Bella Vista Hotel

We found the Bella Vista very clean. Food choice was good and the food was always hot. The biggest problem was queueing to get into the dining room for breakfast unless you went really early.
The room was very hot when we arrived at 3.00 am, that is because the electricity is not on unless you are in the room (you have to put a piece of plastic into a slot when you enter the room to switch on the electricity) therefore the air conditioning and fan were not working.
The hotel was a short free minibus ride from the centre of Qawra and a ten minute stroll from the centre of Buggiba and fifteen minutes from St Paul's bay. The room was cleaned every day with fresh towels, bed linen changed about three times a week. FRidge in the room was pointless as the electricity didn't work unless you were in the room (see earlier comment). We are planning to return to the Bella Vista next year as we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Good entertainment every night on the roof terrace. We found the all inclusive to be a good option as drinks were already paid for on the card and the lunch option was there if we stayed by the pool for the day.

Brochure stated the hotel was a brief walk to resort, so rang Mercury Direct before I booked, spoke to a man who told me the hotel was situated by the bus station. This was very wrong information, as we were in a country location, no other hotels nearby, and a good half an hours walk to Quawra, down a steep slope and up a hill. My husband became ill walking in the heat uphill, so completely spoilt the holiday, I only booked this hotel on the advice given, as we were originally booking one in the resort, as the Bella Vista was offering all inclusive, we went there instead. We arrived at the hotel at 1.30am, so we went to bed straight away, the room was very small and the bathroom very, very small, on arising and drawing back the curtains, we found we were surrounded on all three sides by high walls, the only way we could see the sky was to lean out on the small balcony and look up. After breakfast I went to the reception to ask if we could have a different room, after half an hour, they offered us one on the side of the hotel, but we had to pay 15euros to do this! (We recieved this back after a weeks time, due to holiday rep. intervening) This was a nice room, we were told by the Mercury rep. as we had booked a cheap holiday, we could only expect the previous room. I booked this holiday in January 2008 at full brochure price, not a cheap offer, so I don't think we should have been treated like this! The food was very poor, not much choice, no fruit at breakfast or yogurt, the main meals were also quite tasteless, the desserts were mainly patries. the only fruit we saw was a few oranges and occaisonly some apples. I asked for a tomato and cheese toastie one lunchtime, To get a drink at the bar in the evening, there was only one barman, and a large queue formed, the barman never smiled, I suppose he was too tired, as he always seemed to be on duty. All in all we spoke to a lot of people staying there and they all said the same thing, they would never go there again, I will never book with Mercury Direct again either.

the food was rather bland and the room decor was below 4 star standard, e.g. floor tiles broken, ants in the bathroom. however the staff were generally very friendly and helpful
The hotel was overrated and should be downgraded to 2 star at best..
PS: be wary of the car hire company recommended by the hotel group . check that the vehicle has a current road tax disc in the windscreen otherwise you will be charged for any fixed penalty notices!!

This hotel is a great bargain. Friendly service, good food (B&B), clean room - cleaned daily, and great location. 25Euros taxi from airport, 10 min walk to St Pauls Bay, and Burgibba, and the bus station. Buses can be caught right outside hotel, and cost virtually nothing!
If you expect an expensive, luxurious hotel, go somewhere else. If you are looking for a good value, clean, friendly hotel with very helpful staff then this is the place.
Recommend Manichi and La Stalla restaurants for GREAT food.
Be warned about time share reps hassling you in the street. We were approached by reps daily, and this after being conned by Lori from the Radisson at Golden Sands Bay to visit their hotel. We were not interested in time share, but this didn't put them off! The reps will pretend to be tourist information employees, or bus station employees, or anything, to get talking to you. BE WARNED! They will try to trick you with offers of free drinks and cigarettes, or anything, to hook you.

Me and my boyfriend went to Bella Vista in oct/nov 2007 overall the holiday was good.
The hotel was adequate for a nice break away, the food is average, as a vegetarian i had to order my food at breakfast with one of the head waiters from a menu outside, most of the food is the same for example the vege pie and vege lasange was basic the same meal with a slightly different garnish it was generally nice. the food in the main buffet was different everyday, chips were served once through out the stay. what is excellent about the food is the cakes for desert they were worth the whole holiday they were different everyday and you can eat as much as you like!
My Travel had just been taken over by thomas cook when we travelled this was one of outr biggest moan about the whole holiday because in the rep meeting the rep tried to send us on a trip to the radission hotel in Golden Bay this is a timeshare and refuse to go its not free for nothing. Malta has a mega timeshare problem you cant walk down a street without being hasled we had the mistake of getting caught by one dragged to a hotel we luckly made a run for it when they guy went to get some drinks after that as soon as anyone tried to come up to us we completly ignored them or told them simply not interested it did dampen the overall holiday experience.
Finally Malta is a destination for anyone over 40 there is no nightlife or whatever nightlife there is its dominbated by 16 year old locals as this is the legal drinking age in malta. Overall the accomodation is good however Malta needs to sort out its timeshare and dont visit if your young

i have just returned from the bella vista hotel had a good time by the people we met and the staff are helpful and friendly, cheap and cheerful but don't expect four star, more like 2 star- the tour operaters should make travellers aware of hotel ratings by giving accurate details. i feel it requires moderisation and play area for children and daily activities for visitors. it is the staff that make this hotel by being friendly. it's a pity they have to listen to everyones moans.

