 St. Paul's Bay, Malta Malta is a beautiful island off the coast of Sicily. It used to be property of Great Britain, so driving is on the left side of the road, and the influence of the island is British and Italian due to location and history. I don’t know how much you know about spring weather in Europe, but it really isn’t hot enough in April to get in any water without a wetsuit, even as far south as Malta. Since it was the off season, flights and lodging were dirt cheap, as in less than $30/person for the flight and just over $100/night for lodging right on the water. We went for the week of Spring Break and toured all 3 of Malta’s islands: Malta, Gozo, and the tiny island of Comino. It truly was a great family vacation and the memories of our time there still warm my heart. Malta We use the Chase Sapphire card for all of our regular purchases so that we can rack up credit card points and get free stuff. We stayed at the A/X Sunny Coast Resort and Spa in Malta for free on this stay. I do recommend staying here. This particular resort is a aparthotel, essentially an apartment hotel. Our apartment had a full kitchen and was VERY spacious. There is an indoor and outdoor pool, as well as a spa. Children are only allowed in the indoor pool and spa area during certain hours, parking is limited, and our room did not include breakfast. There was a super cheap diner right next door to the hotel though that offered breakfast and we had our full kitchen, so we didn’t miss it. This hotel is walkable to the aquarium and all of St. Paul’s Bay area. I recommend St. Paul’s over the more popular city of St. Julian’s if you are looking for a more relaxed, small town feel. St. Julian’s is very metropolitan and crowded, but has a great night life, so it all depends on what you’re looking for. ***Insider tip: If you stay in St. Paul’s and you have kids, I recommend you eat at Luzzu. It’s a restaurant with an entire indoor play area. We barely saw the kids during dinner and enjoyed a great double date there with friends that also happened to be in Malta!
On our first day, we drove to the ruins of Hagar Qim & the Mnajdra Temples. These ruins date back to 5000-5500 BC. They are incredibly well preserved, due to being composed of Limestone. Limestone holds up incredibly well over centuries. These ruins are older than the pyramids, my friends. We then toured the town of Valletta. Valletta is a beautiful walled city, made completely of limestone. Just walking the city and looking at the old fortifications is breathtaking. From there, we went to St. Julian, walked around, and ate at the Blue Elephant in the Hilton St. Julian.. I highly recommend this restaurant. The inside looks like a Thai village with a waterfall, huts, and the food is absolutely INCREDIBLE!!!
The next day we went to the silent city of Mdina. Mdina is called the silent city, because it used to be Malta’s capital. When they decided to change the capital to another city, Mdina was left behind like a ghost town. We also hiked to St. Peter’s pool and hiked to all the scenic points shown on Google Maps. ***Insider tip for Mdina: If you have kids, do the Knights of Malta Tour. It was a self-guided audio tour complete with mannequins and sound effects that acted out the history of the knights that have held and defended Malta for centuries. It’s lively and fun.
On our last day on the island of Malta, we planned to take the ferry to the island of Gozo. ***Insider tip: I recommend the ferry to the other islands over the boat tours, simply because it’s SO cheap. It’s less than €5/adult and less than €2 per child to ride the ferry to Gozo, add about €16 if you want to include your car. Near the port, we went to the Popeye Village. This is where the Popeye movie with Robin Williams was filmed. It’s a small park, but picturesque, and we participated in a tourist rendition of the movie. It was fun to be filmed like movie stars and take part in the movie. I highly recommend taking photos at the area overlooking the park. The photos turn out fab, as you can see from mine.
Gozo It was a quick ferry to Gozo and from there, we drove to our Airbnb. It is called Gozo a Prescindere Bed and Breakfast and it’s in the adorable town of Nadur. Andrea owns the B&B. He showed us to our room, treated us like family, and made an amazing breakfast every morning. Breakfast included an exotic fruit salad that involved ginger, mint, and lime…..it was sublime. Andrea also made our family homemade dinner one night. He’s an Italian from La Spezia and puts his heart in his cooking and in his business. I can’t recommend this B&B enough. We reserved a timeframe in the on-site spa and enjoyed hot tea and the hot tub (which was warm, but not hot). Andrea also helped us to plan our time in Gozo and gave us great recommendations. While in Gozo, we drove to the salt pans where you can buy fresh sea salt from a shop carved right into the mountain side, hiked the Ghasri Valley and drove around the island. Roads are super slim, often 2-way roads that look like 1-way roads, and they’re all lined with limestone walls.
