We had been looking forward to staying at the Fortina, as we had it by word of mouth it was very good. Well the description of our booking with Thomson was twin room with cot space sleeping 2-3 people, bath with shower over. This was not what we were given.

We arrived very tired at 4 am in the morning and when we walked in to the room approx. 10 x 10 ft. It had a horrible smell of dirt, headboard and lampshades covered in dust. Carpet very old and cobwebs covered the space between wall and old worn wardrobe. The entire room was dark with a narrow door leading out to the balcony. No bathroom just an en-suite and I have seen larger in a caravan. It had nowhere to place toiletries; the shower had mould round it as did the ceiling and window. We complained immediately but were told we had to wait until the morning when our rep was there.

We saw our rep the next morning and when he tried to get us a better room we were told to pay another 8euros each per night. We said they were having a laugh, and no way would we pay another penny, we just wanted what we had paid for. When the rep finally(after much persuasion) agreed to come and look for himself at our room he went back again and got us the room which did fit the pictures shown on the Thomson website.

After this we had a great holiday, great views, great food, great location. Just lost half a day getting what we should have had in the first place. Grades given for the second room.

Do not believe the pictures you see on the brochures, stayed there for a week & were glad to escape.

Where do I start.

ROOM SIZE & CONDITION - 3.5m x 3m ( 12ftx10ft) with en suite with 600mm door entry, but some not so bright person fitted a wash hand basin to close to the door narrowing it to 450mm (18") . Carpets badly stained, floor had the impression of a ploughed park with the carpet glued down into channels causing trip hazards, the furniture in the room was water damaged & splitting, the beds were soft "like trying to sleep on porridge" fell out of bed one night & on investigation found the 2 x 3ft divans were fitted with 4' 6" double bed mattress covers causing the bedding to move while you slept.

If you are going to this hotel for a rest make sure your room is on the highest floor & away from the elevators, we were unlucky enough to be on the first floor, a great view of Valletta, but also of the taxi rank who don't think anything about pulling out causing cars drivers to pump their horns at all hours.. By far the worse & constant noise was the elevators , there were 2 within 1200mm ( 4feet) of our room door, as the night began to quieten & you were hoping to nod off in your porridge bed, All you could hear was "DOORS CLOSING, GOING UP, or DOORS CLOSING GOING DOWN". To add to this the extractor fan in the toilet ran constantly then you had the necessity of the air condition unit to cool the room . All this noise in such a confined space is horrendous ... We ended up having to set up my i phone to play background music to blot out the other noises...

PROBLEMS ACCESSING THE ROOM- We arrived on 17/6/14 & were due to leave on the 24/6/14. On the 21st we returned to our room & the electronic key card would not open our door, we went to the reception where we were told that the incorrect date had been put on our card , they reprogrammed the card we returned to our room & got entry. The following day we returned to our room to pick up our pool gear after breakfast, again another trip to the reception where this time we were accused of bending the card & damaging it, I corrected the receptionist by telling her it was in my bank card wallet & all my cards still worked. again they reprogrammed the card & we got access. the following morning it happened again, this time when we went to the reception they asked us to return to the room & they would get maintenance up to look at it, 10minutes later the maintenance man arrived tried his master card in the lock to no avail , he had to use the old fashion key method to open the door, he confirmed there was a fault & would get it repaired.. We returned 5hours later "GUESS WHAT " you got it still no access to our room, it was a different receptionist who did not know the problems we were having & she made the mistake of thinking we had just arrived by telling us "you cannot get access to your room till 2.00pm".. My wife lost the plot at this point & demanded to see the manager, they again asked us to go to our room & wait for the manager to come up.. 25 minutes later nobody had arrived again we had to go to reception to ask what was happening & why we were being kept waiting , the receptionist got on the radio & told us the manager was on her way, we returned to the room to find the manager & a different maintenance person changing the batteries in the lock system then reprogramming it. , therefore we were lied to & accused of damaging their property due to their incompetence to change a battery..

THE PREMISES ARE NOT CHILD FRIENDLY - numerous 240v sockets are in dangerous condition where a young child could slip their fingers behind the wall sockets into live wiring.

