…With the added bonus of being wonderfully, impressively cheap. Malta’s a lovely little island – slap bang in the middle of the Mediterranean, it’s managed to absorb all that’s good from every country around the sea, whilst avoiding the bad bits. The Maltese people are proud of their heritage – the strategic importance of the island means it’s one of those little places that’s been conquered by more or less every major European civilisation in the last 2000 years – and before then, the Maltese had their own civilisation that built the oldest surviving free-standing structures in the world. Malta’s a wonderful place for a relaxing, sun-sea-and-sand holiday, and at half the price you’d normally find it. Malta’s a fascinating place to read about – check it out here.

There are various deals this season for a holiday in Malta leaving from airports all over the UK. If you are in living in the South West of England, the most obvious and indeed convenient point of departure is Bristol airport. What I particularly like about Bristol airport is their car-park deal, which saves a fair bit of money, is easy to use and has a support system in place – which has saved me missing two flights to date. You can have a look at Bristol airport parking here.

If you prefer a more active holiday, Malta’s still a pretty good choice – the scenery is beautiful and the island of Comino, just a couple of kilometres to the north, is as wild and tranquil as they come, with a local population of… wait for it… 4. That’s right. 4 people live here. Just 4. Visits are available and you can even use the on-island campsite. Sights include St Mary’s tower, a chapel and the Comino Hotel. Which may be worth considering for a stay.

Malta’s a truly spectacular place to visit; and looks to be at particularly good value this year (even more than normal). The prices are cheap when you’re there, and this time round it’s even cheap to get there, too. For some more incentive, if you need it, have a look at Malta’s tourism board.

UPDATE: after I talked about Bristol airport, I flicked through a few links and it turns out it gets even better! They have recently released some extra discount codes at an extra 12% off of the airport parking. There are some great BCP discount codes available. Happy holidays!

This post was written by Edward Humphrey. Edward is currently based in Dorset, where he works full time as a freelance writer. When not travelling the world Edward enjoys heading to the local beaches for a spot of surfing.