Hhhmmmm, not sure about the Qawra Palace
by TripAdvisor Member vickiPerth
I visited the Qawra Palace with a friend, staying in seperate rooms but became slightly pricey with all the supplements. All inclusive, single supplement etc.
The room itself was just ok. The room maintenance was bad and I had a curtain hanging slightly off the rails for the duration and was not seen to. The beds were light on tiled floors and tended to 'move' if you were sitting up in bed reading etc! The bathroom smelt stuffy, there was no ventilation and the bath itself was surrounded in mould - a great big turn off. The balcony was fine but I was in an 'internal' room on the first floor (specially requested - lift phobic!) and it was a strange set up. You had to crane your neck to see a bit of sky and what the weather might be doing.
The dining room was like a canteen. I was really disappointed with it. Crammed in, no atmosphere and the food was distinctly average. I thought that on a mediterranean island the food would be colourful and exciting but it was neither. It definitely caters for the British masses and if you like eating what you eat back home, then this hotel is for you, but not for me, there was no flair at all. The breakfast was unbelievably boring and the juices from the machines offered different flavours but they all tasted the same as they were extremely watered down.
The pool area was ok but absolutely crammed too. It was difficult to get any space at all between the sun loungers and the seawater pool was not huge.
Some of the staff were lovely, but many just totally disinterested in their jobs and the public.
One thing going for it was the lovely coffee shop and also the location. It was within easy reach of the shops and restaurants and also the bus station which made life very easy. The entertainment in the evening outside near the pool was also generally good.
Would I recommend this hotel? Absolutely not. For me, anyway. If you want a package holiday and be surrounded by Brits, eating fairly British food and being treated 'en masse', you will feel at home here, but this hotel will not be on my list of 'returns' - sorry!
excellent
by A TripAdvisor Member
We Enjoyed our stay at Qawra Palace Hotel. The staff were friendly and helpful, the rooms were clean and comfortable, and the food was very good. There was always a choice of three main courses (served piping hot) and there was a large variety of vegetarian dishes on offer
Overall A Very Good Holiday Plenty To See And to Do. Very Good If You Are Interested In History.A Trip To the War Rooms is Worthwhile. Also Some Very Good Museums.
We Found A Resonable Tour Operator Next door to the hotel. He Has Good Prices and Very Good Drivers Who Gave us a good idea Where we Where.
( TIS TOURS )
loved it.
by TripAdvisor Member mrs piggy
Just returned (20th oct) from the qawra palace and enjoyed every second of the 2 weeks there. The hotel is very spacious, with a large reception. Outdoor pool area is spotless and very well serviced by the staff. the rooms are spotless and contrary to what we read on a site before we went, were cleaned every day. the choice of food is magnificent, breakfast/lunch and dinner. we had fish every day and at least 2 meat and veggie options. the staff are incredibly friendly to the extent that you would go back just to see them all again. go and enjoy yourselves, its a great hotel in a lovely place.
So-so - best for families with Children
by TripAdvisor Member RyanOfPoole
I'm a 24 year old guy and stayed at the Qawra Palace with my girlfriend at the end of August for 7 nights.
The first word I will use to describe this hotel is "grotty". Now this is not where the review ends, I actually thought the Qawra Palace was 'ok', but when looking at the rooms and some of the public areas... the word 'grotty' just popped in to my mind more times than, for example, the word 'nice'.
We were EXTREMELY lucky to have, in my humble opinion, the nicest view from the whole hotel (i.e. a sea view room on the 8th floor). We must be very lucky to have landed this room as we were hearing people were paying mega bucks to upgrade to sea view rooms, and we just happened to get ours free... (sorry for anyone who paid!!).
If you don't have/can't get a sea view room, then for me, I wouldn't bother going as the court view rooms are just awful (like a prison block). You wouldn't think it's that important as most people just sleep and shower in the room - but trust me, it's more important than you think. The entertainment at the hotel is so DIRE, you will want to spend the evenings in your room on the balcony with a bottle of wine/pint etc... and if you have anything but a sea view room, then you're in for a sad holiday.
The food is of a great quality; my fussy girlfriend even really enjoyed the food! And I thought the selection was fab.
The rooms are akin to the era they were made (i.e. 1980's), and don't seem to have been upgraded since. The shower was appalling some days (i.e. dribbled out/cold).
I personally found the staff to be quite rude and miserable at times. I'm a friendly polite person, and no matter how chirpy I was towards the staff, I got a lot of mumbles and grumbles from them. The waiters seemed more interested in talking to one another than clearing tables. My word to describe the staff? ; "Sloppy".
The 'all inclusive' tag is pretty loose in Qawra Palace to be honest. You only get the bare bones stuff included (i.e. 3 square meals and your local drinks - and even then you don't get everything, i.e. Bajtra etc). If you have kids I guess it's great as the kids can get Burgers and Chips whenever they want and Ice Cream/Coke etc... from the Pool Bar. But you have to pay for ridiculous things like Foam Sun mats for the sun loungers (which you will need) and 'nice' brand ice creams, food from the Pizzeria and the Cafe Royale Coffee Bar.
