Things to do in Valletta
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Valletta
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Spring into early summer is among the best times, warm with festa season building and crowds below the August peak.
Autumn is among the best times, with the warmest sea in September and Notte Bianca in October.
Peak summer brings festas and the best sea, plus the highest heat, prices, queues and language school crowds.
Winter is mild, quiet and cheap for culture, with a cold sea and some boats and seasonal places stopped or closed.
August is the worst month for crowds, heat and prices, plan early starts and book everything.
Mid January to early February outside Carnival is the greyest and quietest stretch of the year.
What's on
- Feast of St Paul's Shipwreck 10 February
One of Valletta's own festas, with processions through the capital for its patron saint.
- Malta Carnival Five days before Lent, February
Floats, costumes and street parties centred on Valletta, with a wilder spontaneous carnival in Nadur on Gozo.
- Malta International Fireworks Festival Late April, typically closing 30 April
Maltese and international teams compete over the Grand Harbour, best watched from Upper Barrakka Gardens.
- Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel July
A major Valletta festa in the summer festa season of processions, band marches and fireworks.
- Feast of St Lawrence 10 August
Birgu's festa across the harbour, one of the great summer nights in the Three Cities.
- Notte Bianca First Saturday of October
Valletta's all night arts festival, with palaces and museums open free and streets given to performance.
Best things to do in Valletta
St John's Co-Cathedral
A plain fortress outside and a Baroque masterpiece inside, with marble tomb floors and two Caravaggio paintings.
Upper Barrakka Gardens
The terrace garden with the definitive view across the Grand Harbour to the Three Cities.
Lascaris War Rooms
The preserved underground headquarters that ran Malta's wartime air defence and directed the invasion of Sicily.
Grand Master's Palace
The Grand Masters' palace, best for its armoury of Great Siege era arms and armour in its original home.
Casa Rocca Piccola
A lived in Valletta palace shown on intimate family tours, with fifty rooms, a garden and war shelters below.
National Museum of Archaeology
Malta's temple age made real, with the Sleeping Lady and other prehistoric carvings on Republic Street.
Fort St Elmo
The star fort at the harbour mouth that bore the Great Siege, now holding the National War Museum.
Strait Street
Valletta's old sailors' strip turned wine bar lane, and the capital's best evening street.
Where to stay in Valletta
Valletta
first trips, culture and couples
Inside the walls, walkable to every sight, the bus terminus and both harbour ferries.
Three Cities / Birgu
quiet, harbour life and repeat visitors
Older and more local than Valletta, with marinas and Fort St Angelo, minutes away by ferry.
Sliema
practicality, longer stays and rock swimming
A modern promenade town with mid range hotels, apartments and a 15 minute ferry to Valletta.
St Julian's
resorts, pools and nightlife access
Big resort hotels and beach clubs around Spinola and St George's bays, with Paceville inside it.
Think twice about
- Paceville, St Julian's
Noise until dawn, street drinking and the youngest crowds in Malta. A sleep problem, not a danger problem.
- Buġibba and Qawra
Tired resort sprawl far from Valletta. A quality and distance issue, not a safety issue.
Best restaurants in Valletta
ION Harbour
Malta's only two-star tasting menu, on a rooftop looking straight down the Grand Harbour.
Noni
A one star dining room cooking modern Maltese food from island produce, rooted more than austere.
Under Grain
An intimate one star cellar under the Rosselli hotel, reworking classics with daily Marsaxlokk fish.
Rubino
A Valletta institution since 1906, with a blackboard menu, Sicilian Maltese cooking and famous cassata.
Legligin Restaurant
A tiny candlelit room serving a set progression of Maltese plates with wines poured and explained by the owner.
Guzé
A family bistro in a stone vaulted palazzo, serving refined Maltese dishes like rabbit and bragioli.
Ta' Nenu The Artisan Baker
Wood fired Maltese ftira and traditional bakes served in a restored Valletta bakery at local prices.
Is-Suq Tal-Belt
Valletta's covered market food hall, the easy answer for groups who cannot agree on lunch.
