Discover Malta's many charms – from warms seas to golden-hued villages
In this week's TravelSmart, The Independent 's Travel team bring you a guide to Malta, taking you on a tour of this small but impressive island that sits in the Mediterranean almost perfectly equidistant between Europe and North Africa.
Global Travel Editor Annabel Grossman reveals her favourite spots along the nearly 100 miles of coastline, while Travel Correspondent Simon Calder shares his advice on where to visit in the capital Valetta and reminds travellers not to forget the island's charming interior where you'll find a plenty of pretty towns and villages.
Watch TravelSmart on Independent TV.
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Times
2 hours ago
- Times
A week on the Amalfi Coast in August for £532pp? Here's how
With its Mediterranean sunsets, beach clubs and exquisite gelati, Sorrento is a delight in August. Hot sunny days in the early 30s are perfect for exploring more of Amalfi's coastline on boat trips to surrounding islands or for swimming in the town's natural cove and snorkelling in the nearby Punta Campanella Marine Reserve. There are also plenty of easily reached historic sites and a lively old town full of restaurants for alfresco lunches on days off the water. Prices soar in August's peak season, but the Amalfi Coast can still be affordable if you stay just outside Sorrento's centre at the Hotel Villa Igea Sorrento. Seven nights' B&B, including flights from Stansted with Ryanair, costs £532pp with Thomas Cook, departing on August 27, or you can upgrade to half-board for an extra £212pp for the week. A small under-seat bag is included or check in a 20kg suitcase for an additional £75 return. Naples airport is about an hour from Sorrento and taxis cost at least £80, but an hourly bus runs to Sorrento's railway station (£11; where you can take the same company's blue or orange line bus to Capo di Sorrento, right outside the hotel (£1). The three-star hotel overlooks the Bay of Naples and has a smart white marble lobby and 60 bright, buttercup-yellow rooms with tiled floors and traditional carved wooden beds. Some have sea views. There's a seasonal outdoor pool, an all-day snack bar and a restaurant serving dinner. It's a 40-minute walk to the centre of Sorrento but there's also a free shuttle bus. • Read our full guide Amalfi The turquoise natural pool at Bagni Regina Giovanna, on the site of a ruined 1st-century Roman villa, is a 15-minute stroll from the hotel. The town's main beach, Spiaggia di Sorrento, is a five-minute drive and lined with beach clubs providing loungers and plenty of Aperol. In Sorrento's old town, stroll the main square, Piazza Tasso, then wander the cobbled side streets to stock up on leather gloves, limoncello and hand-painted ceramics. Pop into the 11th-century Basilica di Sant'Antonino, home to the tomb of Sorrento's patron saint, and ogle the elaborate frescoes at the 15th-century Palazzo Sedil Dominova (both free entry). The nearby Museo Correale di Terranova houses a vast art collection donated by a noble Neapolitan family, including Roman artefacts discovered in the town itself (£13; Afterwards, people-watch over seafood pasta on the patio at Da Gigino (mains from £7; Via degli Archi) then finish with artisan ice cream at Fresco Sorrento (cones from £2; • 23 of the best things to do on the Amalfi coast The Unesco-listed ancient Roman city of Pompeii (from £15 entry; is 40 minutes away by train (£21 return; while ferries to the island of Capri run regularly from Sorrento's Marina Piccola port (£36 return; You can visit the best snorkelling sites at the protected marine reserve on a boat trip with a marine biologist on board (£50; • Return Stansted-Naples flights, departing on August 27• Seven nights' B&B at Hotel Villa Igea ( If you're inspired to visit Sorrento and have more to spend, you could try… This article contains affiliate links that can earn us revenue Perfectly placed for day trips, Hotel Michelangelo is two minutes' walk from Sorrento's railway station on the main shopping street, Corso Italia. The salmon-pink four-star property is built around a 16th-century tower and has an outdoor swimming pool, a bar with live piano music and a roof terrace with views of the Bay of Naples. A restaurant serves dishes from the Sorrentine Peninsula and has a patio overlooking the pool. Simply decorated rooms feature terracotta-tiled floors, floor-to-ceiling windows and pale blue soft furnishings. Most have balconies and one recently renovated modern suite has its own hot tub. Details Seven nights' B&B from £1,000pp, including flights ( • 25 of the best hotels on the Amalfi coast It's all about the views at the four-star Grand Hotel President which looks out over the Bay of Naples, Mount Vesuvius and the Sorrento coast from its hilltop perch. A glass-walled cocktail bar, rooftop sun terrace, outdoor pool and main restaurant all make the most of the panoramic location. There's also a small fitness centre and spa with Turkish bath and whirlpool, while flower-filled gardens are ideal for sunset strolls. Rooms have ornate Vietri-style tiling, inlaid wooden furniture and warm touches of peach, lemon and sea-blue. The centre of Sorrento is two miles away and a free shuttle service is provided. Details Seven nights' B&B from £1,438pp, including flights and hold luggage ( • The in-the-know Amalfi coastal spots that don't cost the earth
