One of the reasons my husband and I chose Malta as one of the stops for our Honeymoon in mid to late October is that we wanted to mix up some beach time and relaxation with taking in the sights, and enjoying the food and wine that these destinations have to offer. Malta definitely did not disappoint in any of these aspects. For our beach time, we ended up in Mellieha Bay for a relaxing day of fun in the sun.
While many beaches in Malta are rocky, there are some sandy beaches. As you can see, this was one of the rarer, sandy beaches to visit. Since it was October 19, it was toward the end of beach season, so it was not as crowded as one would expect.
As with most European beaches, you can either be Brazilian about it and lie about in the sand on top of your sarong (not that there is ANYTHING wrong with that, I just personally have an aversion to sand in parts of my body that should not have sand in them), or you can pay a little bit of money and rent loungers and umbrellas. Again, Malta wins here with the fee for rental of 2 loungers and one umbrella (and a little table) for just about 15-20 Euros. I don’t remember exactly how much it was, perhaps 16? But it was very reasonable, and they set everything up for us.
There are a few places where you can do watersports, too.
We enjoyed VERY reasonably priced refreshments, including the Maltese beer – Cisk (pronounced “Chisk”), which, admittedly, is not so delicious. It’s like the Budweiser of Malta. But, it was cheap and cold, and just what we needed. They were about 2-3 Euros each – a steal, by U.S. standards!
The food on offer at one of the many beachside grills was mainly local specialties and some Americanized fast food. Fried chicken sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs, onion rings, french fries… and then tuna ftiras, hobz-bizejt (tuna and tomatoes), tuna and olives… tuna on pretty much everything. Neither one of us a huge lover of tuna, we opted for a chicken sandwich and some onion rings. Again, super cheap, and again, they hit the spot.
The water was warm enough to swim in and beautifully clear.
How many other beaches have views of beautiful monuments in the background? I mean, come on.
Getting there: We took the public bus from St. Julian’s, where we were staying, to the beach. It’s supposedly VERY crowded in the summer high season, and it definitely was standing room only for much of the way, but where we got on, we found seats and were able to sit for the crazy ride through half of the island to Mellieha. It was almost worth it just to see parts of the island that we wouldn’t have seen normally. The bus is very cheap (like 1.50 euros for a full day) and it was nearly door-to-door service from our hotel, the Hilton Malta at St. Julians (there will be a separate hotel review later…).
The public bus stops just at the top of the beach, as the roadside is right THERE. No crazy, tumultuous walk down cliffs, rocks and other obstacles to get your toes in the sand here.
And, as with any European trip, I had to get my hands on some European Pringles. They have some pretty crazy flavors… or flavoUrs… but, we kept it tame with some Cheese & Onion this time. Of course, I had my R+F sunscreen in tow to save my half-pale mutt skin from the Mediterranean rays.
I definitely recommend making Malta a stop on your European honeymoon if you find yourself going towards mid or late October and want to try to sneak in some beach days… and definitely make it to Mellieha if you do!
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