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All reviews pool area tiki restaurant private beach sea view pool staff five star hotel evening buffet plenty of sunbeds the bus manoel island deluxe room steep hill marsamxett harbour city gate bottle of wine welcome drink tea and coffee
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4,196 - 4,201 of 5,871 reviews
Reviewed September 10, 2009

Its all true about the cold towels and cocktails waiting at check in. The staff are simply brilliant. The rooms are high ceilinged, giving an airy feel. All high quality furnishings. Mini bar, robes, slipppers, flowers in room, turndown with chocs. This hotel is very difficult to beat. Its location is good. A fair hike up the hill to the city, but the Phoenicia is at the bus station outside the gates to the city if you wanted to be closer. We went in for a drink there and were ignored, and ended up walking out.

Quick tip - food at the "waterfront" is varied in type, quality and is expensive. Good to sit out though with the harbour view. Taxis are ridiculouly expensive. If you can manage it, walk up the hill from the Excelsior to the MCP car park. Go down to level 6 in the lift and through the tunnel. Its a 20 minute walk. Watch it coming back though at night as the lift will not be working and you will have to use the car park stairs and it is dark and deserted.

Best restaurant in Valletta old town? D'Office - great staff, ambience, good quality but inexpensive wine and the pasta is to die for. Ask for the specials menu. Silver Bream Ravioli! Turn right behind the palace as the main shopping street starts to dip down hill. "The Pub" is almost next door, where Oliver Reed had his last tipple apparently!

If the Excelsior isn't number 1 in the whole island, it must be in Valletta. Excellent. Would not consider any other.

Date of stay: September 2009
  • Trip type: Travelled as a couple
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Thank mindbender66
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed September 9, 2009

My Brother and I travelled with our elderly parents and stayed in the Excelsior Hotel. The staff were very helpful and friendly. The rooms were comfortable and clean. Although there was a slight problem with one of the rooms (they did not seem to expect my brother), it was soon resolved. We had views overlooking the harbour and enjoyed watching the sailing boats sail out to the open sea. The pool also overlooks the harbour and it is even possible to swim in the actual harbour. In the evening my brother and I enjoyed a drink at the poolside whilst watching a most amazing fire work display. The breakfast was very good with a good choice. We did feel the evening menu in the main dining hall was rather limited although the food was most enjoyable. There was an outdoor BBQ which we would have liked to have tried as it looked very nice. There is a bit of a hill to walk up when leaving the hotel, but our 80+ parents seem to manage it even in the heat. The bus station is very close so we went by bus to St Paul's bay and it only cost just over 2 euros for the 4 of us. The buses are full of character and quite bouncy!
If you need a taxi, ask for Frank who is one of the hotel's drivers - very helpful. We all would like to return to the Excelsior and really explore Valletta and Mdina.

Date of stay: September 2009
  • Trip type: Travelled with family
    • Value
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    • Rooms
    • Cleanliness
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Thank MaryanneAndover
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed September 7, 2009

Stayed with my husband and mother-in-law for five nights over the August bank holiday weekend. On arrival I asked at reception if the hotel was busy, and was told that it was nicely so, but for the last couple of weeks it had been extremely busy. I think this probably accounts for some of the more negative comments in the more recent reviews.
We had two lovely rooms that were spotless clean, with everything that we needed. The weather was very hot (27 degrees at 10.30 one evening), but the air-conditioning was fine.

Breakfast was very good, with a great selection. The restaurant has the most fanastic view over the harbour. We never had to wait more that a minute or so to be seated, however we did notice a queue around 9.00am on a couple of mornings over the weekend, but I guess this is common among many hotels on Saturday and Sunday mornings when everyone wants a lie in and arrives for breakfast at the same time. We did sometimes have a bit of a wait for tea and coffee at breakfast. We ate twice in the hotel in the evening at the buffet, which we enjoyed and service was good on both occassions. (The air-conditioning was turned up on high the first time, so I would recommend that ladies take something to put round their shoulders just in case).

We found the service throughout the hotel to be very good indeed, with polite and friendly staff. There was just one occassion in the bar when I ordered a cocktail which was wrong. We sent it back and the waitress was very apologetic and said she would sort it out. After about 10 minutes my husband had to chase up the replacement drink, it had obviously been forgotten, but it then arrived immedately with another apology.

I lot of people have mentioned the steps at the front of the hotel. If you turn right immediately you walk out of the door and follow the road out of the hotel and then turn left up the hill you can walk up the hill (not too steep in the shade of the trees). My soon to be 80 mum-in-law did not have a problem with this, although it has to be said she is quite sprightly for her age!!

The outdoor pool area is lovely. The pool was always clean and a nice temperature. We never had a problem getting sunbeds. One must do thing in Valletta is the harbour cruise, especially if you have never been before. It takes about an hour and a half. We have been to Malta several times now, but never tire of this trip.

We had a lovely time at this hotel. I suppose if we really wanted to nit-pick we could find a few more negatives, but that is not what we were there for. I would recommend this place to anyone, although from the other recent reviews, perhaps avoid the middle two weeks in August.

Date of stay: August 2009
  • Trip type: Travelled with family
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    • Location
    • Rooms
    • Cleanliness
    • Service
Thank Claire L
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed September 7, 2009

Location good (near Valletta and busterminus). Great view of Marsamxett Harbour.

Overall we had a disappointing stay in this hotel. We had to wait over 6 hours untill we finally got our room. Luggage had not been sent up, we had to put in a seperate request for it. A very bad start to our holiday. And staff didn't really seemed to care.
In general receptionstaff seem to be very good in ignoring guests. Harbour view staff do not seem to know their "stuff", and don't handel criticism very well.
Thumbs up however to the Tikibar and pool staff, hardworking, fast and very friendly!

Breakfast:
- good / wide choice of food and drink
- overstaffed, but poor service none the less (you had to beg for a cup of coffee/tea)
- If you didn't arrive very early you had to wait to be seated, because vacant tables weren't cleaned that fast.

Restaurants:
- Spice Island: great food!
- Admirals Landing: very little choice for a "a la carte" restaurant, also missed the local produce / specialities on the menu

During our stay, the hotel hosted an "al fresco" wedding. The wedding guests and their DJ didn't consider the other hotelguests when they were playing their extremly loud music. Hotel staff . management should have acted immediatly, unfortunately they didn't.

On paper this hotel has all the facilities of a 5 star hotel. In practice it just doesn't cut it.
A 5 star hotel has to run like clockwork. This hotel doesn't (at least not during our stay).
Service only seems to be given when repeatedly asked for. Furthermore it seems like the hotel concept isn't thought trough properly. The hotel staff seem to lack initiative to solve problems at hand.

Date of stay: August 2009
  • Trip type: Travelled as a couple
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    • Rooms
    • Cleanliness
    • Service
Thank Angelo1975
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed September 3, 2009

Like most people say it tries to be 5 star bit doesnt quite get there. breakfast was great - huge array of choice.s ervice at dinner and in the bar was not so good. lots of steps to get to hotel which was a bit of a pain in 36 degrees. great location on the seafront although it could do with a few more plants/trees as pool area felt very bare. room was very large and great bathroom. view was of a wall but you could see the sea to one side so it was ok. we enjoyed our stay on the whole but not quite as good as other 5 star european hotels in budapest, prague etc..

Date of stay: August 2009
  • Trip type: Travelled with family
    • Value
    • Location
    • Rooms
    • Cleanliness
    • Service
1  Thank ozikiz
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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