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Sometimes an easy family ‘fly and flop' is just what you need
For ages I've been wanting to take my four small grandchildren away, partly for the fun of it and partly to give my daughters a break. So where do you go that is going to please children who are aged between two and six as well as my grown-up daughters and partner, who are very 'foodie', and me, who is less foodie, more, er, 'cocktailie'. While I do a lot of solo travelling and dragged my own kids all over the world when they were small (India, Cambodia, Egypt, for starters) I remember them begging, 'Please, Mum, can we have a normal holiday with no artefacts?' So I knew for this trip we needed something as easy as possible. This is where a good all-inclusive comes in and the snobbery around them is silly. A break from shopping and cooking is a boon to parents of little ones. A place where everyone can eat and drink what they like without having to think about bills is relaxing. My experience is you get what you pay for, because I have done cheap all-inclusives where the food was inedible except for the roast dinners people had around the swimming pool alongside huge rum and coke floats at 11am. Yes, really. • More great all-inclusives in Mallorca The Iberostar Selection Albufera Park resort in northeast of Mallorca appealed to us because the flight is short. We were all excited. One of my grandsons told his mum, 'Tell Grand Suzanne not to take weapons to the airport.' Smart advice. One imagines the perfect family holiday but families are complicated and life happens. Or, worse, it stops. A couple of days before we were due to go my son-in-law's mother died suddenly. She was an amazing woman and integral to my grandchildren's life. We were all in shock. Do you go on holiday while grieving? What is the right thing to do? The little ones didn't understand, of course. It was obvious my son-in-law could not come, but could he join us halfway through the week? Everyone was brilliant. The hotel staff were understanding and I changed his flight with easyJet. I was amazed to get through on the phone and talk to a guy who was sympathetic to our plight. • Best beaches in Mallorca We arrived determined to make the best of it despite the sadness. Small children keep you in the present and my grandsons, who are five and six years old, were excited we were picked up by a minibus. The reception at the hotel is genius as there is a large slide for tired and fractious kids (keep that as a surprise). It's brilliant because it makes check-in fun. The resort had upgraded my room, but we wanted to be together as that was the point of the holiday. As it was, our 'family premium' room was big enough. A bunk bed arrangement in one part of the room with a sliding door and a big bed on the other side gave us what amounted to two bedrooms. We overlooked the main pool with its water slides and ladybird-style showers. Then there was the breakfast buffet, which is my middle daughter's favourite thing in the world. My eldest is not so keen on buffets and I don't get up for breakfast if there is coffee in the room, but the children adored it, ladling chocolate sauce on to potato waffles. Indeed, the food was pretty great all round. It was fresh and there was a huge variety, much of it cooked in front of you. Our favourite was the lunch beach grill restaurant, Tamarindos. Steak, chicken and fabulous sausages were barbecued there, and they offered beautiful salads too. The kids were happy with very good pizza and burgers, while the adults had lobster and paella. • What to do in Mallorca There are restaurants to book and it's nice to be served. The grown-ups tried the Greek (Kyknos) and Spanish (Martinete) restaurants but the food was not any better than the buffet. Apart from the main kids' pool, there are six other pools, which are calmer, and a superb beach. We all did different things at different times. My favourite was the rooftop pool, where you could help yourself to drinks and look out over the bay and Playa de Muro beach. It was