Malta Travel Guide: Where to Go, Costs and Travel Tips

Malta fits into 5 to 7 days, and unlike most countries you can see the whole of it: the archipelago covers 316 km² (122 sq mi), the bus network reaches every village, and no two points are more than about an hour apart. Give 2 days to Valletta and the Three Cities, 1 to Mdina and Rabat, 1 to Gozo and half a day to Comino’s Blue Lagoon, which now needs a booked time slot. April, May, June, September and October are the months to come, with sunshine, swimmable sea and none of the July and August heat.

Malta sits in the central Mediterranean between Sicily and North Africa, and it is the smallest country in the European Union by area and one of the most densely populated in the world. English is an official language alongside Maltese, the euro is the currency, cars drive on the left, and the whole place is built from the same honey-coloured limestone, which is why Valletta, Mdina and the Three Cities look like one continuous city split across three harbours.

This guide is written by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team for independent travellers, and it routes you to our own Malta guides on things to do, food, driving, car hire, beaches and prices wherever they go deeper. Founder Sofie Couwenbergh’s booking habits, from Booking.com and Vrbo onwards, are the ones linked below.

Malta quick facts

The Malta quick facts below cover what a trip needs, from currency and plugs to driving, tap water and the emergency number.

The table stops at the practical facts. Trivia such as why Malta has more churches than days in the year sits in our 24 interesting facts about Malta post.

Malta guides on Wonderful Wanderings

The Malta guides on Wonderful Wanderings go deeper than this hub on things to do, food, driving, beaches, prices and more. The 13 guides are listed below, most useful first.

1. 21 things to do in Malta: the sights, museums and history, ranked and with practical detail.
2. 20 traditional Maltese foods: what to eat and where, written with a local.
3. Renting a car in Malta: 34 tips on licences, insurance, deposits and parking.
4. Driving in Malta: road rules, etiquette and what driving on the left is like here.
5. 14 beaches in Malta: sand, rock and the ones worth the drive.
6. 16 places to visit in Malta: the towns and villages to build a route around.
7. Prices in Malta: what a trip actually costs, item by item.
8. Transportation in Malta: buses, ferries, taxis and which to use when.
9. 18 festivals in Malta: the music, village and religious festas worth planning around.
10. Holiday dates in Malta: the public holidays, updated each year.
11. 12 castles and forts in Malta: the Knights’ fortifications and the towers on the coast.
12. 24 facts about Malta: the history, language and geography facts worth knowing.
13. 31 famous Maltese people: the artists, chefs and scientists the islands produced.

Where to go in Malta: the 5 regions

Malta divides into 5 regions, 4 on the main island and 1 covering Gozo and Comino, and you can reach any of them from any base in about an hour. The 5 are listed below, most useful to a visitor first.

1. South Eastern Region, including Valletta: the capital is a walled UNESCO World Heritage Site built by the Knights of St John from 1566, with St John’s Co-Cathedral and its Caravaggio, the Grand Master’s Palace, the National Museum of Archaeology, the Upper Barrakka Gardens above the Grand Harbour and the Manoel Theatre. Across the water sit the Three Cities of Birgu, Senglea and Cospicua, quieter and older than Valletta itself.
2. Central Region: Mdina, the walled “Silent City” that was Malta’s capital until the Knights arrived, with Rabat and St Paul’s Catacombs just outside the gate, and, on the coast, Sliema and St Julian’s, where most of the hotels, restaurants and nightlife are.
3. Northern Region: the resort coast, with Malta’s largest sandy beach at Mellieħa Bay, Golden Bay and Għajn Tuffieħa, the Popeye Village film set, and the Ċirkewwa ferry terminal for Gozo and Comino. Stay here if you want beaches and a short hop to the other islands.
4. Gozo Region: Gozo and Comino, greener, slower and more rural than the main island, with the Ġgantija temples, which are older than the pyramids, the citadel above Victoria, the salt pans at Marsalforn, some of the Mediterranean’s better dive sites, and Comino’s Blue Lagoon.
5. Southern Region: the quiet half, with the temples of Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra on the cliffs, the fishing village of Marsaxlokk and its Sunday market, the swimming spot at St Peter’s Pool, the Għar Dalam cave at Birżebbuġa, and the underground Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, which admits a strictly limited number of visitors a day and books out months ahead.

Our 16 places to visit in Malta guide ranks the individual towns, and 21 things to do in Malta covers the sights inside them.

