San Anton Palace & Garden, Attard, Malta

You may have noticed from the influx of hotel reviews that Joe and I love trying out different hotels during the winter in Malta. The prices are mega cheap and it's just a nice little treat to stay in a hotel for the night, test out the spa and see a different part of the island. For Valentines Day we booked into the Corinthia Palace Hotel & Spa in Attard and whilst we were there we had to have a walk around the nearby San Anton Palace Gardens.

The San Anton Palace is the official residence of the President of Malta and it has both a public and private garden area. We had a walk around the public area. It was a miserable day so we didn't explore the whole place, but just moseyed around for a while until we got hungry. It's filled with local and exotic specimens and it was good fun looking at some of the strange trees and their names. A sausage tree? Loving it.

There is a lovely little pond with ducks and swans and there are quite a few peacocks walking around freely. There are also some aviaries filled with different birds, but these are really tiny and one of them had a dead bird just laying in the dirt, which was a little upsetting. His buddy was just standing next to him, looking very sad. Makes you wonder how well they are looked after- of course, sometimes animals do just die, but for it to be laying there in a public garden, you wonder how long it's been laying there, how often they are fed and checked up etc.

The gardens are really very varied with lots of little paths leading off to different segments. As well as exotic trees, plants and pretty birds, it's filled with statues and architecture, either home grown or donated from around the world. I loved this Japanese sculpture, it was huge and incredibly detailed.

Don't shoot me for saying this, but we found very little to do in Attard. We couldn't even find a shop for milk and water to take to the hotel room, so it's not necessarily a town I'd recommend staying in, however if you're passing, the San Anton Palce & Gardens are definitely worth a walk around. Take in the greenery, serenity and get back to nature a little. People are always blasting Malta for being dry and barren, but these people are idiots. Just open your eyes and this place has so many little gems like this, filled with colour and life.

For even more pictures of our nature walk around San Anton Palace & Gardens, head on over to my Facebook Page!