Tailor-made travel to Malta

This is Malta

An island that never tidied away its history.

Malta is an island of limestone and fortress walls where every layer of history is still legible.

Malta is small enough to drive round in a morning, yet more is packed into it than countries ten times its size. Beneath Valletta lie temples thousands of years older than the city itself. Above them stands a fortress city built by the Order of Malta to never again be besieged. Between the two lie centuries of Phoenicians, Arabs, Sicilians, French and British, each leaving something still visible today: a word in Maltese, the shape of a balcony, a road that keeps to the left.

Those layers don't sit neatly one after another. They lie on top of each other. In Mdina you can walk in the evening through streets without cars, while a stone's throw away Valletta is simply a capital with offices, washing on balconies and a harbour that still works. The limestone changes colour with the light, greyish in the morning, honey-toned by evening, and that might be the one thing the whole island has in common.

Anyone who comes here for sun and sea alone misses what Malta does best: a country that reads well once you take the time to look.

Flight time: About 3 hours from Brussels
Languages: Maltese and English, both official
Time difference: None: same time zone as Belgium
Area: 316 km² spread across three islands
Best time to visit: April to June and September to October

The islands

Three islands, three different paces.

Malta, Gozo and Comino are a boat ride apart, yet each feels different. Where you stay doesn't just shape the view. It shapes the pace of your whole trip.

capital

Valletta

A fortress city on a peninsula, built after the Great Siege of 1565 and still within the same walls today. Narrow streets with washing lines on wrought-iron balconies, a harbour where ferries and fishing boats moor side by side, and a skyline that shifts as the sun moves across the bastions.

quiet

Mdina and Rabat

The former capital, left largely undisturbed since the sixteenth century. A few hundred people still live within the walls, and no car may enter after dark. Rabat, just outside, is livelier: an ordinary Maltese town with a market and catacombs beneath its streets.

fishing

Marsaxlok and the south

A fishing harbour with brightly painted luzzu boats and a market on the quay every Sunday. The south of the island is more industrial than the rest, a refinery, a power station, but unpolished precisely because of it.

pace

Gozo

Smaller, greener, slower. Terraces of vines, salt pans at Xwejni, and a pilgrimage church at Ta' Pinu visible from a distance. Stay here and within a day you notice Gozo runs to a different rhythm than the main island.

emptiness

Comino

Almost uninhabited, save for a handful of people. The Blue Lagoon is one of the busiest spots in the country by midday. Early in the morning, before the first boats arrive, it's simply a bay.

Verder kijken dan de highlights

Why we don't sell Malta as a sun island.

Small is an advantage, not a limitation. 316 km² sounds limited, but it means you can stand in a fortress town in the morning and on a cliff at the other end of the island by afternoon. We plan around that deliberately, not to fit more in, but because the distances allow you to stay longer somewhere.

History here doesn't disappear, it stacks up. In most of Europe, one period dominates. On Malta, neolithic temples, Arab street plans, knightly architecture and British telephone boxes sit literally on top of each other. That calls for looking slowly, not ticking off a checklist of sights.

The language betrays where the country comes from. Maltese is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet: an Arabic base threaded with Sicilian and English loanwords. One sentence carries the trace of three trade routes.

Crowds concentrate, so we deliberately avoid those spots. Sliema and St Julian's draw the bulk of visitors. We don't send people there. We look for the side of the island where a balcony is still just a balcony, not a photo spot.

At the table

A cuisine shared across three continents.

Maltese food can never be explained by one tradition alone. Pastizzi, crisp pastry parcels filled with ricotta or peas, are eaten early in the morning, standing up, at a stall. Fenkata, a rabbit stew with garlic and wine, is a Sunday family tradition rooted in centuries of hunting rights. Ftira, the flat Maltese bread, is topped in ways that owe as much to Sicily as to North Africa.

On Gozo you taste the difference straight away: local wine from the terraces around Victoria, goat's and sheep's cheese still made on the farm. A Sunday lunch there easily runs to three hours, and no one thinks that excessive.

Coast and water

Water without sunloungers.

Dingli Cliffs

Malta's west coast drops straight into the sea, over 200 metres in places. No beach, no parasols. Just a footpath and, on a clear day, a view of the islet of Filfla.

Wrecks and caves

The water around Malta is clear enough to dive to Second World War wrecks and underwater caves without much experience. The Blue Grotto is quiet early in the morning, a queue of boats later in the day.

The coast of Gozo

Wied il-Mielaħ, a natural rock arch with a cove beneath it, or the salt pans at Qbajjar, Gozo's coastline is wilder and quieter than the main island's.

A street too narrow for two cars. A bay without sunloungers.

What's possible here

Malta rewards exploring on foot and on water.

No fixed programme. But a number of things typify the island and that we often build in, depending on what draws you.

Walking the Victoria Lines

A nineteenth-century British defensive line running across the island, now a footpath with views over fields and villages instead of enemy troops.

A morning at the temples of Ħaġar Qim

Megalithic structures older than Stonehenge and the pyramids of Giza, perched on the edge of a cliff above the sea. Early in the day, before the coaches arrive, you often have them almost to yourself.

Crossing to Comino before the crowds

A short boat ride from Cirkewwa, ideally before nine in the morning, while the Blue Lagoon is still a bay and not yet a destination.

Diving or snorkelling the wrecks of Gozo

Reqqa Point and the wreck of the Xlendi make Gozo one of the quieter diving destinations in the Mediterranean.

A Sunday in Marsaxlok

The weekly fish market on the quay, followed by lunch with fish landed that same morning, no staging for tourists, simply how the village has worked for generations.

What we build into this depends on who's travelling and what they're looking for. These are directions, not a route.

Wanneer reis je?

When to travel to Malta

Malta has a mild Mediterranean climate: dry, hot summers and mild, rainy winters. July and August are the busiest and hottest months. Temperatures above 35°C are not unusual, and the islands fill with day-trippers from cruise ships.

April to June and September to October offer the best balance: warm enough to swim, quieter on the streets and in the temples, and evening light that shows the limestone at its best. Winter is mild. Rain comes in showers, not lingering cold. And that's exactly when Valletta feels most like itself: a city people live in, not just visit.

Jan

Feb

Mrt

Apr

Mei

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Okt

Nov

Dec

Top: pleasant weather and manageable crowds. Good: fine travel weather, with occasional crowds or rain. Fair: workable, but with heat, crowds or rainfall to bear in mind.

Goed om te weten

Praktisch, zonder ruis.

A few things that make travelling in Malta easier.

Getting there: Direct flights from Brussels, about 3 hours.
Driving: Drive on the left, as in the United Kingdom. And the roads are narrower than the distances on the map suggest.
Language: Maltese and English are both official; English will get you everywhere.
Pace: Distances look small on paper, but think in travel time, not kilometres: a 20 km drive can involve traffic and winding roads.
Accessibility: Many historic centres, such as Valletta and Mdina, are car-free or paved with cobblestones. Comfortable shoes are not an unnecessary luxury.

Frequently asked questions

Is Malta suitable if you don't like crowds?

That depends on where and when. Sliema and St Julian's are busy, as is the Blue Lagoon in the middle of the day. Gozo, early mornings and the autumn offer a completely different Malta.

Can you combine Malta, Gozo and Comino in one trip?

Yes. The ferry between the islands runs frequently, and the crossing takes anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour, depending on the route. The question isn't whether it's possible, but how much time you want to give each island.

Is the island large enough for a longer stay?

Physically Malta is small, but its layers, historical, culinary, and scenic, give a longer stay just as much substance as a bigger country. The difference lies in the pace, not the size.

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