A Week in Malta & Gozo - Trip Overview

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UPDATED: 2/5/2023

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Malta: A Mediterranean Gem

For a country we had really never heard of prior to booking our trip, Malta was awash with so many of the things that appeal to us about traveling. We had a wonderful week-long trip to this three-island nation and managed to enjoy a wide array of activities.

In this blog, we will share how we ended up booking a trip to Malta in the first place, will provide an overview of the country (from language to culture to history to transportation), will share an overview of our itinerary and how we spent the week, and share our thoughts on whether we would return again (spoiler alert: we would) and what we’d do differently in retrospect.

How We Decided to Go to Malta

Our trip to Malta was the first trip we can say we truly booked on a whim. Since then, we’ve added a few others to that list. How did this come to pass? We had signed up for Scott’s Cheap Flights, which has a free as well as premium version for a nominal amount per year. We were using the free version at the time but have since upgraded to the premium version. The site employs a team of people who scour the internet for good flight deals from your preferred airports and sends an email notification to you when there is a better than normal pricing to different destinations. We first learned about it from one of my coworkers and now recommend it to everyone we come across because we love it so much! It’s also dangerous because there are so many places we want to go and so many great deals to them, so don’t sign up unless you know how to exercise willpower! (The site only has international flights, not domestic except Hawaii and Alaska.)

So when we saw an email with a good flight price to Malta, our first thought was: where? Over the next hour, we did some quick internet searching to figure out whether Malta looked like a spot we’d enjoy, decided it was, and went ahead and booked it! One of the sites we used in doing our research is the travel blog Our Escape Clause (you can check out their blogs on Malta here). We then had more work ahead to figure out where to stay, how much time to spend in different areas, what we wanted to do while there, and all the regular planning we do. What we found as we did that pre-trip research after booking our flights was that Malta had even more to offer and more that appealed to us than we had first realized.

Malta: An Overview of the Country

Assuming that others are less familiar with Malta like we were before that great deal popped up in our email, we’ll give you the quick version of the country - the basics from the location to language, culture, and its place in history.

Where is malta located?

Within the Mediterranean, Malta is off the southern coast of Sicily, reachable via ferry in under two hours. To Malta’s west is Tunis, Tunisia, and to the south is Tripoli, Libya. Direct flights from Malta to Tunis are an hour in length.

Malta is a country made up of three islands situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The main island, called Malta, is significantly larger than the others and houses the airport and capital city of Valletta. The medium-sized island is Gozo, and a ferry from Malta to Gozo is only 25-30 minutes to give you a sense of how close together they are. Finally, sandwiched between Malta and Gozo is Comino, which is very small and not really a place to stay. There are day trips from the other islands to Comino, and it mostly attracts people to its Blue Lagoon for swimming and diving.

what language is spoken in Malta?

The native language of Malta is called Malti (or sometimes Maltese), and most linguists tie it to North African Arabic dialects. In some cases, linguists believe it may hearken back to the days when the Phoenicians lived on the island in approximately 1,000 BCE. Regardless of the original source, Malti is a unique mixture of many languages with Arabic grammar and sentence structure but words influenced by English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Sicilian. In the more modern era, Italian was the national language up until 1934, when Malti and English became the two official languages.

As we toured the area, we heard Malti, Italian, and English most frequently, and we had no trouble communicating in English, though sometimes accents got in the way a little.

We found the look and feel of Malti to be fascinating since it has letters unfamiliar in the Roman alphabet and unique combinations of letters. There are 30 letters in the Malti alphabet compared to the 26 in English. On this site, you can see both the upper case and lower case letters along with the phonetic pronunciation.

A course is also offered on Udemy called Learn the Maltese language: speak and write Malta's language if you want to learn more about this unique language! As of this writing (December 2019), the course is offered for only $9.99 USD.

maltese culture and food

Like the smorgasbord of its language, the culture and food contains a mixture of places throughout the Mediterranean region - flavors of Italy, Africa, and overall Mediterranean influences. The country is heavily Roman Catholic with much more conservative views generally speaking. For example, gay marriage was only legalized in Malta in 2017, and visitors to churches should be expected to cover up and dress conservatively, which is actively enforced.

the history of malta

The history of Malta can be encapsulated in one word: location. If Malta were located just about anywhere else, its history - for better or for worse - would be quite different. Instead, Malta found itself as a stepping stone in the Mediterranean, an area of significant human interest over the eons.

In its ancient past, a series of people known simply as “Temple Builders” lived on the islands and built significant sites that are valuable to modern archaeology. Many of these sites are open to the public, and we visited some on our trip. Some of these historically important finds pre-date the Pyramids by 1,000 years and provide a window into ancient societies. Later, during the Bronze era, a new group of people arrived and have left substantial artifacts and remnants of buildings. Many of these finds and information can be found at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, Malta (and there is a smaller archaeology museum on the island of Gozo - we visited both).