How many days do you need in Malta

Plan 5 to 7 days in Malta, which is enough to see the main island, Gozo and Comino without rushing. The 5-day route below works from a single base in Sliema, St Julian’s or Valletta.

1. Day 1, Valletta: St John’s Co-Cathedral, the Upper Barrakka Gardens, the Grand Master’s Palace and the National Museum of Archaeology, ending with the harbour cruise or the ferry across to Sliema.
2. Day 2, the Three Cities and the south: Birgu’s waterfront and Fort St Angelo, then Marsaxlokk for the fish market and St Peter’s Pool.
3. Day 3, Mdina and the west: Mdina’s walls at opening time before the coaches arrive, Rabat and the catacombs, then Dingli Cliffs and Ħaġar Qim.
4. Day 4, Gozo: the ferry from Ċirkewwa, then the Ġgantija temples, the citadel in Victoria and a swim at Ramla Bay or Xlendi.
5. Day 5, Comino: a booked slot at the Blue Lagoon in the morning, and Mellieħa Bay or Golden Bay in the afternoon.

With 7 days, add a night on Gozo rather than a day trip, and a diving day if you are qualified. Check hotel availability in Malta on Booking.com early for July and August, when the island fills up.

Best time to visit Malta

April, May, June, September and October are the months to visit Malta, with sunshine, a swimmable sea from about June to November and prices below the July and August peak. Malta has a Mediterranean climate with about 12 hours of sunshine a day in summer and 5 or 6 in winter, and the 4 seasons are described below.

• Spring (March to May): warm, green and the busiest festival stretch, with the Fireworks Festival in April, Medieval Mdina in May and comfortable walking weather before the heat.
• Summer (June to August): hot and dry, with highs around 30°C (86°F), full beaches, the Isle of MTV concert and Malta’s village festa season.
• Autumn (September and October): the sea is at its warmest, September still feels like summer, and thunderstorms arrive towards the end of the month.
• Winter (December to February): mild rather than cold, averaging around 12°C (53.6°F), with the rain concentrated between October and March and Carnival in February.

Malta gets no snow and rarely freezes, which makes it one of the few European destinations that works as a winter city break.

How to get to Malta

You get to Malta by plane, or by ferry from Sicily and mainland Italy. The 2 routes in and the entry rules are described below.

Flights to Malta

Malta International Airport at Luqa is the country’s only airport, about 8 km (5.0 mi) southwest of Valletta, and it takes direct flights from most of Europe, North Africa and the Gulf, with Air Malta’s successor KM Malta Airlines the national carrier alongside Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz Air and Lufthansa. Flying time from London is about 3 hours 15 minutes and from Rome about 1 hour 20 minutes. Look here for flights to Malta once your dates are fixed.

Ferries to Malta

Ferries to Malta sail from Sicily and mainland Italy: Virtu Ferries runs the fast catamaran from Pozzallo to Valletta in about 1 hour 45 minutes and a longer service from Catania, and Grimaldi Lines carries cars and passengers from Salerno, Catania, Genoa and Tunis. Sailings are most frequent between April and October. Look here for ferry routes and prices to Malta if you are bringing a car.

Entry requirements for Malta

Check the current entry rules for your passport before you book, because they change. Malta is in the EU and the Schengen Area, so EU and EEA citizens enter with a national ID card and can stay indefinitely, registering with the authorities after 3 months, and visa-exempt visitors such as US, UK, Canadian and Australian passport holders get 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole Schengen Area. The US State Department’s Malta page says American tourists need no visa for stays of 90 days or less and a passport valid for at least 3 months beyond departure. Two EU systems matter at the border: the Entry/Exit System (EES) began its phased rollout on 12 October 2025 and has been fully operational since 10 April 2026, replacing passport stamps with a record of your fingerprints and photo, and the ETIAS travel authorisation is not yet in operation, with the European Commission saying it will announce the start date several months in advance and confirming a €20 (about $23, £17) fee when it does. The official sources are travel-europe.europa.eu for EES and ETIAS and travel.state.gov for the US advisory.

Getting around Malta

You get around Malta by public bus, which reaches almost everywhere, by hire car if you want the far corners, and by ferry to Gozo and Comino. The 5 options are listed below.