Comino We took a boat ride to Comino, with tickets purchased from Andrea (our B&B host). The boat that took us to the Comino island marina just so happened to be at the famous Blue Lagoon, which is the brightest, bluest water I’ve ever seen, as you can see from the photo below. We hiked around about half of the island, since the island was too small to bring our car, bought a pretty drink near the port, then headed back to Gozo. There’s really not much to do on Comino, but it was a beautiful hike.
After touring all 3 islands, we found Malta to be incredibly rich in limestone, full of history from ancient to not so ancient, all of the water we saw was startling blue and crystal clear, and it was beautifully mountainous. The island was perfect for hiking, especially if you enjoy crystal clear water and cliffs. In the summer, it would be great for cliff jumping, but not great for enjoying the beach. We saw very few beaches.
Next post: The Southern Italian Islands of Ischia, Procida, and Capri....hot pools, hikes, and cliffside dining!
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For this trip, we looked up a list of top European ski locations that won’t break the bank. Kranjska Gora, Slovenia came up on the list! Flying into Slovenia was too expensive, so we flew into Venice Treviso airport, which was not far from the Slovenian border. After further research, we created an itinerary to see as much of Slovenia as possible in a 5 day span. Ljubljana After picking up our rental car, we hit the road! These types of adventures are so fun! We always get a cheap rental car that can fit our backpacks, turn on some local music, and our faces are glued to the windows as we pass all the wonders of the new country. We always make the kids put their technology away and partake in this exploration. They’re so used to it that they don’t complain. It was about a 2.5 hour drive to Ljubjana, the capital of Slovenia. We spent a few hours and lunch in the city. We walked to the Ljubljana Castle, which had views of the whole city, a chapel, an open air prison, and the most beautiful medieval stone walls. There was a gentleman dressed in medieval garb, with a very enigmatic personality, writing the names of tourists in calligraphy for a small fee. Needless to say, we have a whole stack of Calligraphy names as souvenirs and we had a great time. I had lunch of Slovenian Goulash, which came with 2 squares of polenta. I thought the polenta was a nice touch and really showed how close Slovenia is to the Italian border.
Lake Bled From Ljubljana, we drove to Lake Bled. I’ve seen a lot of my friends' adventures in Lake Bled in the spring and summer and they typically involve staying in treehouses near the lake and taking a picturesque boat ride to the church in the middle of the lake, but we were there in the winter, so we enjoyed a brisk walk around the lake and that was it. The boats were unavailable, so reaching the island with the famous church was not an option. There were several areas to take great photos on our walk and the sky was clear, so it was a nice way to stretch our legs after our road trip. ***Insider tip: To get the most out of a visit to Lake Bled, visit in the Spring or Summer.
Kranjska Gora It was prime time in the ski season when we visited (February), but it was uncharacteristically warm, so snow was mostly manufactured and was melting by 2:00 pm. Any point after 2:00pm, we were skiing on ice. My boys are much less breakable than I am, so we would have lunch every day around 1:00 pm and I would stay and relax at the restaurant at the bottom of the slope, while they continued to ski and snowboard to their heart’s content. I remember it being so warm that I took all of my layers off and got some sun on my arms in my tank top. Lunch at the bottom of the slope was on point. We ordered a meat platter each day that came with fresh veggies, sides, and fresh bread. There were old piles of snow that had yet to melt in the middle of the eating area and kids all met up and made houses and tunnels with the hardened snow. I love moments when my kids play with kids from another culture. They may all speak different languages, but in the end they’re all kids and like to play.
