Description: During my holiday to Malta I visited the amazing Crafts village in Gharb. I travelled to Crafts village from the Bugibba bus station Route 65 Sliema - Rabat - Mdina (I believe it was the stop before Mdina however the bus drivers are very helpful and will stop here for you if asked).
The village itself is very strange looking, the area used to be an RAF airfield. There are lots of buildings scattered around all housing various crafts such as pottery, glass blowers and the famous hand made silver filigree. All of the crafts are free to watch and are very informative, the people are willing to talk about and demonstrate how things are made. One of my favourite of the crafts is the pottery works where craftsman make exquisite pieces of small and large items from cups and saucers to whole bathrooms (such as sinks, mirrors etc.) There are also other shops here selling a variation of souvenirs, some of these are quite tacky and could be purchased in any of the tourist shops around Malta however some of the more expensive authentic items are the ones that Crafts village is famous for and are worth purchasing. When I went here I was particularly interested in was the silver filigree and purchased several necklaces and rings for friends back home. These were very reasonably priced (the necklace cost around £13) but some of the items were extremely high priced and unaffordable for me.
Crafts village is a good day out as you can watch the crafts being made for free so all you need to pay for is the bus fare and any items you wish to buy. As there are so many shops around you can spend a fair few hours here looking around and talking to the Maltese craftsman. As it is so near to Mdina I have previously visited Crafts village in the morning and then made the short journey by bus to Mdina for the afternoon.
I really enjoy Crafts village but many people would probably not be very entertained there, I know that my dad did not really like it there. He found it slightly boring as he is not interested in arts and crafts. I would make sure that if you do not really like this type of thing but you want to see Crafts village that you only plan to go for a short amount of time and go somewhere else afterwards.
There are a few things to consider when visiting Crafts village that can ruin the experience for people. Firstly there is not much shade around and it does seem to get extremely hot there so ensure that you take lots of sun cream and drinks especially when going back as the buses are quite irregular and there is no shade near the bus stop and you can be waiting there for a long time in the hot sun.
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