Qawra Palace Resort and Spa

We are 31 and 30 and first impressions of the hotel were very good. Arrived at 1:00pm and advised the rooms dont check in till 4 but we were able to store our luggage and receive our bands for all inclusive.

FOOD: I had seen mixed reviews on food but we could not fault it. Every day we walked away happy with what we had eaten. The food was delicious in the main buffet. Breakfast was standard every morning, with fry up food available, cereal, fruit, salad and bread. Lunches, there was always a couple of pasta options, pizza, from the grill and other bits and bobs. Dinners changed slightly every night with plenty of option. I would recommend to get to breakfast before 8.30 as it starts to get very busy afterwards.

There are 3 restaurants you can book into as well (included in all inclusive) which are an asian, south american and carribean restaurant. Strangely, only the carribean one is table service, the other two operate as a buffet which in my opinon seems pretty rubbish as you get that in the main room. Couldnt fault the south american and carribean in terms of food but we did not enjoy the asian one at all. The food was rubbery, bland and we assumed it had either been left overs from the day before or sat out all day, really didnt enjoy at all.

The drinks in the restaurants were fine for me, i drink beer and soft drinks whereas my partner, she enjoys a cocktail or a gin, but this wasnt an option in the restaurants.

POOL: We spent all our time at the roof top pool and absolutely loved it. The views overlooking the sea were incredible, the "infinity" pool as we called it was amazing, we lay in here and read our books for hours and the main pool was ok. It is very busy up there so you need to go early and if you are a swimmer theres no chance of doing lengths as its not a big pool and everyone is in to cool off. The main pool seemed nice and it has a little beach (used loosely) area where you can go in the sea.

A negative is the towel situation, it is not policed and typical British, we run up and reserve them, my partner had to deal with Tom Brady launching a towel from 40 yards away over head before she could sit down and turn round to a smug face saying "I got there first". Our balcony overlooked the main pool and at 6 in the morning there was towels lying out already, so this needs addressed.

ROOMS: Room was fine, fresh towels daily but did notice on day 7 after eating a bar of chocolate there was a slight smudge and we thought nothing off it as they appeared to be getting changed everyday. Wrong. By day 10 it was still there, they had just been making the bed up. I dont know what the policy of changing the sheets was but it wasnt as regular as youd think. Also, the floors were manky and not being scrubbed, as our white socks would continuously be black after walking around from the balcony to the room. We paid extra for a Sea View and thank god we did because we seen the other balcony's when we played mini golf and they all looked at each other like an ltalian street. Points knocked here off score for the above.

ENTERTAINMENT: Ill be polite and say they tried! Dont be fooled by the advertising of "Around the world", "Legends night" or "Musicals", its the same 4 dancers every night and a singer. Dont get me wrong they are decent but its effectively the same show from 9.15-9.50ish and then it turns into Mickey Mouses' fun house for the kids. Entertainer plays the same music every night and the kids get upto dance (and adults to be fair) but this is it till 11 and then the lights come on and the bars closed. There were two nights down by the poolside where a father and son sang (by the way, best entertainment of the week, incredible voices) and a karaoke night on a Thursday. It appears the dancers are employed by an agency so i dont see why they cant send out different types each week, maybe a magician or hypnotist or something. We were watching the same shows by the second week. Again score knocked for this too.

OTHER POINTS: As stated the hotel is nice and we really enjoyed it bar the couple of issues, but there isnt anywhere to sit and have a drink other than the roof top pool bar even after the pools have closed. The rooftop has limited seats so unless you want to go watch the entertainment at 9 thats your whack. We arent big drinkers so wasnt an issue, but sometimes its nice to even just sit with a juice in a nice bar and relax, but this isnt an option unless you go to the royal bar at reception and pay, as its not included as part of all inclusive. I can feel people reading this moaning "surely you can go and just have a couple" but when youve forked out thousands to take that stress out of it, you shouldnt have to pay more. It did look a really nice bar but we didnt go in. What I will say is all the cocktails are included in all inclusive so you get a good variety.

Also, I mentioned we played mini golf, simply... don't waste your time. I did poke my head in at the gym (not a chance on holiday) and it did look really nice.

FYI - If you arrive like us before check in and want to change into pool gear, you need to go to the fourth floor gym changing rooms,

CHECK OUT: Our flight was at 22:15 so we had to check out at 11 and you get a silver all inclusive band till 3pm, after that you're on your own in terms of food and drink but you can still use the hotels facilities. You have the option of the showers on the rooftop pool or the gym changing rooms, but FYI the gym ones are exposed and unless you're comfortable with a European man/women watching you shower in a queue, id go for the rooftop pool as you can lock the door and save your dignity.

OVERALL: We really did enjoy Malta and the hotel was good but those couple of issues I raised above knock it down to roughly 3.4/5 out of 5 for us. The staff were really helpful and friendly, my criticisms I suppose are aimed at higher management to step in and resolve in terms of how the hotel is run but for the price we paid, we can't overally complain, id say I was being critical but honest.

Don’t generally like to be negative or critical but I have to share our experience in the hope it helps others. I wasn’t expecting anything luxurious from what we paid but was expecting far better. Breakfast was like people at a mad January sale. Quite overwhelming. Bacon taste like burnt plastic. Two toast machines for about 1000 guests! Make that make sense. We were there for four days. For two of those, no sign of housekeeping. They only cleaned on the final day as we made a complaint to reception. The rooms were basic and the bathrooms smelt of damp. Evening entertainment was like travelling back to 1970’s Butlins. The lowlight was the lifts within the hotel. On one occasion, we waited around 10 minutes for a life. It’s like lift roulette. You have no idea if a lift is stopping at your level or whether it would fly straight past onto a different level. I would strongly suggest you stretch your budget a little more and choose another hotel in another area of town. Valletta, M’dina are both beautiful areas.

We haven't stayed in this hotel but have ate here several times in our weeks stay and I have to say the staff and food at Lume Caribbean and mixology restaurant has been exceptional so welldone guys keep up the hard work as you have 2 very satisfied customers wanting to come back for more 5* rating from us