Join me and the wife as we go exploring Malta, a hidden gem in the heart of the Mediterranean. From the captivating history etched in ancient stones to the vibrant hues of its seaside towns, join us in uncovering the multifaceted wonders of this enchanting island.
This is, probably, the 3rd free weekend away from the kids in just as many years. My wife and I desperately needed a romantic getaway. After a last-minute search, we settled on Malta – a warm seaside location with budget-friendly options and a perfect flight schedule (thanks to Ryan Air), giving us two whole days of fun.
Malta. Going in we realized we knew next to nothing about this small Mediterranean island. Is it part of Italy? Maybe France? Thanks to Google for quickly dissipating our cloud of ignorance. Turns out at one point or another it was part of both. Self satisfied with my not so far off the target assumption, I researched some form of itinerary. The accommodation came packed with the flight so there was no need to find a place to stay or a location. We had two days booked at the AX Victoria in Sliema. Fairly close to the ferries too so Valletta, the place to visit mainly, was only 30 min away. These days it’s a mix of Google Maps, ChatGPT and the occasional travel blog or Atlas Obscura. Though the latter are quickly disappearing options from the digital tools repertoire in favor of AI.
I found out Malta has a whole bunch of very scenic and instagrammable places just outside of the main cityscape. This called for an additional car booking. I wrongly assumed the driving would be nothing out of the ordinary. It was an integral part of the Malta experience, but more on that in a bit.
Day 1 – Departure
We boarded our flight on Saturday evening, with a landing set for 1am, with a 15 min car ride from the airport to get to the hotel. We flew with no issues but a somewhat packed flight. It all went smoothly and there was no turbulence to remind us we are at 7000m in the air, but the landing felt like the pilot almost smashed the plane to the runway. I later realised this might be due to the shortness of said runway and a necessity as opposed to a reflection of our dear pilot‘s skill.
We hurried along to our rental, anxiously looking forward to driving for the first time in my life on the left side of the road. Oh yes, Malta being an ex british colony, with aprox. 150 years of history as a part of the empire has also inherited the left side of the road. I happily opted for an automatic Toyota Yaris Hybrid in my reservation, small and easy to drive as manual was not something I would have tackled with my left hand. This small Yaris choice was not to be. “Sir, you made a mistake with your reservation.” said our friendly Marocan attendant. “This reservation is for Monday.” We stared perplexed at him for a few moments, and after quickly recovering our wits, we asked if we could not get another one from the car pool. “Unfortunately, I could not change it even if I wanted to, it is not available. You have to call Booking and cancel it.” A new reservation was in order. We asked what was available though and he promptly informed us that the only available car was a Yaris cross over, the bigger mini SUV version. It was 3 times more expensive, with an 800€ hold to boot – Things are off to a good start, I thought. So much for our budget friendly trip. I proceeded to input my data on the tablet. When I handed it back to him he gave it to Ioana. “Please check it, I’m not sure your husband can be trusted after all,” he quipped, not stopping there. “Are you sure he is supposed to drive? You do know we drive on the opposite side of the road?”. They both laughed at my expense as the formalities wrapped up and a few minutes and 1000€ later we got in our car. I drove us to the hotel under a good boost of adrenaline, despite the road being mainly free of traffic. It was a good warm up for the next day, which we mostly spent touring all across the island. It was 3 am, we crashed in bed without too much fuss; the room had a maintenance utility alley view, but hey, we only booked it for sleep.
Marsaxlokk Village & Road Adventures
We had a good British style hotel breakfast: fried eggs, sausage & beans, great protein boost in the morning, that kept our energy up through most of what would be our day. Our first destination: Marsaxlokk, a fishing village. The road towards it was mostly highway; we got there in about 15 minutes, faster than we had expected while looking at the map. A quick tight streets adventure followed while looking for and parking and immediately headed to the harbor. It was 9AM. The fishermen were already back from the sea and the Sunday fish market was on in full and packed with locals as well as tourists. Anchored in the bay were a myriad of colourful fishing boats, a gorgeous sight. The sea breeze blew gently, and there was a strong smell of fish or seafood coming from the stalls. There were several unseemly encounters, mainly what we thought were pickpockets, but we got through the crowd without missing inventory. As we left the harbor and headed back to the car we caught a bit of rain, but the clouds quickly dispersed as we headed out of Marsaxlokk.
