The Stone House

The Stone House

At The Stone House, the staircase to the top-floor suite spirals up on its own, past original wooden beams and hand-painted Maltese tiles, to a penthouse with two private balconies looking out over St Julian's. The house was built on land that once belonged to the Knights of Malta, and the restoration kept what a rebuild would have erased: wrought iron balconies, shuttered windows, high ceilings in rooms named Amber, Amethyst, Jade and Sapphire. A walk of under three minutes reaches the promenade and restaurants of St Julian's, and St George's Beach is close enough for an evening stroll before bed. Breakfast leans on produce from local farmers, with croissants baked fresh each morning, and a small outdoor pool with loungers gives the day somewhere to slow down before a table and chairs outside turn it into an evening. Beyond the house itself, the owners arrange boat charters, Gozo tours, private yoga and nutrition coaching, an unusual spread of extras for a property with only two rooms. Wi-Fi and parking are both free, no small thing in a part of Malta where neither is guaranteed. This suits a couple who wants a real house rather than a hotel floor and doesn't mind a spiral staircase to reach the top suite. It will frustrate anyone travelling with a cot or a third guest, since an extra bed runs to 110 euros a night and there is no room to expand around one. What sets The Stone House apart from the hotels lining the coast nearby is that it was a house first, standing on ground the Knights of Malta once held, long before it took in a single guest. A two-room Maltese house built on land once held by the Knights of Malta, with a penthouse reached by its own spiral staircase and a three-minute walk to St Julian's promenade. Suits a couple wanting a house, not a hotel floor; less so anyone bringing a cot.