Malta · MEDITERRANEAN
Knights’ walls, Blue Lagoon, and the boats that link them.
Day trips, fortified cities and the clearest water in the Mediterranean. Valletta, Mdina, Gozo, Comino and the harbours in between.
Only in Malta
Three things you’ll only do here.
Boat trips and city walks exist in every Mediterranean destination. These three are specific to this archipelago. The Knights’ capital, the world’s oldest stone temples, the Blue Lagoon. Plan the rest of the trip around them.
Built by knights
The Order’s fortress capital
Valletta was laid out in 1566 by the Knights of St John, sworn warrior-monks from across Europe. The whole city is a UNESCO-listed limestone fortress, gridded street by street as a military camp and never softened. You walk the bastions they walked, look down on the Grand Harbour they defended.
- 1 Valletta: Guided Walking Tour with Optional Cathedral Tour
- 2 The Valletta Street Food and Culture Walking Tour
- 3 Valletta: Vintage Bus to Valletta, Sliema, Rabat & Mdina
Older than the pyramids
Europe’s oldest stone temples
Maltese builders raised free-standing stone temples roughly a thousand years before the first Egyptian pyramid was cut. Ġgantija on Gozo, Ħaġar Qim above the Blue Grotto, the Hypogeum carved beneath Paola. The oldest free-standing architecture on earth is still here.
- 1 From Malta: Gozo Day Trip Including Ggantija Temples
- 2 From Malta: Gozo Full-Day Tour with Guide, Temples, & Train
- 3 Prehistoric Temples of Malta Tour
Where the sea turns turquoise
Comino’s Blue Lagoon
White limestone sand under shallow water between Malta and Gozo, with the kind of clarity that doesn’t need a filter. Most boats leave Sliema, Bugibba or Čirkewwa for the same circuit. The route to the lagoon, and what they add on (Crystal Lagoon, Caves, Gozo) is what separates them.
- 1 Malta: Gozo & Comino Islands, Blue Lagoon & Seacaves Tour
- 2 Comino: Blue Lagoon, Crystal Lagoon, and Seacaves Tour
- 3 Malta: Gozo, Comino, Blue & Crystal Lagoon, & Caves Cruise
The boat everyone books
Start with the day on the water.
If you’ve only got one day in Malta, head north. The Gozo & Comino circuit nearly every first-timer books.
The classics
Malta’s Most Popular Day Tours
Comino’s Blue Lagoon, Gozo by jeep, Mdina’s walls, Valletta on foot. The reason most travellers come to Malta.
By place
Pick a corner of Malta.
Comino for the Blue Lagoon. Gozo for the wider day. Valletta for the Knights’ walls. Mdina for the silent city. Sliema for the seafront. Three Cities for the harbour.
By experience
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
By boat if you came for the crystal. On foot if you came for the limestone. By jeep on Gozo, by sail across Marsamxett, by hop-on bus when your feet need a break.
Beyond the main island
The two-island day.
Gozo by jeep or by boat, Comino by tender. Most operators bundle them. Our shortlist for the all-in-one ferry-jeep-swim circuit.
On screen
Set in Malta.
King’s Landing was Mdina. Gladiator’s gates were Fort Ricasoli. Popeye’s village still stands in Anchor Bay. World War Z opens above the Grand Harbour. Locations you can walk into once the tour bus drops you off.
The other limestone
Mdina, Birgu and the silent walls.
Inland Mdina is older than Valletta. The Three Cities sit across the Grand Harbour from it. Three afternoons we’d send any first-timer to.
After the last ferry
When the wind drops and the harbours light up.
Sail and catamaran routes across Marsamxett, Grand Harbour and the Sliema strip. Three evenings on the water we’d book first.
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