Static caravan

Hi Dianne,

where do you intend to set up the caravan? I only know of 1 public camping site in Malta and that is in the middle of nowhere.

You should reconsider the idea or are you thinking of squatting on some coastal area like Armier Bay? You will have problems with the locals as they all have their reserved spots for the summer and won't be happy to see foreign intruders.

Cheers
Ricky

It's on the campsite near mellieha just found it yesterday and that's my concern that it may be in the middle of nowhere

Actually do you know if it would be possible to buy some land and put a static on it? Thanks x

Hi Dianne,

that is the camping site I know of and it is in the middle of nowhere and not an option for permanent camping and it is not even used during the winter. What about electricity and sewage? There are no connections there. It is just a field.

You cannot buy land to put a caravan on. You would have major planning problems with MEPA.

Why would you want to buy land to put a caravan on ? Land is expensive in Malta and subject to all sorts of permits.

Cheers
Ricky

It says it a proper campsite with statics for sale a cafe bar mini market etc and a pool I'm well confused now:( buying the land was just an idea I have mad ideas now and again lol

I found it on maltacampsite.com you can arrange viewings to look at site and buy a static??? We are coming over on hol in August and we were going to have a look round

By 'static' I assume you mean 'mobile home'?
We have often spent time in these but on Malta?
No way, not with the ease of renting accommodation.
May have a look myself though, in terms of possible investment/family holiday use.

Dianneg48 wrote:

It says it a proper campsite with statics for sale a cafe bar mini market etc and a pool I'm well confused now:( buying the land was just an idea I have mad ideas now and again lol

Its only a proper campsite by Maltese standards, its actually a shanty town site next to the illegal boathouses in Armier Mellieha).
There is no café and its just an excuse for the Maltese to get to stay close to the sea in the summer.
We went to look when our intention was to bring a campervan into Malta. There are caravans there but most are old and have been there for some considerable time and have had a few "extensions" added. Its locked up most of the winter and only open during the summer.
We sometimes walk our dog in the area, next time I will get MOH to take a few pictures and send them via PM to you.

Terry

Yeah I do mean a mobile home, I've always fancied living in one, if you go on their website that I've put above it says you can live on it all year round, I find it strange they don't have a proper one, I know a few people who live in them both in the uk and abroad and love it, in fact before I discovered Malta we were going to buy on in cleveleys near blackpool to live in, thanks for the info we'll go back to looking at apartments x

Thanks terry there's only 2 pics on their site one showings statics and the other the pool x

Dianneg48 wrote:

Yeah I do mean a mobile home, I've always fancied living in one, if you go on their website that I've put above it says you can live on it all year round, I find it strange they don't have a proper one, I know a few people who live in them both in the uk and abroad and love it, in fact before I discovered Malta we were going to buy on in cleveleys near blackpool to live in, thanks for the info we'll go back to looking at apartments x

Have you ever been to Malta?
Why would you need a caravan when temp can reach into the 40's and you can drive from one end of the island to the other in under 2 hours?
Renting is very cheap and there are loads of properties for rent (over 50,000) so you are spoilt for choice, but land is expensive.

Terry

Hi Dianne

I've just had a look at the website and, although fairly well presented, I notice it hasn't really been updated since March 2010. I fear that this was probably a "good idea at the time" for a Maltese entrepreneur that failed to get off the ground......as Terry, and others, have said it really is a dusty, 'derelict' place at the moment.......perhaps the person who had the idea didn't quite think it through or didn't see the meteoric rise in available rental properties in Malta that would have sunk the project.

It was funny (ahem!) to see that the ONLY way the person, after paying the deposit, could settle the account at the end of the rental period was with cold hard CASH.....nothing else (cough!).

anyway Terry..........seen your cars mate, now what's with the avatar - looks cool.

Mike

Hi Dianne
             If you can PM me with your email we will send you some pictures we took today of the campsite (not pretty, no pool,no grass, no shade).

Terry

We just returned from Sicily where we used a couple of beautiful camping site with everything included (showers, toilets, shadow places, beaches etc).

Price in Sicily (even near Taormina) is less then on this weird 'malta camping'

Spiridonov wrote:

We just returned from Sicily where we used a couple of beautiful camping site with everything included (showers, toilets, shadow places, beaches etc).

