Warning contains lots of R&R

Ok sorry this has taken a week . We had such a wonderful holiday in Gozo I slumped into a heap of doing nothing when we arrived home .

After considering all the various options of arrival and transfer over to Gozo I negotiated a price for door to door transfer and car hire with http://www.mayjocarhire.com.

flights with Easy jet left on time and we arrived Malta approx 4pm , as promised Majo were waiting for us in arrival . A bit disappointed to see the tiny little mini bus that awaited the 5 of us and our luggage .. the guy had to literally ram it all in . It was hot, sweaty and the air conditioning barely worked but we kept the windows closed in hope . On arrival at Cirkewwa ferry port we pulled up in the line of cars waiting for the next ferry . Engine turned off and we got out to stretch our legs .. Very hot , very sticky in our jeans and it was at this point I was relieved we had booked a door to door service and we didn't need to cart our luggage on as foot passengers. ! . had I chosen that option for us my life would of surely been in danger at that point !. to be fair it probably would of been OK if it was a cooler part of the day and you only had light luggage. Ferry ride was enjoyable for the 20 minutes hop across.

As we were arriving into port at mgarr,Gozo instantly felt a touch greener and more sedate than Malta . A short drive to our hotel .. the cornucopia in Xaghra . I couldnt of chose better and review will follow.

Having never visited Malta or Gozo before our First impressions of Gozo were a little mixed.. It kinda felt like an Italian Beirut .. A mixture of unfinished buildings alongside old rustic charm ...

Our car arrived promptly early the following morning and we decided to head to Marsalforn for a nose. Again mixed feelings .. lots of slap dash not particularly attractive building work .. the only way I can describe it was that it felt like a dodgy British seaside resort . We got ourselves an ice cream and sat down . It felt like we hadn't come far at all, everything was very British .. buses, phone boxes , the same bins yet here we were gazing out at the Med in 40 degree + heat . It felt most bizarre but at the same time full of charm and over the days we realised Gozo was so much more .

The boys got around much of the coast diving over the week whilst I'm afraid to say I lounged about on my sun bed back at the hotel. As predicted it was way too hot to even be bothered to get out and about during the day . It would be ok if you enjoyed getting in a car to explore but we prefer to do that sort of thing on foot not in a hot car .

I think I made an excellent choice basing ourselves in Xaghra. The town square there is beautiful with lots of excellent eating places.. Our Favourites being Orleander and D venue right on the square . We went to Xlendi one evening and I think if I was going to stay on the coast this is where I would choose . It felt more upmarket and charming (not in a snobby way) to Marsalforn and it was enclosed by a backdrop of cliffs. Again lots of lovely eating places . we had a fabulous meal at Ta Karolina right in the corner of the bay , book early if you want a table on the waters edge . Overall the food in gozo was top notch , We never had a bad meal . Another favourite was Chez Armand in the next small bay round to marsalforn . It began with an xb I think , maybe Val can help me out on that but you literally follow the coast road round to the left and there are 2 restaurants next to each other at the next bay.

Prices seemed fairly reasonable to me .. A good evening meal was costing us on average 20-30 euro a head including drinks and desserts , some of us having a good quality steak. You can have much cheaper if you went for a pasta option. Service was always excellent , warm and friendly.

So we have fallen in love with the island of Gozo and hope to go back next year .It feels like it's probably not altered in 20-30 years . Beautiful scenery ,lots of history , rustic charm by the bucket load . its easygoing , relaxed with nobody trying to sell you stuff or pull you in to their restaurants. The Maltese and gozians are utterly charming, many come over from Malta to spend quality time there of a weekend. Other than that tourists are mainly British, Europeans with a smattering of Canadian & American . Having done A/I for so many years now it was lovely to spend quality family time enjoying a nice meal of an evening .The boys had a wonderful time with us .

In hindsight if there was one thing I would of done differently it would be to have gone with the lads on 1 or 2 of their diving days . Most of it was shore diving and I could of chilled with a book in some of the little coves , nooks and cranny's . I'm gutted not to have gone on the day they did the azure window, blue hole and inland sea but at the time I was happy to chill on my sun bed with a book , chat and enjoy lunch with follow guests some of whom were such good company. So no regrets but next time I will be prepared for what to expect .

There is so much to see and do in gozo should you wish and for a small island you could never get bored. Shame the heat knocked us sideways .