We took the road south towards Birżebbuġa, another one of the local villages but didn’t stop. We headed out towards Żurrieq, just south of the airport and after the rocky fields adventure and super tight roadways we ended up at the Blue Grotto viewpoint, scenic cliffside, worth a quick stop for some photos. Here it is:
I mentioned rocky fields earlier, the Maltese countryside is peppered with small fields or enclosures surround by waist high rock rubble walls locally known as ‘Ħitan tas-Sejjieħ. It all seems like the locals picked up the rocks from the fields and stacked them all around to leave some room for something to grow. It’s a unique and curious view with a logical reasoning behind it. During the Arab occupation between 870 – 1127 A.D. e construction of rubble walls became a widespread agricultural practice. The Arabs had established important agricultural practices and introduced new irrigation techniques and new crops. Rubble walls were used not only to delineate the boundaries and ownership of agricultural land, but also as a measure against soil erosion in terraced fields. I found this all explained in detail here.
Dingi Cliffs hike
Our next stop was at Dingli cliffs. The highlight of our trip to Malta. We’d found a scenic viewpoint on Google Maps that seemed like a good pit spot. It was a 10 min drive away from the Blue Grotto view, but boy what a short drive. We ended up on the local route to the viewpoint, alongside some of the farms on the abrupt cliffside, it was a dead-end drive wise, preceded by a driveway only a few centimeters wider than our very sizeable Yaris Cross. No barrier and no space to turn or avoid other cars made for an intense little bit of driving. Luckily, we only met one or two other cars on the road there and fortunately in tiny sections that allowed a drive-by with at least us or them stopped. The last bit of walking to the viewpoint turned out to be a refreshing hike. We were surprised to see the farmstead on the cliffside, it was a very idyllic but scarce landscape. I imagine thanks to modern irrigation and water pumps it’s possible to grow something there, we saw lemon and olive orchards as well as several empty fields which looked ready for seeding. The nice thing about Malta, despite the heat and limited soil is that it can grow various crops year-round, there’s really no winter here! At the end of our hike there was a short cliff-side climb and lo-and-behold the view:
At the top we found the concrete illuminati table. Nice meditation and relaxation spot to ponder the Mediterranean Sea.
We hiked back down and headed to Dingli to eat. No luck there, all the local restaurants were packed for lunch. It was 2pm at this point. We managed to get a nice reservation at this chique fusion restaurant called Il-Bitha, in the vicinity of Mdina. Even so our booking ended up at 3:30 PM so we ended up sightseeing in Rabat for another hour and a half. Besides touring the tight instagramable streetways, we also visited the Wignacourt Museum and Catacombs of St. Paul.
We were starved at this point, and we didn’t feel like lingering too much. Our late lunch was as heavy as it could get. Tripe, sirloin, the local rabbit dish (famous in Malta) as well a reinvented Pastizzi. Speaking of Pastizzi we had the distinct impression this popular bakery treat looks a lot like a vulva. What do you think?
Popeye Village & Valletta by night
We rolled away back to our rental, which we had conveniently parked behind the museum. Our last goal for the day was catching the famous Maltese sunset on the western side of the island. Our last destination was not only a great spot but also a famous one.
Popeye village, the well-maintained movie set from the 80s. It felt a lot like a Disneyland location, with actors and theme shops. We were welcomed by Popeye and a variety of Olive Oyls. On the scenic terrace at the end of the village we found our spot for the sunset, the weather wasn’t very friendly in this regard, and we were from clear sky to stormy in about 20 min. Still, the view was spectacular and well worth the trip. The village was closing so we hurried out and drove back to Sliema to wrap the day up but ended up hitting one more point on our trip.
Once again hungry we decided to Uber our way to Valetta and found a nice restaurant to dine in called Nenu The Artisan Baker. The food was delicious here, traditional Maltese once again. We went for seafood dishes and were delighted to have discovered pickled fennel in our side salad.
The last walk for the day took us across Valletta towards the main gate and its spectacular fortifications. We were beat at this point, so we called another Uber and headed to the hotel to rest. I should mention that the Uber rides were about 10 Euros for a 15-20 min ride, affordable option as an alternative to the rental. There were buses across the island too; we had hoped they would be the famous old-school variety pictured below, but alas, all of them had been switched to electric, and we couldn’t find even one. We saw them as keychains, postcards, and toys across the island.
