The Hotel (JD San Antonio) was great and I will cover the positives later, however, one lady complained of a bad smell of drains in her room, 2 ladies were overlooking a building site and the crane started working every morning at 0700hrs, my apartment was on floor zero and I was overlooking a small gas power plant. The hotel was full and unable to change anyones room. I didn't ask for a change as the advantage of my room was that it was very quiet.

Two of the tours advertised the evening meal as a Maltese buffet, but both were set meals with soup and a choice of rabbit or fish (although our tour guide went out of her way to get alternatives where necessary).

The tour is advertised as Palaces, but should include churches as we visited one and sometimes two every day, which in effect is part of the history of the Island. We did visit one palace and had a wonderful cream tea and we saw several Palaces from the outside.

The first full day tour of Valetta tried to pack too much into 3 and a half hours, consequently it felt very rushed, there was no `break' for a coffee and we arrived too late to see or hear the firing of the guns at the upper barraka gardens. There was a lot of walking and a few people struggled and the crowds were unbelievable.

More on the hotel later but one observation is the main bar, you have to buy drink vouchers at reception at 10€ a time to pay for drinks at the bar, it all felt a bit 'holiday camp'.

OK, let's get onto the positives. The hotel room was huge and had all the facilities needed, a good hairdrier, a fridge (no freezer element), the shower was powerful and ALWAYS had hot water even at peak times. It was cleaned every day and there was an ironing room on the 4th floor (get a key card cut at reception).

The main restaurant in the hotel is huge and self service, lots of choices, chefs continually cooking fresh, plenty of staff to clear tables and dinner had free beer, wine and soft drinks on tap. Refill your water bottles at various points around the hotel.

The tours are varied and because the island isn't huge you don't spend ages on the coach. Gozo day trip was fantastic starting with a short ferry trip to the island, salt flats, road train, craft centres and ending with a lovely meal in a fabulous setting. Our tour Manager Marthese was passionate about the history of her island and continually gave us information and facts. Her knowledge was amazing and she tweaked the itinerary on occasion to take us to additional sites and areas.

The M`dina by night was beautiful and the coach stopped outside the walled city for a photo opportunity.  The boat trip around the blue grotto is an extra 8€ but worth it, weather permitting.  Botanical gardens are peaceful and well kept and the aviation museum is brilliant with a great tour by an experienced tour guide.

Our coach driver, Victor, was a very able driver and stopped as close as possible to all our locations.

Although solo travellers there were 2 sisters, a brother and a sister and 3 friends who travel together so some people knew each other already but the everyone got on well from day 1. Some formed smaller groups but everyone mixed throughout the week.

Malta is a fascinating island with a varied and ancient history. I would definately visit again and I hope this long review has been helpful.

Jacquie

Thank you for such a detailed review, sounds like you had fun despite the negatives. I visited Malta many years ago as a teenager. So you brought back a few memories for me

Cindy

Good to hear you enjoyed your holiday despite the negatives and thanks for sharing those also.  Just lately there has been a few comments about 'issues' with holidays and it would be good if more people would share these and not confine them to the questionnaire which as we know may or may not arrive.

Best wishes

Jonah, I'm another frustrated by people posting about "issues" with trips and then not saying what the problems were.  Would be good to know, some "issues" may not matter so much to me, or may be particular to a specific trip (eg if a large group were travelling together) but some I would like to know about, and if JY is doing anything to resolve etc.

Katy

Jacquie

Thank you for such a detailed review, sounds like you had fun despite the negatives. I visited Malta many years ago as a teenager. So you brought back a few memories for me

Cindy

Cindy

Yes I did have fun, overall it was an excellent holiday and I'm glad my review brought back memories.

Jacquie

Thanks for posting Jacquie.

Good to hear you enjoyed your holiday despite the negatives and thanks for sharing those also.  Just lately there has been a few comments about 'issues' with holidays and it would be good if more people would share these and not confine them to the questionnaire which as we know may or may not arrive.

