The islands
Malta is small enough that everything is within an hour of everything else, and dense enough that an hour is genuinely full. A boat day takes one of your days; here is what to do with the others, and which of them pairs badly with six hours of sun.
Quick answer
Do the boat day early in the trip, and keep Valletta for the day after. Six hours on an open deck leaves most people tired and sunburnt; a walking day around a city built on a hill is not the evening for it. Valletta, Mdina and the Three Cities are the three days worth planning around.
How to order the days
Boat early, Valletta next, Mdina after, Gozo on its own day.
Day one: the boat. Early in the trip rather than late, because wind cancels trips and a cancellation on your last morning is just a refund. It also means the rest of the week has the islands already in your head.
Day two: Valletta. The bastions, St John’s Co-Cathedral and the Upper Barrakka Gardens looking down on the Grand Harbour you sailed through. Add the ninety-minute harbour cruise at $23 if you have not already done it.
Day three: Mdina and the west. The silent walled city on the hill, and the cliffs at Dingli on the other side of the island.
Day four, if you have it: Gozo. Not as a boat trip — take the ferry from Ġirkewwa and give the island a whole day.
Six things worth the time
All of them are within an hour of anywhere on the main island.
A fortress city built after 1565, walkable end to end, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its entirety.
Birgu, Senglea and Cospicua across the Grand Harbour. Older than Valletta and far quieter.
The old capital: walled, on a hill, and almost silent after the day visitors leave.
The high western edge of the island, and the best sunset on Malta that does not involve a boat.
The fishing village where the luzzu boats with the painted eyes are moored, and the Sunday market.
The ferry from Ġirkewwa takes about twenty-five minutes. The island deserves more than a pass along its cliffs from a tour boat.
Where a Malta boat tour fits in a week on the islands
Book it early: more chances, better orientation, and it is the tiring day.
Wind cancels trips and the decision is made on the morning, so a Malta boat tour booked on day one has four more chances and one booked on your last morning has none.
There is a second reason to do it early. After a Malta boat tour you have seen the geography: which island is which, where Gozo sits, how close Comino really is. Everything you do afterwards on land fits into that picture.
And a third: it is the most tiring day of the week. Six hours of sun and salt is not the morning to follow with a walking tour of a city built on a hill.
The luzzu — the wooden fishing boat with an eye painted on the bow — is at Marsaxlokk in numbers. The eye is the Eye of Osiris, and fishermen have been painting it on Maltese boats for a very long time.
The harbour cruise→Book direct
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A Malta boat tour is the most tiring day of a week here and the best orientation. Do it first and everything on land makes more sense.
Is it worth it→Six days in Malta, and where the boat fits
The Malta boat tour goes early, not last.
Early, so wind has more than one chance to cooperate.
The city you sailed past, now on foot.
The old capital and the Dingli cliffs.
Or the harbour Malta boat tour if you skipped it.
By ferry, on its own day, not as part of a Malta boat tour.
The painted luzzu boats and the Sunday market.
Common questions
Not a walking day. Six hours on an open deck is more tiring than it sounds — keep Valletta or Mdina for the next morning.
Four days covers the main island and a boat trip properly. Add a fifth for Gozo on its own day.
Early. Wind cancels trips and the call is made on the morning, so a booking on day one has several more chances than one on your last day.
Yes. The ferry from Ġirkewwa takes about twenty-five minutes and the island is far more than the cliffs you see from a tour boat.
Marsaxlokk, in numbers, especially on a Sunday when the market runs along the quay.
Not really. The bus network reaches everything in this list, and taxis are cheap over short distances.
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