Did you know that Malta is the fifth densest country in the world? Imagine putting 10 times more permanent population on an island the size of Ibiza and adding to that all the people who arrive with flights and cruises in summer, crazy.

Despite this, outside of the big cities you do not have this feeling at any time. In fact, you will leave with the idea that Malta is a much more rural country than you thought. Outside of the main eastern cities, everything is small villages, fields and little houses in the mountains. On the other hand, the upper island, Gozo, is quite the opposite, very sparsely populated, due to poor communication and practically everything is small and very charming villages.

Malta is a destination for all types of travelers, end-of-year trips, parties for all types of budgets, tax havens for the wealthiest and cultural trips, since you must not forget that Malta has a lot of history and it begins in the year 3,600. BC.

The ultimate guide to visiting Malta:

1. Best time of year to visit Malta
2. Best tips for Malta
3. 3-day itinerary in Malta
   1. Day 1: Marsaxlokk, M’dina and Rabat
   2. Day 2: La Valetta and the 3 cities
   3. Day 3: Gozo
4. Malta daily backpacking budget
5. Where to stay in Malta
6. What to do in Malta if you have more time

Official exchange rate 1EUR = In Malta they use euros

Best time of year to visit Malta

As highlighted in the previous point, it is important to take into account the time of year that you visit Malta. For the main reason for the climate, and that is that these types of destinations tend to have very seasonal seasons in terms of accommodation and restaurants.

• November to March: The summer season ends and many places in Malta are closing for the winter. The climate is cool, around 15ºC with strong winds in different areas, which makes the thermal sensation drop more.
• June to August: The busiest time of year, young people who finish their studies, people who come to Malta for the party and the good weather etc … Anyway, Malta is full. It is the best time to party and beach, but perhaps the high temperatures can overwhelm you if you want to take a more cultural trip.
• April to May and September to October: The temperatures are much more relaxed, the hotel offer is the same as in high season with less occupancy and therefore better prices. Maybe it’s too cold to be able to bathe, but that’s something for every brave man 🙂

I visited Malta in May. There each one and the type of trip you want to do.

Best tips for Malta

It is a country very similar to the rest of its northern Mediterranean neighbors. Most of the advice I can give you is related to transportation.

• Typical food that you must try: Pastizzi, a kind of dumplings. the most famous are the ones filled with cottage cheese or peas but there are of all types and Timpana macaroni with minced meat and tomato, covered in puff pastry and baked. They sell them everywhere.
• Rent a car: Malta is perhaps one of the worst countries I have seen on public transport in Europe. You should have no problem moving between Sliema, La Valletta and the three cities, as they are relatively close. But I’m sure you won’t get much further. The roads are not very good, and it takes time to travel small distances by car to do it by bus.
• Be careful with the car: If you are one of those who is going to make use of the previous advice, be careful. Because as a good ex-British colony, they have remained the habit of driving on the left. This was the first time that I drove on the right and apart from having many doubts at any junction and roundabout (there are hundreds); I almost had an accident crossing a road in the middle without looking at who was coming.
• It is quite difficult to park depending on which towns or cities. If you plan to visit or are staying between Sliema and La Valletta, leave your car parked and use public transport. In the walled center of La Valletta, you will not be able to park.
• Go at a time of year when the weather is nice. Like any island in the Mediterranean, earn much more if you can enjoy the relaxed summer time. The best beaches are on the island of Gozo.
• Another of the good habits that the Maltese have remained is the British plugs (Type G), do not forget to bring an adapter although many hotels have the universal plug.

3-day itinerary in Malta

Despite being able to visit all the essentials, perhaps there was no time to relax. It is true that May is not the best time to go to the beach, but going with more time would have allowed us to go deeper in other places. There goes the route we did. The first day practically does not count, since we only take an Uber to go to AirBnB to sleep. So let’s get started!

Day 1: Marsaxlokk, M’dina and Rabat

We rented a suuuuper cheap car at the Malta airport with the company Surprice € 64 for three days. It took us a while to find their offices, since as it is low cost, but low low, it is not located where the rest of the agencies and you have to look for it in the office area but in the end you find it. Good part is that it is very cheap, the bad part is the hours are relatively restricted.

So we headed south to go up north little by little. First stop Marsaxlokk, a charming fishing village, you will find stops where they sell sweets and fruit and you can walk through the picturesque port admiring its characteristic colored boats. From there we headed towards Saint Peter’s Pool and I already warned you that Google goes a bit crazy because sometimes it doesn’t distinguish between roads. Indeed, he put us on a goat path through a quarry and with the little power of the car we almost fell down a ravine, I still smell the smell of a clutch and a burnt wheel trying to get out of there.

Saint Peter’s Pool is a beautiful area of cliffs right next to Marsaxlokk, in summer it must be incredible to be able to swim there, but at that time the water was still a bit cool.

By 12 noon we had reached M’Dina. M’Dina is the ancient capital of Malta, it is a beautiful walled city on top of a hill and was the capital until 1570 when it passed the baton to its neighbor Valletta. Currently about 300 people reside. Get carried away by its stone alleys, admire its wall and try to find somewhere to eat. You cannot miss the Fontanella Tea Garden restaurant, the views are spectacular and it is very well priced at € 11 / person. After lunch we head to Rabat, the adjoining city to have a coffee and visit the city. You can visit the catacombs of the city although we did not get to enter, since it did not seem very relevant to us.

