Hi Mandy,
Yes, sadly the Mistra Village has closed down - I think for good, as Corinthia has sold it.
http://217.145.4.56/business/news.asp?newsitemid=303
Some months back there was an auction to sell all the contents and fixtures. Presently there just stands a sad skeleton of the place, I have heard that it is to be demolished and a new develoment, exactly what I don't know, will be built there.
It is a shame, like you I loved that place, it was great, especially for families. I actually live in Malta, but we stayed there for the Christmas/New Year fortnights in both '94 & '95, and for a fortnight summer '96, also family and friends have stayed there on 10 occasions and because the apartments were so large we often were able to stay over for the odd night or two when we joined them for a meal.
I especially enjoyed the Christmases there, we would find a hamper full of Christmas goodies in the apartment, they had a great entertainment programme and food. It was also a favorite place for just a meal or drink out. A lot of Maltese liked the place, it had been around since the early 1970's, and we're sorry to hear it was going.
Glad you enjoy Malta so much, there are other nice hotels, so keep coming back

Thanks for the information. It is sad that Mistra has closed as it gave us our first taste of Malta and we loved it. I suppose this has affected Carolo's Bar at the entrance to Mistra because most of his clientelle seemed to be resident there. Our children were 13 and 14 when we first stayed at Mistra and they thought they were very grown up going on their own to Carlo's for a game of pool!!

We now stay at the Gillieru Harbour (going onTuesday!) but this has detiorated since our first visit in 95 or 96. We still like it though because of the position. We usually stay there in Summer and in Winter will get a cheap deal in Sliema or St Julians.

Does this mean that Carlo's Hideaway (bar) has closed down aswell ?.

Sliema2

Good news - Carlo's Hideaway is still open
I was also wondering as we had noticed it was often closed recently, it was always open when the Mistra Village was there, wasn't it? I found there was still a phone number listed, so phoned yesterday morning and asked. Yes, they are now open all day all week. I think they are closing fairly early as yesterday we passed there and it was closed at 11p.m. but possibly because it was a Monday.
Mandy, hope you enjoy/enjoyed (depending on when you are reading this!) your stay at the Gillieru. Yes, great position and staff, excellent food, let me know if they have refurbished the restaurant. The last time I was there it was the same "Groovy Baby" decor as the first time I visited the place in 1981
I know what you mean about the kids feeling grown-up having the freedom to safely roam around by themselves. My son was even younger than your kids so we limited him to actually within Mistra village, but he would "disappear" all day as there was a great kids club. It gave him a taste of the sort of fun I had at British holiday camps as a kid during the 70's - but more obviously posh
Malta is ideal for family holidays, but we need more of this type of family friendly accommodation.

Ciao Ingliza, thanks very much for letting me know about Carlo's, Wilf and his wife are two really nice people who deserve a lot of success, when we are back in Malta in September I think we will pop in for a butty and a large glass of Kinnie.

Regards
Sliema2

You are most welcome.
When I phoned yesterday morning I explained exactly why I was asking, she thanked me so very much for our interest and sent us her regards. I agree, they deserve every success, the kind of people who are the "Real Malta".

Back from Malta yesterday. Carlo's is still open. We passed a number of times on our way to and from Little Armier and there were never any customers outside, in fact Joe, his wife and son-in-law were often sat outside.

We called in for lunch last week and he said that Mistra had closed down in March and it had obviously affected their trade and they were very quiet but there was nothing they could do except wait and see what was going to happen to the Mistra site.

It actually wasn't very pleasant sat outside there because of the heavy traffic slowing down for the roundabout at the top of the hill. We had to stop our concersations because of the noise from the lorries.

The whole of Ximejia looks slightly run down even though they are doing some work on the harbour wall at the bottom of the hill.

Anyway we still enjoyed a pleasant walk around the area and finished with lunch and Kinnie in Carlo's