Qawra Palace Resort and Spa

First time in Malta and absolutely loved it. A beautiful, clean and friendly place. St Paul's Bay was lovely and not too busy or built up, retaining a lot of original charm. The hotel was also fabulous, like a maze with so many different areas. Very clean and tidy. Staff were so helpful and proactive at dealing with any issues. Food was lovely with many vegetarian options.

Our room was very spacious and clean, but very small balcony and just a view of another hotel and a room. Some rooms do have sea view. The hotel can be quite confusing as some lifts only go to certain floors, so navigation takes a while. If all inclusive you only get one al la carte restaurant per week, it will let you book extra visits but you will be charged extra for this. We tried Luma and Asian restaurants, the food was very good in both although not a lot of choice. The main buffet restaurant was very good, with a good selection of food and fresh pizzas being cooked all the time. All inclusive cocktails were not good as they were not freshly made, they came from a machine and were very watery. No all inclusive snacks by the pool, but sandwiches were available to purchase. There are two bars/cafes next to the reception but these are not part of the All inclusive deal, so you have to pay for the privilege of using them. Evenings could be difficult to find somewhere to get a drink, as the downstairs pool bar closed early. Although Charlie's bar is advertised as open, and is a comfortable place to sit and chill, we found that the actual bar was boarded up and not in use, so you had to walk quite a distance to get a drink to bring back to the area. The entertainment was good for the first night but it was exactly the same format every single night, It consisted of the same five entertainers, dancing, then one of them would sing, then a girl would do some aerial acrobatics, normally you get some variety of entertainment but unfortunately not here, until a Wednesday when a local couple comes with an accordion to sing local folk music ( we did quite enjoy this, although we obviously couldn't understand a word). The road outside the hotel was extremely noisy and busy. Motorbikes with noisy exhausts were common and I would imagine would disturb you if you were in a room facing the main road. The location was otherwise good for transport links, lots of local buses available opposite the hotel and the hop on hop tourist bus stops outside the hotel every hour. The local town is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. With shops, bars and clubs, and the national aquarium. There are local shops near to the hotel for essentials. There is no beach at the hotel so the sea is not very accessible for children or those with mobility issues. Access is down a metal ladder and the sea is quite deep immediately. The pools are ok, but very cold even when it was 32 degrees in the sun. They were also salt water pools. The children's pool was also 1 metre deep, so no good for paddling. There was a tiny pool that was a few cm's deep. We never struggled to get a sunbed even at 10 o'clock in the morning , but there is not a lot of room between the sunbeds so it can feel like you're playing sardines. Towels are available with a 10 euro deposit. On the whole a nice holiday, but not for you if you normally enjoy a quiet beach resort.