Hi all,
After I told you about my visits to Malta last Thursday, today I give you my opinion about the island:
It is a “goat desert”
“Peladero de chivo” or “goat desert” (most accurate translation I could think of) is a Venezuelan expression to refer to a place where there is nothing, almost always desert. That was what I said when we were arriving, and I saw the island from the plane.
Malta is desert and all stone. The sandy beaches that exist are few and are overcrowded; the rest are stones with a ladder to get into the water. So, I do not consider it to be a destination that is worth it for the beaches.
Also, there are no trees or green areas. I couldn’t live there.
More Africa than European Union
We went with the idea that this English island was going to be a lot like England, and it has absolutely nothing to do with either England or the European Union.
The first thing is that the constructions are very ugly and of poor quality. It is like a mix between Cairo and the South of Spain or Portugal and with a few modern buildings that did not match anything. I used to say that the person in charge of town planning in Malta must take drugs.
For me, except for 4 streets in Valletta, the rest of Malta is pure visual noise.
What horrified me the most about the island: the garbage.
Garbage containers are practically non-existent, and people leave their garbage on the ground. Recycling does not exist.
If in Turkey I complained about the garbage and how filthy people were, in Malta it is much worse. In addition, all the tourist sites were covered in cigarette butts and garbage. They didn’t bother to keep in good condition the places that the tourist is going to see.
Diego said that he seemed to have returned to the Spain of 30 years ago.
The opposite of sustainable tourism
Malta is the opposite of sustainable tourism and caring for the environment.
If already in September it seemed to me that everything was very crowded and chaotic, I do not want to imagine the island in the months of July and August.
Bad atmosphere and ugly people
In general, you see ugly people on the street.
Drunkards, people lying on the sidewalks eating from tuppers. In fact, I think that the immigration they have is also the worst of the other countries.
There is a lot of traffic, and it is impossible to get around by bicycle because there is neither a bicycle lane nor wide sidewalks.
Chaotic public transport
This was also a big disappointment because we were confident that public transport worked wonderfully and reached everywhere.
Then, the reality is that they do not make the marked routes, all the buses are delayed of up to 40 minutes, the stops are not the ones marked either. In 90% of the cases, we had to change the itinerary because the bus did not pass, or the stop had been changed, or the service had been canceled, or the bus made a different route than the one it was supposed to do, and we were left stranded in another site.
The same locals told us that public transport in Malta was a disaster and that we should have rented a car. In addition, everything was poorly connected and to go anywhere, you had to take up to 4 buses.
Malta smells of corruption
Starting with the fact that this island is a famous destination for avoiding taxes. So, we can imagine the kind of people and companies that get to the island to “do business.”
An acquaintance who lives there told me that if you want to open a business, you must “know someone.”
Walking through Valletta we came across a protest demanding justice for a journalist who had been murdered because she had discovered several cases of corruption and had the evidence for several people to go to jail.
Vegan food
If I must get something positive out of Malta, the only thing would be that there is a general understanding of veganism. Whatever restaurant you go to, be it vegan or not, you will find vegan and vegetarian dishes perfectly detailed on the menu. In fact, they have the option to “veganize” many dishes.
In short, I do not recommend Malta for anything in the world, not for vacation, much less to live. I do not understand how there are people wanting to move there.
The island has nothing of the European Union and wherever you look there is garbage and decadence. Also, something that is unclear to me is how tourist rentals cost between 2,000 and 3,000 euros per month. It is not only that the island is worth nothing, but also that the qualities of the accommodations are terrible.
We who initially had planned to go 3 or 4 months, were glad that we only went 7 days because in that chaos it is impossible to live.
When traveling, even if the general evaluation of the place is bad, there is almost always something that “saves the trip.” For example, in Vietnam you have the temples, in Costa Rica the unspoiled nature, in Turkey the nature, the history, and the people. But there is nothing in Malta that makes me say “at least something was ok”.