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Small Med island that’s uncrowded in winter has seven-night holidays for £179 each
JUST three hours from the UK, there’s an island where the sun doesn’t stop shining for more than 300 days a year and February holiday packages are extremely affordable.
Over the past few years, Malta has become increasingly popular with Brits – and with good reason, as the destination offers cheap holiday packages with direct flights.
Online travel agent loveholidays has a sale on, with last-minute packages to Malta from £179 per person, including flights.
Holidaymakers will fly from Liverpool Airport to Malta with Ryanair and stay at the four-star Maritim Antonine Hotel and Spa in Mellieha, Malta.
Located in Mellieha, near Malta’s largest beach, the hotel boasts panoramic views from its rooftop terrace.
Other on-site amenities include indoor pools, a spa and a diverse range of dining options, including a Thai à la carte restaurant.
The seven-night stays are room-only — although that doesn’t matter because there’s so much to do and so many places to eat in Malta.
Malta boasts 300 days of sunshine per year, with maximum temperatures reaching 16C in February.
Because of the milder weather, tourists crowds will be quieter on the Med Island in the winter months and the shoulder season.
Its capital city, Valletta, is a Unesco World Heritage site.
And if the surroundings start to look familiar, it’s because Malta is a famous filming destination for films such as Gladiator, Jurassic World, and Game of Thrones.
Malta has it all – watersports, diving, cycling routes, 12 Blue Flag beaches, and more than 300 days of sunshine yearly.
There are more than 100 diving sites spread across the three Maltese islands, making it one of the top locations in Europe.
From complete beginners to expert divers, there’s a spot to suit every ability.
Divers can get up close to a 2,700-year-old shipwreck and many plane crash sites, in addition to the many species to observe.
Situated in the channel between Comino and Cominotto, the Blue Lagoon is a pristine blue lagoon surrounded by white-sand beaches.
The island is filled with restaurants and bars, and according to a local holiday company, local beers are available for £4, while imported pints are slightly pricier at around £5.
Malta has two official languages: Maltese, the national language, and English.
Malta is currently one hour ahead of the UK, and the local currency is the Euro.
There are no restrictions for Brits, and they can stay in Malta for up to 90 days without a visa.
However, your passport must have a ‘date of issue’ less than ten years before your arrival date and an ‘expiry date’ at least three months after your planned departure date.
What's it like to visit Malta?
THE Sun’s Mia Lyndon visited Malta last year, here’s what she thought…
I’m gazing up at a swirling, gold-leaf ceiling that took one man five years to paint.
Surrounding me are oil paintings, marble sculptures and an altar so bejewelled that I almost reach for my sunglasses.
No, I’m not at the Vatican or Versailles – I’m in Malta, in Valletta’s 450-year-old St John’s Co-Cathedral, which took artists more than a century to decorate.
And the entry fee of £13 per adult is most definitely worth it (Stjohnscocathedral.com).
This fortress-like building is set in the beating heart of Valletta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world’s smallest capital cities.
After my spiritual experience, there’s time to dip into nearby Stephen Cordina Aroma & Therapy shop to buy a heavenly lavender and bergamot room diffuser, £14 (Stephencordina.com), before climbing the cobbled streets to Upper Barrakka.
This quaint, leafy park is nestled between limestone fortress walls and is the perfect spot to snap pictures of the glistening Grand Harbour.
At Upper Barrakka Kiosk, I sample traditional pastizzi – flaky, clam-shaped pastries stuffed with peas, 85p each, washed down with a can of Maltese Kinnie, £1.70, a zesty, Negroni-like soft drink, before I find family-run Trattoria da Pippo and my friends, who’ve been saving the table!
We tuck into large, sizzling pans of delicious Fillet Tartuffe, a creamy mushroom pasta, and Marina, a tagliatelli loaded with prawns and calamari, £17 per person for two sharing dishes (Facebook.com/dapippovalletta).
Keen to catch the four-hour-long happy hour back at Barceló Fortina, our home for the weekend, we board the seven-minute ferry, £1.70, across the bay to the resort town of Sliema and are soon poolside, sipping tangy Flower Lemonades – gin, lime and watermelon, £11 for two during happy hour.
The Instagrammable alfresco pool is perched on the edge of the Med, complete with DJs and club vibes.
Premium rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows with views across the bay to Valletta, Jacuzzi baths, couples’ sinks and wraparound balconies with hot tubs.
Meanwhile, these are six secret holiday spots in Europe.
