and day Mark Stratton savours the sights on a new slow tour of Malta
DESTINATIONS MALTA | ESCORTED TOURS
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travelweekly.co.uk
editerranean sunshine bathes the formidable 16th-century walls
surrounding Malta’s capital, Valletta, as my cross-harbour ferry slips out of Sliema. When the ferry docks, I enter the city to
leisurely explore streets of wealthy merchant houses, palazzos, the auberges of Knights Templar, and Gothic churches. Near the cathedral, I eat lunch alfresco at a small Greek restaurant and think how lucky I am. It feels hard to believe I’m on a group tour to Malta. Group tours – and I’ve done a few before – can signify rushed schedules, daily hotel changes and long days battered by a salvo of facts leaving me wanting to snatch the guide’s microphone and hurl it out the coach window. But I am enjoying a free day on my own, to wander as I please, on one of Cox & Kings’ new Spotlight tours. The operator’s newest small-group tours are shaped by feedback from customers who voiced how they wanted to travel in post-Covid times. “On the back of the pandemic our clients told us they would feel more comfortable travelling in smaller groups and moving around less,” says managing director Kerry Golds. “They wanted to do less, ideally in one region rather than spending a lot of time travelling around. And while they enjoyed
our group tours to far-flung destinations, they also wanted less-travelled experiences in popular countries such as Malta.”
LESS IS MORE Malta’s compact size lends itself to being based in one location. Throughout this tour, our group remains in the modern four-star Waterfront Hotel in Sliema, with sublime views across to Valletta’s bastions. I appreciate unpacking for six nights, and not fretting about rushed breakfasts and early meetings in the lobby before a madcap dash culminating in yet another hotel. Quite the contrary. With local tour guide, Agnes, and just five other guests, each day focuses on just a few island highlights, peeling back, in greater detail, Malta’s layers of history – from mysterious prehistoric temple builders to the grandiose ambitions of the zealous St John’s Knights. With a less-is-more outlook, the tour
features unique experiences that help bring the island’s history to life. In Valletta, for instance, the Marquis de Piro hosts us on a private visit around his ancestral home, the 16th-century Casa Rocca Piccola. The marquis – who is a Templar Knight despite the order being forced to leave Malta for Rome when Napoleon arrived here in 1798 – leads us through centuries ²
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