Malta
Malta
Seven thousand years of everybody, on a limestone rock in the middle of the Mediterranean
Photo by Sergey Konstantinov on Unsplash
Photos by CALIN STAN, Magdalena Smolnicka, Norbert Staudt and Aleksandrs Zeltisevs on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Malta
April to June, and September to November (July and August are 33°C and full)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 105mm in Dec
Where it is
35.90°N, 14.51°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- See the Caravaggio in St John's Co-Cathedral, which is the largest he ever painted
- Walk Mdina in the evening after the day visitors go and it earns its name
- Take the ferry to Gozo for a night rather than a day
- Swim at the Blue Lagoon early or late, because midday is a boat park
- Visit Ħaġar Qim, which predates Stonehenge by a thousand years
Malta travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Malta
Mid-rangeEuros. Cards are taken almost everywhere; the exceptions are the smaller village bars and the Gozo ferry kiosks. English is an official language, so there is never a misunderstanding about a price.
ATMs & cards
Bank of Valletta and HSBC Malta machines are free with European cards. The private machines in Sliema and St Julian's charge.
Avoid these
- the private machines in Sliema and St Julian’s
Use these instead
- Bank of Valletta
- HSBC Malta
- APS Bank
Free with European cards. Cards are taken almost everywhere except the smaller village bars and the Gozo ferry kiosks.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Malta
Very safeOne of the safest countries in Europe. Driving is the exception — Maltese roads are narrow, the standard is poor and the accident rate is high. Swimming off rocks is normal here and the currents between Comino and Gozo are strong. Summer sun on white limestone is fierce.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (9 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Paceville — at closing time, which is where Malta’s only real trouble is
- Driving, which is on the left, on narrow roads, with a poor standard and a high accident rate
- Currents in the channel between Comino and Gozo, which are strong
- Sun on white limestone, which reflects and burns faster than people expect
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Malta visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Malta
Good and affordableRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Tetanus up to date
Getting treated
Very good. Mater Dei in Msida is a large modern hospital and the EHIC and GHIC are accepted. Gozo has a smaller hospital and anything major is transferred to Malta.
Sun on white limestone, which reflects and burns faster than people expect. Jellyfish in late summer. And the road accident rate, which is high for Europe.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
GoodRabbit, which is the national dish and is stewed in wine and garlic. Pastizzi — flaky pastry with ricotta or peas — from a hole in the wall for under a euro. Ftira, the local bread, and Kinnie, a bitter orange soft drink that tastes like nothing else.
Nightlife
One strip does the clubbing for the whole country, and everywhere else is a village square with a band and a beer.
- Paceville — the clubs, all of them, in four streets
- Strait Street — Valletta’s revived bar street, and the better night
- Sliema Front — the promenade bars
- Gozo — a village square, a festa, and fireworks
Closing: 04:00 in Paceville, 01:00 elsewhere.
A beer in a bar: €2.50–4
Every village has a summer festa with competitive fireworks, which is the real Maltese night out.
Getting around
Workable- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- eCabsWorks here
eCabs the local fleet, and the bigger one
- From the airport
- Malta airport to Valletta €15–20, to Sliema €18–25
- Against a taxi
- Much cheaper than the white airport taxis, which sell fixed-price vouchers at a desk.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Malta — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Malta
Ookla publishes no mobile median for Malta, so there is no figure here for what a phone gets.
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 1.6× the global median of 130 Mbps.
These are medians for the whole of Malta — Ookla does not break it down any further. The capital and the resort strips will beat the number and the remoter corners will fall below it.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Malta, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Maltese
- HelloBonġuBON-joo
- Good eveningBonswabon-SWA
- PleaseJekk jogħġbokyek YOJ-bok
- Thank youGrazziGRUT-see
5 more phrases
- Yes / NoIva / LeEE-va / leh
- Excuse meSkużaniskoo-ZA-nee
- How much is it?Kemm?kem
- CheersSaħħaSAH-ha
- GoodbyeSaħħaSAH-ha
The only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet, descended from Arabic with Italian and English layered over it. English is fully official, so nothing here is necessary — but a word of Maltese is unusual enough from a visitor to be remarked on.
Religion
Roman Catholic, and observant
One of the most Catholic countries in Europe and still visibly so — 359 churches on an island of half a million, and a village festa each summer that is the year’s event. Divorce was legalised only in 2011. Dress modestly in churches and expect them to be in use.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Cover shoulders and knees in the churches, of which there are 359
- Say saħħa when raising a glass
- Give way on the narrow roads, and reverse when it is your turn to
- Expect English everywhere — it is an official language, not a courtesy
Don't
- Do not sunbathe topless outside a designated lido; Malta is more conservative than its neighbours
- Do not comment on the bird hunting, which is a live and bitter local argument
- Do not assume village feasts are for tourists — they are the year’s religious event, and the fireworks are competitive
- Do not drive expecting anybody to indicate
Where to stay in Malta
No Holistay rentals in Malta yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Malta on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Malta International MLA
20 minfrom the airport· 6 km as the crow flies
20 min to Valletta.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
