Malta · City break

Valletta City Guide

Valletta is the smallest capital in the EU, planned on the drawing board as a fortress from 1566. Straight streets run from the city gate to the fort by the sea, Caravaggio hangs in the Co-Cathedral, and saluting guns fire over the harbour. One ready-made day route ends with the ferry across the Grand Harbour to Birgu.

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Our walking tours of Valletta

Ready-made routes from the station guide you through Valletta, to the right spots from the very first step, with no planning needed.

City of the Knights & Grand Harbour

From the bus terminus through Renzo Piano's City Gate and along dead-straight Republic Street to the Co-Cathedral and its Caravaggio. On to the Teatru Manoel of 1732, into the Grandmaster's Palace and the noble Casa Rocca Piccola, as far as Fort St Elmo at the tip of the peninsula. Along the bastions to the Siege Bell and up into the Upper Barrakka Gardens. Then the lift takes you down to the water and the ferry to Birgu, where the day ends at Fort St Angelo.

City Gate & Parliament. Valletta begins with a gap in the bastion. Before you walk through, turn round for a moment. On the square in front of the gate stands the Triton Fountain by Vincent Apap, completed in 1959. Three bronze tritons hold up a large basin. This is the fifth city gate on the spot, and the first went up in 1569. Between 2011 and 2014 Renzo Piano left the wall open and set two stone blocks beside the passage, separated by tall steel blades. Right behind stands his parliament of 2015, two blocks on stilts clad in Gozitan limestone, carved so that it looks worn by the wind. The facade was meant as a honeycomb, but many Maltese were reminded of a dovecote. Next door rise the column stumps of the opera house, wrecked by the Luftwaffe in April 1942. Ahead of you runs Republic Street, dead straight all the way to Fort St Elmo, because Francesco Laparelli laid the city out on a grid from 1566.
St John's Co-Cathedral. From outside, the Order's church looks like a fortification, plain and severe, built from 1573 to 1578 to plans by Girolamo Cassar. Inside, everything flips. From the 1660s Mattia Preti remodelled the interior in Baroque style, with the ornament carved straight into the limestone walls. Beneath your feet lie some 400 knights and officers of the Order, their tombstones of coloured marble showing coats of arms and battles. The Oratory holds Caravaggio's "Beheading of Saint John the Baptist" of 1608, 5.20 by 3.60 m. It is considered the only work he ever signed, in the blood flowing from the Baptist's neck, as "f. Michelang.o". The f stands for Fra, brother of the Order. A few months later he was locked up in Fort St Angelo and escaped. On 1 December 1608 the Order expelled him in this very room, in front of this very painting.
Teatru Manoel. Above the entrance, a Latin line says what the house was built for, "ad honestam populi oblectationem", for the honest entertainment of the people. Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena bought two houses in 1731 and paid for the building himself. Ten months later, in January 1732, the Italian knights took the stage with the tragedy "Merope". It is said the plays were partly meant to keep the young knights out of mischief. Inside, three tiers of gilded wooden boxes wrap around an oval auditorium beneath a painted ceiling that fakes a dome. The Manoel ranks among the oldest working theatres in Europe, and Malta's national anthem was first heard in public here in 1922. A few steps on, Strait Street crosses, the old lane of the sailors' bars.
Grandmaster's Palace. The palace fills an entire city block and is the largest in Valletta. From 1574 it grew out of the house of Grand Master Pietro del Monte's nephew, remodelled by Girolamo Cassar. Grand Masters ruled from here, British governors after 1800, and today it houses the Office of the President. From 1921 to 2015 Parliament sat here too, latterly in the hall of the former armoury. When the MPs moved into Piano's new building by the gate, the armour returned to its old hall. Suits worn by Grand Masters Alof de Wignacourt and Jean de Valette stand there beside Ottoman weapons from the siege of 1565. In Prince Alfred's Courtyard hangs a clock of 1745, known as the Moors Clock. Behind the palace, on Merchants Street, stands the Is-Suq tal-Belt market hall of 1861, one of the first iron buildings in Malta. Since 2018 it has been home to food stalls, with a supermarket in the basement.
