Barceló Fortina Malta

Rooms are comfortable, quiet, very clean & well equipped. Excellent buffet breakfast & helpful staff. Located at the end of peninsula so bit of a walk to main part of ‘strip’ & town. BUT … No outdoor pool on site so has ‘arrangement’ with private beach club opposite. Have to book either morning or afternoon session 24 hours in advance, access to sun beds & umbrellas is prioritised to other paying guests.

I am not one to write a review but I felt I need to as the negative reviews really put me off this hotel to the point I tried to change the hotel after booking. However, having just returned from my holiday in Malta I honestly have nothing but positive things to say about our experience with the hotel and beach club attached. The hotel was modern, clean and staff were welcoming and polite. We were celebrating my partners 30th birthday and we got a complimentary upgrade to a spa suite on check in which was a nice surprise. In terms of the beach club, it was fab and we loved it! We cancelled our plans on our last day so we could go again. We booked morning slots on both days so we could arrive shortly after opening to get a good spot. On both occasions we arrived approximately 9:30am and got sun beds on the front row with fantastic views of Valletta. You cannot use the sun beds or cabana beds directly around the edge of the pool however this is l understandable as this is for those paying to use the beach club. We extended our stay at the beach club to the full day on both occasions though this is subject to availability and must be arranged via the hotel reception. We purposely planned to use the beach club on weekdays rather than the weekend when I imagine it would be busier with paying guests. Staff at the beach club were lovely and the food was really nice at the beach club too!

We stayed for 5 nights in September. The hotel staff were all very helpful. The reception and check in was smooth and we were taken to our huge room promptly. The room itself was lovely, and the bathroom was enormous, with, bath and separate shower. The only issue we had was trying to make sense of the light switches, which seemed to require double tapping to work!! The breakfast buffet was excellent, with a huge range of dishes to chose from. The bar was comfortable and the staff friendly and helpful.

We recently returned from 5 nights staying here. What a great hotel. We had booked a Superior room which was very nice and a great size. It was extremely clean. The location of the hotel is great, a very short walk to lots of restaurants & bars. It’s also next door to a shopping mall. The breakfast was very tasty, we were room only as we like to go out & find somewhere for breakfast but chose to have it twice at €30 per person, per time. We felt it was worth it as there was so much choice & the food was of a very high standard. No issues booking the sun loungers at pool, lovely pool with great views & choice of drinks. Yes the music is a little loud as we like to read, we did ask to sit at a quieter part which was accommodated but it was an issue, it’s a beach type club & not actually part of the hotel per se so not a big issue for us. All the staff at the hotel were very helpful & extremely friendly. I would stay here again without a doubt. You won’t be disappointed.

The pool is across a busy road from the hotel. There is a well lit tunnel from the hotel which was preferable to running for your life across the road in flip flops. So, as a hotel guest we head to the pool, after having booked the morning slot the night before, as required in order to secure a sunbed, we arrived at 1000 hrs and every single sunbed in the row facing the sea, and most of the sunbeds on the row behind that, had a rolled up Manta towel on it. This meant that very few sunbeds were left for hotel guests! We managed to find 2 sunbeds together, facing a wall and a row of the backs of sunbeds which were on a higher level to us. Noise in the afternoon around pool and heard from our room on 10th floor is horrendous.