Malta airport transfers and travel guide

Things to see in Malta

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  Valletta and St John’s Co-Cathedral

  City centre, 5 km from the airport

  Valletta was begun in 1566, when Grand Master Jean de Valette laid the foundation stone of a fortified city after the Great Siege, and it carries his name. The city has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980, with 320 monuments inside 0.55 square kilometres. Its centrepiece is St John’s Co-Cathedral, built between 1573 and 1578: an austere, fortress-like exterior hides an interior redecorated by Mattia Preti in the 1660s, a floor of some 400 knights’ tombs, and Caravaggio’s Beheading of Saint John the Baptist in the oratory.

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  Mdina

  Western Malta, inland on its plateau

  Mdina was the capital of Malta from antiquity until 1530, when the Order of St John arrived and settled at Birgu instead. The city has never spread beyond its walls and had a population of 242 in July 2024 — which is how it came by its nickname, the Silent City: no cars are allowed inside apart from a limited number of residents’ and emergency vehicles, wedding cars and horses. About 1.5 million visitors a year walk in through the gate rebuilt under Grand Master Vilhena from 1722.

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  Marsaxlokk

  South-east coast

  Marsaxlokk is a fishing village on a sheltered bay in the south-east, its inner harbour lined with traditional luzzi. About 70% of the Maltese fishing fleet is based here. On weekdays the catch goes to the fish market in Marsa, but on Sundays the fishermen sell it straight from the quay, alongside the large market that runs along the seafront. The name says where it is: marsa is Arabic for port, and xlokk is Maltese for south-east.

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  The Blue Lagoon, Comino

  Comino, between Malta and Gozo

  Comino lies between Malta and Gozo, measures 3.5 square kilometres and has a permanent population of two. The island is a bird sanctuary and nature reserve, and what draws the boats is the Blue Lagoon: the channel between Comino and the islet of Cominotto, where transparent cyan water lies over a white sandy bed. It is popular with swimmers, snorkellers and divers. Scheduled boats run from Ċirkewwa on Malta and Mġarr on Gozo, and schedules vary by season.

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  Ġgantija

  Xagħra, Gozo

  The temples at the edge of the Xagħra plateau on Gozo are the earliest of the Megalithic Temples of Malta and older than the pyramids of Egypt: their makers raised them in the Neolithic, which makes them more than 5,500 years old. The southern temple is the larger and older of the two, dating from around 3600 BC, rising to a height of 6 metres and taking in five large apses. The name means “place of giants”, and the site has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980.