peaceful and feels five-star luxe. As for booze, they knew how to do a proper margarita so I coped, put it that way. Much is designed around kids, especially small kids. There are trampolines and all kinds of activities. The swimming pool carpet was a hit, as were the giant Transformers appearing at dinner. Ours were too little for the kids' club stuff and I think kids' clubs require children who are extroverted. However, our lot were entranced by the shows. I know it's illegal, but I don't like Abba, never mind Abba imitators. Still, the children loved the acrobats and the 'I love the Nineties' night. • Mallorca's top family hotels We barely left the resort, but we did go up the road for pony rides. A Shetland pony is heaven if you're a three-year-old girl. And the Albufera Nature Reserve is nearby with the Balearics' largest wetlands. Oh, and we went on a boat trip from Muro beach into the bay and around the caves of Cap de Formentor with an hour's stop at Formentor beach — easy, as you can sit inside if the sun is too hot and there is a bar and snacks on board. But really you can do as little or as much as you like. My son-in-law eventually arrived and while sun and sea are not a cure for bereavement it was good to be together. • Read our full guide to the Balearics I had a terrific facial and a massage at the spa (treatments from £70), though the indoor pool is a bit underwhelming, but that's a niggle. The other niggle was the loudness of the shows. If your room is near the stage it's impossible to settle little ones to sleep as it's so noisy. It also seemed a bit much to have to have to pay for beach sunloungers (£18 a day for two), but these are, as I say, niggles. In our circumstances we could not have the perfect family holiday and we are far from a perfect family anyway, but it gave us some time out. The holiday fantasy is everyone gets on and no exhausted child has a temper tantrum. It's unreal, but the fact that each of us relaxed and had a few perfect moments at such a difficult time says everything about what Iberostar provides. The children even asked me if they could live there, so there you go … my grandparenting job was done. For Moore was a guest of Iberostar ( which has all-inclusive family rooms at Albufera Park from £246. Fly to Palma This article contains affiliate links that can earn us revenue By Siobhan Grogan Spread over low-rise buildings in a peaceful bay in the southwest of Kos, this all-inclusive hotel is directly on the beach in Lambi, with five pools, a mini-waterpark and a spa. There are seven restaurants including a gelateria and Greek taverna, plus swim-up rooms and suites with private pools for extra Seven nights' all-inclusive from £871pp, including flights, checked luggage and coach transfers A 20-minute seaplane ride west of Malé, Kuramathi was one of the first resorts to open on its own island in the Maldives's Rasdhoo Atoll in 1975 and has honed a winning fly-and-flop formula since. Waft between a mile-long sandbank lapped by the Indian Ocean, a beachside spa, a champagne bar, nine à la carte restaurants and a house reef, where the snorkelling is excellent. Details Seven nights' full board from £1,659pp, including flights ( Choose between seven outdoor pools or Portugal's longest golden sand beach at this five-star property at Praia da Falesia in the Algarve. There's no need to leave if you'd rather not, because this sprawling resort has 12 restaurants, a huge kids' club, a clifftop golf course, an impressive spa and rooms decorated in traditional Portuguese style with hand-painted tiled headboards and terracotta floors. However, the coastal town of Olhos d'Agua, with its waterpark, beach promenade and boat tours, is about a ten-minute walk. Details Seven nights' B&B from £626pp, including flights and checked luggage (
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Sleeping rough in Benidorm: How Brits are living in a homeless encampment after losing everything
Every summer the main parades of Benidorm's heaving New Town are packed with Brits. Crowds flock to the town on the Costa Blanca for its cheap and cheerful drinks, glorious sunshine and beautiful beaches. But while sozzled stags, excited hens and elderly holidaymakers enjoy themselves - just a few yards away it is a very different story. Behind Benidorm's rows of Irish pubs, British cafes and sports bars is a rubbish-filled homeless encampment. Among the shacks and piles of rubble is a desperate community of Brits, Spaniards and Albanians sleeping rough. The group live in the makeshift structures - without running water or electricity - after a surge in BnB-style properties priced them out of their homes. Jodie, a British woman who has been unable to find a job or accommodation in Benidorm since Brexit in 2020, said the people living in the encampment have formed a 'community'. She told MailOnline: 'When I first moved here everyone was on the streets alone, no one talked to each other, but I've made a little community,' she explained. 