Sunflower Hotel

2 readers found this review helpful

We had a standard room with balcony, and had to stay longer due to the volcanic ash. The room was comfortable with a fan and heating/air conditioning. The hotel was very clean. There was always enough hot water.
When the flights were cancelled the staff were very accommodating, despite the crisis the prices remained the same. Staff were friendly and helpful at all times.
Breakfast is mostly continental, but full English could be booked at an extra cost. Dinner involved several choices, meat, fish, pasta for the main courses, with salads or soup starters. Deserts were usually flans/tarts and ice-cream.
This was a no-frills very good value for money hotel, and we would not hesitate to stay there again.

3 readers found this review helpful

Hotel was average, rooms clean but basic, balcony was smaller than expected, and not user friendly, looked out on to waste land, in shade all day, and had no privacy, we never sat out at all. Pool was nice, but holiday was totally ruined by people playing ball games in the pool, the pool itself is perfect for a leisurely dip and to relax, but allowing ball games etc, wasted the holiday for myself and many others I spoke to.
The location of the hotel is a bit out of the way, we did not mind the 10-15 min walk to the local bars and restaurants, but we can understand it will not suit many.
In the whole I would recommend malta, it was not our first visit, but i would not recommend the sunflower hotel.

Having lived in malta for 3 years in the sixties I was looking forward to returning for 10 days.
The hotel accmdn was fine. The room was spacious enoiugh and always kept clean. I would gladly return year after year.......if they sacked the chef ! A continental breakfast was provided via a buffet but you could tell that it was yesterdays yoghurt that had been topped up. day 3 & 4 were spent in the room vomitting. Day 5 was interesting. We went down for breakfast at 9am to be told that the hotel wasclosing in an hour for "refurbishment" and would be transferred to the Santana at 10am. I believe guests of HM are given more warnings before they are transferred. Not a happy bunny at this stage as you can immagine but the Santana was 10 times better.
On the up side the staff were really chatty and helpfull..........but then again so are all the Maltese people.
In conclusion Eat Out......but the chef has probably ben changed by now. We can only hope !!!!!

1 reader found this review helpful

The Sunflower Hotel came as a pleasant surprise - I'd been to Malta before but my wife hadn't, and it thoroughly won her over. The atmosphere at the hotel is relaxed and friendly, and the staff will go right out of their way to help with any queries you might have. We only stayed the week, but would have gladly stayed for months.
The menu is straightforward - a mix of pasta, salad and carvery dishes with a soup of the day and a choice of desserts. Some may want a little more variety, but for most people there shouldn't be a problem.
Our room was next to the staircase, yet we heard very little of people coming and going throughout the evenings. The room was ensuite, with a balcony and patio furniture, with air conditioning and a fan, which is a must after April. Fittings and furnishings are straightforward; stylish they are not, but they are easy on the eye, and everything is clean. There are no sea view balconies, but the promenade at Buggiba is only 10 minutes walk away, or 15 if you prefer a leisurely stroll, so get off your backsides and go to it - it's way better than just looking at it!
The hotel's location is around 10 minutes walk from the local bus station; the elderly or infirm might struggle with the odd broken or uneven pavement here and there, but it shouldn't be a problem for most people. The maximum fare we saw was 1 Euro 16 Cents, and the buses themselves travel to all parts of the island.
Finally, the numerous English or Irish-themed pubs in the locality, with satellite TV for footy or cricket coverage, mean you're never far from a good pint!
I have no hesitation in recommending the Sunflower Hotel - unless you're one of the Hyacinth Buckets or Victor Meldrews of this world, you won't be disappointed.

we realy enjoyed our holiday in malta this year we have been before but stayed in another hotel in buggiba.
there was 5 of us me my mum and stepdad and my twin brithers
we all realy enjoyed our stay the facilitys were fantactic anhd the rooms were very clean and the rooms were cleaned every day
the pool was realy warm and the jacuzi was very relaxing.
the food was realy nice and it was a differant specialality every day the weather wasnt that good but it was warm enough to go out for the day with out a coat or jacket.
we used the local busses and the price is very good its better than the prices of our local busses in england they just rip you off.
we went all over the place e.g valleta sleima, ect we didnt go to paradise ba y rhis time becausae the weather wasent good enough 4 that
over all i loved the holiday and i would recomend this hotel to anybody and i would deffenatly go bak again in the future

We felt that The Sunflower Hotel offered good value for money. Our room was clean and spacious and the hotel staff were friendly and helpful.
There is a small bar selling drinks and snacks on the ground floor and next to the pool bar on the roof.
The location is good for getting around the island, as the bus station is only a short walk away from the hotel. The main tourist street is close by with plenty of bars and restaurants.
Qawra & Buggiba are very much tourist resorts so not as historic or pretty as other areas on the island. There was plenty of building development in the area including on the site next to The Sunflower Hotel.

