Malta Travel Guide: Valletta, Sliema, Gozo & Where to Go in 2026

The Dingli Cliffs coastal walk — Malta's highest point dropping straight into the Mediterranean. The classic route runs from Dingli Chapel south toward the Blue Grotto (around 13km, moderate, mostly exposed), passing 4,000-year-old cart ruts in the garigue landscape and the tiny Chapel of St Mary Magdalene. For something shorter, the Victoria Lines — Malta's 12km "Great Wall," a 19th-century British defensive ridge — gives you the island's spine in half a day. Both are best between October and May; summer heat above 30°C makes coastal hiking unpleasant. If you have a second day, take the early ferry to Gozo: the Mġarr-to-Xlendi coastal walk past Sanap Cliffs is the best hike in the Maltese islands.

Valletta's food scene quietly became one of Europe's most exciting after the Michelin Guide arrived in 2020 — Condé Nast Traveller called the capital an underrated foodie hotspot. Skip the harbour-facing tourist menus on Republic Street. Locals book Rampila (built into the old city walls, serious Mediterranean menu) for a special meal, and Nenu the Artisan Baker on St Dominic Street for ftira — Malta's flatbread, baked in a wood oven that's been running since the 1850s. For seafood with a view, Porticello just outside Valletta in Sliema is the locals' tip, not the cruise-ship crowd's. Lunch hours are short (12:30–2:30); dinner doesn't really start until 8.

Two genuine answers, depending on what you want. The Phoenicia Malta, just outside Valletta's city walls, is the only Maltese hotel in Condé Nast Traveller's 2025 Readers' Choice Awards — colonial-era grand hotel with seven acres of gardens, an infinity pool over Marsamxett Harbour, and the kind of unhurried service that's getting rare. Iniala Harbour House in Valletta itself is the more contemporary pick, with 23 designer-led rooms above the Grand Harbour and the highest TripAdvisor rating on the island. For something different, The Xara Palace Relais & Châteaux inside Mdina's silent city walls is a 17th-century palazzo with no equivalent elsewhere in Europe.

Malta is small (just 27km long) but its public buses are slow and crowded, and the best parts of the island — Dingli Cliffs, the south-coast fishing villages, the Victoria Lines, Mdina at sunset — are awkward to reach by bus. A small rental car (€20–40 per day off-peak) gives you the island in three or four days. Two warnings: Malta drives on the left, and Valletta is closed to non-resident cars during the day — park at Floriana or MCP and walk in. For Gozo, take the ferry as a foot passenger and rent a car on arrival; it's cheaper than bringing your Malta car across. See our car rental services guide for the apps locals use.

April to early June and mid-September to October are the sweet spots — water warm enough to swim (20–24°C), days in the mid-20s, the Mediterranean light at its best, no summer crowds. July and August are brutal: 32–35°C, beaches at capacity, hotel rates doubled. Winter is genuinely underrated — 15–18°C, almost no rain compared to mainland Europe, and Valletta's restaurants accept walk-ins again. You won't swim much, but the hiking is at its best and the historical sites (Hypogeum, Mdina, the Tarxien Temples) are blissfully empty. December and January are when locals book a long weekend; the Mediterranean light in February is some of the prettiest of the year.