THE PREMISES ARE NOT 100% SAFE FOR DISABLED EITHER-, in the even of a wheelchair requiring access, all areas are not available. One of the areas that highlights this is the Lido bar area ,access out to this area is not ramped it has 2 salt water pools & over 200 sunbeds. the areas around the pool are not wide enough to allow a wheelchair to get access to all areas, the ground is not line marked to keep areas clear for access, the edges of the pool are tapered on with uneven drainage covers. Any other resort I have been to with facilities like this there were showers close by the pool the wash off the chlorinated water , in this pool area if you are on the side where the bulk of the beds are you have to walk through the Lido bar to get to them, not the greatest thing to want to do when folk are sitting watching the world cup..

MAINTENANCE CURRENTLY IN PROGRESS - Do not go to this hotel in the near future & expect to get use of the extensive gym & keep fit facilities it boasts of, they are closed for 14 weeks till early August, the Sa Re Ga Ma restaurant was closed for refurbishment, toilet facilities were closed. The workmen carrying out the ongoing repairs were not customer friendly, a couple of examples of this are cement footprints all over the carpeted areas in the corridors ,it was also damaging the carpets causing trip hazards, the area at the Lido Bar was washed down & cleaned every evening only to have the same workmen dragging damaged building material to a skip outside the fence between 8am & 9am the area is paviored & uneven did they lift a brush & sweep the area when finished of course not ...If you get a splinter in your foot then stick in at salt water pool well i think you know the out come..

WHAT YOU ARE PROMISES YOU AVOID-- the first morning we went down for breakfast we were approached by a gentleman at the entry to the dining area , this troll gave us ticket for a trip round the harbour & a massage but then he threw in the curved ball promising us 20 euros in free drinks if we went next door to the 5star hotel at 9.30am we never went but a couple that were there at the time with us did, we met up with them later only to find that they had been hoodwinked into going into a time share sales meeting..
We did not use the cruise tickets he gave us for fear of having our ears burnt for 90 minutes with someone trying to sell us what we did not want..We paid through our holiday rep for what we wanted that way we new what we were getting..

The only 2 things that saved this holiday were the food & the weather

The Hotel is in a superb location right on the harbor front in Sliema.

Check in was smooth and straightforward. Our room wasn't available for another hour, but we were able to leave our bags.

We were on the 5th floor, and our room was huge. We had 2 Queen sized beds, with a small balcony which overlooked one of the pools and gardens. It was spotlessly clean with all the usual facilities and toiletries. There was no charge for the safe or the air conditioning, which was a nice change.

Breakfast was taken in the main restaurant. There was plenty of choice from the hot table, with English bacon, sausages beans, hash browns etc. There was also plenty of cereals, fruit, croissants, meat & cheese. We had the dine around option, which meant we could eat lunch or Evening meal at the hotel. We had lunch twice at the Thai/Chinese restaurant, which was superb. It was 3 courses and there was plenty of choice. If we'd eaten in the same restaurant in the evening, we'd have had to have paid 28 Euros pp. There was a reasonable choice of evening meal in the buffet restaurant - no repetition of main courses over the week, except for vegetables. They were sometimes a little slow in filling up the empty tray, but just a little patience was needed. Drinks were reasonably priced for a hotel.

The indoor pool area desperately needed a coat of paint and was in dire need of a revamp, but it was a decent size. The outdoor pool was closed for 2 days for "routine maintenance". Surely Easter was not the time for this to be undertaken.

Entertainment was diabolical and even people in their 70’s looked bored. After a few nights we gave up.

The timeshare people need to be stopped from operating at the hotel. I was actually phoned in my room to go to a meeting. When I gave a firm no, I was still given a free voucher for a harbour cruise, which we enjoyed.

Would I visit this hotel again - yes if the price was right, but it is not worthy of it's 4* rating.

Well I was gobsmacked when I realised that the Palm Court has the same three star value as this brilliant Hotel!

We stayed at the Fortina for our silver wedding anniversary in 2000 and we were so impressed that we immediately made a reservation for the following summer. Building work put us off going over the years and we started to use the Coastline, another brilliant hotel.

