Luxury hotels in Malta, and where I'd splash out

Luxury in Malta comes in two very different flavours. One is the big five-star resort with a pool, a spa and hundreds of rooms, which could just as easily be on another stretch of Mediterranean coast. The other is sleeping or stepping where very few people can, in a historic house in Valletta, inside the walls of Mdina, or in an underground burial site thousands of years old that admits ten people at a time. The second is the one that interests me far more.

Twenty-three five-stars in numbers

The MTA had 23 five-star hotels on its register as of 28 September 2026. Ten are in San Ġiljan and Paceville, four in Valletta, two in Sliema, two on Gozo and one each in Floriana, Balzan, Rabat, Mdina and the Golden Sands area, registered as Għajn Tuffieħa.

Size tells the story. The biggest, the Intercontinental, the Excelsior, the Westin Dragonara and the Hilton, have more than 400 rooms each. The smallest are historic houses, Iniala Harbour House with 14 rooms, the Xara Palace in Mdina with 17, the Romegas with 22, the Cosmos with 24 and the Rosselli with 25. I haven’t reviewed these hotels individually or checked their rates, so I won’t rank them by name, but I will give you a rule of thumb.

How I’d choose

If the hotel itself is the treat, with pool, spa and sea, St Julian’s has the most five-star resorts, and I cover them in hotels in St Julian’s. If the place is the treat, I’d go small every time. Sleeping in Valletta, a capital of 5,189 people that feels like a different city at night, or in Mdina, a walled city of 201 residents with a single hotel on the register, is something no resort can sell you.

Gozo offers a different mood. The Kempinski San Lawrenz is in the village the Ministry for Gozo describes as lying inland from Dwejra, and the Ta’ Cenc is on the Ta’ Ċenċ road in Sannat, an area of cliffs protected as a Natura 2000 site. For a longer stay, the luxury farmhouses with pools the Ministry describes strike me as just as indulgent, with more space; see Gozo hotels.

When luxury costs less

This is the trick I’d use, and it costs nothing but flexibility. In 2024, five-star hotels in Malta and Gozo ran at 88.2% occupancy from July to September and 44.0% from January to March, according to the MTA. With fewer than half their rooms taken in winter, that’s when luxury gets cheaper and the better rooms are easiest to land. For me, the best treat in Malta is a week in November or February at a five-star I wouldn’t consider in August. If it’s a honeymoon, the same logic counts double, and there are more ideas in Malta for couples.

A practical note for anyone travelling from the UK. Five-star or not, your UK chargers plug straight in, and GOV.UK says a GHIC covers medically necessary state healthcare only, which is why I’d still take out proper travel insurance on a trip where the hotel bill alone runs into four figures.

Treats that aren’t hotels

First, the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum. Only 10 people go in at a time, photos aren’t allowed, and a ticket costs €35, or €50 if you buy a last-minute one the day before. Book well in advance. It’s the place in Malta that most justifies paying and planning.

Second, the sea. The boot Düsseldorf awards of 2025 crowned Malta the top diving destination in the world, the MTA notes, and it has more than 40 professional dive centres, each needing an MTA licence. A guided dive with one of them is a better use of money than another night in an expensive hotel, as I explain in diving in Malta.

Third, a boat of your own around the north coast and Comino. My only warning concerns the Blue Lagoon. Since 1 May 2025, anyone arriving by boat, private or commercial, needs a free booking for one of its three slots, or they can’t go ashore. More in my guide to the Blue Lagoon in Comino.

Finally, luxury hotels collect the eco-contribution like everyone else, the same €1.50 a day per adult up to €22.50. At these prices it’s a rounding error, but it will appear separately on the bill.