If you've yet to book your summer holiday and are looking for something a bit different, undiscovered and untouched that’s not too far from home yet offers everything from water sports to relaxation to culture and great food then you might want to consider a place you’ve probably never heard of, but that is set to become one of the destinations of the summer.

Gozo, in the Mediterranean nation of Malta is one of those places that caters for everyone and anyone's ideal of what a great holiday is. If you're looking for a relaxing beach holiday, a religious or historical journey, an eco-holiday, a spa vacation, a walking holiday, an adventure, or just an opportunity to get away from it all and indulge in great food, great beaches and exceptional culture, then Gozo could be the place for you.

Gozo, like most Mediterranean regions, is famed for its wonderful cuisine, traditional cooking methods and tasty, fresh specialties and it’s one of the most incredible spots in the Mediterranean for deep sea diving and adventure water sports.

And although Gozo is traditionally tranquil, there are plenty of pubs, wine bars, clubs and discos - all in unique settings - to be found all over the island.

Log on to our web TV show where local expert Xavier Hancock gives you the lowdown on Gozo.

Xavier Hancock joins us live online on Friday 10th June at 11am

For more information visit www.islandofgozo.org  

H: Vicky Letch, host

A: Xavier Hancock, Travel Author

H: On today’s show we have the ultimate destination guide for the Maltese Island of Gozo

Titles

H: Hello and welcome to Travel Talk, I’m Vicky Letch. So are you thinking about taking a break this year, whether it’s you and a friend or perhaps the whole family, why not consider one of the most magical islands that Europe has to offer? The Maltese island of Gozo is packed full of culture, pristine blue waters, and I’m reliably informed rather tasty, traditional cuisine! Joining me today is Xavier who moved to Gozo I understand 10 years ago, so let’s have a look and see what’s coming up on today’s show. Something we all love on our breaks, wining and dining and everything that this wonderful island has to offer us, everything that you need to know about this diver’s paradise, and of course all of your questions will be answered here live. Don’t forget this is a live show so if you have any questions or comments please use the box on the screen and click “send” and we’ll do our absolute best to answer as many as we possibly can over the next 15 minutes or so. If you’re tweeting as well you can get involved, all you have to do is use the # tag Studiotalk TV. So Xavier, thank you so much for being here, looking truly tanned and relaxed

A: Yes

H: I got that vibe from you the minute I saw you enter the building. So you moved to this wonderful island 10 years ago?

A: Yes well I, my parents actually were going out there in the ‘70s and I first went to the island when I was six months old

H: Wow

A: I spent a lot of time there when I was a child and then yes I decided to leave the UK, travel round the world and Gozo seemed like the destination for me

H: Well actually having seen some pictures which you will see shortly, don’t worry, I can absolutely see why you came to that decision. So for those of us – actually do you know what, I’m going to confess something – I hadn’t heard of it before. It was a – sharp intake of breath – it was a new one for me and I imagine there are some people watching now that think well this sounds like a bit of a hidden gem, so can you just tell us a bit about its location and perhaps the size of the island?

A: Well yes, Gozo is the sister island of Malta and is located about 25 minutes by ferry away. It’s the – the size of the island is 9 miles by 4 miles as the crow flies, and it’s full of history. It’s got history dating back to Neolithic times; it’s a very religious country with more than 56 churches on the island

H: Wow

A: And the – with that culture and history it’s just got a really nice, slow pace of life. I always think about it as I’m going back into the sort of ‘50s or ‘60s, we still leave our front doors open, my kids just run off and play in the streets and yes, you don’t have to worry about anything

H: How wonderful, it’s so nice to know there are still pockets of the world that can operate like that. So how many people live there?

A: It’s got a standing population of about 30,000 people and it’s a very diverse sort of group set, because there – the island has been taken over by so many people throughout history that it is a very diverse culture indeed.

H: Now lots of us, obviously when we go on our hols, certainly if we live in the big smoke, we like to go away, relax on the sandy beaches and these blue waters which I know the island absolutely has to offer, but to really enjoy a holiday there has to be some time for some of us, a little bit more going on, and I imagine because it is so steeped in history actually it can offer you so much more than just the sunshine and the beach?

