Hilton Malta

We are just back from another fabulous stay at this hotel. Like my review said from last year what makes this hotel so great is it???s staff. Always pleasant and willing to offer help and assistance. Breakfast is lovely with plenty of choice for everyone. Staff are always replenishing the food and it is of a high quality. Nazz on the omelette station remembered us from last year and was his usual polite smiley and efficient self. We were pleased to see his efforts rewarded with a Member Appreciation Certificate and his photo in the Hilton Magazine 😊 All the staff are hardworking and polite. Alexander the Food and Beverage Supervisor was very helpful and always made sure we had everything we needed. We couldn???t fault any member of staff. There was a couple of issues with our room on arrival but these were dealt with quickly and caused us no real problem. We had a deluxe room with a Marina view again which is stunning and definitely recommended. The rooms are good and the cleaner does a great job. We loved the towel art! The bed and pillows are amazing! The Portamaso marina has some lovely reasonably priced restaurants and is only a couple of minutes walk away. We ate at Marina Terrace twice! Beautiful views and gorgeous food - you definitely won???t go away hungry! The calzone and chicken Caesar salad were perfect! (See photo) There are so many other restaurants within walking distance in St Julian???s / Sliema. There is a Waitrose supermarket nearby too. The hotel has an adults only pool which is quieter than the main pool and where we chose to relax in the sun. The drinks are a bit on the expensive side ???7 for a pint and ???6 for a coke. I personally feel if they lowered the drinks price a little, more people would buy them. We had the club sandwich for lunch one day which was lovely. It was ???16 but big enough to share if you wanted. The hotel is just out of the main area so it is very quiet but a few minutes walk takes you to all the hustle and bustle. The hotel has taxis right outside which can take you anywhere you want to go. We used Joesph Attard, Hilton Taxi Service to take us to Mdina (silent city) and he was knowledgeable about the area and helpful. It cost ???25 each way. We arranged a return fare and he was there right on time. We used the hotel gym which is a good size and has everything you need for a workout. A lot of cardio equipment and weights etc. There are a lot of fitness classes you can do also. A great hotel with amazing friendly staff. We will be back soon!

Having stayed at Hiltons world wide for more than a decade, here is my frank assessment of this one. Firstly, its confused. It doesn???t really know if its an event hotel for big functions, a business hotel for big conferences or a resort hotel for family holidays. As a result it tries to be all 3 and it misses the mark. Parts of the hotel are shut to paying guests if there???s another ???more important??? paying guest arriving. Sorry Hilton, but a paying guest is a paying guest. There???s no one more important. Even as I write this review everyone has been told that all of the hotel, grounds, even exec lounge where I am right now is being closed today because someone more important than me is coming to the hotel. Having given them a lot of money to stay here that just isn???t good enough. And after a decade of loyalty to the Hilton brand I do actually expect to use the facilities when it suits me. Secondly, forget an upgrade whatever your status if you???re here on holiday. Even if its a special occasion. Our first suite was a low- level pitch dark cave with a view of a wall - Im not joking - despite us asking for a high floor and the suite promising ??? magnificent sea views???. No it doesn???t. Got a nice pic of it on my phone in case anyone is interested in pics of blank walls. So we demanded to be moved out of the cave but boy- oh-boy that was a tussle and a half. The breakfast was actually very nice with good food and a food station for omelettes and eggs benedict but the number of times we had to go and ask again and again just for coffee was really tedious. Seems minor I know, but it gets a bit wearing after a while. The executive lounge is very large and comfortable. The staff were very nice particularly John who is a delightful gentleman , but, and I want to stress I write this as a parent, there is no age policy for access so we had to listen to lots of babies crying and toddlers yelling and running about. Its not their fault obviously, but I think that having used the exec lounges around the world most have an age policy - most usually 10 years to avoid precisely this issue. If this comment gets a management response saying ??? this matter will be cascaded to the heads of department ??? I???ll let out a very loud groan. Don???t cascade it, adopt an age policy and implement it. The positives were that the pools were very good and nice well maintained and relaxing surroundings. The interior lobby etc is nicely finished and pleasant. All of the housekeeping staff were very friendly and our suite was very well looked after during our stay. Most ,but not all of the other staff ,were also very pleasant but I just got the sense that staff at the more junior roles at the hotel were infinitely nicer than those in more senior positions. I write this as a senior manager myself and I know precisely what I???m talking about. Would we return? Nope. Not going to happen. I think my headline says it all - really not good enough and I doubt anything will be changing anytime soon. Pity because it could be really, really good. Only it isn???t.

I'm a regular Hilton visitor but this probably has to be the best I have stayed in. The customer service was first class and could not be faulted. Every single employee has been trained to speak to customers with a smile every time and as a result one feels valued as a guest. When we arrived (quite late on a Thursday evening) there had been a mix up with our restaurant booking and my husband had left his iPad on the plane. Both issues were sorted out quickly by the hotel staff, with the minimum of fuss and entirely to our satisfaction (more so, in fact). Especial thanks to Euan (F&B manager), Mariem on reception and Ivan in the bar. And Lea Lyn our maid. Our room was a king deluxe with marina view which was wonderfully large with a very large balcony. After we had eaten, we discovered the live music night (Thursdays) in the Quarterdeck Bar. Although it has a slight jazzy flavour, there is something for everyone and on both Thursdays we visited we were entranced and delighted at the quality of the music. The violinist is good enough to perform at the Proms in the UK. He was exceptional. The hotel has a first class fitness suite with regular classes. I visited 5 times during our 10 day stay and the calibre of the instructors was superb. Be aware that this hotel is not close to Valetta. However, there is a very decent bus service for ???2 each way to Valetta which takes about 30 minutes. Bus stop is a short walk from the hotel just past the taxi rank. If there are no taxis available outside the hotel (happens frequently) a quick walk down the hill, across the roundabout brings you to a taxi rank. Now a couple of moans: when there is a function in the Oceana Bar, the nature of the open atrium ensures that the noise can be deafening in the upper bar area; at the moment there is a lot of building work going on in St Julians (and in fact throughout Malta) and whether lying by the pool or walking to the bus/out for dinner, one is assaulted by building noise; there is no programme guide on the TV, so you have no idea what programmes are on and no programme preview; the sliding door to the bathroom, while glamorous, gives no privacy; the sliding door to the balcony did not work properly and the door mechanism is defective. However, none of these things affected our enjoyment of a fabulous time on the island and we would both happily stay again.