Malta & Gozo (Bradt Travel Guides) [Paperback]

300 pages of small print (although including several pages of colour photographs) might seem a lot for a guide to such a diminutive country as Malta. Not really: not when the country is home to some of the oldest surviving buildings and artefacts in the entire world. They go back to the 6th millennium B C, but of course they are `silent witnesses'. The Maltese antiquities greatly predate Mycenae Tiryns and Cnossos, but if anything was written by their creators none of the writing has survived. We have no equivalent of the Linear B tablets, let alone any such bardic tradition as has come down to us under the name of Homer.

As tourist guides go, this one is decidedly upmarket. The stuff we would normally expect is here of course, like ratings for hotels and restaurants, information on travel and transport, and the best locations to find sea, sun, sand and whatever else. If night-spots get proportionately less coverage than they do in most guide-books, that must be because, according to the author, Malta largely closes down around 9 p.m. (as does eastern Berlin, or it did when I was there 5 or 6 years ago). There is also the sort of general commentary on the look, feel and atmosphere of the place and its culture that ought to be here, and politically correct inclusiveness is dutifully represented by a brief paragraph on the gay scene. What is different about this guide is the amount of space that is devoted to `places of interest'.

That kind of material can be desperately laboured and boring in other guides to other places, but anyone who is bored by the history and pre-history of Malta is really missing something. There is a fascinating summarised account of it all, 5000 B C to 2010 A D, and Juliet Rix is obviously enthralled by it, as well she might be. By `Malta' of course I mean the whole country by that name, comprising the eponymous main island plus its smaller northern neighbour Gozo and the mini-island Comino lying just south of Gozo. Malta has the highest population density of any European country, but mainly on the larger island. Gozo is quieter, it is Gozo that I know better from my one visit with my family in 1985, the little Gozitan village of Xlendi in its miniature canyon leading down to the sea is where we were based for two weeks, and Xlendi is the very last place mentioned in the book. Throughout the last millennium Gozo was as prone as Malta itself to attacks by Turks, Arabs and Napoleon, but during WWII, when Malta was being intensively bombarded, Gozo was left largely unscathed by the Axis. Edward Lear (he of the limericks) was entranced by Gozo, so was I, and it is still what he called it `pomskizillious and gromphiberous'.

Where the larger island scores is simply, I suppose, in being larger. The Grand Harbour is awesome, the antiquities are more numerous, and the seaward fortifications are unique and colossal. See those and then see whether you don't want to know more about the history behind them. There are more fascinating sites per acre on Malta, I guess, than anywhere else in the world, and this guide has been compiled by an author with a genuine interest in them. When they start to get a bit much for you, then that is perhaps the time to retreat to Gozo, and you will start off with a very favourable impression after sailing out of the rather ugly and functional harbour of Cirkewwa and being welcomed to Gozo by the beautiful sight of Mgarr. Comino I know only from swimming in the Blue Lagoon, but that experience converted even a dry-land sportsman like me to swimming for the time being, and Gozo harbours, inter alia, the cave where the nymph Calypso supposedly detained Odysseus for several years, not that he minded.

Perhaps I am beginning to explain how such a small place requires a long guide. There was far more there than I could get my feet around, let alone get my head around, in two weeks. Considered just as a selling job, something that makes me itch to go back and stay longer, this approach has done the trick for me.

I know Malta well and think that this is an honest book by Juliet Rix, which should appeal to both the possible newcomer and those already familiar with this fantastic island.
Unusually in a travel guide, the author argues that Malta's USP is not the sun, sea and sand but its history and prehistory, and although this is evident throughout it doesn't detract from the successful sale of the island as a holiday destination, for many other reasons, in my opinion.
The author is not afraid to call a spade a spade, at times, and the overall feeling is that for the best part it is a passionately written guide which can be relied on. The author also usefully stresses the use of forward planning when necessary; sometimes booking well in advance.....to avoid disappointment at, e.g. Hal Saflieni Hypogeum (where, incidentally, children under 6 years not admitted).

Measuring in around 13.5 cm x 21.5 cm with a depth of around 2 cm, the Bradt Travel Guides are not the smallest available but they are certainly comprehensive. Malta and Gozo covers Malta in great detail, less so on Gozo, and Comino also gets a mention!