A: Well yes absolutely. The history on the island, as I said, it has citadels, it has the oldest free-standing temple in the world on the island

H: Amazing

A: And – but also the countryside and what you can actually do on the island, it’s getting a lot more diverse as well. People always thought it was a place to relax, but now it’s definitely getting a place where you can go out and do more active holidays as well. You have the diving but you’ll also have very good climbing and mountain biking, and in the winter months it’s also fantastic because the weather’s so mild, so the hiking – you have the wild flowers throughout the whole countryside, and these sort of things make the island magical

H: I certainly have read up about the scenic hills that sound glorious and I did picture myself with a nice, chilled glass of wine just looking at the landscape unfolding in front of me, but obviously there are lots of people that love to go diving on their holidays as well and we’re certainly going to talk about how good this is as an option for a diving holiday. Before we do that though let’s put your words into pictures and have a look exactly at what this island has to offer

Video Footage

H: I’m trying very hard not to be a green-eyed monster but as we were watching the footage with you, Xavier sat there going yes I lived there for 4 years, yes I – I was thinking yes I’m really happy for you! It looks so stunning and the diving looks absolutely incredible, and that’s coming from a novice diver. We’re going to talk about that later on, but what about for people who are watching going ok, so I’d try the diving but actually I want a little bit more. What else is there on offer?

A: Well you can do sea kayaking holidays,

H: Fantastic fun

A: Yes that’s a great way to see the entire coastal line, you can go in and out of the caves, there are a lot of locations around the island, a lot of beaches you can’t access anywhere by boat and that’s great, so there’s – also you have rock climbing on the island there’s 4 or 5 developed climbing areas and they’re all within 15 minutes of each other so if you want to stay in one location in the morning and then travel to the next location it’s very simple

H: See I love the fact that there really is something for everyone. If you go on a family holiday it’s quite often that some of the family are really active and outdoorsy and they want to do activities like that and others actually just want to relax in the holiday that they want. But from what you said it sounds like you can just mould this into whatever you want from your holiday

A: Well that’s it; I mean Gozo was always seen as a little bit not directed towards the family however that’s just so wrong. The beaches you have, Ramla beach for example which is a red sand beach that’s about half a kilometre long and it’s absolutely superb. And just to go down there, spend a day with the beach – I go there all the time with my kids and we turn up at 4 o’clock in the afternoon because of the sun, the heat of the sun

H: Yes

A: And then we stay on the beach for two or three hours and then we sit in the cafe on the beach and have dinner

H: Glorious

A: It is absolutely wonderful

H: And actually it’s a brilliant, brilliant thing – you are a family man, you’re living on this island with your very young family, and you’re having a lovely life, so certainly would be ideal for people with children to visit for a week or two and have a really relaxing, fun time

A: That’s it, it is and coming back to families as well, there are a lot more to do with the kids instead of just – there are vineyards where you can actually go to and on the vineyards they offer traditional games, from anything from archery to sort of local, traditional games that have been forgotten and they’re trying to reintroduce like Skittles which are called Brilli, and you have other sort of things like soapbox go-carting which as kids we used to do, but the modern generation aren’t because they’re stuck in front of the computers all the time

H: Yes

A: So these are the sort of things that kids can do. And the diving for example, the diving you can start with Bubble Maker 8 years old, you can do your Open Water Diver Junior from 10 years old. So these things are not restricting the families visiting the island at all

H: So let’s talk about the diving then because I hear – let me get this right, I’ve heard that it’s a Mecca, is this right, the Mecca of Mediterranean diving? That’s quite an accolade isn’t it?

A: It is, 10 years ago it was one of the hotspots in the Mediterranean and it still is. Now of course there are many more destinations that have been opened up by travel, but it still boasts some of the top 50 dive sites in the world. You have got areas like the Blue Hole where you drop down through a blue hole, swim through an archway, swim – dive through the Azure window onto a big drop-off, come out of that, go up a 40 metre chimney going from 20 metres up to 6 metres deep into a beautiful coral reef which is the end of the dive, and you can stay there for half an hour if you like

H: See I just think that’s stunning, and also these are the types of things that actually you could be blessed to see this once in your lifetime, this really could be actually a holiday that you would never forget seeing sights like that

H: No that’s absolutely right, I mean the diving in Gozo is unique, because it’s not so much about coral reefs or fish life, it is – but the light and the visibility on the island is tremendous. The average visibility is 20-30 metres and the underwater scenery and the topography underwater is just amazing. They have large fingers of rock that come out from 70 metres deep all the way up to 9 metres which you can swim around, they have caves that are 120, 130 metres deep and you can sort of navigate in using all the technical equipment necessary to do so, and it’s very accessible. You’ve got primarily a lot of the dives are from shore, so if you’re not so used to diving from a boat then shore diving is a very good alternative

H: I just wanted to ask you about that because certainly actually the group of people that I quite often travel with, I have two other buddies I go travelling with quite often, they really love diving actually, are experienced divers, it’s something I’ve always wanted to try but I haven’t quite got round to doing it yet, so if we were to go in our group, would we all be catered for, do you cater for all levels of diving?