Casa Rocca Piccola. This palazzo is still a family home. The house on Republic Street belongs to the de Piro family, who by their own account have lived in Valletta for almost 350 years. It was built in 1580 by Admiral Don Pietro La Rocca, a knight of the Order. Maps of the time call it "la casa con giardino", the house with the garden, because houses in Valletta were normally not allowed gardens. Twelve rooms on the piano nobile lead through libraries, dining rooms and a chapel, filled with furniture, silver and Maltese lace. Then you head down into the rock. In the Second World War the house's two old wells were turned into air-raid shelters, and more than a hundred people crammed into the larger one during raids.
Fort St Elmo & National War Museum. At the end of Republic Street, the Great Siege of 1565 came to a head. The star fort of 1552 held out against the Ottoman force for a month before falling on 23 June. None of the knights defending it survived, and only nine Maltese defenders escaped by swimming across the harbour to Fort St Angelo. The weeks it bought gave the other strongholds time until reinforcements arrived. Inside, the National War Museum shows the fuselage of the Sea Gladiator "Faith", the only survivor of the Hal Far fighter flight, and the jeep "Husky" used by Eisenhower and Roosevelt. A case holds the George Cross that King George VI awarded to the whole island in 1942. The first bombs to hit Malta fell right here, on 11 June 1940.
Siege Bell Memorial. From 1940 to 1942 the Italian and German air forces attacked Malta in some 3,000 raids. More than a thousand inhabitants were killed and some 30,000 buildings destroyed or damaged. On 15 April 1942 King George VI awarded the people of Malta the George Cross, which still appears on the national flag. Fifty years later, in May 1992, this memorial was unveiled on the bastion above the harbour entrance, designed by the sculptor Michael Sandle. It commemorates those who died in the siege, soldiers and civilians alike. The bronze bell weighs just over 10 t and is meant to toll every day at noon. Right next to it lie the Lower Barrakka Gardens. At their centre stands a small temple of 1810 honouring Alexander Ball, the island's first British Civil Commissioner.
Upper Barrakka Gardens & Saluting Battery. At the highest point of the city walls you stand as if on a balcony above the harbour. The arcades were built in 1661 by the Italian knight Flaminio Balbiani as a garden for the Order's Italian langue, and they were roofed until the Rising of the Priests in 1775. Below you spreads the whole Grand Harbour, and opposite lie the Three Cities with Fort St Angelo, where today ends. One level down is the Saluting Battery. Under the British, daily signal shots were fired from here, and in 1954 they removed the guns. Today eight replica 32-pounders stand there again and fire twice a day from Monday to Saturday. Deeper still in the rock lie the Lascaris War Rooms, from where the 1943 landings in Sicily were directed. Beside the garden, the Barrakka Lift drops 58 m to the ferry landing.
Birgu Waterfront & San Lawrenz. The ferry drops you in Bormla, and from there the promenade along Dockyard Creek leads into Birgu. Before Valletta existed, this was the Order's town. The knights were based here from 1530 to 1571, and the church of San Lawrenz on the water served as their first conventual church in Malta for 41 years. The present building went up from 1681 to 1697 to plans by Lorenzo Gafà, a native of Birgu. The altarpiece showing the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence is by Mattia Preti, the same painter as in the Co-Cathedral. In the Second World War bombs hit the sacristy, a chapel and the dome, and all were rebuilt by 1952. Along the quay stand the Palace of the General of the Galleys and the Order's former treasury. After the Great Siege, Birgu received the title Città Vittoriosa, the victorious city.
Fort St Angelo. During the Great Siege of 1565 the Order had its headquarters here, while the Ottomans fired across from the hill opposite, where Valletta stands today. Yet the place is older. By 1274 the castle of Castrum Maris, the castle by the sea, stood here with two rings of walls. The fortress got its present shape from 1689 under the engineer Carlos de Grunenbergh, with four gun platforms for some fifty cannon. Later it became a Royal Navy base, run like a ship and named HMS St Angelo from 1933. In the Second World War it took 69 direct hits, and only in March 1979 did the last foreign troops march out. Since 1998 the upper part has again been used by the Order of Malta. And Caravaggio was imprisoned here in 1608 before he escaped.