The town of Kranjska Gora itself is clean, beautiful, and has a great little ice rink. We stayed at the Ramada Inn with the ice rink in front. This was nice because we were about ¼ mile away from the lift and our ski rentals. It was less than $5 worth of local currency for the kids to borrow ice skates at the rink. In Europe, they don’t bleep out cuss words in music. I bring this up, because the music they played while the kids were skating had very explicit lyrics. It made us laugh when the F word was repeated in a techno song over and over again while young children were skating. I have a video of it that I will not post, but this is a cultural difference to be prepared for! We got a kick out of it, but the locals didn’t even seem to notice. We were disappointed in our hotel, so I won’t recommend it. There are actually two Ramada Inns in Kranjska Gora. They put photos from both resorts on both advertisements, instead of showing photos of the resort you will be staying at. The Ramada we didn’t stay at was right AT the ski lift and had an indoor pool and spa, the Ramada we stayed at was a short walk away from the other Ramada and the ski lift. Our Ramada is where the ice rink is. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is when you want to go to the indoor pool and have to walk in snow afterwards back to your hotel. Also, we didn’t anticipate having to walk with our ski boots on to the lift, because the photos showed the lift was right outside of the hotel. It was frustrating to say the least, but we rolled with it.
Predjama Castle On our last day, our flight out of Venice Treviso was in the evening, so we ate breakfast at our hotel and hit the road! When looking for places to stop on our way back to Venice, I found a medieval castle perched on a 123 meter high cliff and all of it is carved into a mountain, complete with caves. It’s called Predjama Castle. Yes please! We were limited on time, so we only got to see the castle from the outside. There were guard towers carved into the mountain on the side of the castle. It was so incredibly impressive to see! There is a romantic legend that a knight stayed at the castle during an army siege for a year. Apparently there is more to the story, including a secret tunnel and a love story, all tied to this magnificent castle.
Postojna Cave From Predjama Castle, it was just a few minute drive to the Postojna Caves. It was about $25/child and $40 per adult for tickets to just tour the cave. The subterranean cave system is shaped by tiny droplets over millions of years. We jumped on a train, along a 3.7 km track under ground as part of the tour. Once we made it to the halfway point, deep in the tunnels, we received a tour and walked around looking at the different formations. There was even a ‘baby dragon,’ which is a cave dwelling animal that can go without food for up to 10 years. We got to peak at them in a tank. It was super cool to see!
Our family loved our Slovenian adventure. We were sore from skiing, our bellies were full of good, hearty food, and our hearts were fulfilled with our castle and cave adventure! The only thing I would have wished for to make it perfect would be more snow and more time, but we can’t have it all!
Onto the next adventure: The islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino….hiking, salt mines, and history! There are some locations that we have traveled to that we would return to in a heartbeat. We stumbled upon a resort in Bansko, Bulgaria called Pirin River Ski, Fun, and Family when we were looking for a ski resort to spend New years vacation. This particular resort was much more affordable in comparison to the resorts in the Alps. Reserving in advance gave an added discount and the possibility of free meals included. One of the owners of the resort, Katarina, has such an amazing personality that I couldn't wait to meet her for our trip. She emailed me to nail down every detail of our trip to make sure we didn't have to worry about anything after we arrived. We had such a great experience at Pirin River that we returned the following year and brought even more friends! To get to Bansko, the first year, we flew into and out of Thessaloniki, Greece. The second year, we flew into and out of Sofia, Bulgaria. The hotel shuttle picked us up and brought us to and from the resort for a very reasonable price. It was a 2-3 hour drive from either location, but the ride from Thessaloniki involved a border crossing into Bulgaria that took up some extra time. Bansko, Bulgaria Bansko is an adorable ski town with a ski lodge charm. There are numerous restaurants, shops, bars, and clubs all geared towards ski life. Bulgarian fare includes a lot of delicious meat platters and that seems to be the restaurant focus in town. The ski resort itself is a decent size. I truly think it's perfect for families that like to ski for fun or are looking to learn to ski, due to the great prices for the lessons and rentals. The rentals were not of the highest quality, but served the purposes for our family. Some details of the perks of the resort are below. ***Insider tip: Please keep in mind that late December/Early January is early in the ski season for most resorts. We had a good amount of fresh powder the first year at the resort and a lot of fake snow the second year. Pirin River Ski, Fun, and Family
