Malta fits in a morning. Booking it properly takes longer.
Which boat stops at the Blue Lagoon long enough to swim. What a Gozo day costs once the ferry is in it. Whether Mdina is better at nine or at six. Reviews of every tour you can book in Malta.
The Blue Lagoon, Valletta on foot, Mdina, and one full day on Gozo.
The four bookings a first Maltese week is built around. What each one costs, and what you actually get for the money.
01The island dayGozo & Comino Islands, Blue Lagoon & Seacaves TourComino, the Blue Lagoon and the sea caves on one crossing. The cheapest way to reach the water everybody comes for.
02The first morningThe Original Valletta Walking TourTwo hours through the capital with somebody who knows which plain door opens onto a baroque hall.
03The inland dayHighlights of Malta & Mdina Full Day Tour with LunchMdina, the cliffs and lunch, with the driving done for you. The one day out that never touches a harbour.
04The Gozo dayFull-Day Gozo UTV Tour with Lunch and Boat RideA UTV across the sister island with the boat crossing included. Salt pans, Dwejra, and a table at the end of it.
Almost every good Maltese day ends up on a boat. Pick which kind.
The channel between Malta, Comino and Gozo is the holiday. Four ways to cross it, what boarding each one costs, and how much of the day you spend in the water.
Six corners of Malta, and the best day out in each.
A capital the Knights built in one go, a silent walled town on a hill, a sister island that runs slower, a fishing quay under Sunday awnings, and the shelf of turquoise water in between.
Comino has no town, no cars and the clearest water in the country.
Boats leave Sliema, Bugibba and Cirkewwa for a shelf of water so shallow it reads white from the air. Go before eleven or after four, when the day boats thin out and the Crystal Lagoon belongs to whoever is still there.
Valletta is half a square mile and the Knights filled every inch of it.
Everything in Valletta →
A street grid laid out in 1566 and dropped onto a peninsula between two harbours, with gilded interiors hiding behind plain limestone doors. It takes an afternoon to walk and a guide to understand. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
- 1The Original Valletta Walking Tourfrom $26
- 23-Hour Walking Tourfrom $25
- 3Guided City Walking Tourfrom $24
The capital on foot, door by door
Republic Street, the co-cathedral, the Upper Barrakka and the lift down to the waterfront. Two hours covers the grid without hurrying, and the shade holds until about ten.
Pastizzi, rabbit and a glass of Gellewza
Bakeries, the market hall and the small bars off Strait Street, with the island wine nobody bothers to export. Book it for the night you land and you eat well all week.
Both harbours, from a deck
The Grand Harbour and Marsamxett, creek by creek, past the Three Cities and the old dockyards. The only angle that shows you how the fortifications were meant to work.
Malta’s most-booked days out.
Every Maltese tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the islands, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Gozo & Comino Islands, Blue Lagoon & Seacaves Tour
From Bugibba, cruise Malta’s northern coast to Comino’s Blue Lagoon, Crystal Lagoon, sea caves, and Elephant’s Head. Swim, use the boat’s waterslide, then spend three to four hours in Gozo. Add the shuttle to Victoria or, in summer, Ramla Bay. Audio guides come in five languages.
From · $28
Read our review →
2
Blue Lagoon, Crystal Lagoon, and Seacaves Tour
from $35
3
Blue Lagoon, Beaches & Bays Trip by Catamaran
from $62
4
Gozo, Comino, Blue & Crystal Lagoon, & Caves Cruise
from $34
5
Full-Day Gozo UTV Tour with Lunch and Boat Ride
from $94
6
Comino, Crystal Lagoon, and Blue Lagoon Cruise
from $40
7
Gozo, Comino and Blue Lagoon Cruise
from $41
8
Comino, Blue Lagoon, Crystal Lagoon & Caves Cruise
from $34
Gozo is twenty five minutes away and a decade behind.
Terraced fields, salt pans cut into the shore at Marsalforn, a basilica you can see from half the island, and the cliffs at Dwejra where the Azure Window used to stand. One day is enough to see it. Two is enough to like it.
Every Gozo day out →
What a day out in Malta actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A good number of the best Maltese days come in under the price of dinner on the Sliema front.
