Gżira, the harbour front looking over to Manoel Island

Gżira is the town on your left as you walk along Sliema looking at Valletta. It’s residential, with no ticketed sights, but it shares the same harbour and has a slice of history sitting in the water in front of it, Manoel Island.

A promenade with an island

Visit Malta describes Gżira as an urban town between Sliema and Msida, on the western side of Marsamxett Harbour, with a seafront promenade overlooking Manoel Island and Valletta. That’s what I’d come for, a stroll in the evening with yachts at anchor and the capital beyond.

It’s also a town of newcomers. Of its 12,392 residents at the end of 2025, 7,601 were foreign nationals, according to the NSO, and at 12,746 people per km² it’s among the most densely packed places in the country.

Manoel Island and its fort

According to Visit Malta, the only way onto Manoel Island is the bridge from Gżira’s shore. The Knights soon realised that an island inside the harbour was ideal for isolating the sick, and in 1643 they built a quarantine hospital there. In 1722 Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena, the same man behind Valletta’s theatre, commissioned the fort that bears his name, finished in 1726.

Visit Malta adds that the fort was badly damaged in the Second World War and that there are plans to restore it and to build a marina and housing on the island. I haven’t found any official listing saying the fort can be visited today, so I won’t sell it as a day out. I enjoy it from the promenade, which is where it looks its best. For the Order’s defences as a whole, see forts in Malta.

Harbours and boats

Gżira lives off the sea in a different way from Sliema. Visit Malta notes yacht brokers and chandlers here, serving the marinas next door in Ta’ Xbiex and Msida. Carry on along the water to the south and you reach Ta’ Xbiex, the marina district and then Msida and its yacht marina.

Staying in Gżira

On 28 September 2026 the MTA listed 11 hotels, seven three-star and four four-star, 10 guesthouses, 5 hostels and 406 holiday lets. It’s a humbler choice than Sliema and, with the Valletta ferry a walk away, a sensible fallback when Sliema is full or pricey. The full comparison is in hotels in Sliema.

Getting there

From Valletta terminal, route 15 heads for Sliema along the harbour, calling at Msida, Ta’ Xbiex and Gżira. From the airport, the Airport Direct TD3 stops in Gżira every 30 minutes for €3. For Valletta itself, I’d walk to the Sliema ferry, a non-stop crossing at €3 by day that keeps sailing until midnight on summer Sundays and holidays.