I haven't seen anything go up and base that viewpoint of frequenting Germany very regularly over the last few years. You're paying 8 Euros for a nice pizza in Malta yet £10+ for the garbage that comes out of Dominos in the UK. That makes Malta look very cheap considering the view from even alot of pizza/past restaurants in Malta is light years ahead of a delivery pizza costing 25% more and not comparable in taste or ingredients.

What's the minimum fare on a bus now in the UK, something like £2.50? In Malta its less than £0.40.

Regarding flying at normal times, I fly with BA. They leave Gatwick at 12:15pm and arrive at 16:20pm. Fares are very good aswell considering you are flying from a decent airport, get good service, can choose a seat, get free baggage allowance and free drinks. My last flight was £110 including all taxes. Taxi from the airport costs me 12 euros one way (private taxi). However I hired a car this trip which was £136 for 21 days with Avis from the airport - bargain. If you take away 24 euros for the normal taxi fare since I collected the car at the airport, it worked out at £5.50 a day for a ford fiesta Where else would you get those prices? Definetly not in Spain or Portugal.

Gozomark,

I think the past couple of years mum has paid something in the region of £600 - £650 for 2 weeks half board - single room - flying from Norwich to the Santana. At the moment it is coming out at £840 for the same.

She would like to go in November rather than October (not so hot) and very often there are no single room supplements during the off peak months but Winter 2009/2010 prices are not out yet. Added to that Air Malta are cutting back drastically on the regional airports they may not fly from Norwich in November. They seem to have dropped Stansted.

We have used BA from Gatwick to Malta before - good times and good airline.

Pippa

thats about 30% more in £, broadly in line with the fall in £ v €, so in € thats about unchanged

£625 @ 1.50 = € 937.5
£850 @ 1.10 = € 935

Thanks for that - I think she will still go - the cost is not a big issue for her in any case - she just loves Malta. She will be 85 this year!!

Pippa

Hello OpenMinded, yes I have to agree with you once there the prices for food, drink, public transport and car hire are good in Malta, that was not the point though it is the cost of getting there and the price of there hotels. When ever I have replyed to any one on this site I have all ways told them to have a four star hotel as the standard is not as good as three star one as say in Spain and Portugal, I have all ways stayed in a four star hotel in Malta and to be honest they fall way below what I call a four star, and if on H B as I have had in most of them I must say that the food is are very good.
Please don't get me wrong here I am one of the ones who do like Malta but I am not going to pay over the odds to go there.

Dave.

We also love Malta and have been going since 1984 but the prices have escalated so much I think they're pricing themselves out. If you live in the Gatwick area the flights are better and cheaper but not in the Midlands. I had an e-mail from our Maltese friends today saying they're hoping to see us in October but no way can we afford the prices to Malta now.

Well, I 've stayed in the Hilton in St Julians and it's probably the best hotel I've stayed in worldwide based on location, size, service, quality/price of restaurants and general ambience.

However, I have my own apartment in St Julians so haven't used any hotels for the last 5 years.

How much do I envy openminded.

You couldn't afford to stay in the Hilton on the pension!!

living in Malta is so much cheaper than the UK even with the weak £. I pay no council tax (in the UK it was £2300), I get the rubbish collected every day (in the UK it's once a week but now going to once every 2 weeks), bus fare is £0.40 (UK min is now £2 +). Eating out is still noticeably cheaper and the quality far better. Sure, stuff like furniture, TVs are more expensive but they are really one off purchases and even those can be shipped in relatively cheaply from the UK or wherever in the EU.

Openminded.
I would like to ship in a tumble dryer. Who do you use?

Hi Mark, I may have a solution to your shipping problem, it seems that you travel to Malta quite a few times each year, so each time you go why don't you and Nicky bring a few parts of your existing machine with you in your suitcase, then after a few visits hey presto you have your very own tumble dryer imported to Malta free of charge, then all you have to do is put it all back together again, there are numerous colleges around Malta that will teach you electronic engineering and you could attend courses in between importing parts, this way it would stop you getting bored and would increase your skills knowledge to the extent that you could open up your own tumble dryer reconstruction business on the island, what do you think ?.

Malta takes hardest knock of all in last four months of 2008

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090312/local/malta-takes-hardest-knock-of-all-in-last-four-months-of-2008

Malta had the worst drop in tourism figures in the EU during the last trimester of 2008, according to statistics released by Eurostat

the article doesn't say so, but I guess Malta's much higher than average reliance on UK tourism (about 35% of total) is largely to blame. Actually, I'd also guess the %age is higher off season, with so many retired people coming to Malta from the UK for a month or two to escape the cold (if only that were true...)

Sliema2

A very good idea! truth be known we have virtually furnished our apartment by doing this very thing. Some of the items that I have imported as luggage have been 500 kitchen tiles (hand baggage) TV, Nest of tables, Curtains, kitchen utensils and equipment i.e microwave oven toaster e.t.c. nest of tables and dinner table (in pieces) with four chairs. All thanks of course to Air Malta. Tumble dryer however is just a little over the weight allowance

no cuddly toy ?

However m&n you could still smuggle in small parts of your tumble dryer and rummage around the many "unofficial" rubbish tips that proliferate Qawra / Bugibba for the bigger parts of your machine such as the casing or the door.

Oh and I forgot to mention a toilet seat which is made of clear plastic and has real barbed wire inside. Must have looked good going through the x-ray machine

Back to Malta for the week-end tonight and will be going to watch Malta v Denmark on Saturday.

0-0 is my prediction Has anyone ever been to watch an international there?