Casa Ellul

This hotel was a little slice of calm and peace from the bustling streets of Valletta. The location is excellent and has many nearby restaurants. The rooms are spacious and comfortable with any needs taken care of. Filtered water is provided which was a blessing. The breakfast was delicious. Every person we encountered was kind and helpful.

Casa Ellul is about as perfectly located as possible in Valletta. It is an old house that has been sympathetically converted into boutique hotel - everything in Valletta is within walking distance, as are the ferries, while Bolt/Uber will collect you from the corner. Everyone at Casa Ellul is helpful and we did have a couple of minor issues with the room, which were quickly resolved.

It is expensive but it’s all about location and I think for what it delivers the cost is reasonable. There are quite a number of more expensive options that are not so well located.

There are literally 100s of restaurants within a 5 minute walk away, but for the nicer options you definitely need to book ahead.

There is a freshly cooked breakfast everyday, which sets you up for the rest of the day.

The rooms could probably do with a little freshen up, while our room had plenty of hanging space, there was a need for somewhere to put our other clothes.

Nevertheless a lovely quiet oasis in Valletta and if they have room you should definitely consider Casa Ellul.

Let me start by saying this hotel is not for everyone. If you are looking for a very up to date modern American style hotel - then this place may not be for you. Its a small quirky hotel so make sure you understand what you are getting into.

All that said if I went back to Malta this is where I would stay. After initially arriving I was a bit put off and was regretting not staying at the Hilton, but after a few hours here I was perfectly happy with it.

After booking I was immediately contact via email directly by the hotel. I was really impressed by this and I did correspond back and fourth with them several times to sort out my room etc..

In the end I ended up staying in Suite 5 - this may not have been a great choice for me. I would highly recommend booking one of the room with elevator and roof access. The room itself is very nice - could use a few touch ups - but you have to remember its in Valletta and a very old building. There is a small Maltese "balcony" in the room but it is taken by the bathtub and there are no chairs on it . There really is nowhere to sit in the room and just relax with a glass of wine. There are the decorative chairs, but they are useless and would not fit on the balcony. A couple of simple chairs and small tables on that balcony might make a difference. Also for some folks the open shower might not be to their liking. There is also a weird door that is closed off with a large black plexiglass that allows it to connect to the room next to it somehow. The biggest issue I had with the room is there is no elevator access so you have to go up the stairs several floors. For us that was not really an issue but for many it would be. You can take the Elevator up the the floor above us but the stairs down are one of those narrow Maltese spiral staircases so again stairs. My biggest concern around this was checkout day and getting my luggage down. It was very early like 5 AM so I did not want to wake up the hotel carrying it down. Went to the front desk and I am pretty sure the guy was as old if not older than me. He went up and got the luggage somehow getting it up the Spiral staircase to the elevator and then down. Not an issue but for me it was a cause of stress when I have a 7AM flight.

Ok enough about the room - just want to be sure you know what you are getting yourself into.

As for the staff - they are really good - from the front desk to the folks that clean the room everyone was great. I was very concerned since its such a small hotel with only 10 rooms that it would be somewhat intrusive, but it was not.

Breakfast is included with the room and its quite good as well. Again I was a bit concerned as its such a small hotel. There were times when the eggs was not particularly hot and there were some issues with the menu being wrong and folks looking at me like I was nuts when I asked about it. For example they show the Eggs Royal being served on the Yogurt bread but it came on a brioche. When I asked about it they just did not understand - even though its on the menu. They also put out nice bread and meats - standard continental stuff so all was good. I would recommend not going down right at 7AM if you can avoid it, but we are up at 5 so kind of have to go down at 7. They are not really ready for you at 7AM. They were good, just not ready.

One issue to discuss is the mention of the bathroom smell if you are in the room on the first floor. I don't think this is a hotel issue, its an old city issue. One of the morning standing on the balcony there was a smell as well. Standing outside the hotel at 5Am also a smell. At the restaurant just up the street - same issue in the basement where the bathrooms are. This is a very old city so be aware - its not something that really affect us but if you are in room 1 as other mentioned maybe it is.

To be clear the do a great job keeping the hotel clean even though its older. Just one example as we went up and down the stairs we noted a piece of black electrical tape on the floor. At most Hiltons that might be there for days. When we went back out a few hours later it had been picked up. So the staff really pay attention to those small things that often get missed.

Ok all the said - we really enjoyed our stay here and would stay again without issue - but I would choose differently. Having a place on the roof to site and drink a bottle of wine would be very nice and well worth the extra cost.

And I have to say once again all the staff was excellent. Very responsive and professional. I had a small billing issue because of my complex stay with Hilton points and certificates etc.. and it was sorted immediately. Typically you have to go back and worth multiple times to get this sort of thing sorted out. So I am very impressed with how the hotel is run.

The most important reason to stay here is the location. You are in the city and can get the ferry or buses to wherever you need to go. I doubt I would have enjoyed being at the Hilton and taking a 30 minute buss to get to the city. As far as Sliema goes its not for me - we took the ferry over one day to get a ferry around the harbor and that was enough.

It also gives you the option of going back to your room for a few hours and going back out. This is one city where you really need to do that. There are just too many tourist and too many cruise ships - we were there in May - the supposed off season and it was just jam packed in the city. I hope they limit the cruise ships in the future - its just too ridiculous IMO. The only good thing was most of them are not all that interested in the historical sites they we had most of those places almost to ourselves other than the odd large tour group rushing through.