Malta: April 2025: Day 3: St. Julian's

Malta

April 2025: Day 3: St. Julian's

Arrived at nearly 1am in Malta.

Took an hour to get bags (!), arrived at the Westin Dragonara after 2am. Ugh.

Typical Westin styling, business-like, modern vibe.

Everything looks new/recently remodeled.

Welcome gift.

Patio would remain unused due to it constantly being windy.

View of the central courtyard.

Exploring St. Julian's.

Spinola Bay.

Lot 61 for coffee.

And hot chocolate.

Sunday In Scotland further down the tourist drag (Balluta Bay/Sliema).

Just around the corner to Sliema, another tourist area.

Menu at Barracuda Restaurant.

Nearly empty at 5:30pm.

Pesco crudo.

Dishing out seafood pasta.

Sea bream took forever to debone, Tiff had finished her meal by the time I was served mine.

Passionfruit cheesecake at Sunday In Scotland.

Westin's seafood minestrone soup seems like a contradiction, but it was good.

Westin Lobby Bar, aka ORVM Lounge & Piano Bar.

The Westin Dragonara Resort in Malta is recently remodeled, with a contemporary vibe in the rooms that goes well with the slightly more classy vibe in the massive lobby, and decidedly massive for such a small country, especially after they added a few floors to some of the hotel in the remodel.

St. Julian's, where most of the major hotel brands are, is a decidedly tourist area. Like all of Malta, it has narrow roads with even more narrow sidewalks, and is crawling with tourists and locals alike. Spinola Bay has a bit of charm, but really it feels overrun by tourists. We found quickly that shopping malls are decidedly smaller here, along with coffee shops and most anything local that isn't sized for the tour bus/cruise ship crowd. The next town over, Sliema/Balluta Bay, is all one continuous waterfront from St. Julian's, and we opted to hit Barracuda Restaurant for dinner as opposed to trying to wander further.

Barracuda was empty at 5:30pm, with some odd hesitation to seat us by a window (despite the fact they were still nearly empty when we finished our meal), but the seafood crudo and the seafood pasta were both decent enough. I made the mistake of ordering sea bream, which took forever to debone despite the server's expert skills. Verdict was overall quite average for a tourist trap, and we chose to go elsewhere for dessert. Heading back the way we came, Sunday In Scotland did a somewhat sweet passionfruit cheesecake, although they clearly could have used a larger space-- limited seating made it tough to linger.

Wrapped up the day at the hotel lobby, branded ORVM Lounge & Piano Bar. Went for a minestrone soup to supplement the one meal we'd had so far, turns out the seafood minestrone soup is more like a veggie-seafood as opposed to a minestrone. It was a large portion and served piping hot, actually quite enjoyable. Actually turned out much better than the cannoli's in the display case...