1. Buses: Malta Public Transport runs the whole network from the Valletta terminus and from Sliema, Bugibba and the airport, and a single journey valid for 2 hours costs €2 (about $2, £2) in winter and €2.50 (about $3, £2) in summer, with Tallinja Direct express routes at €3 (about $3, £3). Buses are cheap and thorough, and slow in traffic.
2. Hire car: worth it for Dingli, the south and Gozo, and a nuisance in Valletta and Sliema, where parking is scarce. Malta drives on the left, the roads are narrow and the reputation for chaotic driving is exaggerated outside the Valletta approaches. Read our renting a car in Malta and driving in Malta guides, then compare rental car options and prices.
3. Ferries to Gozo: Gozo Channel sails between Ċirkewwa on Malta and Mġarr on Gozo in about 25 minutes, with cars carried, and the Gozo Fast Ferry and Virtu run a passenger service from Valletta in about 45 minutes. The fare on the Gozo Channel route is collected when you leave Gozo, not when you arrive.
4. Boats to Comino: seasonal boats run to the Blue Lagoon from Ċirkewwa, Sliema, Bugibba and Mġarr, and a booked time slot is now required in summer.
5. Taxis and water taxis: the white airport taxis run to fixed tariffs by district, ride-hailing apps operate across the island, and traditional dgħajsa water taxis cross the Grand Harbour between Valletta and the Three Cities. Our transportation guide for Malta compares all of these.

Booking the Blue Lagoon on Comino

Comino’s Blue Lagoon now runs on a booking system, so turning up without a slot is no longer reliable in summer. The Malta Tourism Authority introduced an access management system that caps numbers at 4,000 people at any one time and splits the day into 3 slots, and the booking is made in advance through the official visitmalta.com system rather than at the quay. Book the earliest slot if you want the water to yourself, because the lagoon is at its emptiest before the first boats from Sliema arrive.

What a Malta trip costs

A mid-range traveller spends roughly €90-140 (about $104-162, £77-120) a day in Malta, which puts it below Italy and well below France for food and transport. Malta’s prices below are approximate and move with the season.

The table covers a typical tourist day. The café, beer and restaurant figures come from Numbeo’s Malta data for September 2026, the bus fares from Malta Public Transport and the cathedral price from St John’s Co-Cathedral’s own site. Our prices in Malta guide goes through the rest, item by item.

Money in Malta: cards, cash and tipping

Cards work in almost every Maltese restaurant, hotel and shop, though American Express is refused more often than Visa or Mastercard because of the fees. ATMs are everywhere, and the 3 money habits that save you money are listed below.

1. Withdraw from a bank’s own ATM rather than a standalone machine in a tourist street, because both the machine and your bank can charge you.
2. Decline “dynamic currency conversion” when a terminal offers to bill you in your own currency, because its rate is worse than your bank’s.
3. Carry €20-40 (about $23-46, £17-34) in cash for bus fares if you are not using a card, village kiosks, market stalls and tips.

Tipping in Malta is common but not fixed: sometimes a percentage, more often just rounding up. Our guidelines on what to tip in Malta sit inside the wider tipping in Europe guide.

Where to stay in Malta

Stay in Sliema or St Julian’s for restaurants, nightlife and the ferry to Valletta, in Valletta itself for the sights and quiet evenings, in Mellieħa or Bugibba for beaches and the Gozo ferry, and on Gozo if you want the slow version of Malta. The island is small enough that any of these works as a single base, so moving hotels mid-trip is rarely worth it.

Booking sites do the filtering. Sofie books hotels, guest houses and B&Bs through Booking.com, because its filters turn hundreds of listings into a short list that meets her criteria, so check here first; she uses Vrbo when a townhouse or a Gozo farmhouse suits the trip better. If you book on Airbnb as well, our how to use Airbnb guide covers its filters and fees.

What to eat in Malta

Maltese food is Sicilian at heart with British and North African additions, built on rabbit, fish, bread, tomato and ricotta. The 10 dishes to try are listed below, with the Maltese name first.

1. Pastizzi: flaky pastry parcels filled with ricotta or mushy peas, sold from hole-in-the-wall pastizzerias for small change.
2. Fenkata: the rabbit feast, usually a rabbit stew in wine and garlic served after a plate of spaghetti cooked in its sauce, and the closest thing Malta has to a national meal.
3. Ħobż biż-żejt: sourdough bread rubbed with tomato and olive oil and topped with tuna, capers, olives or anchovies.
4. Aljotta: fish soup with garlic, lemon, tomato and rice or herbs.
5. Bigilla: a broad bean paste with garlic and herbs, eaten with galletti crackers.
6. Ġbejniet: small sheep’s or goat’s cheeses from Gozo, served fresh, dried or peppered.
7. Timpana: baked macaroni in a meat and tomato sauce, wrapped in pastry.
8. Bragioli and brunġiel mimli: beef olives stuffed with bacon and egg, and stuffed aubergines.
9. Torta tal-lampuki: the pie made with lampuki, the dolphinfish caught between Malta and Gozo from late August to December.
10. Imqaret and kannoli: fried date pastries sold hot from street stalls, and ricotta-filled cannoli.