That’s our 1st day in Malta wrapped up.
Day 2 – Valletta
We started Sunday with a repeat of last’s day British breakfast. We checked out early and left our car parked at the hotel. The receptionist was nice enough and didn’t even charge us for the day parking. A quick jaunt on foot across Sliema brought us to the ferry landing and we once again headed to Valletta for a more in-depth visit by day. The ferries leave every 30 min and tickets for both of us were 3 EUR, a pleasant and affordable way to get across the harbor. Valletta is full of hillsides and stairs, so I won’t be off saying we hiked our way back to the main gate from the ferry landing. Valletta was a fantastic mix of architectural styles. There’s a strong British influence, no doubt due to its not so far away 150-year occupation. The mix of historical buildings and the iconic colorful balconies and doorways livens up the aged town.
Since we didn’t have much time, we opted for a Questo adventure in Valetta, there was only one available. It proved to be a good choice, as it took us across Valetta in a 2 hour walk, crisscrossing the narrow streets and going up and down all the way to the St. Elmo fort. At this point we really needed to find a restroom and we just headed inside the fort museum. It was a good choice as the views across the harbor are spectacular and it was worth the hurried visit. We couldn’t tarry too long and rushed through several historical exhibits. I particularly enjoyed the bits about the 1565 Arab invasion and the heroic exploits of the knightly Order of Saint John.
Short Harbor Cruise
Wrapping up our visit, we walked back across the boardwalk to the ferry landing and rode across to the Sliema port. We had booked a short cruise across the many harbors, from Sliema and Manoel island to the expansive Harbors of Valetta and the Three Cities. The swaying of the ship had put us in an extremely sleepy mood, and I could hardly recall many of the details. One point of interest stuck out: the Lazzaretto facility of Manoel Island, a quarantine facility where the first bubonic plague patients were cared for. It remained active for hundreds of years until it fell into abandonment after it sustained bombing damage in WWII.
The rest of the cruise was a mellow ride-along with superb views of the cities I mentioned earlier.
Back in Sliema we got our rental and headed for the airport to return it and depart back home. It felt like a packed weekend with a lot seen and a lot more remaining. I think a 4-day trip would have been ideal, in slightly warmer weather, (possibly in September) so we could take advantage of the seaside activities surrounding Malta. There are a lot of scenic coves around the island, like the Blue Grotto, where you can swim, kayak, or even dive.
Conclusions & general observations in Malta:
- We went to visit a place and not a people. We met maybe two Maltese citizens in our trip. ALL the services have been externalized to immigrants from across the world, Indians, African, Philipinos or Nepalese. The GDP per capita in Malta is one of the highest in Europe, around 30.000 EUR, so the local populace must have moved on to more lucrative endeavors.
- The local driving is slightly insane, even by our Bucharest standards. Nobody respects priorities or Stop signs and they will drive-by fast in tight places where there’s only a few centimeters maybe between cars. I’m surprised we did not scratch our car between me driving on the left as a first timer and the local drivers.
- Left-side driving was not such a terrible experience, if anything it made me pay more attention to the road.
- There are almost no traffic lights! Malta is a shining example of efficient roundabout use. The traffic was a smooth flow with no stops (unless we wanted to).
- Although distances on the map appeared daunting, everything in Malta is surprisingly close. Our journey around the island, completed in just half a day, felt like a gourmet travel snack bag—offering a rich assortment of experiences in quick, delightful bites. From the rugged cliffs to the bustling markets, each destination had a unique flavor, revealing the island’s diverse character within a short span. It’s an excellent destination for October and November or March/April, we basked in 25-30C while at home temperatures were around 10C.
- We only skimmed the surface when it came to historical sights, for history buffs I would recommend at least 4-5 days here. There are a lot of museums & archeological sites across the island. Mdina in Rabat, the Tarxien megalithic Temples and many more.
- It’s as hot as Crete probably, I would only have a summer vacation here in late September or early October, but it seems like an amazing place to do so.
- Prices were mild, it really didn’t feel like an expensive trip.
For us, travel & intimacy starved parents, it was a fantastic weekend getaway, and it pushed all the right buttons while leaving us wanting for more. With this in mind, I’m quite grateful for having active and involved grandparents for our kids.