Review: Westin Dragonara, Malta

Booking

I booked via American Express (The Hotel Collection). It was the same rate as direct but with a $100 resort credit and I used one of my $300 bi-annual American Express Business Platinum Card® credits via The Hotel Collection. Remember you get full elite benefits / points earning / elite night credits when booking through FHR or the Hotel Collection.

We got a great pre-arrival upgrade with the Amex booking (also Lifetime Platinum, but that didn’t seem as important). A few days after booking we were upgraded to Jr Suite and a week or so out they upgraded us again to 1 bedroom executive suite. It was nice seeing that done proactively as I didn’t need to worry we’d be cramped in a standard room.

Check in

Uneventful- tried for a Dragonara suite with an outdoor jacuzzi but that was too expensive of a suite for a comp upgraded. Fair enough 🙂

Hotel Location

We didn’t really understand the differences between towns and areas in Malta when booking.

After visiting Valletta, we’d have greatly preferred that as our home base from the perspective of how much nicer the main walking areas were, however none of the US chains have properties there.

The Westin Dragonara is in St Julians which is central within Malta for the main tourist sites, however it’s about a 10 min walk (or a 4-6 Euro Uber!) to town, the main part of which is called Paceville and is a bit grimy with a fair bit of homelessness. Valletta had none of that (visible, anyway) by contrast. 

However, the Westin had a prime location on the water. Notably, the Hilton is only a few minutes away, right on the edge of town. We’d booked the Dragonara as it had a reputation for being good for small children like our four year old. I can’t speak to how the Hilton is for kids, but the Dragonara was chock full of them. 

Breakfast

A buffet. Pretty much the only option to eat was the buffet and so the only question was if you had it included with the rate or not. It was solid, though nothing eye popping. There are no coffee shops or anything like that on-property.

I’m embarrassed to say I completely forgot to photograph the buffet! I do have a picture of the similar but much smaller breakfast in the lounge, though:

Pools and Beach 

Beach here is a bit tongue in cheek as it’s about 20 feet of beach. But it was nice to go in there a few times.

There are two main pools, one right outside and another called the Reef. We preferred the Reef despite a longer walk as it was less crowded. Both are fine for kids. I believe there may have been a third adults only pool but if there was, I never noticed it. 

There was service for food and drinks either by QR code next to the chairs or by walking to the bar. Food was good, drinks not as good… 

The biggest failing for a purported 5 star resort was that food service ended at 3:30. Consider many families come back from tours hungry (ours was 9:30-3 with no food). We got to the Reef, a decent walk from the hotel, to be informed that food service had ended and I’d need to go walk to the lobby bar (10 mins walk each way) and order food to go, wait for it to be prepared (20+ mins) and walk it back to the pool. All in I lost nearly an hour of time that I could have been relaxing and while certainly first world problems, again, the hotel bills itself as 5 stars. Even if you go to limited food service (ie pizza only), keep *something* going.

The pools were chock full of families and many brought floaties which were welcome, but not provided – so bring one of you want one!

The Executive Suite

Our executive suite was great. Zero complaints other than one that I’d have had in any room… No bar soap. 

I’ve gotten used to hotels pushing ‘environmentally friendly’ refillable jugs of whatever they put in there for the shower and sinks, but rare is it that a hotel of any quality can’t bring a bar from housekeeping on request. Yet this 5 star hotel said I’d need to head in to town to pick up a bar of soap if I didn’t like using body wash. Sorry if I’m old fashioned- but I shower with a bar of soap, not a loofah.

And is this really for the environment when they had out disposable shaving kits, toothbrushes, sanitary this and that – and basically disposable everything but bars of soap? You tell me…. 

As much as that grinded my gears, it didn’t mean that the room wasn’t great. Plenty of space and my son had his own pull out couch bed in the other half of the room, directly facing us so he never felt alone. 

We had two balconies, each with a table and two chairs, and my favorite touch was a child safe door lock. I forgot to snap a picture but every hotel on earth with balconies should have this to keep children safe and I’d never seen anything quite so elegant for childproofing a balcony. It was a secondary lock that you pushed in and twisted, high up beyond what any small child could reach. Brilliant. 

The bathtub had jacuzzi jets which entertained my son to no end (oddly the two hot tubs outside by the pools were cold water). The shower was a weak spot, small and dated. 

Outlets were plentiful including a US plug power strip on one side of the bed plus USB ports. 

Soap aside, though, the room was a 4.75/5. 

Executive Lounge

Included for Platinum and higher Bonvoy guests as well as anyone upgraded to an executive room (so we’d have gotten access regardless of my Bonvoy status), this lounge was top notch. Tons of seating, a mix of tables and comfy chairs, and two outdoors seating areas. 

Breakfast was served there if you didn’t want / need a full buffet and the staff was happy to make you anything you wanted like an iced Americano. (There’s also a self serve espresso machine.) 

Happy hour was from 6-8pm each night with wine, prosecco, and beer along with some appetizers. They served genuinely good food that rotated nightly. I didn’t snack much since we always had dinners booked and I was more interested in dinner than snacks, but I enjoyed them. 

Three notes: 

1. No children under 12 are allowed in from 6-8 – although in practice they were liberal in the closing 10 mins. 
2. The food was 100% gone at 7:59:59 each night. Don’t stumble over at 8:01 expecting to grab anything as you’ll be disappointed. Not a big deal as long as you know – and you do now since you read MilesTalk 🙂
3. They really prefer you don’t take anything from the lounge, especially food. If you want wine or prosecco to go, they’ll ask you pour it into a coffee cup but won’t stop you. Coffee was of course fine to take as well. 

Hotel Restaurants

The casual Italian spot on the water, Palio, was so good we ate there twice. That’s rare for me as I love variety! The pasta was homemade and the pizza was spectacular. 

They even made our son a Mickey Mouse pizza on the last night!

I have to add that I had one drink at the main Lobby Bar, which is super classy. The espresso martini was absolutely perfect. 

Kid’s Club

It was far smaller than I expected given the hotels reputation with families, but our son had enough fun when we left him for an hour that he wanted a second. It may have just been the cartoons playing… the cost was 6 euro an hour and adults could not stay. The price went down if you booked a half day, day (please don’t leave your kid there for an entire day – they’d be super bored and sad) or multiple days. The staff was available to do activities like arts and crafts depending on the child’s age and preferences. 

There was also a great, small, outdoor playground across the hall which didn’t require any payment and our son asked to play there most days for a bit. 

Casino

Not part of the hotel but a five minute walk along the hotel’s private road. It was a nice casino with roulette, blackjack, and hands down ultimate hold ‘em along with a slew of slots, including some modern ones. 

TIP: At high season the line to register (just giving ID) was over an hour long. I waited 90 minutes! But then you can just show the card on subsequent days with no wait. 

The tip, though, is to go during the day and register. You won’t wait a minute and then you can skip the line when you head back at night. Water and soft drinks are complimentary while alcohol and food are chargeable. 

And no, there is no tier match 😉

Bottom Line

As much as we preferred Valletta to St Julians, I’d be hard pressed to not recommend the Westin. While I can’t quite say I agree it’s a 5 star resort as they state, it’s a solid 4.5 stars. Great food, solid pools, water views, fantastic executive lounge, a kid’s club, a casino, and very friendly service. 

If you have an American Express Platinum Card® or Business Platinum Card, it’s a great way to use one of your bi-annual $300 credits for Fine Hotels & Resorts or The Hotel Collection (remember the two night minimum stay for Hotel Collection) and get a bonus $100 resort credit on top. 

Thoughts?

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