Why now
Prime time in October: 26°C days, dry, sea 24°C, fares below average.
April to June and October keep Valletta walkable, and the sea is warm from June; July and August bring 35-degree days, the village festa season and full ferries to Comino. In winter the sights stay open, the sea is cold, and the language-school crowds are gone.
Best months here: June, September, October. Daytime highs, sea temperature and rainy days from three years of Open-Meteo reanalysis; a rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, which is the WMO threshold and not the same as "it drizzled". This page stands for a whole country, and its weather is measured at one point — 35.90°, 14.51°, near Valletta. Somewhere else in Malta the numbers will differ.
The place
Malta is a limestone rock of half a million people with a fortified Baroque capital built by the Knights, temples older than the pyramids, and a construction economy that has covered most of the north-east with apartments. It suits people who want history at high density, swimming off rocks rather than sand, and English spoken everywhere, and who accept that it is crowded, built-up and hot.
What you can do
- 01Walk Valletta from City Gate to the Upper Barrakka gardens for the noon cannon over Grand Harbour.
- 02See Caravaggio's Beheading of St John in St John's Co-Cathedral, then the Grandmaster's Palace armoury.
- 03Book the Hypogeum weeks ahead, then walk to the Tarxien temples next door.
- 04Take the ferry to Gozo and see Ġgantija, the Citadel at Victoria and the salt pans at Xwejni.
- 05Eat pastizzi from a Crystal Palace counter in Rabat, then rabbit stew in a village bar for dinner.
Where to stay · neighbourhoods
A first visit should stay in Valletta or Birgu for the harbour and the quiet; Sliema is convenient and dull, Paceville is for nights out, and Gozo deserves two nights of its own.
Unusual things
- ◦The Lascaris War Rooms under Valletta, the tunnels from which the siege of Malta and the Sicily landings were run.
- ◦Villa Bologna at Attard, an 18th-century Baroque house and garden still in family hands, open on set days.
- ◦The Mnajdra temples on the south cliffs at the equinox, when sunrise aligns with the main doorway.
Day trips
Flight options
Routes come from OpenFlights (historical) and a 2026 route reference compiled from public timetables. Durations are the published schedule where we have it, otherwise a block-time model fitted on measured nonstop flights. Verify schedules with the airline before booking.
Entry requirements · IT passport
Source: passport-index-data, March 2026 (coarse indicator), covering 258 of our 268 destinations for each of 199 passports. Always confirm with the destination's official site.
Airports
Distances are centre to airport derived · nonstop counts are our route reference for 2026, not every flight that exists.
Local transport
- Airport to city
- Bus X4/X1, 30 min, €2
- Car needed?
- No — walkable or good public transport
- Getting around
- Bus X4 links the airport with Valletta in about 30 minutes; the Tallinja bus network reaches every village but is slow in traffic, and the harbour ferries to Sliema and the Three Cities are the pleasant way across. Driving is on the left and parking is scarce.
- Clock
- Same time as Palermo (Europe/Malta) derived
- Daylight
- 11.3 hours of daylight in October · sunrise 07:07, sunset 18:28 derived
- Currency
- EUR
Alternatives at a similar price
Whole trip per person for 4 days from Palermo in October, then the flight time; estimates, like the total above.
Athens
Kos
Crete
Tunis
Rhodes
Zakynthos