The Grand Hotel Excelsior

We stayed at the Excelsior Grand Hotel for one week and cannot praise this hotel and the staff enough. It has got five stars for a reason, everywhere was spotlessly clean and all the staff went that extra mile to help. The little things from the turn back service at night and the chocolate on the bedside table to the lending of the towels to go to the pool and the free bottles of water. The Reception staff and the staff in the Restaurant were excellent, especially Henry who was a font of knowledge about the island and gave us advice on the best places for go. The best thing we can say about the hotel is that we are planning to go back next year for two weeks. The resort of Valletta is lovely and historical and the bus station is not far from the hotel where you can travel anywhere for two euros. A visit to Gozo is a must.

A lot to say from our 11 days here, will try to keep it succinct but might struggle! Room was nice and large, albeit a little dated. Balcony was big with a fantastic view - very good! Shower had a leak so we were forever walking on mopping wet floors and gave up asking for more bath mats because of the leak. Shower drain was rusty and picture frame above the toilet was broken (in a 3* ok, 4* probably not, 5* just no!) Breakfast was ok. Not bad, not great. Staff regularly bickered at each other and chefs weren???t the happiest bunnies in the world - have to say that many of the staff waiting were very nice to us personally. Pool area is very nice. Well kept. There aren???t enough umbrellas - surprisingly so - perhaps it???s a ploy to sell more water (see below). The ???beach??? is gravel, the only sand on it probably fell out of my swim shorts after a visit to golden bay! Pool/snack bar (Tiki?) is infuriating and extremely expensive. Now, I don???t mind paying for great products and great service....unfortunately here you get neither. The youngsters running around trying to serve you are busy, so you often don???t see them for a while - they are always nice and polite so the issue is not with them per se. It???s the flat coke out of bottles for ???5.00 or when you ask for Water, they bring you a bottle of imported water for ???5.75 when you clearly ask for local water or when you ask for a pint glass full of ice and a small ice tea to go in it, to avoid a horribly warm drink, you get told that you???ll be charged for a large drink......I could go on , suffice to say that I felt that service was not the priority here......fleecing their ???captive??? customers was......and I hated it....so did my wallet but only because I was paying for 5 star quality and service and not receiving it at all. The rest? The hotel is nicely located (apart from the hill climb into Valletta) with great views across the bay. If you???re fit and healthy, you won???t mind the climb into Valletta but you???ll struggle (a lot) if you???re not so mobile. All hotels are transient but this place is especially so - I think there are a lot of short stopovers from the cruises - and it clearly caters for corporate events etc and as such, doesn???t have much of an ambience anywhere.....was just strange. I???m half Maltese and have been coming to Malta for 5 decades - I was really looking forward to our stay here.....but we both leave feeling disappointed; neither of us feel that we???ve had a 5 star experience. Shame really. I won???t come back here.

We stayed here for 5 nights. It is very close to the old town in Valletta. A quick 5 minute walk to many restaurants and shopping etc. The hotel is quite big but our room was very quiet. Would definitely stay in this hotel again. Couldn't hear noise from night life anywhere. Nice pool and friendly staff