Price in Sicily (even near Taormina) is less then on this weird 'malta camping'

Hi
   What campsites did you use in Sicily? We are going over again in July and would be interested in any recommendations for campsites. Last time we stopped at Scarabeo camping and that was very clean, hot water, wifi, electric and its own beach.

Terry

tearnet wrote:

Spiridonov wrote:

We just returned from Sicily where we used a couple of beautiful camping site with everything included (showers, toilets, shadow places, beaches etc).

Price in Sicily (even near Taormina) is less then on this weird 'malta camping'

Hi
   What campsites did you use in Sicily? We are going over again in July and would be interested in any recommendations for campsites. Last time we stopped at Scarabeo camping and that was very clean, hot water, wifi, electric and its own beach.

Terry

Details please, we'd like to go there.

Do these campsites have chalets as an option when weather is inclement, as one finds in France?

To Redmik, (this is Terry's OH replying to your question).  We went to the Scarabeo campsite near Ragusa, Sicily.  We didn't realise until after we were settled that in fact the campsite is spilt into two, with a couple of houses in between.  Both had access to the beach via wooden steps.

It was a quiet campsite with direct access to the beach just a few metres away, depending on how close your pitch was.  I would mention that you hear the waves pounding up the beach all night, which was quite restful.

.  If you go out of season, as we did (we went from late April into May for 8 days) you can have the key to your own toilet for free (I believe there is a tiny charge in high season -without looking).  We also used the warm showers and there were also cold showers.  For the period that we were there we paid 112€ which we thought was pretty good.  We also had an electric hookup which was included in that price .  WiFi was available at a small charge (8€ for the 20 hours that we selected to have - could have longer or shorter periods if required)

There were lines of sinks with hot water where you could do the washing up and also lines of wash hand basins for washing oneself and teeth cleaning etc.  (the rest you do in the showers!).

The owner, Angela, was very, very helpful and pleasant.  She even rang the vet in the closest town to arrange an appointment so our dog could have her required medication before returning to Malta.

The website is: scarabeocamping.it

Regards,  Sheelagh. (Terry's wife)

PS: the toilets and basins were cleaned every morning and the rubbish bins emptied same time.
PPS: Biddy - there were also sort of chalets which they call bungalows that one can rent.

First was Capa Passero: campingresidencecapopassero.it/ - but in reality it's 2 separate places (1 km between): one with bungalows etc, another with camping places. Nothing special, we chose it because of the nearest point to Pozzallo we found.

The next one was Camping Paradise: campingparadise.it/ - closest to Taormina, on the beach with nice facilities.

Thanks for the info, Terry's OH and Spiridonov, all saved for future reference.

Good day Diane, you have had some excellent advice from others here.
We came to Malta with a 30' American motorhome 24 years ago and we lived in it in the short term until we found a house with a drive and access to be able to park it? It was a wonderful adventure for us all and an education for our children as we spent 4 months coming from Scotland to Malta. The campsite spoken of was an idea from 20 years ago which tells you alot about how long it takes to make anything in Malta. We actually used it and several other locations for parking up and living in the Chevrolet Sunsport and it gave us lovely memories. We had our own power supply and bathroom facilities which of course occasionally required emptying and that was not so easy to do as we had to raise a manhole without blocking the street! As it was registered as a 'private car' it was so funny when we went to Gozo and the ferry folk wanted to charge us for a 'bus' :-) After 3 years I returned with it to UK and sold it as it was too big to park and garage here.  When you guys arrive give me a call on 79577867 and I would be happy to show you around the island. Cheers, Stephen

We stayed at the campsite in Malta in July, we stayed in a tent for a few nights. It was actually ok, the facilities were being refurbished while we were there.
There is a mixture of static caravans and towing caravans that one in situ have many add ons. Kitchens and living rooms out doors with fences and boundaries around them.
We put our tent on a dried up grassy patch which was ok. They rent out furnished tents but these are old army tents that have seen better days. The toilet block with hot showers and facilities for washing up were good by camping standards, we were surprised given how the rest of the site looks.
The price we found to be quite high as you get charged per tent, then per person then a fee for showers which got added onto although once in the shower block they are just normal shower.
There is a swimming pool which is cordoned off but is a decent size. There is an on site shop which was expensive but camping shops usually are a bit more.