Moving forward in time, the Phoenicians and then the Arabs and then the Romans held control of the island, a sampling of the prime geographic location of these islands! The remains of a Phoenician ship were found with well preserved cargo in Xlendi Bay on the island of Gozo in 2007 and have been extensively researched. Portions of the cargo, the most intact Phoenician ship’s remains found to date, are available to visit in a small museum housed in the walled city of Cittadella on Gozo. In the literary world, Malta’s island of Gozo made a showing in Homer’s The Odyssey , where the nymph Calypso lived and kept Odysseus occupied for 7 years. After the Romans came the Byzantines, the North Africans, and the Normans, a revolving door of cultures, societies, and peoples.

And then enter the Knights of St. John. This militaristic Catholic force was at the center of the Middle Ages battles between Christianity and Islam. With the Pope’s Christian followers and the Sultans leading the Ottoman Empire, their forces clashed many times over the years. After the Knights of St. John lost the island of Rhodes to the Ottomans, the Pope granted them Malta as their island fortress (with no thought to the people already living on the island!). The Knights of St. John moved in, and it was only time before their presence would bring the fighting to Malta. The epicenter of that battle is known as the Siege of Malta, which occurred in 1565. Several forts and buildings from that time period are still in place and can be visited on both Malta and Gozo. At the time of that fighting, the capital city was the walled city of Mdina, which later was replaced by coastal Valletta as the capital city. Mdina can be visited and was a filming location for some Game of Thrones scenes, as were several other spots on Malta. Scholars place the conclusion of the Siege of Malta as a turning point where the Ottomans were turned away from their conquest to take Europe. Prior to taking the trip, I read a fascinating book on this period of time called Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World by Roger Crowley.

For several hundred years after the Siege’s conclusion, the island had less turnover until Napoleon arrived in 1798 and the French gained control. When the Maltese people looked to dispel the French, they turned to the British and ended up officially joining the British empire in the early 1800s, which continued to be their ruler until Malta became independent in 1964. But prior to gaining independence, Malta played a significant role during World War II. During World War II, with Malta just off the coast of Italy, the British used Malta as their strategic foothold in the region. Under the leadership of Winston Churchill, who visited Malta on many occasions as a child and later as the Prime Minister, Malta provided harbors for British ships, land from which to launch planes and employ anti-aircraft weapons, and helped the British fight on the North African front of the war. The war did not go easy on Malta, which suffered significant privations and starvation during the war. Many blocks of centuries-old buildings were crushed into rubble during bombings, and at times the people worried the British would forsake them. I also read an in-depth book on the history of Malta in World War II entitled, Churchill and Malta’s War 1939-1943 by Douglas Austin.

One of the most fascinating things to me is that several forts that were at the epicenter of the 1565 Siege of Malta were repurposed and used by the Maltese and British to fight World War II, almost 400 years later! And not only that, they are still there today and can be visited.

Planning Our Trip to Malta

Read about how we planned our trip, what we factored in, and why we decided to do what we did. We used Lonely Planet’s Malta and Gozo travel guide to assist us in planning this trip and found it to be concise and useful!

length of trip

Based on our research, Malta is a fairly popular island destination for Europeans but far less known to Americans like ourselves. We found most people seem to think 3-4 days maximum is plenty of time to spend in Malta, and people definitely use it for a Mediterranean beach and nightlife scene as well. We spent 7 nights and had about 6 1/2 days and left Malta with a whole host of things we wished we’d had time to do! It really comes down to what type of trip you enjoy.

If you’ve read any of our other blogs, you already know that we love exploring new places in an active way - hiking, meandering through cities, visiting churches, learning more about an area by visiting museums, visiting all sorts of historic sites - both ancient and more modern - and checking out local cuisine.

Because of the number of places in or very near to Valletta, Malta’s capital city, we decided to spent four nights there to have ample time to explore the city and take short half or full day trips. This worked very well for us, and I think Valletta is a great choice as a home base. We also knew we wanted to catch the ferry to Gozo and spend a few days exploring that island, so we booked two nights there. And then our final night was spent in a small town that was literally walkable to the airport since our return flight was an early one at 6:30am.

getting around malta

This is a little bit more complicated and required advance planning on our part to figure out how we could get to all of our destinations. We read everywhere that Malta is not a good place to rent a car, and we have to say we agree wholeheartedly and are glad we did not rent one. For one thing, the roads are very busy with confusing lanes zipping in and out and substantial traffic, as the number of cars grew exponentially in the last few decades. There are not always good parking options, particularly in a city like Valletta, where it appeared only local residents had permits to park.

Instead, we used the following methods of transportation: walking, eCabs (the in-country business that works basically like Uber or Lyft with an app to book and pay), buses, taxis, and the ferry. Here' is a little information on each and when we used them.