And this French holiday spot has been described as “unfairly overlooked”.
Five of the most affordable beach resorts in Europe this summer with cheap hotels and deals under £390 each
WE all want a hot sunny holiday abroad, but finding one that won’t cost a fortune (especially in this climate) can be difficult.
So we’ve done the hard work for you, and found not only the best places in Europe where you will find a number of cheap deals, but you can also easily head to the beach.
Salou, Spain
Spain remains a much-loved Brit holiday destination for its amazing climate, food and of course cheap deals.
And one of the most affordable places to go is Salou in Costa Dorada.
The most popular beach is Levante Beach, with soft sand, sunbeds and enough eateries to keep you full all day.
And there is the nearby PortAventura World, one of Europe‘s best theme parks (and home to one of the world’s tallest rides).
CHEAP DEAL: We found a seven-night stay at Inter2 Salou with loveholidays for just £159 each, including your return flights from London Gatwick in May.
Sunny Beach, Bulgaria
The best deals will be found further east in Europe, which is where Bulgaria’s Sunny Beach comes in.
The town was purpose built as a holiday resort, so expect modern clubs and loads of beach bars right on the sand.
It’s clean too – Sunny Beach’s five-mile long stretch of sand is Blue Flag certified.
So if you can’t decide if you want a chill sunbathing day on the beach or a vibey night out on the town, its got you covered.
CHEAP DEAL: We found a seven-night stay at Sunny Day Club Hotel with Thomas Cook for just £206 each, including your return flights from London Luton in May.
Monte Gordo, Portugal
The Algarve remains one of the cheapest places to visit in Portugal.
And one of the cheapest towns is Monte Gorde, on the eastern side.
The main beach is huge, and you can easily find cheap sunloungers to rent for the entire day.
Being a smaller town, it means you can also expect it to be a bit more laidback compared to the larger Algarve resorts.
CHEAP DEAL: We found a seven night stay at Alcazar Hotel with Travelsupermarket for just £342 each, including your return flights from London Gatwick in May.
St Pauls Bay, Malta
St Paul’s Bay has some of the best beaches on mainland Malta, and is another great cheap option for a summer break.
There is the Qawra Point Beach, where tourists rave about how blue the water is, as well as the smaller Buġibba Perched Beach.
Hit up the harbour, do some shopping and wander the promenades for a good, all-rounder holiday.
CHEAP DEAL: We found a seven-night stay at Topaz Hotel with easyJet holidays for just £382 each, including your return flights from London Southend in May.
Ayia Napa, Cyprus
Ayia Napa might be known as a party town, but that doesn’t mean you have to go all out.
And of course, Nissi Beach has some amazing clubs and bars lining it to make the most of.
But there is also the stunning Blue Lagoon, with bright blue waters, or for some fun, the huge Waterworld waterpark.
And history buffs can head to Ayia Napa medieval monastery, with buildings dating back as far as the 1100s.
CHEAP DEAL: We found a seven-night stay at Fedrania Gardens with loveholidays for just £209 each, including your return flights from London Gatwick in May.
Elon Musk’s Starship ‘Mars rocket’ to launch next test mission in days as US rushes to beat China to Red Planet
SPACEX’S Starship is preparing for its seventh test flight next week, which will see the rocket attempt to deploy fake satellites in space.
It will be the first time the rocket has ejected payloads in orbit.
10 mock satellites that are a similar size and weight to SpaceX’s Starlink satellites have been crafted for the mission.
In a recent mission statement, SpaceX added that Super Heavy, the part of the rocket that gets Starship off the ground, will sport reused hardware for the first time.
It will use a Raptor engine from the booster that was launched and returned during Starship’s fifth flight test.
Lift off is scheduled for 13 January at 5pm EST / 10pm GMT from Starbase, in Boca Chica, Texas.
Starship has flown six times to date – twice in 2023 and in March, June, October and November of last year.
The October mission broke new ground when the booster – instead of falling to the ground – was caught midair in a “chopsticks maneuver” by mechanical arms on the launchpad.
The feat had never been done before, and is expected to be repeated in Flight 7.
Meanwhile, Starship’s 165-foot-tall upper stage, known as Starship, will splashdown in the Indian Ocean, as it did on its three most recent launches.
If all goes to plan, the launch will occur just three days after the first test flight of New Glenn, the first orbital rocket from Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin.
The 33-engine, nearly 400-foot-tall, rocket is the largest vehicle to have ever left the ground.
