We partnered with InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts and had the incredible opportunity of visiting the InterContinental hotel in Malta for a 48h luxury escape.
About The Hotel
InterContinental Hotels & Resorts was born in April 1946, when the founder of Pan American Airways had the vision of bringing high-quality hotels at the end of all of his plane routes. From there, in 1949 the first InterContinental Hotel opened in Belém Brazil.
Since then, another 186 hotels were opened in different destinations around the world, expanding in 60 countries covering every angle of the world. The main aim of InterContinental Hotels & Resorts is to make travel always alluring and to give its clients a luxury experience together with an authentic cultural experience.
Our stay
We arrived late Friday evening from London Heathrow into an unusual (for Malta!) stormy weather. The hotel had kindly arranged transfers to us, so we arrived at the InterContinental Malta without too much effort after a 15-minute drive.
The concierge team was waiting for us to arrive in the lobby and they escorted us to our room. They explained to us that floor 15 to 19 are only accessible for members of Club InterContinental as they are private floors, which meant that we had our own private space to enjoy breakfast in the morning, afternoon tea in the afternoon and pre-dinner drinks in the evening. When we travel – like most people – we are generally looking to relax and be spoilt, so hearing about this exclusive service made us even more excited!
Our room was on floor 18 and it was absolutely beautiful. The view over St. Julians was breathtaking, and we had our own private balcony where we enjoyed some champagne in the evenings and coffee in the morning during our stay. Also, the room featured a spacious living room and beautiful modern bathroom, with a rainforest shower and a Jacuzzi. We were absolutely exhausted, so we went straight to bed, as we wanted to be up nice and early to explore Valletta the next morning.
Breakfast was lovely and abundant as expected. We decided to have some chocolate Pancakes (a must!) and waffles together with some food from their rich buffet, and then headed off to Valletta, capital of Malta.
Valletta is around 20 minutes by bus from the hotel. The city has a very rich cultural heritage as it contains buildings from the 16th century onwards, built during the rule of the Order of St. John also known as Knights Hospitaller. The city is for the most Baroque, with elements of Mannerist, Neo-Classical and Modern architecture in some areas, even though the city was partly destroyed during WWII. Valletta was officially recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980, and it is easy to understand why if you have ever visited this city. In addition to this, it is a cat heaven if – like us – you love kitties, there are so many on the street!
We headed back to the hotel as we were really looking forward to our lunch at the hotel’s seaside restaurant called Paranga. Paranga is very well known on the island for its seafood and attracts people all year long. In the summertime, tables are prepared on the beach where clients can enjoy some delicious seafood while watching a romantic sunset.
The restaurant manager, Matteo, showed us our beautiful table and talked us through the menu. We decided to order Fritto Misto and Ravioli with Truffle and Burrata as a starter, while Pescato del Giorno and Cacciucco as a main, all with pairing local wines.
The seafood was really fresh and delicious, especially the catch of the day and the cacciucco. The latter is a typical Tuscan stew, with shellfish, half lobster and squid, so you can imagine just how good it was!
We were so full that there was no room for dessert (nor afternoon tea), so we thanked Matteo for the impeccable service and headed off to the Spa.
Time really flies when you are so relaxed, and we realised that it was time for pre-dinner drinks. After a few glasses of champagne and a cosmopolitan, we headed off to the Waterbiscuit restaurant for dinner, where we enjoyed some delicious smoked burrata as a starter, and gnocchi and a very tender Angus ribeye for main. The best part was – however – the delicious white chocolate soufflé with ice cream and raspberry jam, which was literally to die for!
Bellies full, off to our room! The InterContinental Malta is placed in a really vibrant area of the island, but why leave the hotel when you are having such an enjoyable evening?
For our last morning, we decided to enjoy breakfast in our room as – as most of you probably know by now – we are the biggest fans of breakfast in bed!
We relaxed on our balcony toasting to this beautiful experience while enjoying a cheese platter and some fresh fruit, thinking that we should definitely come back in the summer when their rooftop swimming pool re-opens.
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, so the hotel arranged a taxi for us to the airport and we headed off back to London. Thank you InterContinental Malta for this world-class luxury experience, I am sure we will see you again very soon!
