Retreat-Holidays
Malta
Malta is a great place for a retreat: as well as bristling with sites of religious and historical significance, it's sunny and it speaks English!
It is a year-round holiday destination. In January, the average high temperature is 14°C (57°F) and in August it is 29°C (84°F). Don't go in the summer if you can't take the heat because it can get much hotter than that.
The Maltese Republic (which includes Gozo) obtained independence from Britain in 1964 and the general attitude to the British remains positive. Malta is a member of both the Commonwealth and the European Community. The official languages are Maltese and English. The currency is now the euro.
Malta uses British-style
3-pin plugs and a 220v power supply. The British heritage is also evident in lovely, old-fashioned, red phone-boxes and blue lamps outside police stations!
The Maltese bus network is cheap, reliable and ... interesting!
Until 1568, the capital of the island was Mdina, a glorious stone city bursting with medieval and
Renaissance palaces and churches. With its narrow streets, it is almost traffic-free. You can see Mdina from the terrace of the retreat-house, so it is only a short bus- or taxi-drive away. Maltese is a Semitic language largely derived from Arabic and "Mdina" is from the Arabic "Medina" (meaning simply "the city").
The island has a strong connection with St Paul: pilgrims visit St Paul's Bay, where it is thought he must have come ashore after his shipwreck (see Acts 27), the church of the Shipwreck of St Paul in Valletta, St Paul's Grotto, where he is said to have been held prisoner, St Paul's Catacombs and St Paul's Cathedral in Mdina.
Rather than a retreat-holiday, what we are offering in Malta is an individually guided retreat. Follow the Individually Guided Retreats link below to find out more about what this entails. You can choose either to come at set dates in August 2009, when you will have the support of a group leader and a group all making their own retreats, or else at dates to suit you, subject to availability.
Malta: Dates, price and flights
Individually Guided Retreats (IGRs)