I was in Malta last year and I still don't know what to think of it... Over there I often heard: "You eather love this place or you hate it", but I can't pick, I liked some things and I hated some things... Now I did not go there for a holiday, I planned on staying there so maybe I expected too much....
First of all it's very crowded, ofcourse that's a simple statistic, could have known that, but still didn't expect it to be like this... There's over 400.000 people (tourists excluded) and they all seem to have their own car and these people refuse to walk more then 30 meters. And they seem to take great pride in a smoking car... The polution is terrible. You may get used to that but I just don't want to...
If you're drawn there by the cheap housing, here's the deal: back in the seventies they discovered tourism as a source of income and so everyone started to build ugly concrete appartments. By doing so a lot of nice places became Beirut-like villages. They're still demolishing unique old buildings so they can build some more appartments. No one seems to understand they're taking away the charm and with that the reason for a tourist to visit... So if you come across cheap housing on Malta, it's so cheap because you just don't want to live there, believe me... Now there are also places you DO want to live, but you'll pay for that:
Most of the people are very friendly, but that doesn't mean you will not be ripped off... Busdrivers, bar owners etc. will charge whatever the fuck they feel like today... They have different prices for the British, the Dutch, the Germans, etc. They think that's smart, I think it's VERY stupid...
All this doesn't mean I did not have a good time over there, it's just that we decided we don't want to live there. In fact I would love to jump in that pool again right now...