'I said we've got to help each other out little by little.' She added: 'We need help, I went to social services begging for help and they gave me an appointment for three months time and we missed it because we have no internet, we literally have nothing.' Jodie first moved to Benidorm in 1994 with her parents before returning to the UK with her son in 2012, so he could attend a British university. She eventually returned, but then found out she was no longer legally able to reside in Spain - making it impossible to find a job. Jodie said: 'I went back to England and when I asked for benefits they wouldn't give them to me because I had been out the country for too long, and now I've come home [to Spain] and I'm an illegal immigrant.' Jonny Elraiz runs City Streets Community Project, a charity that delivers food to the homeless in Benidorm. Four times a week Jonny and a group of volunteers cook up to 90 meals and deliver them to those sleeping rough in the Costa Blanca South area of Benidorm. He drives around stopping on street corners and at the 'commune', which sits below a cluster of high-rise hotels. The encampment has a direct view of New Town where thousands of Brits descend each summer to soak up the Spanish sunshine and let loose. It sits on a sandy hill above a car park and is littered with piles of rubbish and waste from building sites. There is one makeshift road that snakes uphill and passes several abandoned properties that have been marked with colourful towels by groups of people squatting inside them. Jonny explained that there are plenty of Brits who now consider Benidorm their home but have been forced to sleep rough because they can no longer afford to pay rent. He spoke to MailOnline about a veteran, who has found himself unemployed and living in Benidorm. 'Mark was a squaddie with the Royal Engineers,' he explained. 'He came out here a number of years ago, he's a builder and had a relationship breakdown, he was just living doing his work but because of the pandemic there was no work and he ended up on the streets. 'He's lost all his papers and he's living on the streets trying to get the odd days work here and there.' Not only does Jonny hand-deliver meals to the homeless in Benidorm but he also helps those stuck in the country return home. On a regular basis he receives calls from Brits who have lost their passports, run out of money and are unable to return to the UK. And while most people assume a weekend of partying will end in a hungover flight home, an increasing number of Brits end up trapped in the country. In several scenarios tourists have found themselves waking up in prison without their passport and upon release are forced to stay in Spain with nowhere to live until they get a court date. Spain is currently locked in a debate over anti-tourism with many people in towns popular with foreign holidaymakers protesting in the streets and sometimes attacking tourists. The protesters claim that a never-ending stream of tourists is increasing property prices and squeezing locals out of their towns - as well over-crowding beaches and damaging beauty spots. The tourism battle lines in Benidorm are drawn between the traditional quaint streets of the 'Old Town', where native visitors go to unwind, and the buzzing pub-packed strips of 'the New Town' where Brit drinkers party the night away. One local told MailOnline: 'I want them [the Brits] to stay away from this area, not many people like the British tourists. Jonny explained that as Benidorm continues to cater towards tourists - expanding rental properties and increasing food prices - locals are facing a cost-of-living crisis. 'I've got two or three guys who have a full-time job and they're living on the streets,' he told MailOnline. 'There's just nowhere to rent that is within the price range. 'There's nothing, you can't find anything, you see people on social media doing a flat share, you're looking at €400 to €200 a week for a room in a shared house. 'The average worker is on €1100 a month, so how's anyone supposed to survive? 'And most of the places are empty. That's the heartbreaking thing about it. You know, a lot of the tower blocks, and in the towns around as well. 'I've got a mate that's got an apartment in one of the tower blocks and eight months of the year there's him and one other apartment. 'Homes should be about where people live it shouldn't be about investment. 'Tourism has been exploited in a way which has had a detrimental effect on the locals.'
