Best Hotels in Sliema & St Julian's, Malta (2026)

The decision on this strip is not the star rating – nearly everything is 4 or 5 star and faces the same water. It is how much Paceville you want to hear at 3am, and what you plan to swim in: there is no sandy beach along this coast. Scores and rates below were checked against Booking.com's own listings on 26 August 2026; several moved sharply this year, and sea-view floors go first.

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Which one should you book?

Hyatt Regency Malta

The best-judged hotel on this strip, and the one to book if you want the fewest things to go wrong. It carries the strongest well-sampled guest rating in St Julian's – thousands of reviews rather than a promising handful – with staff and cleanliness scoring highest of all.

It sits at St George's Bay, close enough to the restaurants and to Paceville to walk, far enough back that the rooms are not part of the noise. Rates swing hard with season, from off-peak winter figures to roughly double that in June.

The safe, high-quality pick for a first visit. Check Hyatt Regency Malta rates.

The Westin Dragonara Resort

The only true resort here, and worth the premium if you intend to use it. It has its own peninsula at Dragonara point, two private beach lidos, indoor and outdoor pools with one heated year-round, and three restaurants – so the day can happen entirely on site.

The headland gives it sea on three sides and real distance from the Paceville crush, while still leaving it a short walk away. It is also the most expensive room on this list by a clear margin, which is only good value if the lidos and pools are the point of the trip.

The pick for a resort holiday rather than a city stay. Check Westin Dragonara rates.

AX The Palace

The best hotel in Sliema itself, and the right call if the Valletta ferry matters more than a pool deck. It is minutes on foot from the ferry, with a spa, a rooftop pool and a breakfast that guests single out consistently.

This is a city hotel, not a resort – you trade a beach club for being in the middle of Sliema's cafés, shops and promenade. Family rooms make it workable for families who would rather have a base than a resort.

The Sliema 5-star to book for location. Check AX The Palace rates.

Malta Marriott Resort and Spa

The one to book for a spa-led stay with quiet evenings. It sits on Balluta Bay, on the calmer promenade just short of Paceville, built around the Lotus Spa and its pools.

Its rating has climbed noticeably over the past year, which usually follows refurbishment rather than luck. The position splits the difference between the two towns – walkable to St Julian's dining and to Sliema's ferry, in the thick of neither.

Best for treatments and a seafront that goes quiet after dinner. Check Malta Marriott rates.

Hilton Malta

Book this one for the pools. The Hilton anchors the Portomaso marina with five of them – four outdoor, one indoor – plus a spa, a gym and the marina's restaurants immediately outside.

It is a large, polished 5-star with Paceville and St Julian's dining close by and its own stretch of waterfront. Marina and sea-view rooms are the ones worth paying up for; the inland-facing rooms are the same hotel with a worse morning.

The strongest choice if pool time is the holiday. Check Hilton Malta rates.

AX The Victoria Hotel

The value pick, and better rated than its price suggests. A classic 4-star set a short walk back from the Sliema seafront, its guest score has risen over the past year while its rate has stayed well under the 5-stars around it.

You give up the sea view and the resort facilities. You keep central Sliema – the ferry, the promenade and the restaurants all within a few minutes on foot – which for most itineraries is the part that actually gets used.

The one to book if the budget belongs to the tours. Check AX The Victoria rates.

ME Malta

The design statement, and the one genuine unknown on this list. A 20-storey Zaha Hadid tower at Mercury Towers, ME opened at the end of 2025 with art and music programming, its own restaurants and the Radio Rooftop bar.

Its early guest scores are outstanding, but they rest on a very small number of reviews for a hotel this new – an average built on dozens of stays rather than thousands moves fast in both directions. Treat it as promising rather than proven, and book it because you want the building and the rooftop, not because a number says it is the island's best.

The pick for design and a rooftop scene. Check ME Malta rates.

Two more worth knowing about

The Hotel Juliani on Spinola Bay is the small, design-led alternative to the towers – a boutique property right on the bay, close to the restaurants and a world away from a 400-room resort in feel. Our boutique hotels guide covers it and the rest of that category properly.

AX ODYCY and the Qawra resorts are the move if the rates here are simply too high for your dates. The northern strip runs materially cheaper for a similar walk to the water, at the cost of a less central base.

The thing nobody tells you about this coast

There is no sandy beach in Sliema or St Julian's, and no hotel here can give you one. The coastline is rock foreshore and concrete lidos, which is entirely swimmable and completely unlike the photographs people arrive expecting.

That reframes what a "beachfront" hotel means on this strip. What you are actually choosing between is a private lido, a good pool deck, or a short bus to the sand up north. The Westin is the only property here with genuine private beach lidos; everyone else is selling you a pool.

The second unwritten rule is the noise line. Paceville runs late and loud, and the difference between a hotel two streets from it and a hotel five is the difference between a holiday and a series of short nights. Balluta Bay, Portomaso, Dragonara point and central Sliema all sit on the right side of that line.

Sliema or St Julian's?

St Julian's has the resorts, the beach clubs, the marina and the nightlife. Sliema is calmer and more everyday, with the fast Valletta ferry, the best shopping and a long promenade to walk in the evening.

Couples and families tend to be happier in Sliema or on the Balluta and Portomaso edges; groups and late nights belong in St Julian's proper. Our Sliema and St Julian's guide covers what to do in both, where to stay in Malta compares them against the rest of the island, and the adults-only hotels guide has the child-free options if that is the trip.