The 312 good quality pages are split into two parts, each then logically divided:-

Part One - General Information

1. History (page 3-19)
2. Background & Information (page 20-36)
3. Practical Information (page 37 - 77)
4. Planning for your interests (page 78-101)

Part Two - The Guide

5. Valletta (page 105-142, preceded by a map of 'Valletta Orientation')
6. The Three Cities Birgu, Senglea & Cospicua (page 143-158)
7. Sliema, St Julian's and Paceville (page 159-170)
8. Southeast Malta (page 171-186)
9. South Malta (page 187 - 200)
10. Mdina and Rabat (page 201 - 218)
11. Central Malta (page 219 - 234)
12. North Malta (page 235 - 248)
13. Comino (page 249 - 252)
14. Gozo (page 253 - 296)

Appendix 1 (page 297 - 298) - Notes on language and some useful words and phrases
Appendix 2 (page 299 - 300) - Glossary
Appendix 3 (page 301 - 305) - Further Reading

The book opens with a colour map of Malta & Gozo with a key and note of the main attractions, including The Hypogeum, St Paul's Catacombs and Valetta with a quick reference page number, followed by some colour snapshots of what you shouldn't miss, e.g. Neolithic Temples and Carvings, Gozo, Auberge de Castille & horse racing.
'Malta at a Glance' is a useful section which includes public holidays, currency, telephone codes, the flag and the national bird.
Overall the first 101 pages are dedicated to general information.

The second part has all the usual things you would expect to find in a travel guide, e.g.:-

getting there and away, getting around, where to stay - top end, mid range, budget, self-catering accommodation, eateries, museums & galleries, parks & gardens, buses, Post Offices, what to see and do, etc, with any quoted prices current at the date of publication (May 2010), so can only be taken as a guide.
Other general information includes Local Dishes, Maltese Bread, where to go and what to do with the kids in Malta, disabled travellers, The Maltese Cross, Malta's winds, Yelkouan Shearwaters, Lampuka, Cart Ruts, 'a Thirsty Island?'...the book is literally packed with information, interspersed with groups of shiny colour plates and peppered with black and white maps.

The comprehensive index on pages 307-312 is usefully enhanced with bold entries indicating main information pages and italicised entries showing the aforementioned maps which include birding sites, Roman sites, some top dive sites, swimming & snorkelling sites, Tarxien Temples and churches.

The style of writing is easy and the cross-referencing is efficient throughout, for example - looking at 'snorkelling', in the index, one finds references (for both islands) and some useful observations from the author, good and bad, e.g.:-

'Swimming, snorkelling and diving (from page 90)
There are some wonderful places to swim in Malta, but the brochures do not always give a very honest impression of what to expect. You may be promised a 'private beach' and find a rocky foreshore. Nothing wrong with swimming from rocks - unless you were expecting to build sandcastles.
The following should help you to choose where to go and key sites are plotted on the map, page 92. The main tourist centres of St Julian's, Paceville and Sliema (see chapter 7) as well as Bugibba and Qawra (see pages 159 and 244) are basically rocky coasts. Many Maltese prefer swimming off rocks because the water is usually clearest here, much clearer than around the sandy shores. This makes it ideal for snorkelling, but swimming from rocks may not be so good for young children or those nervous of deep water......
The longest beach on Malta is Mellieha Bay. It offers great sand and sea, but is marred by a long main road and summer crowds.......'

From Bugibba, Qawra and Salina Bay, page 244:-

'This is the mass-market tourism centre of Malta: sunnier than Blackpool, but without the beach (or the illuminations). The only sandy beach here is a scruffy man-made patch outside the Dolmen Hotel, otherwise swimming is in the paint-peeling lidos or straight into deep water off the rocks on the seafront, backed by the long parade of bars, dodgems and McDonald's.
This is the downmarket version of St Julian's. One stretch of waterfront is officially named Bognor Beach and the Bognor Bar offers a pint and a chip butty for 2.50. I think you get the picture.
The opposite side of Qawra from St Paul's Bay looks over Salina Bay with salt pans and, on the far side of the water, a Knights' tower and an odd looking hill. The hill is in fact a vast rubbish dump that can get smelly when the weather is very hot and the wind in the wrong direction.'........

Sometimes the entries seem a little out of balance with, for example, Mellieha in the north of the island showing only three eateries as opposed to Marsaxlokk, a beautiful fishing village in the south-eastern corner of Malta with double the number, although the latter is where the Maltese tend to go to eat fresh fish!

I hadn't used a Bradt guide before, but in future I'll check them out before travel. This book is one of the best of its kind I've ever used. The core of any travel guide has to be the practical bit about where to go and what to see, and this it does comprehensively. The photographs and maps are also superb. What makes this guide really stand out, though, is the way the author, Juliet Rix, transfers her enthusiasm for her subject to the reader, making the book not just a taster to dip into, but a meal to be devoured. If this is a typical example of Bradt guides, then I'll be collecting quite a number!!