The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Knights to remember in the hotel that first stole my heart
After a gap of 45 years,
returns to the Phoenicia in Malta and salutes a magnificent makeover
My lifelong fascination with hotels began here at the Phoenicia. When I was 18 or 19 I went on holiday to Gozo with a bunch of friends. We returned on the ferry to Malta and the others flew home, but my flight wasn’t until the following day and I needed a bed. I knew that the Phoenicia was Malta’s finest hotel and, finding myself alone, I gravitated there, rucksack on back, as if drawn by a magnet. “This is all the money I have,” I told the reception staff, producing very little. “Can I stay?”
There was no snootiness and no sniggering as the staff politely explained that it wasn’t enough for even the smallest single room. I must have looked crestfallen, for after a few whispers, they told me that I could have, for my money, a vacant maid’s room. I was overjoyed; it was tiny and it was plain but it was mine and most importantly, so was Malta’s grandest hotel, sheltering me for the duration.
Forty-five years on, I have returned both to Malta and the Phoenicia. It has been a long time, but in many ways I’m glad that I’ve waited until now. I’ve missed the hotel’s indifferent years, when changes of ownership, rebranding and clumsy, sticking-plaster refurbishments weakened its appeal as one of Europe’s grand dame hotels. And my long absence also means that I’ve bypassed the decades in which Malta has been passed off as no more than a sun and sand holiday spot.
Formerly a Mediterranean backwater, it’s now one of Europe’s most talked about destinations, especially now that Valletta is to become European Capital of Culture 2018. A glorious essay in Baroque architecture, restored and pedestrianised, Valletta in particular has seen a major resurgence in recent years and now brims with life. Cool new restaurants, bars and boutique hotels are constantly popping up, but without denting its gentle, unspoilt appeal or the fascinating legacy of the Knights of Malta, who founded it in 1566 and built it on a grid system not seen since Roman times.
Gentle, unspoilt, yet once more humming with life … one can say precisely the same for the Phoenicia, just reopened after a major 18-month long refurbishment by international The hotel’s infinity pool overlooks Valletta harbour, above; while the Phoenicia’s entrance, below, welcomes guests to a venue restored to its former glory hotelier Gordon Campbell Gray. Now fresh and fashionable, it has nonetheless lost none of its dignified demeanour and, situated just outside Valletta’s walls, makes the ideal base for discovering the city, the Grand Harbour, the astonishingly lovely medieval town of Mdina and Malta’s Neolithic temples, the latter older than Stonehenge. The hotel will arrange visits to all, throwing in superb private guides, and a stay here goes hand in hand with equally gentle exploration of the island. The Maltese are laid back and friendly, though their driving leaves something to be desired … “like Italian driving” someone commented, “only without the snazzy cars or the talent; traffic lights are just a suggestion here”.
The Phoenicia Malta was built in the late Thirties by Lord Strickland, Count della Catena, fourth prime minister of Malta, and his wife Lady Margaret – a doughty character if the portrait of her hanging in the lobby is anything to go by. The couple wanted to provide Malta with a luxury hotel of international standard, but it was not until 1947 that the by then widowed Margaret, Lady Strickland, finally opened the hotel, it having been requisitioned by the RAF during the Second World War.
At once grand and yet intimate, the Phoenicia has an attractively simple layout. Two wings house the 137 bedrooms and suites – airy, pretty and sophisticated – where a bowl of perfectly ripe apricots or perhaps a dish of pears, signature touches of Gordon Campbell Gray, set the tone.
Rooms overlook either the Grand Harbour or the Marsamxett Harbour and many have balconies. On the ground floor, the beautiful Palm Court leads through elegant, original glass doors to the Phoenix restaurant and its lovely elevated terrace overlooking the gardens. There’s a clubby cocktail bar, its walls decorated with midcentury photographs, including those of Noël Coward and Winston Churchill, and in the Palm Court, the charming scenes of Malta by artist E C Dingli, collected by the Stricklands, are a highlight. On the floor below, the stunning Art Deco ballroom, now used for weddings, is where the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh used to enjoy dancing when they lived in Malta in the early Fifties. The room is apparently a particular favourite of the Queen, who has requested that dinners should be held there during return visits to the island. A second brasserie-style restaurant and a spa are currently under construction.
Campbell Gray, who launched One Aldwych and Carlisle Bay and currently has hotels in Beirut, Amman and – opening next year – Islay in Scotland, has long worked with designer Mary Fox-Linton who, now in her 80s, has perfectly judged the balance required for a traditional hotel in modern times and interpreted Campbell Gray’s belief that luxury hotels should be inclusive rather than exclusive, and that the welfare of the staff is as important as that of the guests. With a predominant colour scheme of blue, white and cream, with splashes of hot pink, the hotel now feels summery and Mediterranean: grand, yes, but with a boutique ambience, where staff wear chinos and light blue shirts and a sense of glamour mixed with relaxation and comfort prevails.
In the restaurant, two opposing walls of stunning blue and white Jim Thompson wallpaper make it almost hard to choose the terrace on which to dine. The food, courtesy of Daniel de Battista, a Maltese chef who trained with Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles, hits all the right notes: simple yet sensational and wonderfully flavoured. You might choose burrata, ceviche of prawns or a lobster salad, then a dish of marinated peaches for lunch; and a sea urchin risotto followed by linecaught red snapper with white asparagus for dinner. They will all be delicious, as are the very drinkable Maltese wines on the list.
The gardens of the Phoenicia stretch all the way to Valletta’s mighty bastion walls, where a dreamy new infinity pool has been constructed in their lee, overlooking the harbour along with a slick contemporary poolside restaurant. Dozing here in the sunshine, I reflect that if I fell for the Phoenicia all those years ago, I am completely captivated now. Doubles from £220 per night, including breakfast (00356 2122 5241; phoeniciamalta. com). To read a full review and book, see: telegraph.co.uk/ tt-phoeniciamalta