SpaceX owner Elon Musk has grand plans to turn Starship into the rocket that makes humans an interplanetary species.
In September, Musk, currently the richest man in the world, claimed the rocket would undergo crewed flights to Mars in as little as four years’ time.
Starship has been designed to be the vehicle that makes humans interplanetary, and house up to 100 people.
It is expected to take humans to the Moon through Nasa’s Artemis mission in mid-2027, and eventually to Mars.
China has been making increasingly firm announcements regarding its own launch plans for the Red Planet.
In November, a new study suggested China leave for Mars and return to Earth with samples of Martian soil roughly two years ahead of Nasa and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Similar to its plans for the Moon, China intends to send its first crew to Mars and set up a base for regular crewed missions in 2033, 2035, 2037, and 2041.
ANALYSIS: Are we in a new space race?
By Millie Turner, Senior Technology & Science Reporter
Visions of humans on the Moon once more has sparked a renaissance for the space race of the 1960s.
While China has replaced the Soviet Union in this iteration, it is once again the US going toe-to-toe with whichever global superpower is brazen enough for the challenge.
The pair are already locked into an Earth-bound tech war, with fist-shaking over computer chips, AI and TikTok, which has somehow erupted into a race for the stars.
Nasa boss Bill Nelson hasn’t shied away from calling it a “race”, either.
Under President Xi Jinping, China spent roughly $14billion (11.2billion) on its ambitious space programme in 2023, according to Statista.
The US space agency has dominated the industry so far, though has only recently swallowed the bitter pill of scrapping the Viper Moon mission after $450million had already been spent, citing spiralling costs and delays.
Nasa’s own Mars Sample Return has also been subject to pushbacks, as the mission timeline falls back into the 2040s from its original 2028 launch date.
China’s knack for building things fast, and well, could tip the scales – effects of which we might be seeing in real-time, as the country looks set to beat Nasa to Mars.
Though I have no doubt that date will be revised at some point in the future.
Irish telly shock as legendary firm that worked on RTE smash hits Love/Hate and Kin shuts ‘with immediate effect’
A LEGENDARY TV firm that have worked on RTE smash hits Love/Hate and Kin has shut down “with immediate effect”.
The award-winning studio, Windmill Lane Pictures, which was a pioneer in the Irish TV and film sector, has closed its doors.
The production company was originally based in Windmill Lane, but moved to Dublin’s Herbert Street.
The studio grew out of the legendary recording space where many stars have passed through since recording engineer Brian Masterson opened it in 1978.
Some of the great albums produced there include Kate Bush’s 80s classic Hounds Of Love, The Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge and Def Leppard’s Hysteria, along with several of U2’s.
Windmill Lane Pictures focused on post-production work for ads, TV and film, and worked on the beloved RTE series Love/Hate, Kin, Smother and Young Offenders as well as movies such as The Rifleman.
And despite their best efforts to stay afloat, the business is insolvent and no longer viable in its current form.
It is understood that the 31 employees were notified of the decision on Wednesday, January 8.
The company’s directors have released a statement that said: “The global film and post-production industry has faced significant headwinds in recent years, including increasing cost pressures, rapid technological changes, and the ongoing challenges of operating in a competitive international market.
“More recently, the extended writers’ and actors’ strike in the United States has caused a severe disruption to production pipelines worldwide, creating a knock-on effect that has impacted businesses across the film ecosystem, including ours.
“In addition to these global pressures, challenges on the domestic front have further compounded the difficulties faced by the business – the erosion of international competitiveness of the Section 481 VFX [visual effects] film tax credit has made Ireland a less attractive location for this type of work.
“Although we explored every available avenue, including attempts to secure additional capital and restructure the business, these efforts were ultimately unsuccessful in stabilising the company.”
The directors have expressed how “grateful” they are to their “talented and dedicated team”, as well as their trusted partners who they’ve collaborated with over the years.
The company’s focus now is to manage the “transition responsibly” and support their stakeholders.
COMPANY’S HISTORY
Windmill Lane was founded in 1978 as a recording studio and TV commercial post-production facilities and was set up by Brian Masterson and James Morris, who was later a founder of TV3 [now Virgin Media TV].
In 1990, the company split with Masterson moving Windmill Lane Recording Studios to Ringsend Road where it still thrives today.
Windmill Lane Pictures stayed on Windmill Lane until it moved to Herbert Street in 2009.
