Valletta G-House

Portuguese Travel mag

April 2009's Rotas e Destinos is the latest publication to mention the G-House on a glossy six spread feature on the islands. For the sake of those amongst you who speak the language (and for the nice search engines who trawl the net), here is what the article had to say about us:

"No que toca a alojamento, a oferta hoteleira abunda em Malta. No entanto, alugar uma casa num bairro popular da capital proporciona certamente uma experiência especial. Primeiro projecto do género de Aldo Gatt, director de arte na área da publicidade a residir em Londres, a G-House é um boutique place num edifício do século XVI. Cruza o seu hobby de recuperar casas e o trabalho, através, por exemplo, do grande quadro que ornamenta o quarto, baseado num clássico de Eugène Delacroix mas resultante de uma foto do inglês Tim Flach, feita para uma campanha da luta contra o cancro. Está já alugada até Agosto, provavelmente com a ajuda da divulgação em revistas internacionais."

We are exceptionally flattered... we think.

The credit crunch will not come in the way of Elle magazine's readership. Elle's December issue is all good news, featuring Hip New Destinations for every budget. And guess what, the first on the list is our very own boutique accommodation "a chic apartment in a 16th century townhouse." Elle goes on to describe the house "crammed with original features" and also comes up with some trendy entertainment options.

Valletta G-House has featured in The Malta Sunday Independent's glossy magazine Flair. This edition is dedicated to Valletta. Leaf through the magazine online just by clicking on the image below.

Travel writer Benji Lanyado writes on the Guardian Travel Section about the capital city of Malta and chastises Malta for not pushing Valletta hard enough - "were the authorities to pitch Valletta as a weekend city-break destination they've got a near perfect body of material to work with."

Benji then waxes lyrical about Valletta G-House - "It's one of the finest apartments I've ever seen. Entering though the small wooden door on a quiet road in the east of Valletta, Malta's tiny capital city, a photographic interpretation of Gericault's Raft of the Medusa dominates the reception area of the 16th-century townhouse. Downstairs, the kitchen is sculpted out of a white limestone cellar under large crossed arches. Stone steps wrap around the side of the apartment leading up to the bedroom, where a huge bed with polished oak posts sits on a stained-tile mosaic floor. Under a roof pinned by four thick timber beams, framed pictures of smouldering males and another dramatic photographic interpretation add a twist of camp."

Holiday Pad Magazine has just featured VGH. Holiday Pad is a travel blog made up of holiday-makers, bound together with their passion for holidays and travel and blogging. It is aimed at people who aren’t sure where they want to go for their next holiday but need some inspiration and fresh ideas.

Their team scours the world each day by Internet, print, magazine, rumour, gossip, recommendation, submissions etc for great places to stay, and then lovingly compile them for others to make use of.

Holiday Pad wrote about Valletta G-House that "Any preconception of Malta being the domain of the package holiday crowd is about to be shattered by this beautifully restored 16th century town house within the walls of Valletta"

Top 10 Malta & Gozo guidebook has just been published (01 March 2007). The guide book features Valletta G-House amongst the top 10 characterful places to stay in, calling it "unusual and charming". The travel writer Mary-Anne Gallagher goes on to write - "It can't be beaten for romance."

The 23rd issue of the Malta Sunday Times' interior design magazine Homeworks features Valletta G-House in a series of articles about maximum use of space. The editor Lisa Borain writes of a house that is "romantically quaint, without the feel of the diminutive". With atmospheric photos by Brian Grech and Alan Carville, the article describes how Valletta G-House "was formerly part of a larger and grander house, the entrance to which is now the hallway of flats in Republic Street."

"It wasn't actually me who won last year's competition for two in the amazing Valletta G-House in Malta" admits Jane Davis who in September found herself enjoying a week at the 16th century house. It turned out her son the lucky doctor who won the GP magazine competition was, lucky for Jane, too busy to leave his surgery.

This is what Jane wrote for December's GP magazine: "This self-catering accommodation has character and history oozing from its stone walls, arches and old Moroccan tiled floors". Ms. Davis wrote of the opportunities to explore the city on foot and of visiting churches, forts, museums and exhibitions but she also mentioned simple pleasures - "Sitting on the balcony of G-House, we watched the locals hanging washing on their balconies and kids playing in the street, and we particularly enjoyed the spectacle of baskets being lowered from high balconies to collect bread from the bread van."

Lonely Planet has just placed Valletta G-House amongst its Malta Author Top 5 Pick. The travel writer Carolyn Bain wrote of "Affordable luxury and lashings of local character" when describing Valletta G-House using words such as "grand", "gorgeous" and "glamorous".

The Guardian Travel section featured Valletta G-House amongst the Five Best Valentine's Escapes. The British newspaper mentioned Valletta along with Paris and Venice (21.01.06). "A period house with huge oil paintings on limestone walls is a suitable setting for big romantic gestures ".

The Guardian Travel Section has introduced a Reader's Guide. Every Saturday the newspaper features a city somewhere in the world with the help of its readers who send in their tips, those places that left them with a good taste.

We know that most of our guests have loved the city of Valletta - indeed many have left gushing reviews of the World Heritage City on our guest book. If you do have a tip about Valletta to share with Guardian readers log on to their Readers' Guide.