Walking: several portions of our trip were very walkable. Everywhere in Valletta was accessible on foot, and we also explored the main city of Gozo, Mdina (on Malta), Birgu/Vittoriosa (on Malta) just by walking. There are many cute, old streets that make walking very enjoyable (but wear good shoes!).
eCabs and Taxis: we took a taxi from the airport to our Airbnb but otherwise when we needed to call a car, we used eCabs, which worked as smoothly and easily as Uber or Lyft. We never had to wait long for the car to arrive, and the app also has a pre-book feature so that we were able to book our one early morning car ride the night before. As you would expect, these are the more expensive options, but the eCabs worked well for some of the further destinations from Valletta: Mdina, the Hypogeum, Tarxien Temples, and the ferry to Gozo. Note that eCabs is only active on the mainland of Malta, not on Gozo.
Buses: The bus system in Malta and Gozo is actually very user-friendly and cheap! We found it to be a wonderful method of transportation while on Gozo but less appealing on Malta proper since the bus takes longer and depending on where you’re going, many destinations require transferring through two or more buses. This is definitely the most cost effective way of getting around.
Ferries: We took the ferry from Malta to Gozo and a return and also took one the short distance from Vittoriosa/Birgu to Valletta. Both were easy to use and reasonably priced. One note on the ferry to/from Gozo - because everyone going to Gozo will return at some point, you only purchase a ticket on the return from Gozo to Malta. It’s also worth noting that there is not a ferry route from Valletta to Gozo; instead you have to catch the ferry from Cirkewwa, which is quite a ways from Valletta and easily our most expensive eCab ride.

An Overview of How We Spent Our Time

You’ll be able to read the day-by-day details of our trip, but here is a high level overview of how we structured our time. This doesn’t list out everything we did each day, just some of the key places we visited to give you a flavor of what is realistic in a given amount of time. Tip: To jump to the post for each of these days, click on the link for each respective day of the trip.

Day 1 and Day 2: Explored Valletta on foot (the first day was really a half day based on our arrival) - Upper Barrakka Gardens, Lower Barrakka Gardens, Grand Master’s Palace and Armory Museum, National Museum of Archaeology, and ended the day with a night stroll to Triton Fountain and watched a portion of an operatic performance at the open-air ruins of the former Opera House (it was bombed during World War II).

Day 3: Took an eCab to the town of Paolo to visit Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum and Tarxien Temples, took another eCab to one of the “Three Sisters” peninsula cities of Vittoriosa (also called Birgu) where we toured the peninsula on foot and visited the Inquisitor’s Palace (the only one open to the public in the world), then caught a ferry back to Valletta, where we took the Barrakka Lift and later ate dinner overlooking the Military Tattoo event in St. George’s Square in honor of Malta’s Independence Day.

Day 4: Took an eCab to the walled city of Mdina, which we explored on foot. Within the town, we also visited St. John’s Cathedral and its affiliated museum. We had also planned to go to Rabat to visit the catacombs but got a later start since Dustin wasn’t feeling well. I definitely recommend at least half a day in Mdina.

Day 5: After a morning visit to St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta (not to be confused with Mdina’s similarly named cathedral!), we traveled to Gozo and arrived early afternoon. We were able to spend a few hours visiting the Cittadella, which is the old walled city on Gozo, and visited several of the museums - the Archaeology Museum, Prison, and Gran Castello historic house - as well as the visitor’s center there. After dinner, we returned to Cittadella to explore it after dark, too.

Day 6: We returned to Cittadella to see the parts we hadn’t gotten to the prior day, including its Nature Museum and Shipwreck Museum. We caught a bus to Xlendi Bay for lunch (incidentally this is the bay where the Phoenician Shipwreck highlighted in the Shipwreck Museum was discovered), and then took a 3-mile hike known as the “Heritage Hike” along the picturesque cliffs overlooking the sea. Near the town of Ta’Cenc, we caught a bus back to town.

Day 7: We took the bus to the ferry and returned to the mainland of Malta before catching an eCab to the town of Il-Gudja, where we had booked a place that was literally a 15-20 minute walk to the airport. There is not much in town other than its proximity to the airport, so for dinner we got another eCab to the harbor of Marsaxlokk, which houses 70% of Malta’s fishing fleet, has an endless stream of waterfront restaurants, and hundreds of traditional Maltese boats bobbing away. It was here that the Ottoman’s harbored their ships during the Siege of Malta.

Would We Return to Malta?

We absolutely would and feel we would have an easier time figuring out how to get to the places we want to go since we are already familiar with the bus and overall transportation situation. On both the main island of Malta as well as Gozo, there are a number of hikes that would be fun as well as various interesting historical sites or harbor towns scattered around. Because of the transportation options, it isn’t easy to get to a lot of those spots all on one trip. There was also something emotionally and aesthetically appealing about this island nation. In no time at all, Malta felt like home, and we loved being surrounded by so much history.

Trip Do-Over: What Would We Do Differently?

Overall, we feel like we planned the trip well with the information we had going into it. While there were things we didn’t get to see, we also didn’t feel particularly rushed. When we went, in the third week of September, the country is very brown coming off of its long, hot Mediterranean summer. We would definitely go during a shoulder season - the sun was quite hot during our trip and with limited to no air conditioning in most buildings, mid-summer would not have been pleasant! - but we would consider going in the spring when more things are blooming and there is a bit more greenery.

For some reason figuring out bus systems in other countries stresses me out, though with each new country where I ride their bus system, I am gaining more comfort. When we were on Gozo, we initially avoided figuring the buses out and ended up not seeing as much as we could have if we had tackled that sooner. Compared to other countries, Malta’s bus system is actually very straight forward and easy to use.

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