Things to do in Malta, ranked from the top

Planning what to do in Malta has a catch. The country is small, what’s in it is enormous, and almost everything is under an hour away by bus. The most common mistake is cramming it all into three days and never actually going inside anything. So if you want a ready-made plan, mine is the Malta 4 day itinerary, Gozo included. I’d suggest the reverse, picking fewer places and seeing them properly, so here’s what I’d visit, with a score, a price and a reason for each position.

Why Valletta comes first

The Knights of St John began building the capital in 1566, with the Great Siege barely over, and UNESCO sees it as a Renaissance city conceived in one go, set out on a grid within its bastions. It packs 320 monuments into just 55 hectares, which UNESCO rates among the densest historic areas anywhere. In practice that means a morning’s stroll takes you past the palace of the grandmasters, the auberges where each nation’s knights lived, the Manoel Theatre and Fort St Elmo without a single bus.

Inside the walls, the one I wouldn’t miss is St John’s Co-Cathedral. The outside looks severe, deliberately so, because its architect Gironimo Cassar built it in the sombre mood the siege left behind. Inside, grandmaster after grandmaster added works until it became a treasure house. It holds the two paintings Caravaggio left on the island before the Order threw him out in 1608.

The things you won’t find anywhere else

Ask me what Malta has that Italy or Greece don’t, and the answer is underground and on the south coast. The Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum is a three-level cemetery cut into the rock, in use from around 4000 BC, holding the remains of some 7,000 people and the only prehistoric wall paintings in the islands. Only ten visitors go in at a time because of carbon dioxide and humidity, so the €35 tickets sell out. It’s the first booking I’d make.

The megalithic temples are the other reason to come. Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, at Qrendi above the southern sea, date back more than 5,000 years, and the doorway of Mnajdra’s south temple lines up with the rising sun at the equinoxes. Ġgantija on Gozo is two temples inside one wall. Few free-standing stone buildings anywhere are older, according to UNESCO, and I cover them together in the megalithic temples of Malta.

Mdina and the island’s interior

Mdina is the old capital, a walled hilltop town with 201 residents, the Baroque St Paul’s Cathedral and a gate that appeared in Game of Thrones. I like it best late in the day, once the streets empty and the Silent City nickname makes sense. Next door, Rabat has St Paul’s Catacombs, which Heritage Malta calls the earliest archaeological evidence of Christianity in Malta. Carry on south-west and you reach the Dingli Cliffs, which rise to 230 m above the sea according to Spain’s foreign ministry.

What about Gozo and Comino?

Gozo is more rural and slower, and that’s exactly why it deserves an unhurried day. The Citadel looms over Victoria, with the cathedral and the Old Prison, home to the largest collection of historic graffiti in the islands. Dwejra on the west coast brings together the Inland Sea, Fungus Rock and the bay where the Azure Window stood until 2017. I’ve ranked the island separately in things to do in Gozo.

Comino is a different proposition. The Blue Lagoon has the most turquoise water in the country and the biggest crowds, so since 1 May 2025 you’ve had to book one of three free time slots, with a cap of 4,000 people. Back in summer 2024, as many as 12,000 people crowded in at once. If you go, I’d take the early slot.

Things to do once you’ve done the sights

This is where people are surprised. At the 2025 boot Düsseldorf Dive Awards, Malta was voted the best place in the world to dive, and it has more than 40 dive centres plus wrecks from both world wars that approved centres can take you to. Even if you don’t dive, a boat trip along the coast or out to Comino shows you cliffs you’ll never see from land. And for a Sunday afternoon, Marsaxlokk’s market among the luzzu, the painted fishing boats, is about as photogenic as the island gets.

Keeping ticket costs down

Most of this ranking belongs to Heritage Malta, which sells the Multisite Pass at €60 for 30 days. The Grandmaster’s Palace, Fort St Elmo, Ħaġar Qim and Ġgantija alone add up to €42 in single tickets, so two more visits and it has paid for itself. St John’s, Mosta Rotunda and Popeye Village aren’t Heritage Malta sites, so they’re not included. Plenty is free anyway, from the streets of Valletta and Mdina to Upper Barrakka Gardens and the whole Dwejra coast. If you’d rather collect views than tickets, I’ve got a separate list of the most beautiful places in Malta.