The list stops at 10. Our 20 traditional Maltese foods guide names the restaurants and villages that do each one properly, and Kinnie, the bitter orange soft drink, and Cisk lager are the two things everybody hands you first.

Festivals and public holidays in Malta

Malta’s calendar is packed for a country this size, with a village festa somewhere almost every summer weekend and a national programme of music, fireworks and food festivals. Dates shift each year, so check the programme before you book around an event.

The table shows the events visitors plan around, and our 18 festivals in Malta guide covers them properly. Malta has 14 public holidays, more than almost any EU country: 1 January, 10 February (the Feast of St Paul’s Shipwreck), 19 March (St Joseph’s Day), 31 March (Freedom Day), Good Friday, 1 May (Workers’ Day), 7 June (Sette Giugno), 29 June (St Peter and St Paul, known as L-Imnarja), 15 August (Assumption), 8 September (Victory Day), 21 September (Independence Day), 8 December (Immaculate Conception), 13 December (Republic Day) and 25 December. A holiday that falls on a weekend is not moved to the Monday, and our holiday dates in Malta page carries the current year’s dates.

Is Malta safe?

Malta is safe for travellers, including solo women: the US State Department has it at Level 1, “exercise normal precautions”, and crime rates are low. Malta is not one of the 163 countries scored by the Global Peace Index, so any guide that gives it a peace-index rank is quoting the wrong source. The 4 real risks are listed below, most common first.

1. Pickpocketing and bag snatching in the busiest tourist areas, mainly St Julian’s, Sliema and Valletta in summer: keep bags closed and in front of you, and do not leave a phone on a café table.
2. Riptides and rough sea, which the US State Department singles out for Malta’s beaches: swim where the flags allow it, and take the red-flag warnings seriously, because there are no lifeguards on many bays.
3. Road accidents: the roads are narrow, the driving around Valletta is assertive and pedestrians have less priority than in northern Europe, so cross with care.
4. Summer heat and thunderstorms: heat over 35°C (95°F) in July and August, and short violent storms with local flooding between October and March.

Dial 112 for police, fire or ambulance.

What to pack for Malta

Pack for sun and stone in summer, and for rain and wind in winter, because Malta has almost no shade and a lot of exposed limestone. The 3 seasonal lists follow.

• Summer (June to September): plenty of sun cream, a sun hat, sunglasses, light clothes, swimwear, good walking sandals for hot pavements and rock beaches, water shoes for the pebble and rock entries, mosquito repellent lotion and a re-usable water bottle.
• Winter (December to February): layers, a warm scarf, comfortable shoes, a warm and waterproof coat for the wind off the sea, and the same re-usable water bottle; Maltese buildings often have no heating, so an extra jumper indoors is not a joke.
• Spring and autumn (March to May, October and November): layers, a light waterproof jacket, comfortable shoes, sunglasses and sun cream, because the sun is strong long after the sea has cooled.

Two extras finish the list. A universal adapter covers the British type G plug if you are not coming from the UK or Ireland, and shoulders and knees need covering in churches, including St John’s Co-Cathedral.

Travel insurance for Malta

Travel insurance for Malta covers what a health card does not: a cancelled flight or ferry, a stolen phone, a diving or quad-bike accident and repatriation. EU citizens should carry their European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) and UK visitors their Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC), which give access to Maltese state healthcare, but neither pays for a missed sailing or an air ambulance. Check that diving is covered if you are going below 18 m (59.1 ft), because many policies stop there, and compare the options in our best medical travel insurance guide. The insurer Wonderful Wanderings uses is SafetyWing, whose plans can be bought before you leave or while you are already travelling, so check out SafetyWing if you want a quote to compare.

Maltese customs and etiquette

Nobody in Malta is in a hurry, and treating that as rudeness is the fastest way to have a bad time. The 4 customs that matter are listed below.

1. Allow extra time everywhere: service runs at conversation speed, and staff stopping to chat with another customer is normal rather than neglect.
2. Cover shoulders and knees in churches, of which Malta has a great many, and expect them to close in the early afternoon.
3. Expect village festas to be loud: the fireworks that go off at all hours in summer are religious celebrations, not a disturbance.
4. Speak English freely, because it is an official language and almost universally spoken, but “grazzi” for thank you and “bonġu” for good morning are still appreciated.

