Plaza Sliema

ROOMS: The staff at the Plaza Hotel are just great but sadly the hotel is fast decaying around them. One of my travel companions had to put up with red rusty water from the taps and no cold water at all (room 315). I had to change my room (room 312) as I couldn't sleep with the noise from the hotel generators outside. My new room (304) was indeed quiet but had a bad smell of rotten eggs (hydrogen sulphide) coming from the shower drain - this smell is actually very dangerous. The decor of the rooms was also fairly dated but adequate.

FOOD: The buffet style food the hotel offers is quite variable in quality. Beware of the tea and coffee served at their continental breakfast - really the most awful I've ever tasted. It comes from powder bases from machines and since the same nozzel releases tea and coffee, it all tastes mixed up. The 3 course dinners vary in quality. Starters is normally a nice soup and roll followed by the main course which is choice of either fish or meat dish plus vegetables (tinned variety) and potatoes with some fresh side salads. Deserts are normally a choice of brightly coloured artificial cake or pudding, processed cheese and biscuits or, occasionally, some real fresh fruit (apples).

You can purchase drinks, wine and beer at the dinner (half-bottle of local Green label white wine costs 2.0 ML (a little over £3 GBP).

I'd recommend you purchase your coffees from the lovely downstairs shop called CARA's (enterance via hotel or main road). People come from all over the island to have tea and cakes at this lovely little tea shop and it really is very nice and reasonably priced too.

STAFF and SERVICE:

On the plus side, the staff and service at Hotel Reception are great. They are most helpful and imformative and plesant and accomodating.

LOCATION:

Although stated as a Sliema hotel, disappointingly the hotel(s) is located nearer to the St Julian's side of town than the Sliema side.

Views from the resturant on the 6th floor are quite nice, overlooking the St Julian's bay area.

The hotel is actually 2 hotels, the Plaza and the Plaza Regency, both joined together by a walkway. For clarification, we stayed in the Plaza. From the mixed reviews this hotel has had I suspect that the Regency section may be the better of the two hotels.

Quite simply the worst hotel I have ever visited. From the Brochure it looked great. However, the pool was tiny (we ended up walking round the Vodafone centre were there is a fabulous pool there).

You have to pay extra for a sun lounger! And then you are squeezed up RIGHT next to strangers.

The food was simply terrible. The tables were dirty the glasses were mucky the condiments was so dirty that vinegar and olive oil struggled to get past the gunk etc....

The Air conditioning didn't work, after numerous complaints over a 2-week period they still hadn't fixed it. The Double bedroom we requested was two single beds pushed together. So subsiquenty the sheets didn't fit the grimy mattresses - that coupled with the faulty aircon made our life very unpleasant.

The water that came out the bath tap was gritty. There was obscene graffiti on the fire exit signs.

Genuinely the worst holiday I have ever been on. Did I mention that this was our Honeymoon!!!

My husband and I stayed for 1 week at the Plaza Hotel in October 04. Unfortunately we arrived at 5.30am and had to wait until midday for our room. We were rewarded with one of the best rooms on the 5th floor with fantastic views over Baluta and Spinola Bay. The room was very spacious, well lit, clean, balcony furniture, TV, although apart from BBc world only italian and Maltese channels. The room was cleaned daily and we received fresh towels daily. The Plaza and Plaza Regency are sister hotels connected by a walkway on the 6th floor. The restaurant is in the Plaza and the bar in the Plaza Regency. Breakfast consisted of bread, cereals, cheese, ham and jam with not much variation. English cooked breakfast costs extra. Evening meal was a choice of 3 warm main dishes, soup, pasta, salad buffet and a limited selection of desserts. The hotel is on the main coastal road of the Island in Sliema, about halfway between Sliema centre and St. Julians. It can be very noisy in the rooms due to the traffic throughout the night especially at weekends. The majority of guests are over 65 and mostly British. The reception staff are very friendly. Sliema is the largest city on Malta with most of the British high street shops, e.g.Bhs, M&S, Boots but remember in the afternoon it is siesta so most are closed. The best way to discover the Island is with the very efficient bus service. Remember, the hotel is a Maltese 3* so don`t expect too much luxury. If booking only breakfast there are plenty of places to eat near the hotel. We would return to the Plaza.

WE loved Malta, the Hotel was very convenient position. I would suggest to other people it is well worth paying the extra for a sea facing room, we had a ball watching everybody going to and fro, either walking, driving, skateboarding and was the hightlight of our holidays our 5 days there, the only real hassle we had was on arriving the taxi drops you on street and you have to manage steps, 2 doors with your luggage and being senior citizens it was difficult, maybe we should have entered the hotel and asked for help, but the staff at front desk didn't seem that helpful at the time of arrival, on departure there was no help either, but we were prepared for doors and steps and did it bit by bit, otherwise we really enjoyed our stay, Ebba Back

Plaza Regency Hotel was a lovely hotel to stay I have just got back from my holiday over there.

I have enjoyed every minute of it!

