Autumn is a great time to visit Malta, a small but historically rich and beautiful archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. Malta enjoys mild temperatures during autumn, making it a comfortable time for exploring the island.
Compared to the peak tourist season, autumn is less crowded, allowing you a more relaxed and peaceful experience. You can enjoy popular attractions without large tourist crowds.
In autumn Malta comes alive with various cultural events and festivals. You can witness traditional processions, village feasts, and musical performances showing the rich Maltese heritage and traditions.
The countryside is green after the summer heat, and the coastlines offer stunning views of the Mediterranean Sea. It’s the perfect time for scenic walks, hiking, or relaxing beach days.
Accommodation
After choosing the dates and duration of our visit we started looking for the best accommodation on Booking.com. We used the filters that suit the best to our needs. We always try to narrow the search to the location that meets two factors. First, it is easy to reach the airport by local transport, and second it is near public transport with good connections to the rest of the island. Those demands narrowed the search to the vicinity of Valletta. To small places like Pieta, Msida, Sliema and on the east side Three Cities (Sanglea, Birgu, Kalkara).
Other important factors we use are free cancellation, lower prices, better facilities, and a review score of 8+. We did not want to stay in modern big hotels near the beach but preferred to be inside the local places and feel the everyday life. We chose a modern apartment Pierre & Liana’s place in Msida close to the many bus stations.
We made a reservation three months in advance and got a very good price for the apartment, with the option of free cancellation and no payment in advance.
Transport to and around Malta
Arriving to Malta
Getting to Malta is possible by plane or by boat. The Malta International Airport is the only airport in Malta and serves all of the Maltese Islands. It is located 5km southwest of Malta’s capital city and is also known as the Valletta Airport.
The airport has local bus lines going to the main bus station in front of the old walled part of Valletta. There, it is easy to change to another bus to any other location.
Many people visiting Malta rent a car and drive around and sure that is the way to see most of the country. But we are not fans of driving in an unknown country, not knowing the roads and specific rules. Especially when they drive on the opposite side than in our country.
That’s why we choose all other means of transport. Local and public transport in Malta is very well organised, and you can use it to visit many attractions. Check the possibilities on the link:
Buses on Malta
Buses are frequent and very affordable as well as ferries and boats. You can buy the single journey tickets from the bus driver but only with the exact cash payment of 2€ for day service. The ticket is valid to any destination within two hours, including interchanging.
We suggest buying a Tallinja card called the 7-Day Explore Card for only 21€. The Card includes unlimited travel for 7 days and offers the best value for exploring the whole country.
You can go to all of Malta’s sites of interest, in any part of Malta and Gozo. You can hop on or off anytime, as many times as you want, and at any time. More about transport on the link:
https://www.publictransport.com.mt/en/explore-card
There are also a lot of Hop-On Hop-Off bus tours you can consider and include in your itinerary. We took one on island Gozo and was worth it ( more about it in the next post).
Taxi
Some sights are more than an hour away by bus, and some buses only pass once an hour, which causes a great waste of time but still, you can visit a lot. We solved that problem by taking a taxi in some cases. There is an Uber taxi service with very affordable prices so if you do not have yet their application we suggest that you download it before you arrive. We used it on arrival from the airport to the accommodation because we were a bit afraid not to get lost.
Ferry and boat
This country is an archipelago and sea transport is very necessary. Many ferry and boat lines connect islands. You can choose from a range of cruises and boat tours that show the islands’ natural beauty, many beaches, and historical monuments. From luxury boat trips to simpler excursions with some swimming stops along the route.
To get to Gozo island we took a ferry. https://www.gozochannel.com/ferry/schedule/
From the city of Birgu (The Three Cities) to the opposite peninsula and the city of Sanglea we took a small taxi boat for only 2€ per person.
https://www.vallettaferryservices.com/
As for visiting beaches and cruising the coastline we did not have enough time and was not our priority for sightseeing.
Tickets
An important part of planning the trip to Malta is gathering data about what is there to see. Online there is so much information and suggestions on what to see that is hard to make a choice.
We fill the table with attractions and gather necessary information like the type of the place, do you need a ticket and the price of it, opening hours and how to get there. That made it easier to choose what to see and make a reasonable itinerary. It also gives us an approximate amount of money to plan for tickets and entrance fees.
More about attractions in our next post Malta and Gozo.
Travel itinerary for Malta
A very important part of the travel plan for any location is making a travel itinerary. We use a table with columns for every day and fill it with data from the journey. After picking the attractions we wanted to visit we added them to the table and calculated how much time do we need to get there and spend visiting.
While planning the itinerary for Malta we used Wonderlog, an online travel application with a mobile version that you can take with you. There you pick and add attractions and it calculates how long it takes from one to another and shows you the way on the map. And many more features. And it is completely free.
See our plan for Malta on Wonderlog.
Travel itinerary for Malta with Gozo
travel budget
For planning the travel budget we used our budget planning table (free template on page Tables, lists) and began with putting estimated round figures in section PLAN. The figures come from investigating how much could it cost and the amount we are willing to spend. After the travel, we sum up all the expenses and put them in the column SPENT and see if we exceed our plan…
See more on How to plan a travel budget
Free templates of all our planning tables to print or download can be found on our page Tables, lists.
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