We stayed at the Sunflower Hotel in Malta in May 2006, which we booked independently on the internet.
The hotels itself, is 20 minute walk to the promenade area, bars and restaurants. So location wasn’t to good.
The hotel pool area is situated on the roof top, which on first impressions looks very nice. But as you adventure into the swimming pools you notice that the pools itself and the water needs a good clean, bugs and dirty floating everywhere.
So we decided to go to the beach area, which was shilled area's no sand. You have to go to Golden Bay, for the sandy beach. Which is 45 minute walk away, or 15 minutes in a taxi.
The resort itself in Malta is beautiful, but if you are looking for lots of things to do, and busy nightlight then I wouldn’t recommend this holiday's for you.

Have just returned from the Sunflower Hotel and I am very disappointed as this was my main holiday for the year.
The hotel in my opinion would have been correctly accredited as a 3* if everything had worked, but unfortunately very little did work.
The air con was pathetic and we believe was regulated by the hotel not the thermostat in your room, it was 35 outside and about 39 inside.
The fan if fastened to the ceiling properly was a little help, if you opened the door to the balcony and the door to the corridor. The Jacuzzi did not work, well sorry one jet did.
The indoor pool was the only cold place in the hotel; this was lovely after the hot walk back to the hotel to jump in to cool off.
The rooftop pool for the first four days was lovely, clear blue, but after that it turned cloudy and did not look clean at all, we did report this but nothing was done right up until the time we left.
The Internet did not work, and the view from all four sides of the hotel was horrible, a building site for two sides and rubbish dump for the other two.
The rooms were clean and the two girls on reception were polite even if they never did seem to get anything fixed, just wrote it down.
I would not go to this hotel again if you paid me.

This was a very nice hotel in a quiet residential area, but only a few minutes walk from the main busy part of the resort.
The best thing about staying in Buggiba is the bus terminal. You can get to anywhere on the island - making sight seeing relatively cheap.
The actual hotel does have a rooftop pool but it is small and rather cold! However it is a pleasant place to sunbathe.
The food was quite good, there was always a big choice for breakfast and for dinner usually about 4 main course choices with a selection of side dishes.
I would stay here again.

My girlfriend and I took a two week holiday to Malta in July. We were in search of Sun, Sea and good food. Malta provided two of these factors, the sun and the sea.
Unfortunately we could not find anywhere that did a nice meal. I am not sure if maybe this was because we were eating the wrong foods. We are both lovers of pizza and pasta and ravioli. Unfortunately all these foods in Malta ranked from horrible to ok.
We stayed bed and breakfast at the hotel so we never actually tried the hotel’s dinners. The breakfast provided at the hotel was continental. I am not a great fan of this and much prefer my full English. The continental was ok for the first few days but by the end of two weeks I couldn’t stand the sight of a croissant. There was full English available but it was at an extra charge. What we tended to do was just have a snacky breakfast and then a large lunch.
Apart from the lack of variety of the breakfast however, we were very impressed with the hotel. Its official rating is 3 star but I would rate it as 3 plus to 4 star. My only other gripe was the lack of fridge so you couldn’t buy drinks and keep them cool in the room. We resorted to walking down to a vending machine down the road which wasn’t badly priced.
The roof area of the hotel contained the pool which was lovely. It consisted of 3 parts. Kid’s splash pool, swimming pool and pool bar. If you are after some serious swimming however the pool would be too small, but for splashing about in it was great fun and not too busy. There was also an indoor pool but this was too cold for us. Apparently in the winter it is heated.
The room had A/C, which combined with the ceiling fan kept us quite comfy at night. Cleaners came everyday although we declined the clean a few times as it was not required. Staff were all very helpful and polite.
We took a few excursions. Only one was booked through the rep. All the rest were booked in the excursion shops as it seemed slightly cheaper. My recommended excursion is the Jeep safari round Gozo. This was an amazing experience and drivers were really nice, if a bit crazy. We also went on the day trip to Sicily but if I’m honest this wasn’t worth the money.
It was a great experience seeing Mount Etna but the day cost about £100 each and a lot of time was spent on a coach just listening. There were a lot of sleeping people.
For getting around the island we used the buses which were very cheap. Drivers were a bit grumpy but they all seemed to have personalised buses. Some of which were very old. I don’t think I would holiday in Malta again but if you are after hot days and lots of sun this is the place for you.
James and Jenny
P.S. Thanks Jen for a great holiday!