A tiny Mediterranean island, where the sun shines in every season and everywhere is within easy reach. Malta's people have a reputation for warmth and friendliness, and everyone speaks English and Italian.
Its infrastructure is modern enough to provide broadband connections and e-government services, but it has monuments old enough to date back to prehistory.
It offers high culture - from art and architecture to theatre and music - as well as a swinging nightlife full of bars and clubs. You can eat in the finest restaurants or sample simple, traditional food; relax on a beautiful beach or play tennis and golf; visit a quiet old church or do an adventure sport like horse riding or scuba diving; enjoy a gorgeous sunset over the sea or take in a movie at a state-of-the-art cinema.
Among the many attractions are Malta's world-heritage capital Valletta, a fortified harbour city of palaces and cathedrals built by the Knights four hundred years ago. Mdina is older still, a walled, medieval town high on a hill untouched by time, with narrow, winding streets between imposing baroque buildings.
And you can't get more ancient than Malta's Neolithic temples. Dating back nearly 6,000 years, Hagar Qim, Mnajdra and many other sites are the oldest known standing human structures in the world.
Gozo is Malta's smaller and greener sister island, with sleepy old villages, wide-open countryside and stunning coastline just a short ferry-ride away.