Malta, Gozo & Comino travel guides

Guides & tips

Plan your trip like a local

Honest answers to the questions travellers ask us most.

White sailing catamaran anchored in turquoise shallow water off a low rocky coast, swimmers in the water beside it under a clear sky

When to Go to Malta: The Cheap Months Are the Reduced Product, and the Price Tables Show It

Malta runs on three seasonal calendars that do not line up – operator prices, the bus timetable and the sea. Read together they show exactly what each cheaper month takes away, with dates rather than adjectives.

Read the guide →

Brightly painted wooden fishing boats with eyes on their bows moored in a sheltered harbour, market awnings along the quay behind them

Blue Grotto and Marsaxlokk: Both Want the Same Morning

The Blue Grotto needs early light, the Marsaxlokk market is a morning market, and the bus network joins the two only the long way round. How the combination actually works.

Read the guide →

Turquoise water of the Blue Lagoon with a blue and yellow catamaran moored against the rocks, a white slide running into the sea, snorkellers around it and Comino's bare headland behind

Blue Lagoon on Comino: You Now Need a Pass to Set Foot on It

Comino's Blue Lagoon runs on a free timed landing pass. What the three slots are, who is exempt, why swimming needs no pass at all, and which boat trip to book.

Read the guide →

Three young women laughing in front of a white jeep and a blue buggy, with a square limestone watchtower on the ridge behind them

Gozo in One Day: Jeep, Quad, Coach – or the Ferry on Your Own

The four ways to do Gozo as a day trip from Malta, with what each one really costs, what the off-road tours leave out of the price, and who should skip them.

Read the guide →

Open-top double-decker sightseeing bus with empty upper-deck seats on a narrow street of honey-coloured limestone buildings

Hop-On Hop-Off on Malta: Take the South Route, Ride the Normal Bus North

Malta's sightseeing bus runs two loops. One goes where the public bus already goes cheaply, the other goes where it barely goes at all – and on Sunday the last departure is an hour earlier.

Read the guide →

A lone visitor standing in the aquarium’s walk-through tunnel, a large shark passing overhead through blue-lit water

Malta with Children: The Timetable Is the Constraint, Not the Island

Aquarium, Popeye Village, boats and bays with children on Malta – the real prices and age bands, why a week of buses costs a child €7, and which day trips are too long.

Read the guide →

Mdina's baroque main gate seen across the dry ditch, a strip of mown lawn below the honey-coloured bastion wall and a single large tree in front of the arches

Mdina and Rabat: What You Pay For Is the Town Next Door

Mdina costs nothing to walk into. Everything you buy a ticket for is in Rabat – the catacombs, the shelters, the grotto. Prices, closing days and the best hour to go.

Read the guide →

Pastel wooden houses of the film-set village stacked on the rocks above a grey sea, a mini-golf course on the lower terrace and a Seafarers Hotel sign over the entrance

Popeye Village: The Price Changes by Ten Euros Depending on the Month

Popeye Village at Anchor Bay costs €15, €18 or €25 for the same ticket, depending on the season – and in the cheap months the water attractions are shut. Prices, bus, and who it suits.

Read the guide →

Honey-coloured rooftops on the Grand Harbour in low evening light, a red church dome and two clock towers behind, red and yellow festa banners strung along the street below

The Three Cities: The Tour That Only Stops in Two

Birgu, Senglea and Cospicua across the Grand Harbour from Valletta – what the guided tour includes, why it drives past one of the three, and the ferry that beats it.

Read the guide →

View from Valletta across the Grand Harbour to the bastions of Fort St Angelo, with a small traditional ferry boat crossing the water in the foreground

Valletta on Foot: Which Guided Walk Actually Gets You Inside

Valletta's walking tours all cover the same half square kilometre. The difference is St John's Co-Cathedral – what it costs, when it is shut, and which tour pays for it.

Read the guide →