Malta, three islands in the middle of the Mediterranean

Malta is easy to underestimate. On the map it’s a speck between Sicily and North Africa, 316 km² in total, roughly 122 square miles, and it’s tempting to think a long weekend will do. Then you find a capital that’s a World Heritage Site in its own right, stone temples that UNESCO ranks among the earliest free-standing buildings anywhere, a second island that runs at half the speed, and a sea that’s still around 26 °C in September. For me it’s one of the places in Europe that gives back most for every day you spend there, as long as you plan it island by island rather than from a list.

Three inhabited islands and a pocket-sized state

There are more islets in the archipelago, but the Maltese government is clear that only the three largest have people living on them. Malta itself, at 245 km², holds the capital, the airport and almost everyone. Gozo, 67 km², is more rural and 25 minutes away by ferry. Comino, about 3 km², is essentially a nature reserve with the Blue Lagoon and, according to the Gozo tourist board, two residents. Each gets its own section in the Maltese islands, and how they sit between Italy and Africa in where is Malta.

What catches people out is the density. At the end of 2025 there were 588,254 residents, 1,867 per square kilometre, and nearly a third held a foreign passport. Along the Sliema and St Julian’s seafront you feel it in the apartment blocks and the traffic. On Gozo, at 609 per square kilometre, you feel the opposite.

What to see on a first visit

If I had to pick five things they’d be Valletta, Mdina, the megalithic temples, Gozo and the Grand Harbour seen from the Three Cities. Valletta is a tiny capital with an extraordinary amount inside it, 320 monuments in 55 hectares according to UNESCO, plus St John’s Co-Cathedral and its two Caravaggios. Mdina, home to 201 people, is the opposite, a walled hilltop town nicknamed the Silent City. That and nineteen more, each with its source, are in my Malta facts.

The temples are what most visitors skip and what I’d skip last. Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra sit above the south coast, Ġgantija is on Gozo and the Hypogeum lies under an ordinary street in Paola. The full order, with my scores and prices, is in things to do in Malta.

Splitting your days

My four-day plan would be one day for Valletta and the harbour, one for Mdina, Rabat and the Dingli Cliffs, a third for the south (temples, the Blue Grotto and Marsaxlokk) and the fourth entirely on Gozo. With three days I’d drop the south; with a week I’d add Comino, an afternoon on a northern beach and a second Gozo day with a night there. If you’ve only got a cruise stop, Valletta is plenty on its own.

Buses reach almost everywhere. A single is €2 in the winter months and €2.50 in the summer ones, and it is valid for two hours with changes, while the four-day Explore Flex at €21 covers the airport express buses too. You’ll drive on the left, so hiring a car will feel familiar, but the Foreign Office describes local driving standards as poor and some roads as in bad shape. I’d only bother with a car on Gozo.

The practical bits for a British visitor

Malta joined the EU on 1 May 2004, entered Schengen on 21 December 2007 and switched to the euro in 2008. As a UK visitor you can stay 90 days in any 180 without a visa, but check your passport was issued less than ten years before you travel. The EU’s roam-like-at-home rule covers EU SIM cards, not UK contracts, so look up your own network’s Europe charges before you fly. Carry your GHIC, which the Foreign Office says gets you medically necessary state healthcare.

The rest will feel oddly like home. Plugs are the same three-pin type, English is an official language and traffic keeps left, just as it does at home. British rule ended with independence in 1964. The last British forces left on 31 March 1979, which Malta marks as Freedom Day.

Two bookings I wouldn’t leave to chance. The Hypogeum, because only ten people go in at a time and pre-booking is compulsory, and Comino’s Blue Lagoon, where anyone arriving by boat has needed a free time-slot booking since 1 May 2025, with three slots a day and a cap of 4,000 people. The Gozo ferry, on the other hand, isn’t booked at all.

Where to stay

Valletta and Sliema are the bases I’d choose first time, linked by a €3 ferry that’s quicker than any bus. St Julian’s has more nightlife, and Paceville within it is where both the Foreign Office and Spain’s foreign ministry urge extra care after dark, with warnings about spiked drinks. Buġibba and Mellieħa suit a beach holiday and put you close to Ċirkewwa for Gozo. I weigh up each area in where to stay in Malta.

Since 1 July 2026 every adult also pays a €1.50 a night eco-contribution at licensed accommodation, capped at €22.50. It’s small, but it’s added on top of what you booked, so factor it in.

What Malta isn’t

It isn’t Italy, although it was tied to Sicily until 1530 and the food still shows it. Nor is it an island of endless sand, since most of the coast is rock and the sandy beaches are mainly in the north and on Gozo. And it isn’t a sunlounger destination. What makes Malta special is more than 7,000 years of history packed into a tiny space, from the temples to the Second World War shelters, and that means walking, climbing steps and going inside things. Come with that in mind and this small country will feel much bigger than it looks.