New job in Malta - advice wanted please

Hi there,

I live in B'kara and commute to Mosta. I use the St. Aloysius Gym which is adequate although not the newest or shiniest. They also have an associated tennis club.

B'kara is very Maltese, we quite enjoy living there (we live by the old church (or the Mcdonalds, which is possibly easier to spot on the google map) and love it. I enjoy being able to get away from the vacationers. Lots of buses going both ways, but if you are trying to get to Sliema/St. Julien's/Paceville you will need to change at Msida, which can be a little frustrating if the buses are full. I would say it takes me about 30 minutes to go from central B'kara to Paceville, and then I normally take a shared cab home for 4€.

Squash clubs we are just getting into now...I know Ray goes down to the Hilton on the coast, but apparently there are clubs in Marsa as well.

Thanks for the reply.

Where would anyone advise me to live in Malta when bearing in mind the following:

I do not drive, I will be working in B'Kara, I would like a fairly short walk/bus journey to work which is easy to do from early in the morning to late at night, I would like a pretty decent gym nearby and some pubs etc... showing English football.

Apologies if that is a bit of a mouthful!

Why not consider BirkiKara or Mosta, two towns close to each other and the largest, you would be able to find something fairly easily in those spots.
Lots of shops etc, dont know about english football, you may get italian :-)

If you want the beach or entertainment, fairly close with public transport.

Thanks for the reply.

Does anyone have a good site for times/routes of buses in Malta? Struggling to find a really good one.

Plenty of bars show English Football - certainly in the more English touristy areas such as Qawra and Bugibba, but really anywhere. Malta is split about 50/50 between English and Italian football fans so you might have to pass a couple of Italian oriented bars before you find one showing English Football, but you will find them. Also, GO has secured exclusive rights in Malta to show the Barclatys Premier League for the next 3 seasons - so you could get TV from Go and subscribe to their package....and of course there are other options for watching that may not be entirely legal and of course I am not advocating, just pointing out that they exist!

I was given this link to check out bus schedules on previously by Sarahfima:  tal-linja.com   I really like it because I can click on where I am starting from and where I need to go and it will tell you the bus numbers you can catch, direct if any or indirect where you would have to change buses at some point.

There is also this site too you can have a look at for the buses here:
atp.com.mt/atp/servlet/ControllerServlet?action=loadUserPage&userPageName=mainPage

Hopefully this will help you out

My husband also discovered this link recently
maltabybus.com/

As already said http://www.tal-linja.com/ is a good site to show you which buses are in your way.

My suggestion would also be to live in Msida.  Buses go from there to B'Kara and to Sliema/St.Julians.  If you choose Msida there you would still have to catch bus to B'Kara and walk to go to Mriehel, since the route that goes to Mriehel bypass is the one for Dingli/Rabat (Numbers 80/81) and you would need to catch that from Valletta. 

On the other hand Msida-Sliema is a very well connected route with plenty of buses at all times of the day. In Msida - university area - you will find plenty of flats to rent, but note that the buses go more frequently to Msida Valley area.