It wasn't the best place we have been to but it also wasn't the worst campsite we have ever stayed at either.

Thanks for your help, it's a real shame there's not a proper site there but we have seen some beautiful apartments to rent so that's what we are going for, we are coming over for two weeks tomorrow and hiring a car so we can have a good look round, thanks for your offer Stephen I'm sure you will know the ins and outs of everything about living in Malta being there so many years so I will be in touch soon x

Hi Redmik,  (I will mention at the start of this that this is Terry's wife replying again!).

As you were making notes about campsites in Sicily I thought I'd mention two more that we stayed in during July this year.  They are in the north and the drive from Pozzallo up to the first one via the A18 and S114 and S113 was really interesting and took us a total of five hours, allowing for comfort stops for us and our dog.

The first campsite was called the Il-Cicero and is on the edge of the small town of San Giorgio, in the commune of Gioiosa Marea. It is directly opposite the beach, had a large outside seating area for the bar and a very nice pool.  The beach is very long and there is a buoyed-off area (with grassy parasols) that the campsite looks after and provides a life-guard. You can use the parasols and deckchairs for free if you stay at the camp..  The scenery to the rear of the camp is of green trees climbing up the mountain (we hadn't realised how mountainous and green and beautiful northern Sicily was!) with the odd house dotted here and there.  The pitches were shaded by a variety of ways - ours had huge tall green tarpaulin-type covers, some others had rush covers etc.  there were trees as well though in the "green" area where we were they were not quite tall enough to provide much shade, hence the covers.  There was also a more densely tree-d area where people walked their dogs before taking them on the beach.

You can take your own tent or campervan or rent a static caravan or bungalow at the campsite.  It is run by family members and is quiet in comparison to several that we went to take a look at during our three weeks in Sicily as it does not have music blaring from speakers, it does not have organised children's activities in fact no entertainment is organised at the camp at all - except there is a diving school there.  For folk who want kiddy's entertainment there is plenty of organised stuff in the town (a short walk along the sea front) and also in the near-by town of Patti.  Also, there are plenty of restaurants in the small town of San Giorgio and it's a very pleasant and pretty ten-minute walk to the town.

There are plenty of toilet and shower blocks and these are free and they are cleaned twice a day.  Showers can be warm or cold depending in the time of day.

There is a restaurant next door (La Pineta) which allows a discount to clients of Il-Cicero, which is handy and you can eat pizzas and pasta or more up-market meals there and the food and service is good and friendly.  We had booked for a week there and had gone to look at some other campsites during our stay as we had intended to stay in three different sites and explore Sicily.  After eight days we moved along the coast westward to a campsite just out of town at Cefalù called Costa Ponente.  This too was a quiet site though it did have groups of summer school older teenagers camped down for a few days (mainly French).

We had done a reccé and picked our pitch.  All pitches here were on terraced ground and surrounded by trees .  There were plenty of shower and toilet blocks (though I will mention that two thirds of the loos were those you need good thigh muscles for as you hover over!)  However, there were also some normal sit-on types too!  The pool there was enormous and we spent a lot of time in that as sadly, the beach was down lots  of uneven and breaking steps and was small and almost covered in large slippery stones that hurt your feet to walk over and to walk out of your depth.  The pool was great though and we didn't go down to the beach.

After a week  we returned to Il-Cicero - so you can tell how much we enjoyed it there and we shall return.

Both camps had free wifi access at their bar areas, neither had a restaurant innthe camp though both had small snack items available at their bars.  At both camps the bread van called every day and at the first camp so did the veggie van, which was handy as you didn't have to carry heavy veggies back from town if you walked.

  In all fairness, I have to say that the railway line does travel from east to west Sicily along that coastline.  The trains aren't very frequent and some are small with just three carriages so you are barely aware of them, some are a little longer and a couple a day are freight so you do hear them.  They stop at night and start up again about 5.30am.   They did not bother us once we realised that they were fairly far and few between. 

Hope this helps and sorry to have gone on for so long!!!!

Sheelagh