Grand Hotel Excelsior

Martyn Z

Position -8 mins to valhetta main strip (three flights of steps or a free shuttle bus). Breakfast and the view from the restaurant. Our room , 503 had a great view, kept spotlessly clean. All the staff were friendly and professional. It was all a great experience and stay. Not really a 5* more a really really sound 3+++ as it is frayed around the edges in places. Would be really easy to spruce those bits up with effort, but we liked it, characterful and a home from home. Recommended highly.

Shaun L

This is our go to hotel in Valletta with its fantastic outside pool, private beach area with harbour access for a swim, friendly helpful staff, comfy rooms and a very good breakfast selection even if it does get busy at times. Its location a short walk away from the Valletta city gate makes it ideal although if you can’t manage the steep steps up to the main road the hotel does provide a shuttle bus on a regular basis. That said hotels need to move with the times and some people will find the rooms a little dated and that’s a fair comment. Also technology is not something that the Excelsior has yet to really keep up with. For example there are no usb ports in the rooms, in fact our room with a sea side view has no bedside table plugs which is frustrating. The WiFi also drops out and slows are times. These are basics in this day and age which I hope the hotel can invest in. For all the great service that the staff provide, and everyone is friendly, the most bewildering aspect for many is the lifts. Reception is on floor 6 and that just throws all newcomers with people riding the lifts up and down for a while to find their bearings. Perhaps a few more signs would help. The lift programming probably doesn’t help as they are slow. All in all though this is a very good hotel for a Valletta stay. Nowhere else will you get harbour access for a sea swim. Just some tech things to improve.

Sheila T

The hotel is very luxurious. The staff are very helpful and generally lovely. The situation of the hotel is only 10 minutes from the town. There is a free shuttle bus every 20 minutes if you don't want to walk up the many steps. The breakfast, is fantastic. So much choice of food & very fresh, with stunning views. Lovely pool area which leads to a private beach.

Nathan Leiper

We recently stayed at this hotel and had a mixed experience overall. On the positive side, the staff were very attentive and always willing to help, which made a big difference to the stay. The breakfast offered a very good choice with plenty of options, and there was also a lovely selection of drinks available throughout. The entertainment was enjoyable, with a singer who was particularly good. The hotel’s location is convenient for getting to Valletta, and the shuttle bus service was a useful addition. On one occasion we used the shuttle to Valletta, however the driver’s attitude made us feel uneasy. The outside pool area is also very nice and a great place to relax. The bathroom was also of really good quality, and the bath was very deep and felt quite luxurious, which was a nice highlight of the room. However, there were several issues that affected the experience. The bed was very hard and not particularly comfortable. There were at least one problem with the hot water during the stay, which was frustrating. We paid an additional €40 for a sea view, but the room overlooked a service yard instead and had a partial sea view which was disappointing. The gym facilities were not up to standard, with multiple pieces of equipment broken. Additionally, the maid service arrived quite early, attempting to clean the room at 9:30am, which felt intrusive. Overall, while there are some strong positives, there are also areas that the hotel could improve to provide a better experience

Brian P

I really enjoyed my stay in this hotel. It has a great old school vibe about it without feeling overly dated. I actually loved the room as it had character unlike some of the new sleek rooms where everything is beige or cappuccino. Hotel is situated about a 10min walk from the main shopping street. The hotel is in the middle of a steep hill, down to to the coast /ferry and up to the main town (they have complimentary shuttle service if needed). Rooms are spacious, clean and comfortable, the suite did feel a bit sparse, some artwork, cushions on the sofa would have helped. No coffee machine in the room but a kettle was provided. Beds were comfortable and the soundproofing was excellent. I did find the quality of the sofas a bit poor ans they weren't the most comfortable after a while. No Youtube available and TV was satellite so you didn't have a great selection of channels. The biggest drawback was the breakfast, there was a lot of food but the quality wasn't the best. It was the typical continental breakfast but the food was never hot. It would have been nice if they had maybe one different dish on a daily basis instead of the same things over and over. There was no plant milk available and no vegan or vegetarian specific dishes (obviously beans, tomatoes etc were on offer). One thing that did shock me was, when cleaning the tables the staff just wiped any leftover bits onto the carpeted floor. (I obsevered this a few times so maybe some training is required). Bathroom was small but fine for the two of us and came with a small but deep bathtub. There was no toilet brush which was a bit odd. I had originally only booked a few nights but extended my stay as I liked the overall experience that much. I would definitely stay in this hotel again, location was great, staff were friendly, comfortable bed, decent enough breakfast (egg station was the best option for hot food).