Best wishes

Jonah

Yes I did enjoy the holiday.  I think it's important to give honest feedback, including the downside as these reviews are meant to help future travellers.  I aimed for a balanced view and overall it was a very good holiday.

kind regards

Jacquie

Best wishes,

Bob

Many thanks for your review Jacquie, I almost booked Malta for next year.  After reading of some of the difficulties your group encountered I am glad I didn't.  I can understand there being some issues in a destination that is well off the tourist radar, but this does not apply to Malta and this is disappointing.  I'm glad the holiday was good overall.  I do hope that JY get everything sorted out for future departures as these blips should not be happening.

Best wishes,

Bob

Bob

Please don't let my review put you off booking a trip to Malta, if you have never been before it is a fascinating island with an amazing history and the Historical tour certainly covers a great deal of that history.

I was disappointed in JY, it was my first trip with them and I did my research but in reality they did not meet my expectations and I could in fact have been on any package tour with any company as there was no JY involvement throughout the week.

That said, they put the tour together and covered most of the places I would have wanted to visit, plus the Maltese tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and made the holiday all the more interesting.

Hope this helps

kind regards

Jacquie

Many thanks for your review Jacquie, I almost booked Malta for next year.  After reading of some of the difficulties your group encountered I am glad I didn't.  I can understand there being some issues in a destination that is well off the tourist radar, but this does not apply to Malta and this is disappointing.  I'm glad the holiday was good overall.  I do hope that JY get everything sorted out for future departures as these blips should not be happening.

Best wishes,

Bob

I went on this trip to Malta on the 12th September. In a similar way to Jacquie there were several minor problems. I normally go on long haul trips and am used to having a tour manager who is willing to deal with any problem that comes along and is very organised. I more felt that on this trip we had an excellent tour GUIDE who was very good when we were out on the trips but was a little lacking when it came to general organisation. For example the welcoming meeting was 35 minuter after my plane was scheduled to land and it was a 30 minute drive from the airport to the hotel. People who flew in from Birmingham were not even informed of the meeting.

Having said that, as a seasoned traveller, none of this was a problem to me and I think the same would apply to you Bob. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this trip and would recommend no one to be put off by these small niggles.

And while you say the hotel was great, being next door to a building site that starts up at 7am every morning, whilst overlooking a small gas power plant, does not exactly sound great to me! It beggars belief that JY can accommodate their customers in a hotel with these surroundings. Once again, I sincerely hope that this doesn’t represent the future of JY holidays.

Anyway, I’m pleased that you didn’t let these problems interfere with your enjoyment of the holiday, but I really hope that JY take note of your honest and informative review and correct these issues quickly. As Bob says, this should NOT be happening.

All the best

Mike

Thanks for your comments and I am sure you are right - I do, however, feel for those who are not so well travelled or are nervous/new to JY who could very well be stressed or worried about what is happening when they arrive in a destination and the arrangements are a bit haphazard.  Whether the tour is long or short haul, I believe the service should be exactly the same and the tour manager should be in full control of the organisation and sort out any issues swiftly and efficiently, so that all travellers feel relaxed and able to enjoy their holiday without anything detracting from that.  I think JY tours have become very expensive over the last couple of years and correspondingly we should be getting a very high standard of service but unfortunately, as others have commented, standards throughout the company seem to be slipping.

Best wishes,

Bob

Hi David,

Thanks for your comments and I am sure you are right - I do, however, feel for those who are not so well travelled or are nervous/new to JY who could very well be stressed or worried about what is happening when they arrive in a destination and the arrangements are a bit haphazard.  Whether the tour is long or short haul, I believe the service should be exactly the same and the tour manager should be in full control of the organisation and sort out any issues swiftly and efficiently, so that all travellers feel relaxed and able to enjoy their holiday without anything detracting from that.  I think JY tours have become very expensive over the last couple of years and correspondingly we should be getting a very high standard of service but unfortunately, as others have commented, standards throughout the company seem to be slipping.

Best wishes,

Bob

I totally agree with you.