A trip to Malta plus a cruise to Croatia & Venice

Flying into Malta, we were excited to experience our first P&O cruise. First though, we had 2 days to explore Valletta, Malta’s capital city and a UNESCO World Heritage site. We took advantage of the hop on and hop off bus tour so that we could get a good understanding of where everything was. There are plenty of historic sights to visit. We were staying at the Grand Hotel Excelsior, a deluxe 5-star resort which is based in the harbour area and has its own private beach area.

From Malta, we boarded the P&O Oceana. Carrying just under 2000 passengers, this is one of P&O’s smaller cruise liners. For the first time in my cruising journey, we took an outside room meaning we didn’t have a balcony. In all honesty we didn’t really miss the balcony option as there are so many places to sit on the ship, it’s rare we use it when we have it. If you’re thinking of going on a cruise but are looking at keeping the costs down, I would definitely recommend looking at an inside room.

Our first port of call was to Dubrovnik in Croatia. Game of Thrones fans needn’t be told this is one of the main cities in which the award-winning series was filmed! From there we visited the historical town of Cavtat which is approximately 30 minutes away. With it’s beautiful harbour lined with several bars and restaurants, it’s the perfect place to sit and watch the world go by for a few hours.

The next part of our journey saw us arriving at the island of Hvar and being tendered to the marina. This simply means that the cruise ships are too big to dock here so you are taken by smaller boats to into the port.

Arriving in Venice, we made sure we took in all the sights of this incredible city. We took a gondola ride along the canals, stopped at St Mark’s Square and went to the Murano factory so that we could see all the wonderful glass products being made (and purchased!)

It was back to Croatia and this time we docked at Split. We took a boat trip on the Cetina river which was an excellent way of seeing what the city has to offer and see some of the stunning scenery in the area. There was also an opportunity for us to enjoy some of the local cuisine and wine.

Once back on board the P&O Oceana we made our way back to Valletta in Malta for our flight home.