Saint Julian's, St. Georges Park Complex

This is by far the strangest hotel experience that I have ever had. What I want to stress the most is that this is not a hotel. The facility seems to go by many different names, including St. George's Park & La Vallette Resort and St. Georges Park hotel. The actual sign in front of the building says St. Georges Park Apartments, and I think that the emphasis should be on the word Apartments. But rather than just sharing my opinion I will share my actual experience and you can come to your own conclusion.

There was a lack of what would normally be considered minimum amenities. No shampoo, conditioner, or skin lotion; No washcloths or hand towels. Just tiny bars of soap, and those were never replenished for the entire 6 nights of my stay. Used towels were removed but never replaced. The bath mat was not replaced daily and possibly never. I know this because one day it got fairly wet and I came back to find it draped over the wastebasket to dry, and the wastebasket was on top of the toilet. The hot water was provided by a small hot water heater directly over the shower, so low that a tall person could bump a head. There was only enough hot water for a very short shower for one person. My first day I thought that the toilet did not work, only a trickle of water came out when it was flushed. I found out quite by accident that the handle worked more like a pump and had to be pushed several times. You might think that since this is so unlike how toilets work in the rest of the world there might be a sign but there was none. I did not know that the electrical outlets in Malta were the three-pronged type found in England. That was my own fault. Surely I'm not the only one who has made this mistake, so I went to the desk and asked them if they had an adapter. They said that they did not have any that they could sell me. There was fortunately (or so I thought) an outlet in the bathroom that accepted the European two prong and even the US two prong plugs. However the outlet only provided electricity intermittently for no apparent reason. It just inexplicably went on and off. I brought this to a desk clerks attention on my first day there. She told me that she would have someone look at it but it remained the same for my entire stay. The room was not air conditioned, but there was a ceiling fan. The first time I turned it on it made such a horrible racket that I turned it off. Then I noticed that the base of the fan was not attached to the ceiling and the fan was actually hanging by wires. The bed was hard and uncomfortable, and the pillows were ancient and lumpy. There was a kitchen area with a stove, refrigerator, dishes and a hotpot which I found convenient for making myself a cup of coffee in the morning or keeping some beverages on hand. However I was clearly expected to wash my own dishes since any that I used were untouched the entire time. I might have washed them myself if I had anything to wash them with, although I suppose I could have used one of the tiny bars of soap and a bath towel.

Here's the story on the surrounding neighbourhood. It is the place for young people to go to party. The legal drinking age in Malta is 16, so its an even younger crowd than you would normally find. Doors are never closed in Malta so there is always some form of loud thumping music coming from downstairs. And the crowds were large every night. The next morning I had to negotiate my way around trash and pools of vomit as I walked down the street. All that said, the biggest noise problem for me was from within the hotel. A couple of nights one of the elevators made a horrible banging sound the entire night. Think of a hammer banging on sheet metal and you'll get the idea. The housekeeping staff started early and talked loudly and nonstop the entire time they were on the floor. The floors are tiled not carpeted so the noise reverberated down the entire hallway. It was clear to me that many of the guests were young tourists who wanted to be close to the action. One morning at 6am I was awakened by the sound of several girls skipping down the halls, talking and laughing loudly (probably just getting back from a night out). There's more to tell, but by now you have probably gotten the idea.