Valletta Park & Ride.

I had to drive to Valletta for a business meeting this week, wrench myself away from the sunny lazy shores of Gozo, I was looking forward to the trip I have after all been coming to Gozo for many years and have never got round to visiting the capital of Malta. Plenty of local advise was forthcoming from locals, don't drive into Valletta itself, park in one of the park and ride car parks on the outskirts of the city and catch the bus into the centre. I am used to schemes such as park & ride many larger towns and city's across the UK have them, and I think they are a good idea.

The car parks seemed to be well signposted, we duly found our car park it was fairly full but spaces were available. I parked the car, locked it......... now ...........I looked around for information, is the car park free? I could not find any signs to tell me I had to pay, then the paranoia sets in there are no signs to tell me it's free either, I know, I will ask someone...... not a single person in sight, I guess it must be free to park, now where do I go for the bus? it is a big car park there must be a sign here somewhere with information to tell me where to go, a further 5 minutes past whilst I wandered aimlessly around looking for either a sign or someone to ask. Then I found a tunnel, above the tunnel the sign said use staircase through the tunnel, I thought well my surname is Holmes I had better live up to the name and took this as a clue, climbed the staircase and found the bus terminal, Uncle Sherlock would have been proud. I found my way into the centre of Valletta had a good look around and it is great place to visit, I also had a successful business meeting, So other than the car park experience a good day was had.

In future I will know what to do when using the park & ride, but a few small simple signs with the relevant information on them within the car park area would be very useful for first time visitors like me and other first time tourists.

I almost forgot to mention, the car parking is free in the park & ride car parks, the buses into Valletta are also free from the park & ride car parks.

'Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense'. Gertrude Stein.