Thessaloniki, Greece The history of Thessaloniki is vast and interesting. It was once part of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine empire, and the Ottoman Empire. Ancient ruins, marble tile, beautiful sculptures, and delicious food. It was very grand in parts, but also had a lot of graffiti, there was some garbage in the streets, but if you're able to look past that you'll enjoy it, truly. We felt that it was very reminiscent of Naples and Rome. The food was SO flavorful, but different than the greek food I’ve eaten in America.! We ordered a Gyro and it came open faced and our greek salad was chunky with no lettuce and was delicious. The food is obviously very different from American Greek. We stayed at Colors and Rooms Apartments with our Chase Sapphire points. It was a great location, walkable to everything, and had a balcony. We felt safe. We ate breakfast at nearby cafes, since breakfast was an extra charge. I looked up the link for this property to share, but it is permanently closed. I can recommend that area, even if the property is no longer available! We walked the city and saw the white tower, Aristotelous Square, the Hagia Sophia, the Rotunda, the Roman Agora, and toured inside of the Archeological Museum of Thessaloniki. We only spent 2 days, but it was perfect. It happened to be snowing a lot, which made the marble in the city very slippery, but our boys had a blast with having snowball fights with each other and local kids. I highly recommend Palati as a dinner location. The food was freshly made and delicious. Everyone was clapping and singing along to the live Greek music. It was heart warming. We try to always make reservations in advance when we travel and I recommend doing so for this restaurant. It's a true greek experience and not a large restaurant.
Sofia, Bulgaria When we went to Sofia, our family took turns with a stomach bug. We only spent a few hours walking the city, but it was a charming city. We walked through the central market and ate lunch at one of the food stalls. We didn't have the best lodging experience in Sofia, but sharing this may prepare other tourists for what to expect out of lodging in Sofia. We stayed at Hotel Anel. It's a self-proclaimed 5 star resort, but our experience was 3 star. People smoke inside the hotel, the birthday order of Prosecco and appetizers I ordered for my husband was not what I ordered, and the hotel itself was just average. I ordered a platter of local cheeses and nuts, drizzled with honey and a bottle of Cuvee Italian Prosecco....we received a bowl with a few fruits, not even chopped, and a bottle of cheap champagne. They amended their mistake quickly though, after I called. The prices in the Balkans though can't be beat, so keep this in mind when traveling to the area. It was only €120 total, for 2 nights, and included breakfast, and this was at their '5 star resort.' We didn't get to partake in the spa. We met up with our friends on the last day and ate at a delicious local restaurant called Moma Bulgarian Food and Wine. We ordered a 3 course lunch for 4 full of Bulgarian specialties and it fed both of of our families! So, for 4 adults and 4 children, we ordered only a meal for 4 people (the value was converted to about $80 total for the food). We even had leftovers! It was delicious and really fun to experience the specialties with our friends and some local wine.
Keep in mind if you plan a trip like this, that every experience is different. When traveling, it's best to go with the flow of whatever culture and place you're visiting. Even though we ended up with a stomach bug making rounds during our time in Sofia and the places we visited weren't perfect, we still found a charm and enjoyed our experiences.
Next Blog Post: Slovenia - Ljubjana, skiing in Kranjska Gora, Lake Bled, Predjama Castle, and the Postojna Cave. An adventure full of Wonder. |
AuthorMy name is Brandy Porrata. I am a veteran and I have been a military spouse for 18 years. I am also a mom of 3 wild boys, ages 17, 9, and 7. We’ve spent the past 17 years in the United States at various locations, most recently in Pensacola, Florida where I built a career as a realtor. Our family will be moving to Naples, Italy. This blog is my heart, my journey, and our various travels as we leave our country for the next few years to experience Italy, Europe, & beyond. I plan to share the process of moving overseas, my life, and tips and insight into traveling with a family in Europe. Please don’t hesitate to respectfully reach out to me or comment. Archives
December 2020
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