MALTA · GOZO · COMINO
Honey-stone cities on a turquoise sea.
The Blue Lagoon at Comino, the Knights’ fortress capital at Valletta, the Silent City of Mdina, and temples on Gozo older than the pyramids. Boat trips, walks, dives and day tours across all three islands, with what each one actually delivers.
Only in Malta
Three things you can’t do anywhere else.
Beaches, boat trips and old towns turn up all over the Mediterranean. These three don’t. A lagoon you swim by boat, temples older than the pyramids, and a walled city with the cars locked out. Build the rest of the trip around them.
Reached only by boat
Swimming the Blue Lagoon
Between Malta and Gozo sits Comino, and in its shallows the water turns a turquoise so bright it looks edited. There is no road to it. You arrive by catamaran or speedboat, drop off the back into water you can see your feet through, and most trips carry on to the caves and a quieter bay before the day boats arrive. It is the picture people come to Malta for.
- 1 Malta: Gozo & Comino Islands, Blue Lagoon & Seacaves Tour
- 2 Comino: Blue Lagoon, Crystal Lagoon, and Seacaves Tour
- 3 Malta: Blue Lagoon, Beaches & Bays Trip by Catamaran
Before the pyramids
Temples older than the pyramids
On Gozo, the Ġgantija temples were raised from coralline limestone before Stonehenge was a circle and before the first stone went on the pyramids at Giza. They are among the oldest free-standing buildings anywhere on earth. You walk between megaliths taller than you, in a field above the sea, and the scale of the timeline does the rest.
- 1 From Malta: Gozo Day Trip Including Ggantija Temples
- 2 From Malta: Gozo Full-Day Tour with Guide, Temples, & Train
- 3 Prehistoric Temples of Malta Tour
Behind the walls
Into the Silent City
Mdina was the island's capital long before Valletta, a walled town on the high ground inland. Cars are almost entirely shut out, so once the gate closes behind you it is honey-coloured stone, shuttered palazzi and footsteps echoing off the lanes. Locals call it the Silent City, and at dusk, when the day visitors leave, the name earns itself.
- 1 Malta: Highlights of Malta & Mdina Full Day Tour with Lunch
- 2 Malta: Mdina and Rabat Walking Tour with Catacombs
- 3 Malta: Mdina, Dingli Cliffs and San Anton Botanical Gardens
Books out first
If you only book one thing.
The single experience travellers reserve more than any other across the islands. The easy, obvious first day, and the one worth locking in before the good dates go.
The headliners
Malta’s Most Popular Experiences
Blue Lagoon cruises, Valletta walks, harbour tours and Gozo day trips. The days most travellers don’t leave the islands without.
By place
Pick an island, or a town to base in.
Valletta for the Knights and the harbour. Mdina for the silent walled streets. Gozo for the slower island days. Comino for the lagoon. Sliema for the seafront, Mellieħa for the beaches in the north.
By experience
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
A boat trip if you came for the sea. A walking tour if you came for the cities. A dive if you came for what is under the water. Catamarans, harbour cruises, history walks, food trails, quad runs and the open-top bus, all in one place.
At the Maltese table
Pastizzi, fresh fish, and a Gozo ftira.
Flaky pastizzi from a hole in the wall, fenek (rabbit) the island way, Sunday fish landed at Marsaxlokk, and a glass from a Maltese vineyard. If we sent a first-timer to three tables, these would be the three.
Built by the Knights
The cities the Knights built in stone.
The Order of St John ran these islands for over two centuries and left their mark in honey limestone everywhere they went. Valletta’s grid above the harbour, Mdina’s silent walls, the Three Cities around the creeks. Three ways into the islands’ fortress history.
Get on the water
The best of Malta is offshore.
These islands are small and the sea is the whole point. The Blue Lagoon at Comino, the short ferry over to Gozo, a cruise through the Grand Harbour under the bastions, and a day under sail to the bays the crowds miss.
On the water and off the road
Dive it, ride it, paddle it.
Malta is one of the Mediterranean’s great dive bases, with wrecks, caverns and walls in clear, warm water. Add jet skis off the north coast, quad runs across Gozo and kayaks into the sea caves. A shortlist for the days that don’t sit still.
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