Having read some of the comments I felt I had to add ours. We were a party of 4 adults all well travelled and we all found this hotel great. The food was fantastic the rooms were spotless and cleaned every day including fresh towels.The drinks were great and the service was also great.
The star of the show was one of the bar staff called Savior who did a fantastic dance to a Tom Jones song and stripping off half his clothes. He even done this after the all inclusive bar was finished so the guests did not miss out.
All the people who have left comments that have criticised this hotel, well I have a comment for them - 'Get a life, if you want 5* then go and pay for it'.
We are hoping to return this year for another two weeks and we cant wait.

The Bella Vista Hotel, Qawra, Malta. We managed a hostel for homeless in London where the food, cleanliness, respect for guest welfare was 100 times better than at this hotel.
The bedding was disgusting. Our first room had black mould on one side of the headboard where the bathroom shower had leaked into the bedroom. The bedside rugs, one with a cigarette hole, had fluff and hair on them. The net curtains were dark grey and smelled. We moved room next day to one the same only without the mould.
At night a heating fan in the corridor came on and off noisily every half hour pumping out a smell like vomit.
The food was inedible. Buffet breakfast of cereal to help yourself to from an uncovered bowl (a lot of sneezing and coughing going on near it), bread to toast yourself, fried eggs the texture of rubber, sausages raw in the middle, sloshy half cooked scrambled eggs, coffee from a machine usually out of order, etc.
The staff were so miserable and one or two in dirty clothes. The Christmas Gala dinner was like a scene from Fawlty Towers. Protesting to the restaurant manager and rep was a waste of time. Never again!!

My boyfriend and I stayed in the Bella Vista in October and we were quite impressed overall.
I would agree that the hotel is not a 4 star hotel, but I have been told by many people that go to Malta year in and out, that the Maltese tend to up the stars on their hotels.
We both thought the food was very good, with a lot of selection, even for vegetarians. We decided to go for Medina for the day (must see) and they pre-pared a packed lunch for us, which again was very good.
The reception staff were very helpful and gave us a lot of information about the local area and buses. Buses are very reasonable and the best way to get around, you can get to all the attractions via buses, go and please as you like with a bus pass that you buy on the buses.
Our room overlooked the pool, which wasn't great, as was overshadowed (if you want to get a tan) but to compensate we had a great balcony and the sun terrace allowed you to sunbath to your hearts content!
They were not quick to fix a few things that went out of order, one was our TV, but to be honest we wasn't to bothered as we didn't come away to watch it.
The evening entertainment isn't for anyone under 50, but Bugibba is a 10 min walk, where there are bars and resturants galore.
Overall I would say if you are a couple that want a quietish week away, the Bella Vista is great, very good value and Maltese are lovely people, lots to see and do if you want to explore!

OK..... Before I get started on telling you how fabulous our stay was in the Bella Vista Hotel, I would just like to comment on the people that stayed there whilst we were on holiday, I have never in my life heard so many people moan all day long about how poor the hotel was, how horrible the food was and how disgusted with the level of service they received. To be honest where did these people think they were booking when arranging there holiday?? They pay peanuts to stay in a very clean, very friendly hotel, some people stay 7 weeks at a time, so come on this cant be 'Fawlty Towers' for real can it? And surely if they wanted glitz and glamour they would have booked and PAY decent money to stay in a more classy modern hotel, somewhere in St Juliens or Silema, the people moaning is the only thing that spoils the Bella Vista, but funnily enough the food was (I quote) "Disgusting" but yet each and every day these people came back breakfast lunch and dinner time, amazing really, as I'm sure if I thought I was going to be so (and I quote) "Repulsed" I would have demanded a different hotel or just eaten elsewhere.
I can vouch for this hotel, the food the staff and the hotel in general was fab, and cakes to die for, I really enjoyed my stay, I have stayed in hell holes before and Bella Vista isn't one of them. I have been to Malta 15 times in total, from being a child to present age and I can say that the Bella Vista isn't a UK 4 star hotel but a Malta 4 star rating. You only have to look at the cars in Malta to see how behind with the times everything is, and that's the beauty of it, a beautiful unspoilt country.
The Bella Vista is outside Qawra town centre but they even think about that and lay a shuttle bus on throughout the day and evening which drops you off and picks you back up from the Bugibba/Qawra Bus terminus. The entertainment is not much to write home about, but its entertainment, but if you like a good knees up then this is for you.
All in all I found this hotel a very pleasant place to stay, the only thing that spoilt it for me was the moaning penny pincher's who liked to moan about nothing, if I had a euro for every person that complained all day every day, I would have booked another weeks stay in the Bella Vista today before I came back home.