A: Yes absolutely. For example one of the training diving areas on the island is a place called Xlendi Bay, and for the beginners course you need sort of 4 depths of water, you need a 3 metre area to do the basic training

H: Ok

A: You need a 6m area and a 9m area to extend your experience, and then it goes down to an 18m area which is the maximum depth limit you can do at that diving level. Now I’ve dived all over the world, Belize, Australia, Thailand, and I’ve never found a training dive that is as good as this one

H: Really?

A: That has everything in it, but then when you look at it for an experienced diver it has a tunnel which is 70m long, which you can dive even because you can surface within it, even novice divers can dive it, it has a reef that –

H: See I panic slightly when you said tunnel, I’m not there yet, I’m not there yet

A: Absolutely but the light is fantastic, it’s a little bit dark when you first swim in but as soon as you get inside and the light is coming through the entrance and exit it’s like normal diving, and it’s got beautiful stalactites and beautiful little holes that have been dug out by the rocks and lovely archways, and it’s just spectacular for experienced divers as well as beginner divers

H: Yes

A: And these are the same wherever you go on the island, there are dive sites of course that are more technical, you’ve got places like the Inland Sea which starts off again you’re swimming through a tunnel that’s 18m long and it starts at 6m, goes down to 25m, and then you come out into a reef wall which is a perfectly drop wall that goes down to 60 / 70m below the surface, and it’s amazing feeling because you can be diving at 15/ 20m but you see the fish life on the bottom, 70 or 80m below,

H: Incredible

A: And there’s not a particle in the water if it’s good conditions, and it feels like you’re flying

H: Yes

A: Because you’ve – basically you’re just hovering and swimming along

H: Looking down, yes

A: Looking down at 50 / 60m below you and that’s just awesome experience

H: Extraordinary

A: Yes

H: I want to do this! Actually we’ve had questions in from our viewers watching live now, keep them coming in because we’ll be with you for a few minutes yet. Relating to diving, so this one’s from Thomas, he says “I want to learn to dive, I’ve heard that Gozo is a good place and a little undiscovered in terms of epic numbers of tourists” and actually I think that is quite a selling point for lots of people, they like to think that they’ve unearthed a hidden gem don’t they?

A: Well that’s it, I mean there are a number of dive centres on the island, and they all work to very high standards, but what it means is generally the diving groups that you – it’s not a factory, they all treat you like family, they all sort of want to go out with you in the evening, and make you enjoy your holiday more, and that does make the island very special

H: Absolutely and I think it just adds to the experience that you have as well

A: Yes

H: It’s getting that culture and it’s talking to people who live there and you know, being involved in their lives almost or seeing what it is to live on the island which is really exciting. This is from Trevor Laws, thank you very much Trevor, he says “I love diving in Egypt, how does this compare?”

A: The diving in Egypt compared to Gozo – Egypt is a tropical sea so it’s coral reef, bright colours, a lot of fish. Gozo does not have – it’s not a tropical sea, the temperature range is too great so coral life doesn’t survive there. However, I’ve touched on it before that the fish life there is a lot more discreet, it’s a lot smaller generally, but there is a huge amount of fish life there, you just have to look for a it a bit more. The visibility compared to a tropical sea is usually a lot better because there’s not so much plankton in the water, and if you want to see the fish life you just have to get up early in the morning and be some of the first divers in the water. I’ve done dives on north coast around a point where we’re jumping in the water just after the sun has gone up, so 5.30, 6 o’clock in the morning, and we’re the first in the water, and you have all the big schools, the barracudas, dent eggs, feeding on the bait fish

H: Wow

A: So it really depends on what sort of things you would like to do, so yes you just have to speak to the local dive centres and get them what’s happening and use their experience

H: Just do a little bit of research and again whatever you want, actually this is really tailor-made, you can turn it into the experience that you want to have

A: That’s it

H: Yes. Ok this one is from Yohannas, thank you, it says “what distinguishes Gozo from other diving destinations? What are the wrecks like and what could you see down there?”