This is where they developed its visual effects (VFX) services and continued to work on major TV and film production
During the 2000s, the business worked with some major film and TV directors including Jim Sheridan, John Boorman and Neil Jordan.
Supercomputer predicts 2025 Australian Open with Emma Raducanu given 0.4% shot of winning and Jack Draper not much more
THE Australian Open is set to get underway this Sunday with British stars Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper hoping to shake off injury concerns to make some noise Down Under.
Former US Open champion Raducanu, 22, had been due to get her season underway at the WTA 250 event in Auckland earlier this month.
The luckless star, however, was forced to pull out of the event for a second straight year, this time citing a back issue.
She has since headed to Australia and has been on the practise courts at Melbourne Park.
The world No.60 has drawn 26th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in round one of the Australian Open.
If she can get past the Russian, Raducanu could face Amanda Anisimova in round two.
And if the Brit can log two match wins, she would almost certainly face five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek in round three.
Boffins and brainiacs over at Prime Casino have used their supercomputer to crunch the numbers and predict what will happen at the Australian Open.
Despite being ranked 34 places below Alexandrova, Raducanu is given a 61.1 per cent chance of taking her out to reach round two.
The supercomputer then claims that there is a 34.4 per cent chance that she will also take out the winner of Anisimova and Maria Lourdes Carle to advance to round three.
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This is where things would get really tricky, with Swiatek a formidable opponent – and the numbers give Raducanu just a 9.9 per cent chance of reaching the second week.
In round four she would then likely face either Anna Kalinskaya or Victoria Azarenka – and has been given a 6.2 per cent chance to advance to the quarters.
Should she reach the last eight, Emma Navarro or Maria Sakkari would be her projected opponents by seed, although this section of the draw could likely open up.
Raducanu is given a 3.5 per cent chance of reaching the final, and a 1.4 per cent of losing at the last hurdle – where she would meet either Aryna Sabalenka or Coco Gauff – and just a 0.4 per cent chance of winning the title.
Raducanu's route to the final
R1 Ekaterina Alexandrova
R2 Carle/Anisimova
R3 Iga Swiatek
R4 Kalinskaya/Azarenka
QF Navarro/Sakkari
SF Rybakina/Collins
F Sabalenka/Gauff
Britain’s No.1 male player Draper, meanwhile, is 15th seed in Melbourne and has drawn Argentina’s Mariano Navone in round one.
Should he advance he would play Aussie home favourite Thanasi Kokkinakis, or Roman Safiullin – and the first fellow seed he could meet is 22nd-ranked Seb Korda in round three.
Draper, who withdrew from the United Cup through injury and asked not to be selected for Great Britain’s Davis Cup tie vs Japan next month, could then be on a collision course with Carlos Alcaraz in round four.
Lying in wait could then be Novak Djokovic – coached by Draper’s pal and mentor Andy Murray.
He is given a 94.8 per cent chance of beating Navone, 65.4 per cent shot of taking out Kokkinakis or Safiullin and 44 per cent likelihood of defeating Korda to book the potential Alcaraz showdown.
The 23-year-old is given an 18.7 per cent shot of beating Alcaraz, and a 7.1 per cent chance of then going on to defeat Djokovic and reaching the semi-finals.
There is a 3.8 per cent chance of Draper advancing past the final four and losing in the final, and 1.1 per cent of winning the title.
Draper's route to the final
R1 Mariano Navone
R2 Kokkinakis/Safiullin
R3 Seb Korda
R4 Carlos Alcaraz
QF Novak Djokovic
SF Zverev/Ruud
F Sinner/Fritz/Medvedev
World No.1 Jannik Sinner is the favourite to win the men’s event at 51.6 per cent.
Despite having fallen to No.7, Djokovic is distant second favourite at 14.1 per cent.
Alcaraz is next at eight per cent, with Alexander Zverev at 6.8 per cent.
As for the women’s draw, the supercomputer believes it is more open.
World No.1 Sabalenka is 23.5 per cent to win it, with Swiatek at 19.7 per cent and Gauff 16.8 per cent.
Reigning Olympic gold medallist Zheng Qinwen is at eight per cent, ahead of former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina on 5.7 per cent,
British hopeful Katie Boulter is given a 0.3 shot, marginally less than Raducanu.
Meet Lindsay Wagner’s Spouses: Lawrence Mortorff, Henry Kingi, Michael Brandon, & Allen Rider.
Lindsay Jean Wagner is an American actress, widely recognized for her iconic role as Jaime Sommers in the science fiction…
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