As I said in previous points, the history of Malta dates back to 3600 BC and is that on the island you can find one of the best preserved megalithic temples there is, Hagar Qim € 10 / ticket. It is worth a visit, it is also next to some cliffs facing the sea that make it even more epic.

And what better way than to end the day with a beautiful sunset. So we headed to the Dingli Cliffs on the same west coast where we were to watch the sunset.

Day 2: La Valetta and the three citites

The next day, change of plans first thing in the morning due to the strong wind and bad weather that painted in Gozo. So despite crossing the entire island and visiting Popeye’s village (we never got inside), we had to back off and go back to Valletta. In, Popeye’s Town, the 1980 film was shot and the setting that has been converted into an amusement park still stands.

So we parked the car near the hotel again and took a bus to Valletta, the bus costs € 1.50 each way. He dropped us off at the gates of the walled city of Valletta. There is no route that I should tell you to follow, just wander the city up and down admiring its traditional colored balconies that protrude from the buildings, its monumental squares and surround the city by the area of the wall. The views of the three cities and Sliema from Valletta are well worth a visit.

After eating a Timpana and a Lampuki at Nanu The Artisan, a very cozy stone restaurant that we found in the walled city, we headed towards the three cities. The three cities is the short name for the cities of Senglea, Vittoriosa and Capiscua, they are three mini peninsulas south of Valletta. They stand out for their marinas and one of them Vittoriosa for the imposing Fort of San Angelo. This served as the main defense of the island of Malta until later the walled city of Valletta was built.

Day 3: Gozo

Gozo is the little sister of the island of Malta. To be honest, before arriving he did not know it existed. For this reason I suppose we missed one more day in Malta. The third day we boarded a 20 € y / v ferry and traveled it from top to bottom with the mini car that we had rented.

While you are on the ferry that takes about 30 minutes to complete the journey, you will see little Comino on your right. The smallest of the three islands that can be visited in Malta. It is last, but it does not admit vehicles and you can only walk and cycle.

The first stop in Gozo was the Ta’Cenc cliffs, they will really take your breath away. They are steep cliffs with a drop to the sea of more than 200 meters, you will have to park your car and walk a little through the countryside to find them. Do you know what this means? Indeed, you will be alone without anyone bothering you. On your way to Victoria you can stop at Xewkija.

Victoria is Gozo’s main tourist attraction and you will find out very quickly. It is where all the tourists stop to visit the Gozo Citadel (L-arloġġ taċ-Ċittadella) for free. We ate a delicious frutti di mare at the € 11 Coffee Break restaurant.

In the afternoon we continue exploring Gozo heading north to Azure Window, oh sorry it doesn’t exist anymore …! It was a natural rocky arch that broke off the mountain in a strong storm that occurred just the year before our visit. But it is still worth going down to the beach.

Perhaps what surprised me the most about Malta is how little cultural tourism there is, despite being an important tourist destination for its beaches and good weather, most of the relevant sites on the island (outside of Valletta) were empty. Along the same lines we find the Qolla I-Bajda salt flats, spectacular salt flats facing the sea where we were practically alone.

After a last stop to rest in Marsalforn, we realized that we were getting late. So we kicked the little guy and we reached the limit to deliver the car at the Luqa airport.

Malta daily backpacking budget

Malta is a country relatively above the average in the Mediterranean in terms of accommodation, despite this you can eat and drink very well priced on practically the entire island. What you should bear in mind is that as in practically all the islands of the Mediterranean you must rent a car, since public transport is very bad. If you look at it in advance you can rent a small car very well priced, keep in mind that it is difficult to park so do not look for a very large one.

The positive part is that most of the places to visit are public or admission is free, so you can allocate your budget to other activities. Withdraw cash for free with N26. If you don’t have an N26 card register and earn 25€ of free credit.

Where to stay in Malta

This was one of the main debates when looking for accommodation, in our case, one of the nights affected by arriving too late and not being able to rent a car at the airport. You must bear in mind the following, accommodation in Malta is more scarce than it may seem in terms of good, beautiful and cheap.

Therefore, not all zones are equally good. Saint Julian is the party area, hotels and an atmosphere very designed for young people. In the north you will find very cool hotels in the Mellieha area, yes, keep in mind that there is not much life out there and it is a more relaxing or all-inclusive style. The south through the Marsaxlokk area is somewhat similar in the sense that at night it has practically no life. My recommendation is that you stay around the Sliema or La Valletta area. The three cities seem close, but there really is a stretch to La Valletta or Sliema where most of the nightlife and entertainment are concentrated. This is where we stay:

• Backstage Boutique Townhouse // Sliema: Charming boutique hotel set in music, it has few rooms and that makes it super quiet. It has a private bathroom, but the bad part is that the bathroom is not integrated into the room.
• 5 minutes from the airport hotel // Luqa: I don’t think there is much to add, right? Convenient to sleep period, although it was very clean it had nothing but a bed to sleep in, which was a bit hard.

What to do if you have more time in Malta

This is very easy, rest on its paradisiacal beaches, see more sunsets and do not miss the island of Comino. The rest you have everything seen in three days, you do not need more time to see the essentials.

Enjoy, and don’t forget to drive on the side of the road you play!