Phoenicia - Toulouse, France 

My Fiance took me to the Phoenicia Hotel as a birthday present, that's probably about as good as it gets! We had requested a room with a balcony, on arrival we were given room 432 which was on the 4th floor directly above the busy bus terminal and even though we had the windows shut we could still quite clearly hear the hooters of the buses up until 10pm, even if there had been a balcony for this room we would not of used it. We did get a change of room to the first floor with a balcony. This room was okay, but certainly not 5 star. At this hotel they have a thing about shifting around tables very early in the morning and they don't know how to lift them as the noise was pretty bad. We ate in the main restaurant on one occasion and this was disappointing, very limited menu and food very standard. The Pegasus restaurant was better although it didn't really have alot of atmosphere. Luckily we found a fantastic restaurant on Archbishop Street (just past the palace to the left) called DA DANIELLA. This place really was our saviour with excellent food, a good choice and extremely friendly and accomodating waitress and head chef, (thanks Nicky and Daniel, you made our stay in Malta more bearable). If we were ever to go back to Malta we would most definately not stay at Phoenicia and I think the only reason we would stay in Valetta is to visit Da Daniella. We have stayed in many 5 star hotels in different parts of the world and I would definately say this did not seem like a 5 star more like 3. If you are looking for a special holiday choose somewhere else. I think the only people who should consider staying here are business people who are maybe only stopping for one night! I can say one postive thing about this hotel and that is that the staff were very friendly and helped where they could but there's only so much they can do to make your stay more comfortable, this hotel is in need of a refurbishment to bring it up to date. I agree with previous review about the hotel lobby, the cushions on the sofas actually did look dirty and very old fashioned.

Hotel has good location just at the entrance of Valetta. service what you would expect - food the same The problem is that the hotel is marketing itself as a traditional hotel and charges same price as other five star hotels while all the furinture is more than dated and used and in plain text also cheap. It is unbelevable but despite the price tag and all the past grandeur the quality of the lobby, rooms and communal areas this gives you the feeling of being in a three star pension 9and I am not really exagerating...). Should you still book this hotel just be aware that the price is equal to other prime hotels like hilton/westin etc. but just not comparable at all. The location also does justify a higher price since valetta is compeletely dead with no real restaurants in town ... you can get much better in being at hilton/ westin or meredien for the same price and with modern SPAs and other ammneties that that you would expect in a decent five star hotel