hi jen,a good family area for you and your kids to visit in august is the qwara,bugibba,st pauls bay region of the island,try the dolmen resort hotel,its in a great location right on the sea front with fab views,i own a timeshare at this hotel and use it every august,(week 34) hotel rooms are very nice,high floor sea views are the best option,food is excellent,swimming pools with poolside bar,check it out with maltadirect.com you will love it,i hope you enjoy your stay,regards.tiny6862.

HI Jennie,
a nice place i recommend is Gozo! You can either choose to stay in a hotel or otherwise go for a self-catering farmhouse! We have been visitng Gozo for the last 12 years, and we always stayed in a self-catering farmhouse with private pool! What do you need more?! there are hundreds of these farmhouses in Gozo, but we have always stayed at Ta' Nikola Farmhouse for the last 8 years and prior we stayed at Tan-Nanna Farmhouse. Can t list their site address over here ..sorry! The owners were always gentle with us and offerd us whatever we needed for a relaxing holiday! Then it is recommended to cross over to Malta for a day or two, but i assure you, that should you choose a gozo farmhouse you will definately spend most of your time relaxing by the pool without feeling the urge to go out! Besides, Gozo is more safe a place than Malta.

Hi Magnusson

We have always thought of going to Gozo for a week perhaps added on to one of our visits to Malta and a farmhouse appeals to us both. I think I am correct in saying that you will be able to put the website address on here (if you have it) as you are not connected with the property but are able to recommend it from having been a guest there.

Perhaps you could even write a review of them and get them added to the reviews section

Gozo is more safe a place than Malta

Malta is exceptionally safe, in all our visits we have never felt in anyway threatened or heard of anybody else having problems, so please don't let that comment put anybody off visiting Malta to enjoy all the history,culture, architecture, scenery, very friendly people etc.

Graham

you are both right on the safety issue, yes Gozo is safer than Malta, but its only a matter of degrees - Malta is very safe, Gozo even more so !

I always lock my car in Malta, but never in Gozo

Hi there, so we all know now not to bother hiring a car in Gozo, just pop round to Marks house

in the nearly 5 years I've lived in Gozo, there have been more murders (2) than cars stolen (1) - all three made the front page

Hi there, so we all know now not to bother hiring a car in Gozo, just pop round to Marks house

Mark can you make sure it has been washed and cleaned with a full tank of fuel, I will let you know the dates I require it

Ps just leave the keys on the sunvisor

on the sunvisor ?? everyone else leaves them in the ignition

I have to say that every time I visit Malta that I hire a car and rarely lock the doors. The main reason is that should a rogue want to know what is inside the vehicle then he does not have to smash the window to find nothing of value.
I do lock the doors when I visit Buggiba,Sliema and Valetta (foreigners) can't be trusted!

Incidentally, GozoMark, I think I saw you on New Years Eve welcoming some guest outside your home who had arrived in a white car? I would have said hello but did not want to interupt you.

yep, I thought I sensed a stalker

Kiltman, you re right. I have definately no connection whatsoever! But i have been visiting these farmhouses owned by the same owners since they offer me excellent service! The company is Gozobreak and you can check their site on the same name. I have not listed it before since when i listed it on another forum i was treated just like am doing an advert for anybody! I only want my fellow holiday goers to go to the best places and have good value for the money they pay! Therefore will recommend them to you as well Kiltman, and will be waiting for your response after you try them!

http://www.gozobreak.com/farmhouse_nikola.html

http://www.selfcatering-hr.co.uk/malta/gozo/1/gozo1.htm

http://www.villarenters.com/villas/europe-island-of-gozo--villa-to-rent-25553-sum.asp?rag=11126s&rcam=myvillarenters

Jojuk, have you ever stayed at any of their farmhouses in Gozo? I am going again next week and this time i will stay at Tan-Nanna. Am sure that i am going to enjoy myself! The owners will arrange for my transfers and also get car hire to the farmhouse! Feel treated like a king!

No never stayed at any,but am thinking about it for this year.Aweek in Malta staying with family and then a week in Gozo.We normally stay at the Grand Hotel in Gozo but fancied a change.

Magnusson you have asked for this farmhouse to be listed in our review section so you can write your review. Unfortunately as you are posting from Malta we cannot allow your review.

In order for our review to remain unbiased we do not allow reviews from the country where the accommodation is situated.

No prob at all! Am at Malta at the moment, sure, got an apartment in Bugibba but am not really satisfied over here! Will travel to Gozo on Friday, and will stay at the same farmhouses as usual! Will post my review when back home then.... in 2 weeks time! Hope we will have some sun over here in the coming days!

Hello Again,

Thanks for all the great advice. We have booked a lovely Farmhouse on Gozo for the 3 weeks at the beginning of August. The farmhouse is called Vistamare I, near the village of Zebbug. We used Club Gozo to book the property.

We are flying with BA from Manchster to Malta. We are planning on hiring a car and are currently getting quotes to be collected from the airport and taken by car to the farmhouse where a hire car should be waiting for us.

We are not sure if we should book the transfer to include the ferry or arrange another car at the Gozo side? What is the best way of organising transfers to Gozo for complete newbies? Our flights arrive in Malta mid afternoon.

We are planning days out both in and around Gozo and Malta. Any more advice or if anyone has ever stayed at the these Farmhouses (I think they are listed as Character Homes on the web site) we would be delighted to hear about it.

As I mentioned before the kids will be 15 and 11, the oldest is sports mad and the youngest just loves to swim.

I am getting really excited now and would love to know all there is to know so we can start planning.

Many thanks,

Jennie

transfer - if you do it as two legs, you should pay about

airport-cirkewwa Lm8-10
mgarr-zebbug Lm 5-6
ie Lm13-16 in total

if you do it as one leg, should be Lm 23-26 ie about Lm 10 more
these assume you book in advance

2 legs - cheaper, and won't have to queue for the ferry in a line of traffic
1 leg - don't need to unload all your stuff out of the taxi at the ferry terminal

another option is taxi to the ferry, then pickup a hire car at Mgarr in Gozo, plus of course picking up a hire car at the airport

Hi Mark,

Thats quite interesting, thank you. I like the idea of being met at the airport and getting in a taxi and not having to worry about luggage etc., until we get to the Farmhouse, especially as we have never been to Malta/Gozo before. Its a longer flight than most European countries and I worry how the children would cope with a long transfer and us not knowing what we are doing!

As our flights are mid afetrnoon Chris is happy to pick a car up at the airport and make our own way to the ferrry and across to the farmhouse.
We have done this before in Florida, Spain, Portugal and the Canaries but obviously its a bit different for this trip to Gozo.

We have had a quote from AEL and they quoted 25Lm from the airport direct to farmhouse (we would pay our ferry tickets) same for comimg home, the car would be there when we arrived and we would leave it at the farmhouse for collection.

The car they quoted for is a Luxury Group B - Peugeot 307 / Toyota Corolla with Air Condition & full extras, that workes out at 12Lm per day which includes tax, unlimited mileage and fully comprehensive insurance subject to 80.00Lm excess. Does that sound about right to you? We have heard that AEL are quite good. Thanks again for all your help and sorry for rambling.....

Jennie