The swimming pool in the hoel is so good and with the children's pool it does make it such a differance too!

we stayed two weeks so we got to meet a few people while we were out there.

The buses are very good every 10 minutes roughly so there is no hanging about it.

The only thing you have to watch with the buses is give the correct change because you wan't get any yourself!!

normaly for example if you go from selima to velleta sorry for bad spelling!!

it 15 cents and after 11pm its 50 cents

The buses will try and charge you more!

So Watch your back

There is also no air conditing on the buses so they keep the doors open!

The roads are very slick!!

but still it was a great holiday for us though!!

back to hotel the only thing with the hotel when you pay to stay at the hotel I don't see why you should have to pay for the sun-beds when already just payed to stay here at the hotel!

and the entertinment nothing for the kids!

which is a shame there is a games room but not much for the youngs one to enjoy themself with!

As I said that is the only quibble I have with the hotel and maybe with time they sort these few things out!

But you stay there out look for the perfect few!!

visited July 2004. This hotel is surviving on past glory. Nowadays it is being run on the cheap most of the rooms we saw were dirty, with marked walls. Our arrival was greeted with a "prepared " room that had a wardrobe door hanging off and a broken toilet, the wardrobe was repaired. Housekeeping services failed on more than one occasion to deliver sufficient towels and mats, most residents experienced this and resorted to pinching towels etc. from the maids trolly as required. Meals are now a selfservice affair, which is perfectly acceptable however the food was very poor, [breakfast in particular was a very dismal affair] we like many decided to eat out. It is very sad to see what was once a very nice hotel being run this way, staff levels have apparently been cut, the remaining staff are obviously demotivated. Maids now have to service 25 rooms in the same time they did 16 for the same wages. when we complained all we got from one member of staff was "you should see the other hotels" and "its the recession".

Malta is a nice place to visit, my family and I went to relax and enjoy the experience. Unfortunately while we enjoyed the islands we did not enjoy our stay at this hotel.

My husband and I are just back from a second time at this hotel in Malta. We booked it again, as we had enjoyed it so much last year. What a lovely holiday. Great island - lovely people. The hotel is situated in a prime spot for any place you wish to visit on the island, and there is a lot to see and do. The hotel is friendly, the rooms are lovely, shower was fantastic!!! - we upgraded, this year, to a superior room with sea front view - it was great! The only 'downside' is the restuarant - the food is adequate and that's about it really - not much to report - it could be a little more exciting! I would strongly recommend this hotel - it's really a lovely place.

My husband and I returned to the Plaza for the third year in a row. The other two times we have been in the Plaza Hotel. This year we were in the Plaza Regency section. We also had our daughter and son-in-law, and my brother with us. Our daughter and son-in-law and my husband and I had sea view rooms next door to each other, and my brother was in a single room at the back of the hotel. The sea views are absolutely wonderful, the location is ideal. The hotel is situated almost half way between Paceville and Sliema town centre so you can walk both ways (about half an hour reasonable pace). The food was plentiful and on occasions quite excellent. The clientele is mostly people in their sixties, but none of us ranging from late twenties to late fifties found this off putting. Our first year in Malta we stayed at La Vallette which was very noisy and family orientated. If you are a couple looking for a friendly, well run hotel in a glorious location you really can't beat The Plaza and Plaza Regency. We shall return (as they say!!!!!)

My wife and i have been holidaying in Malta for about 15 years,seven of these visits have been spent at the Plaza Regency Hotel.We can't praise the staff enough each visit is like a homecoming they are so friendly and cannot do enough for you.Malta is a wonderful place to spend your holidays i for one can't wait to return

My wife and i have been going to Malta for the past 10 years, we stay at the Plaza Regency every time. this hotel is clean and well run, the food is very good and cooked to both of our likings. I admit that Malta can look a bit scruffy, but it has carecter and a history that goes way back and is interesting. maltese roads are not all that good and traffic can be wild at times but to us that is part of the beauty of the island and its people, find a roadside cafe and sit with a coffee or lager and watch the people do there own thing, its wonderfull and a nice way to relax in a country that has its own way of life. Malta is to me a haven, a home from home, a place where the wife and i can come to relax for 14 days and know that at the end of our holiday we will have done just that. we walk in the evenings stop and have a drink and then walk some more, its that sort of place. We cant wait for June when we will be back. Then in the December we will be back again for Christmas. We love Malta, its people and its towns and villiges. This is the Island of love and romance. Its relaxed way of life has helped me to overcome my blood pressure problems and given me the reason to slow down and try to enjoy life in work and play. I would recommend Malta to all ages, but highly recommend it to those of my age almost 60, its safe and friendly you can walk around day or night without the fear of being mugged and if you do find yourself in trouble then the police are on the scene in minutes. The Plaze Regency is the only Hotel that we have ever stayed at and we are now almost part of the family. All the older staff know us and we always get a friendly welcome when we walk though the main door at the start of our holiday. I do not recommend car hire in Malta, local transport is cheap and well worth useing, its fun and a totally new experience all buses run to the capital and from there the world is your oyster, well the rest of Malta is anyway.