picked up a fridge magnet to add to my growing collection. I can never choose just one. I tend to look for more unique shapes, so I went for a Maltese cross one.
I treated myself to a “Caffe” slushie drink, to get rid of the taste of Kimmie, then queued up for the 90 minutes harbour cruise with luzzu cruises. I do enjoy boat trips, it’s a nice way to relax for a while and watch the world go bye, taking in the scenery and listen to the commentary. I bagged myself an end of row seat on the upper deck. There were quite a lot of German tourists on the boat so Malta must be popular with Germans as it is with Brits too.
Outside of the harbours themselves, the sea was a little choppy, which doesn’t bother me in the slightest, I’m the kind of person that enjoys a little bit of turbulence. It was not too rough, but if you’re travelling with young children or if you’re of a nervous constitution, you might not enjoy it that much, but most of the time we were in the calmer harbour waters anyway.
After the boat trip, I walked to the St Julian’s area. There was a bar with this sign, so I just had to stop and see if it was true.
I enjoyed a shandy, after first confusing the waitress, by asking for a shandy made from the local cisk beer. It turned out that their shandy wasn’t like in the UK, where you get half a pint of lemonade combined with half a pint of lager, mixed together, it came in a can, I guess similar to bass shandy. It was quite nice, but I’m not quite sure it hit the sub zero temperatures I had expected from the sign.
I had a nice little walk on the “beach”. It wasn’t a sandy beach, it was very rocky and I had to be very careful where I was putting my feet with the uneven surfaces but I enjoyed seeing the little fish swimming in small pockets of water in the chasms in the rocks.
I found myself a pizzeria. With Malta being not far from Sicily, I expected authentic Italian style pizza. Simple ingredients with great taste, thin crusts and fresh. The menu suggested that the pizzas were 7”, which would have been perfect for me, but the pizza was a lot bigger than I was expecting. I managed to eat two thirds of it, which I was happy with. I had spicy sausage, with mozzarella and I really enjoyed it.
I walked off my pizza and discovered a garden area that was also a cat sanctuary, with cat beds everywhere. The cats were friendly, I saw some sat on people’s laps, enjoying a petting session, and I introduced myself to a couple of feline friend too. I wasn’t really expecting it, so it was a nice surprise.
It was almost time to get my final bolt of the day back to the airport, but I managed to sneak in a gelato, caramel and peanut butter before the way back. It was a nice day to end a perfectly pleasant day. I covered 10 miles in total on foot over the course of the day and had a really nice relaxing time.
The weather in the UK has been unusually cold compare to the previous few Mays, and a bit of sunshine can really help lift your mood.
The final taxi driver was a really friendly guy and we had a good chat about my extreme day trip. The people in Malta were all lovely and very friendly.
The airport was very busy, there is not a very large seating area. Security was quick though and the flight home was courtesy of Jet2 with one of their A321 neo aircraft. It was a bit of an unusual flight as there had been a warehouse issue so the cabin crew could only offer tea, coffee and water on the flight, no other food, drinks or duty free.
Having tried my first extreme day trip, would I do it again? Definitely, although I think if you can extend your stay overnight and find cheap accommodation so that you get to see a little bit more, it would probably be worth it but I kept thinking to myself what I would have been doing if I just stayed at home instead. Sun, Sea and chill in Malta vs washing and dishes in rainy Manchester? It’s no comparison really.
The costs soon add up though, my cheap day trip ended up costing much more than I would have liked. Perhaps with better planning, and being a bit more savvy, I could have spent less, but then again if you compare it to the cost of a day trip in the UK, that isn’t cheap either.
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