Outdoor things to do in Valletta
Grand Harbour Cruise
A harbour cruise past the fortifications, which were designed to be seen and feared from the water.
Blue Grotto
Small boats to sea caves where calm morning light turns the water an intense glowing blue.
Mdina
The walled Silent City on its hilltop, best in late afternoon when tours thin and the stone turns gold.
Gozo
Malta's greener sister island in a day, for Ggantija temples, the Cittadella and bays like Xlendi.
Um El Faroud
A vast scuttled tanker at about 35 metres, one of the Mediterranean's great wreck dives for experienced divers.
St Peter's Pool
A flat rocked natural swimming basin of clear turquoise water near Marsaxlokk, with no sand and no facilities.
Blue Lagoon
Luminous turquoise water over white sand, glorious early and unbearably crowded from late morning in summer.
Royal Malta Golf Club
Malta's only golf course, a short and forgiving holiday round a few minutes from Valletta.
Best hotels in Valletta
Iniala Valletta
Townhouse luxury above the Grand Harbour, with designed suites, a vault spa and a two star rooftop restaurant.
The Phoenicia Malta
Malta's grande dame by the City Gate, with gardens, a bastion pool and full grand hotel service.
Palazzo Consiglia - IK Collection
A 13 room palazzo hotel on St Ursula Street, with a vault spa and rooftop terrace at half the splurge price.
Osborne Hotel
A dependable, unfashionable central hotel with a small rooftop pool and honest mid range rates.
Grand Harbour Hotel
A family run budget hotel where many rooms and the roof terrace look straight across the Grand Harbour.
Cugó Gran Macina Malta
A design hotel inside a Senglea bastion, with large suites, a rooftop pool and Valletta as the view.
Locanda La Gelsomina
A small family run guesthouse near Birgu marina, with styled suites and hosts who act as local fixers.
AX The Palace
A Sliema city hotel known for its rooftop infinity pool and lounge with Valletta views across the harbour.
Is Valletta expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | €55 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | €145 a person |
| Splurge | €380 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- St John's Co-Cathedral: weeks ahead
- Lascaris War Rooms: a few days ahead
- Grand Master's Palace: a few days ahead
- Casa Rocca Piccola: a few days ahead
- Fort St Angelo: weeks ahead
- Grand Harbour Cruise: a few days ahead
- Gozo: a few days ahead
- Um El Faroud: weeks ahead
- Book St John's Co-Cathedral entry in season and go at opening, it is closed to visitors on Sundays.
- Book ION Harbour weeks ahead, Noni and Under Grain one to two weeks, Legligin and Rubino several days.
- Cross to Gozo early to beat Cirkewwa ferry queues, and book the earliest Blue Lagoon boat.
- Royal Malta golf needs advance booking, handicap evidence and prepayment.
Is Valletta safe?
- Emergency number is 112 and Malta has low crime, with ordinary care advised in Paceville late at night.
- The sea is the real risk, with sharp rock entries and strong currents around Comino, so swim where others swim.
- Summer heat on pale limestone is fierce, carry water and retreat at midday.
Valletta travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Paceville is a few streets of clubs and cheap drinks, not Valletta with nightlife, and families should not base inside it.
- The Blue Lagoon from 11am to 3pm in summer is overcrowded, and the largest boats give the least swim time.
- On cruise ship days do the Co-Cathedral at opening and the Three Cities in the middle of the day.
- Waterfront terraces charge for the view, the best value cooking is on Valletta's back streets.
Getting around Valletta: public transport and more
- Walk Valletta, a grid about 1 km by 600 m, and wear shoes with grip on its polished stone lanes.
- Use the Three Cities and Sliema ferries and the Barrakka Lift, they are cheap and faster than the roads.
- Buses from the Valletta terminus reach Mdina in about 30 to 45 minutes and Cirkewwa in about an hour.
- Use Bolt or taxis instead of driving, Valletta and Sliema parking is genuinely difficult.
Who Valletta suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Not ideal |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Not ideal |
Make Valletta your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
Get Swearby on the App Store