This was our first time in Malta and i have to say I was very impressed. The people are very friendly and helpful. We were very fortunate, as they had just had 2 days of thunder prior to us arriving, but the weather was fantastic for the 6 days we spent there. We hired a car at the airport costing us 250 euros, which gave fully comp insurance with no excess. We clocked up just under 500 km during our stay and would highly recommend that anyone visiting malta do the same. We also took our car on the very reasonably priced [25 euro for car and 2 passengers] ferry to Gozo for the day and covered most of the island. Then we jumped on a boat across to Comino to go snorkelling in the blue lagoon. Wow, what a place, despite the lack of beaches, there was plenty of room for all, and the diving was superb. It is worth mentioning that there are a vast number of ferry crossings and boat trips throughout the day to both Gozo and Comino. The golden sands bay beach was well worth a visit as the diving is lovely there. Restaurants; we love our food, and Malta is certainly a well kept secret as far as its little gem hidden restaurants are concerned. By far the best of these is a fantastic place called "the kitchen" in Sliema, it was just superb, the staff were friendly and very efficient. The food was simply divine, with most tastes catered for. We had everything from goats cheese souffle to venison with a subtle chocolate sauce. Everything was homemade and to an exceptionally high standard. Also, the whole place was immaculately presented. Radisson SAS St Julians was our hotel for the duration of our stay, and we must say that it more than met our expectations, the staff are all friendly and the hotel is spotlessly clean at all times. Breakfast was our only meal as we really did want to sample the local restaurants. That said, the buffet style breakfast was vast and more than enough for anyone, everything from fresh fruit and yoghurts to a full continental or english breakfast, or both if you could eat enough. Our room was on the 7th floor, and had a superb view over the pool and outside dining area. We found it to be a quiet hotel despite fears raised by some reviews saying that it was a noisy place. All in all we were more than satisfied with our choice of hotel and will gladly return there for our future visits.