Capital walks, temple entries, ferry crossings and the shorter runs out to Comino.
The full days: Gozo with a guide, catamaran crossings, jeep routes and the eating tours.
Private skippers, chartered sailing days and the one splurge a week earns.
Three things that happen in Malta and nowhere else.
Clear water and old stone exist all round the Mediterranean. A lagoon this shallow, temples older than the pyramids, and a harbour built to survive a siege do not.
The Blue Lagoon
A strait a few hundred metres wide between Comino and the islet of Cominotto, floored with white sand so shallow the water reads as glass from the cliff above. There is no town on Comino and no road. Boats anchor, people swim, and by six the whole place is empty again.
- 1Gozo & Comino Islands, Blue Lagoon & Seacaves Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 15,672 reviews
- 2Blue Lagoon, Crystal Lagoon, and Seacaves Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 5,673 reviews
- 3Blue Lagoon, Beaches & Bays Trip by Catamaran★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 5,496 reviews
The Megalithic Temples
Ggantija on Gozo went up around 3600 BC, a thousand years before Giza, raised by people who had neither metal tools nor the wheel. Hagar Qim and Mnajdra stand on the southern cliffs under protective canopies. They are the oldest free-standing buildings anyone has found anywhere.
- 1Gozo Day Trip Including Ggantija Temples★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 2,399 reviews
- 2Gozo Full-Day Tour with Guide, Temples, & Train★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 567 reviews
- 3Prehistoric Temples of Malta Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 517 reviews
The Grand Harbour
After the Ottomans were beaten off in 1565 the Knights put a fortified city on the headland and three more across the water. What is left is a working harbour ringed by bastions, and the best way to read it is from a boat crossing between them.
- 1The Original Valletta Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,719 reviews
- 23-Hour Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,605 reviews
- 3Guided City Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,256 reviews
Four Maltese bookings that will not wait.
Most of these islands can be arranged over breakfast. These four answer to a market that opens once a week, a sea state, a ferry timetable and a gate that shuts in the late afternoon.
- 01Blue Grotto & Sunday Market at Marsaxlokk Fishing VillageThe quay at Marsaxlokk fills with stalls on a Sunday morning and is a quiet fishing village the other six days of the week. The little boats into the Blue Grotto on the same run need a flat sea and are usually finished by early afternoon.
- 02Roundtrip Ferry to Comino Blue Lagoon w/Gozo OptionComino has nowhere to stay and no late crossing. The last boat back is set by the timetable, not by you.
- 03Gozo Day Trip Including Ggantija TemplesGozo runs on the Cirkewwa ferry and the temples shut in the late afternoon. A slow start costs you the whole site.
- 04Popeye Village Entry TicketThe film set keeps park hours and closes well before dinner, and the swimming bay below it is only open in the warmer months.
The gregale blows and every Comino boat stays tied up.
A hard northeasterly can close the Blue Lagoon crossings at a few hours’ notice, and by July the open limestone is unbearable from noon. Both have the same answer. Go inland, go underground, or go somewhere with a roof and a bottle on the table.
Mdina empties at six and turns into a different town.
Four thousand people once lived behind these walls. About three hundred do now, which is why the lanes go silent the moment the last coach pulls out. Underneath, in Rabat, are the catacombs where the Roman town buried its dead.
- 1Highlights of Malta & Mdina Full Day Tour with Lunchfrom $79
- 2Mdina and Rabat Walking Tour with Catacombsfrom $29
- 3Mdina, Dingli Cliffs and San Anton Botanical Gardensfrom $41
Rabbit, pastizzi, and wine from vines nobody else grows.
Fenkata on a Friday night, ricotta pastizzi out of a hole in the wall at breakfast, and Gellewza and Girgentina in the glass. Book the market walk before the heat and the tasting for after it.
By place, from Valletta to Gozo
Valletta, Mdina, Marsaxlokk, Gozo, Comino: the run almost everybody does first.
The newest Maltese tour reviews.
More recent Maltese reviews →
5 hr Vintage Bus Tour – Mdina & Blue Grotto inc. food
Read our review →
Victoria, Gozo: Sunset Walking Food and Drink Tour
Read our review →
Afternoon Harbours Cruise with Guide and Roundtrip Transfers
Read our review →
