Need to know
Rooms
25, including four Don Pietro wellness suites, four double-height Three Herons suites and and one lavish Sixteen 34 Suite.
Check–Out
Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm. Reception is open 24 hours a day.
More details
Rates usually include a generous Continental breakfast spread (otherwise €18 a person) of fresh breads and pastries, cereals, fruit and juices and à la carte picks (a full English, omelettes, scrambles, porridge, smoked salmon).
Also
If you need local recommendations, tickets booked, taxis hired, suitcases packed and unpacked, the remote control decoded and so much more, call on the hotel’s friendly Jeeves, who’ll sort you out at the swish of a white glove. Return stays here bring certain privileges: a free one-way airport transfer; 15 per cent off your stay; a free room upgrade; and discounts, free drinks and VIP treatment at local shops, a beauty salon and photographers.
At the hotel
Roof terrace with a bar and pool, on-call butler, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: Smart LCD TV; bedside USB charging ports; bathroom speakers; espresso machine; tea-making kit; minibar; laptop safe; slippers and flip-flops; bathrobes; his ‘n’ hers L’Occitane products; bottled water; and air-conditioning. The Don Pietro rooms each have a two-person sauna and twin rain showers, and the Sixteen 34 Suite has a dining room.
Our favourite rooms
Named for the master of the house, the Don Pietro suites are our pick for spa spoiling, superlative style and nifty tech. But, the Three Heron suites, on the former piano nobile, are the spiffier for their green-velvet sofas and mosaic-marble flooring – plus, a spiral staircase to dramatically sweep down come breakfast, and double-height ceilings, all the better for the city view.
Poolside
Set four storeys up on the hotel roof, what the petite unheated pool lacks in size it makes up for in scenery: from here you can gaze out at the Basilica’s dome, the Cathedral’s spire, the harbour and blue, blue Med beyond. It’s open during the summer months (May to October) and you can cool off here until 7pm. Just around the corner cocktails are shaken and corks popped at the bar; ask nicely and staff will deliver your drinks poolside.
Spa
There’s no bricks-and-mortar spa, but you can pamper yourself privately in the Don Pietro rooms, where the sauna leads to a shower for hot-cold invigoration. In-room treatments can be arranged with local therapists, too: black-soap scrubs, couples massages, vinotherapy body-wraps, Thai massages and the like.
Packing tips
Toss your heels into the sea and replace with sensible, grippy flats for running up and down Valletta’s hilly, highly polished steps. UK visitors, leave your adaptor: this former British colony has handily adhered to three-pronged plugs.
Also
There’s a lift to all floors. The Mezza Croce rooms are wheelchair accessible and some rooms are fully adapted, but the Three Herons and Sixteen 34 suites have stairs. Guide dogs are welcome to stay, too.
Children
Under-12s stay free. Extra beds and baby cots can be added to the Executive Rooms. The hotel is, however, a bit of a romantic, so it's better suited to couples.