Malta Classic Car Museum

Last week my wife and I were in Malta. Among many other attractions we visited was the Malta Classic Car Museum. The Car Museum has a facebook page: Malta Classic Car Museum . I have 62 photos of cars in the museum but it would be impractical to try and post them here so I picked one. Here is my photo of the Museum entrance with the Bugatti Targa Florio. By the way they drive on the left in Malta. I had a little Peugeot rental and survived. I lived in London for a couple years so I had some experience with it.


While there were a lot of Porsches, including many Boxsters, on the road, there weren't any in the Museum, maybe because the Germans bombed Malta heavily in WW II. You can tour the bomb shelters around the island. There is a church, the Mosta Rotunda, that has a bomb on display that came through the dome but did not explode.

You should put Malta on your bucket list, There are many UN World Heritage sites there, St. John's Cathedral built in the 1500's is a must see, there is a video on their web site showing all the fabulous art work. St John's web site.

You can contrast St John's with a much older, Circa 3500 BC place of worship, Ta Hagrat Temple


Jeff Benson:

2016 Boxster, See it here: www.greatvalleyhouse.com/Boxster

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First car: 1952 Hudson Hornet

First roadster: 1962 Austin Healy 3000 III

Still have: Computer free 1974 MGB

Previous Porsches since 1982: 924, 944, 944S, and four Boxsters; 97, 03, 08 & 2012



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2017 05:25PM by Jeff (Philly). (view changes)

Was it easy to find reasonably priced accommodations? If you drove, were there a lot of crowded traffic areas (i.e. is getting a rental car a good option)? I would like to visit there someday soon.

Once you get there everything was cheap at the current exchange rate $1.11 = 1 Euro. There are some areas that are very busy and parking is very difficult like the Capital, Valleta. In the summer it gets very busy because of the sun seekers. Our car was $59 for the entire week incl insurance from Meli Car Rentals, used to be Budget. They drive on the left side of the road which is a risk if you forget where you are and go to the right. Some of the roads we traveled on were't that great. Our airfare was $500 each via Turkish Air out of JFK with a stop in Istanbul. Look at a map we stayed on Mellieha Bay which was more out of the way and subdued than other places. The entire country is very small. I have a 30 minute video of our tour on Youtube which should give you a better idea.You should google Malta and do more research that way.
A 30 minute video tour of Malta

I loved Malta... rented a car... NP at all..... missed the museum. I combined did a Malta/Sicily trip.... drove everywhere, hydrofoil between the two.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

How long did you stay in each area (Malta and Sicily)? Also, what cities/villages served as home base?

I did about 2.5 weeks.... Most in Sicily.... I stayed in Valetta but only one night... hotel not good... so I went across the bay to Sliema where the hotels and area are more modern... there is a water taxi that goes back and forth all the time. I can't remember all the details, but I think I had a car for two days..... you can see the whole island in one day, two if you are slow about it. Malta is one of the coolest places and way under visited by Americans.... talk about a crossroads of history! Any power had to have Malta as it is dead center in a pinch point in the Mediterranean and has naturally deep harbors and the island sits high out of the water making it tough to invade. Just an amazing mix there.... even the language is a Cuisinart of sounds and alphabets. Sicily is not Italy.... and a bit of a joke to the rest of Italy for being dirty and backward..... but still an amazing place with Greek ruins all over the place. My wife and I finished up the trip in Taormina, a tiny, beautiful resort town on the top of a mountain next to Etna. I highly recommend ending your vacation here. One warning about Sicily: do NOT drive a car directly into any of the tiny historical towns.... not a good idea as you will get stuck and experience the OMG sweats.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

a week in Malta and still missed some of UN World Heritage sites and feel we need to go back for another week. We spent an entire day just seeing the island of Gozo which is a twenty minute ferry ride northwest of the main island of Malta. I made a 30 minute video of our time in Malta.
30 Min Video Tour of Malta

Thanks for sharing. Nice video! Driving anywhere into the villages of Europe can be daunting if you want to avoid scratches or surprise parking violations. We will never forget Arcos de la Frontera, Spain -- nor will our our rental Volkswagen (couldn't afford a Porsche), which sustained a scratch along the door panel. Fortunately, we turned it in without any problem thanks to some streaky mud camouflage picked up along the way.

Always made me wonder about European delivery. Sure would be fun to pick up a new Porsche in Germany and then take off to explore. But then I remember all the narrow streets and roadways that are too enticing to pass up and wonder what it might be like to deal overseas with a damaged car.