Luxury Vacations in Malta

Adrift between Sicily and Africa’s north coast, Malta is a worldly-wise island of age-worn traditions and perpetual sunshine. Cross the teal waters of Valletta’s Grand Harbour in a traditional dghajsa boat, painted blue and yellow with the eye of Osiris for good luck, and the years slip away like onion skin.

Easy to picture Roman ships and Spanish galleons sailing under the giant sandstone walls, the whistle of cannon ball, the bright flash of scimitar. Cast away in the Mediterranean, Malta has been at the crossroads of history for centuries, its shores trodden by Phoenicians and Norman French, Arabs and Ottomans, the Knights of St John. They’ve all left their mark. This is a place of blue lagoons and medieval catacombs, of mysterious megalithic temples and parasol-twirling beach clubs. Valletta is immediately seductive, once a sleepy museum city but now fully awake, its creative scene rewarded with a new arts biennale. You can get lost amid its pretty cobbled streets, past 16th-century townhouses,1920s shop signs and contemporary cocktail bars. Take the view from Fort St Elmo; set your watch by the noon-day gun salute. Further up and down the coast are clifftop walks along herb-scented pathways, secret coves for swimming – the locals leaping off rocks into the waves, trading gossip while treading water – and sunken ships for diving down to.