I was sad to bid farewell to my old passport this week — not just because it was an EU one (*sob*) but also because the stamps inside remind me of the travel experiences I've enjoyed over the past decade. To highlight some of these wonderful memories, I decided to pick one photo from each year, and boy was that hard! (I cheated because the header image features an 11th photo!)

Welcome to the 11th edition of my annual speciality coffee and food awards, where I am highlighting some of my favourites from the coffee shops and eateries that I visited for the first time this year. 

This is the last of my posts about my recent holiday in Malta, rounding up my overall experience: my itinerary and how it worked out, where I stayed, what I did and how I travelled around. You can also read my other Malta posts here: Valletta city guide; day trips from Valletta; and four days on Gozo. And there are even more photos over on my Flickr.

This is the third of four posts about my recent trip to Malta. You can read the other instalments here: Valletta city guide; day trips from Valletta; and how to spend nine days in Malta.

Gozo, known locally as Għawdex, is the second-largest island of the Maltese archipelago, lying just north of the island of Malta and about 50 miles south of Sicily. Second-largest doesn't mean much when it comes to Maltese islands: it has an area of 26 square miles and a population of about 33,000. Its name comes from the medieval Aragonese word for 'joy', which is appropriate given how much joy its beautiful cliffs, cobalt waters and geological features brought me. I spent four days on Gozo after my time in Valletta; read on to find out what I did.

This is the second of four posts about my recent trip to Malta. You can read the other instalments here: Valletta city guide; four days in Gozo; and how to spend nine days in Malta.

Malta is small — the main island is just 17 miles long by 9 miles wide — and because it's easy to get around by public transport, I decided to base myself in Valletta and take day trips to visit some of the other locations. It's even easier to get around by car, of course, but I prefer not to rent cars unless I have to — I find the flexibility it affords usually isn't worth the cost (economic and environmental) and the hassle. And you can get from Valletta to almost anywhere else on the main island by bus in under an hour for a €2 fare. It just takes a little planning, as most buses run only once or sometimes twice per hour.

I took three amazing day trips from Valletta by public transport; read on for turquoise waters, ancient fortified cities, stunning geological features and perfect sandy beaches!

After I got back from Edinburgh, I had a day in London to unpack and repack before heading out to Heathrow. I spent nine days in Malta, my first trip out of the UK since Seattle in February 2020. I originally booked a shorter city break to Valletta, Malta's capital, for March 2020, but for obvious reasons, that didn't happen. Luckily, I was able to reschedule my hotel booking and extend the trip to include a stay on the Maltese island of Gozo when I was eventually able to travel again.