Hotel Ta' Cenc & Spa, Sannat, Gozo

Location

Tucked into the rocky landscape between the traditional village of Sannat and the typical Mediterranean garigue of the Ta’ Cenc cliffs, there is good walking from the hotel with dramatic views from the cliffs across to Malta and Comino with some of Gozo’s most interesting flora and fauna. The clifftops have been occupied since Neolithic times and a few bronze-age dolmens can be seen along with a handful of Malta’s mysterious cart ruts cut into the rocky surface. Sannat has an 18th-century parish church and a little bar.

The hotel consists of multiple low-rise buildings of local limestone with traditional comfortable interiors. All rooms open onto gardens, countryside or courtyard, and there are a handful of freestanding stone trullo on the edge of the garigue. Nature merges with the hotel – including a marvellously gnarled ancient carob tree in the centre of the restaurant, plenty of vegetation. The hotel has plenty of space and a sense of calm.   

Accommodation

Most rooms have been recently refurbished in a fresh modern-traditional style in natural colours with images of plants and birds. All rooms are on the ground floor and each has its own little patio. Junior suites are in a darker, richer palette and the trullo are like small self-contained homes with a bedroom, bathroom and sitting room beneath a corbelled, 'beehive', limestone roof.

Breakfast is a good hot and cold buffet with plenty of variety, and can be taken beneath the spreading arms of the ancient carob tree. Other meals are not always up to the price. There are, however, plenty of good restaurants in Gozo, all within about a 20-minute drive, many far less.

Facilities

Two outdoor swimming pools sit on peaceful terraces overlooking the Gozitan countryside. A lovely place to swim but the sunbeds could do with renewing. Inside there is a spa with whirlpool tub, sauna, steam room, treatment rooms and a delightful indoor-outdoor pool. Its outside area, surrounded by lush green plants, is particularly lovely when gently lit at night.

The hotel provides a shuttle to the capital Victoria and to its 'private beach', a bar-restaurant and terrace of rocky platforms above a deep creek of clear blue water just off the larger creek of Mgarr Ix-Xini.