It's also a pain in the neck getting anything if you're on all inclusive. Most places, you just show your wrist band and get your drink. Here, you have to queue to get a receipt, sign it, then queue again to get your drink. Absolutely STUPID. The staff can't explain to you "why" this is case either if you ask them.
There is no problem getting a sun bed in the morning. The sad thing is though, the guests don't seem to want to pay attention to the "NO RESERVING SUN BED" rule - and (sad) people queued for over an hour @7am to run to a sun bed, dump their towel and disappear until 11/12pm. This is just plain ignorant and these people really irritated me when my girlfriend and I would get up at a reasonable time (7/7:30am), have breakfast and go straight out, only to find the best locations were taken by these guests doing the above. IT IS OUT OF ORDER AND YOU SHOULDN'T DO IT.
The same is true of the lifts. A lot of people reviewing here have said the lifts are slow. The fact is, the lifts are quite fast, the sad part is you can queue for a lift, and when one turns up, people who haven't been waiting will just barge in ahead of you. And no, these people aren't German or French or any of the other nations Brits blame for arrogance, these are always British holiday makers. The vacationers from other nations I always found to be a heck of a lot more polite and considerate than any of the British guests.
I will be adding some pictures to my website of my holiday to Malta (www.ryanwhite.co.uk), feel free to take a look though I must advise I only took photos of things that were 'nice' rather than 'grotty' so you may get a false impression!
Any questions about this hotel, feel free to email me.
All in all, it's an ok Hotel - if you've got kids, you'll probably love it.
cheap and cheerfull
by TripAdvisor Member bellethe beauty
Just come back from a week AI at Qawara Palace Hotel.
We arrived when the hotel had no electricity. Had to wait in the swealtering heat for about half hour before electrcicity was back on. Advised the dinner in the dining room was finished and it was about 9.30pm we were offered no food even though we were AI. The food was quite good for a large hotel but there was no air conditioning in the dining room and no windows were open. The dining room is under the roadway and it was also under the roadway to get to the bar. The drinks were ok but after 2 days the cheap lager was not nice. Without a doubt book a sea view room otherwise you will be in an enclosed courtyard which reminded us of prison cells. Children running loose at every opportunity without supervision. Lifts take ages to come there are 3 of them.
On the good side the hotel staff were very very good. It was spotless clean. Sea View room have a view which is breathtaking at times. We found the entertainment was good but we did stay on our balcony for the view and as we had no children about.
Would we go back--- yes if the hotel was refurbished and decorated air con on in dining room but not AI.
Unwelcome Visitors.....
by A TripAdvisor Member
We woke up in the morning to find we had some 'visitors' in the bathroom. These unwelcomed guests were 2 inch long cockroaches. We complained to the receptionist only for her to say "you should expect cockroaches this time of year in Malta even on the 7th floor". Spiderman eat your heart out!
Although to be fair the maintenance man attended to the problem very quickly. Also the entertainment was okay, however the bar was extremely busy with the AI's . The food was low quality and you had to queue twice outside of the main food hall for drinks, one queue to pay, the other to finally get the drinks.
An all round good hotel
by A TripAdvisor Member
I read many mixed reviews before arriving and to be honest, now I am about to leave I can understand these mixed feelings on the hotel.
The Reception area is certainly a good start, the room was small but absolutely adequate - after all, you're only using it for sleeping and showering aren't you?
The food was excellent, a varied menu for Breakfast Lunch and Dinner - we went all inclusive and had absolutely no complaints at all - the food was hot, tasty and the staff were also excellent.
The hotel has 1 main pool (plus 1 small indoor & 2 tiny outdoor pools) and it does get very crowded and noisy - inflatables are allowed in the pool so if you are not child friendly I would avoid the area until the pool closes at 6pm.
The entertainment was very hit and miss, Renato was the best entertainment of the week and others (including some of the dancers) were very entertaining...alas others were damn awful and you just grit your teeth - but having said that it was also good fun.
All Inclusive means all main meals, bar snacks and free drinks between 11am and 11pm - the pool bar closes at 12 midnight though so be warned....get those last drinks in pretty early.
Overall we enjoyed our stay - if you want to go out and about go left out of the hotel, turn immediatly left again, the main bus station is literally 5 minutes away - only use the promenade if you want a very long walk round.
Nightlife in the area (around the bus station) is busy and there are lots of places to eat and drink, near the hotel itself there isn't that much - which is good if you want a quieter break.
No problems
by A TripAdvisor Member
I stayed at this hotel for 2 weeks on an all inclusive basis for 2 weeks in the middle of August and we are a family of 4. During our stay we had no problems, the rooms were more than large enough for the 4 of us, some hotels we have been to are cramped with 4 in a bedroom but not here, the hotel was clean and tidy. The food was good, the quantities of food and drinks for children and adults alike was unlimited and i really did not recognise the hotel I stayed in to the one described by some of the writers on this page.
The only down side was the size of the pool, the pool area and the rush for beds at 8.30 in the morning ( the queue to get a bed stretched all the way up stairs ). Do what we did walk 5 mins to the pebble beach and get a good deal on some of the comfiest sun beds I have laid on.