A short history of Malta

Malta’s history is written into its buildings: temples older than the pyramids, Roman catacombs, Arab place names, a Knights’ capital and the scars of the Second World War. The 6 periods that explain what you see are listed below.

1. The temple builders (about 3600 to 2500 BC): Ġgantija on Gozo, Ħaġar Qim, Mnajdra and the underground Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum are among the oldest free-standing stone structures in the world, older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids.
2. Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Romans (about 800 BC to 4th century AD): the islands change hands repeatedly, and tradition holds that St Paul was shipwrecked here in about 60 AD, which is why the shipwreck is still a public holiday.
3. Arab and Norman rule (870 to 1530): Arab rule from 870 leaves the Maltese language, which is Semitic in structure, and the Normans take the islands in 1091.
4. The Knights of St John (1530 to 1798): Charles V grants Malta to the Order in 1530, the Great Siege of 1565 sees the Ottomans repelled, and Valletta is founded the following year and named after Grand Master Jean de Valette.
5. France and Britain (1798 to 1964): Napoleon takes the islands in 1798, Malta becomes a British crown colony in 1814, and in the Second World War it survives one of the heaviest sustained bombardments of the war, for which the whole island is awarded the George Cross in 1942.
6. Independence and Europe (1964 onwards): Malta becomes independent on 21 September 1964, a republic on 13 December 1974, joins the European Union on 1 May 2004 and adopts the euro on 1 January 2008.

Our 31 famous Maltese people post covers the individuals who came out of that.

Malta travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Malta?

Plan 5 to 7 days in Malta, which covers Valletta, the Three Cities, Mdina, the south, Gozo and Comino without rushing; 3 days is enough for the main island’s highlights only.

What is the best month to visit Malta?

April, May, June, September or October is the month to visit Malta, for sunshine, a swimmable sea and prices below the July and August peak.

Is Malta expensive?

Malta costs less than Italy and well below France for food and transport, and a mid-range traveller spends roughly €90-140 (about $104-162, £77-120) a day; our prices in Malta guide breaks it down item by item.

Do you need a car in Malta?

No, the bus network reaches almost everywhere, and a single journey costs €2 to €2.50; hire a car only if you want the south, Dingli and Gozo on your own schedule, and remember that Malta drives on the left.

Do you need to book the Blue Lagoon?

Yes, in summer: the Malta Tourism Authority’s access system caps the Blue Lagoon at 4,000 people at a time across 3 daily slots, and slots are booked in advance through the official visitmalta.com system.

Can you visit Gozo as a day trip?

Yes, and the ferry from Ċirkewwa takes about 25 minutes, but a night on Gozo is better, because the island empties in the evening and the citadel and Ramla Bay are worth an unhurried morning.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 5 tips below come from driving and eating our way around Malta and Gozo, and from the rules and fares that have changed since most Malta guides were written.

1. Book a Blue Lagoon slot before you go anywhere near Comino. The Malta Tourism Authority caps the lagoon at 4,000 people at any one time and splits the day into 3 slots booked through visitmalta.com, so arriving at the quay in summer without one is no longer a plan. Take the earliest slot if you want the water quiet.
2. Expect to pay the Gozo Channel fare on the way out, not the way in. The 25-minute crossing from Ċirkewwa to Mġarr collects its fare when you leave Gozo, which reliably confuses first-time visitors at the barrier.
3. Do not save St John’s Co-Cathedral for a Sunday. It closes on Sundays and public holidays, and admission is €15 for adults, €12 for seniors and students and free for under-12s.
4. Hire the car anyway, despite Malta’s reputation for driving. We found the reputation exaggerated: it gets chaotic on the Valletta approaches, and everywhere else on the island was straightforward, remembering that Malta drives on the left and that parking in Valletta and Sliema is the real problem.
5. Read the depth exclusion on your travel insurance before you dive. Malta is a diving destination and standard policies commonly stop covering you below a set depth, which is a Malta-specific way to be uninsured without knowing it.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand notes in this post come from her time driving and eating her way around Malta and Gozo. The team covers Malta for independent travellers, including the hotels, farmhouses and apartments, the pastizzerias and fenkata restaurants, the hire cars, the beaches and the travel insurance worth booking, and updates this page when prices, dates and rules change.