However, SAGA now runs the Coastline and so we decided to try the Fortina again. We had a great week and couldn't fault them. In the past the entertainment tended to be poor but we were impressed by the quality of the tasteful but low key entertainment which we both felt was measured and right for this high quality hotel. If you want bingo, lots of audience participation type entertainment then the Fortina's not for you!

If like us you opt for dine around the food and restaurants are just simply excellent. The staff are very professional taking a pride in what they are doing to make your stay a good one! The rooms are clean comfortable and the air conditioning works really well.

Some staff remembered us from our previous visits and asked about our son who was younger then but as would be appreciated now he would not want to be with mom & dad on hols nowadays! This is a cracking hotel worth at least 5 stars, in our estimation. We can't wait to return there again!

Stayed at the Fortina All inclusive 4 star for 2 weeks and hotel is badly needing a makeover lifts regularly broke down carpets in hallway threadbare and in places patched up. The room was spacious and well enough furnished pool area was also well maintained.

The main restaurant never seemed to have the linen table cloths cleaned and only changed paper tablecloths between diners. The chairs also badly needed cleaned occasionally. Food on the whole was acceptable. Food in themed restaurants we used was very good and these dining rooms were spotless.

We travelled with 2 children aged 16 and 20 and would appear to be no entertainment if you go with young children. The evening entertainment was at times dire and very repetitive. The staff always smiled and were very helpful when spoken to. This place is definitely not value for money.

HOTEL FORTINA & SPA
The all inclusive food in the hotel was of quiet a good standard and there was lots of it, we were both impressed with the variety of choice that you were given at each meal time it looked scrumtious and tasted excellent.

I did not see much of food snacks inbetween the meal times for the all inclusive, may be some times at about 4pm in the afternoon by the pool a small tray of sliced cake would be placed on top of the cocktail bar.

The hotel was clean and the service from the staff was good.

Shame about the lifts they just don't seem to much up to a four star hotel rating. They are seriously in need of some help quiet soon they are very very small not just in width but hight and a bit ricketty to use, you'd kept your fingers crossed when you used them.

The location of the hotel was briliant the views across the harbour over to Valetta was of out-standing beauty.

ENTERTAINMENT
The entertainment was only of a fair rating for a four star hotel ther was somthing different every night but it was not of a very good standard.

ACCOMADATION
The delux bedroom was of a high standard the two Queen beds and the spaciousness of the room was without a dought excellent.

DOWN SIDE
The only down side was the time-share scam that every one went through at the hotel, you were cond into it when you went for breakfast on the first morning that you arrived stating that you had to collect your free tickets for your harbour cruise that came with your holiday and also to have a look around the spa and also the five star accomadation that was available in the hotel that you could up-grade too if you wished. We were told it would only take an hour of your time not true four to five hours later they were still hanging onto you they even followed us when we went for lunch.

A big put off I'm afraid but we will not be going there again.

this hotel has no entertainment whatsoever unless you count the time share sales who badger you at meal times.
food is on a par with motorway service stations as is the service id expected alot more having gone on the adverts in major sunday papers.

reading some of the reports id imgaine most are made by the staff or frinds there of would we go again not even if it was free.

We visted the Hotel Fortina which is divided strictly into two parts 4 and 5 star. We stayed in the 4* and the food was sub standard and luke warm better to eat out. Great views though across harbour.

Entertainment poor and mainly by the pool outside which was chilly and breezy during our visit.

Bombarded by agressive approach to take a guided tour of Hotel. Beware the free boat trips are a ploy by the time share bandits .If you can get away with the tickets unscathed ,the trip is worth taking

Overall we were disappointed with our vist and would not go back

shocking borderline diabolical a complete waste of money id have had a better break at home.
Entertainment was nil i was bombarded with the hotel staff trying to sell me time shares 5***** this was most definatley not.

Excellent Hotel, we stayed in the 5* Tower, rooms were fantasticly clean, as were most public areas (exception of Lido area). The location is possibly the best on the island. The food was fabulous (5* dine around thingy!).

Only thing we were not impressed with, was the 'lido' area, not worthy of 4* let alone 5*.

I liked this so much I am going back in May 2008.