A: Ok the – what’s unique about Gozo is every dive centre – every dive site is different. There’s a big range of shallow reef dives, big drop-off dives and a lot of cave dives. Those are each individually spectacular. The wreck diving, the government has been very supportive of the industry on the island, and because of that a lot of artificial reefs and wrecks have been scuttled in the last 10-15 years, and for example out of – Mgarr Harbour, if you go out by boat, within half an hour, 40 minutes of leaving Mgarr harbour to 11 or 12 wrecks, which are various, varying depths. You’ve got wrecks that are lying in 20m of water so you can spend a lot of time on them, and you’ve got wrecks that are lying in 30-40m of water, so of course they have a different type of wildlife on them. So there is a big, wide range of these types of dives. And then on shore for example you have a – there’s a dive called Cathedral Cave, and you dive into this cave again and you can actually surface within the cave and it’s called Cathedral Cave because it’s a massive dome, I mean it’s huge, and then you’ve got the light coming through the entrance which again is large, it’s 15 / 20m high by 15 / 20m across, and everything is light – all your luminescence on your - it’s just completely luminescent. And when you’re coming up to the surface, because there’s no lights above it it’s like a mirror, so you’re actually looking at a perfect reflection of yourself

H: Stunning – not the reflection of myself I mean sounds stunning – I’ve just realised, stunning! It sounds absolutely breathtaking, I’ll tell you what let’s have a look at what this diving is all about

Video Footage

H: You cannot argue – how beautiful does that look? It’s time now to take your live questions; actually we don’t have too much time left but let’s squeeze them in. This one is from Steve, and Steve says “how much is a pint of beer and what are the recommended local food dishes?”

A: Ok a pint of beer range but you’re looking at about 2 Euros 50 - between 2 Euros – 2 Euros 50 for a pint of beer. And the local food is wide-ranging, there’s over 250 snack bars and restaurants on the island

H: So plenty to choose from

A: Plenty to choose from but –

H: Good seafood?

A: Yes there’s fantastic seafood, but what’s great about it is because there are so many the quality is very, high and it’s well worth, all the restaurants have a selection of fish you can choose from, they have them in the things – and it depends on the season as well. For example in February, that’s when the strawberries start hitting the shelves and they’re delicious, in February. Then you go on into the rabbits, they very much like their rabbits and rajioli which is just a special type of beef wrapped with mince meat and things. So it’s a lot of nice, slow cooking with rich sauces

H: Sounds fantastic. And if you’re saying it’s a high standard as well it is nice to know you’re going somewhere where perhaps it could be quite difficult to make a food mistake because for lots of us food is really important

A: Important

H: On our holidays

A: Well that’s it, I mean personally I never recommend restaurants to anyone because of course everyone’s taste is so different so I don’t like taking that risk, but yes the food on the island is fantastic and it’s really nice being able to sit in a restaurant with the sea literally here. I mean it’s – that is beautiful. The pizzas are fantastic of course, they’ve got a lot of Italian influences as well, so the pasta is excellent and they’ve got a very vibrant culture of – and history of food and local delicacies on the island. The goats cheese they make which is peppered and then dried and then seasoned is delicious

H: Oh delish

A: They’ve got world-renowned award-winning olive oil that they make on the island that is cold pressed and it’s really peppery and very nice. They of course they love their sundried tomatoes and capers, you’ll see the locals, the Gozatons during the summer parked next to a caper bush, picking capers and it’s all over the island, and then of course they’re putting them in the brine and then they’re going into the thing. And this is how they collect their food. They make their salt for example still in salt pans that date back to Roman time

H: Incredible

A: With the very same salt pans that the Romans were using and you can just drive past and see the old man scraping the salt and having a look during the summer months, and it is – that’s what makes the island really special

H: Do you know what, you should work on commission young man, I am there with bells on! It was the food chat for me, it was the food chat, he wooed me in. Lucy has a question for you, we’re going to end with Lucy’s question and it says “the island looks so charming, is it peaceful enough to get a holiday break?” I think we probably know the answer to that

A: Yes it is known as an island that is relaxing. The type of accommodations you can get, you can get beautiful 400 year old farmhouses which have got lovely gardens and pools which you can relax to. They have – they’re very much into their eco-tours and they’re really moving into responsible travel and developing it as an eco-destination, so that’s looking at beautiful long, relaxing hikes through the countryside. They are also very strong on the sort of spas and the relaxation as well, so there’s a lot of people on the island who are offering a wide range of spas and sort of health treatments as well

H: I think everyone, everyone is catered for. Thank you so much, sadly we are out f time but it has been so insightful and I for one cannot wait for a little holiday. And thank you to you for watching. If you’d like more information on this glorious paradise then all you have to do is visit this website, it’s visitgozo.com. Bye bye