Planning your visit

Plan a full day. The route covers 5.4 km on foot with ten stops, starts at the Valletta Bus Terminus outside City Gate and ends, after a ferry crossing, at Fort St Angelo in Birgu. Short on time, skip Casa Rocca Piccola and the Teatru Manoel. Valletta covers just 0.61 km², and almost everything lies on a few straight streets. Mdina and Rabat deserve a day of their own, and on Sundays the Marsaxlokk fish market is worth the trip. There are five tips for the evening.

Going out & nightlife

Rooftop bars

Anaalā Valletta. On the roof of Solis, a restored palazzo belonging to the Iniala hotel, Anaalā sits beside a pool with views over the city's rooftops. The kitchen is led by Thai chef Ian Kittichai. In the hotel's main house on St Barbara Bastion, Simon Rogan cooks at ION Harbour, which holds two Michelin stars, for a big night out.

Nightlife quarters

Paceville. If you still want to dance after midnight, head to St Julian's. Paceville, between Spinola Point and Dragonara Point, is Malta's nightlife district, packed with clubs, bars and restaurants. It takes its name from the lawyer Giuseppe Pace, who built the first seaside houses here in the 1910s and 1920s and let them to British servicemen.

Food & restaurants

Rubino. Rubino opened in 1906 as a confectioner's. Today the kitchen cooks Maltese and Italian dishes from a menu that changes all the time. It lies a few streets from the Grandmaster's Palace and is small, so book ahead.

Bars & clubs

Trabuxù & Tico-Tico Bar. For decades Strait Street was the pleasure lane of British and later NATO sailors, who called it "The Gut". When the last troops left in 1979 the lights went out, and today they are back on. Tico-Tico was the name of one of the old sailors' bars, and a Tico-Tico Bar still trades there. At the upper end, Trabuxù pours wine in a vaulted cellar, with cheese on the side. Tradition has it that knights once fought duels in the narrow lane.

Stage & concerts

Teatru Manoel. In the evening the house of 1732 belongs to its audience. The Teatru Manoel is Malta's national theatre, and the orchestra that became the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra was founded here in 1968. The programme runs from opera and ballet to drama, with the Christmas pantomime a tradition since 1907. You sit in one of 51 gilded wooden boxes or in the stalls of the oval auditorium.

See all stops for Valletta in the app →

Practical information for Valletta

Public transport

Operator. Malta Public Transport operates the entire bus network on Malta and Gozo, plus the express buses tallinja Direct and Airport Direct, the night feeder service tallinja On Demand and the bike-hire system tallinja Bike. Fares are regulated by Transport Malta. The main hub is the Valletta bus terminal directly in front of City Gate by the Triton Fountain, the central interchange for lines across the whole island. The two ferry lines between Sliema and Valletta and between Valletta and Cospicua (Three Cities) are run by Valletta Ferry Services in cooperation with Malta Public Transport. The Barrakka Lift connects the harbour at Lascaris Wharf with the Upper Barrakka Gardens. There is no railway on Malta.

Network. Buses, two harbour ferries and a lift, but no railway. The central bus hub is the terminal in front of City Gate, and circular line 133 runs through the old town.

Modes of transport. Bus · Ferry · Lift · Bike hire

Operating hours. The day lines from Valletta terminal start between 5.05am and 6.05am, depending on the line, and finish between 10pm and 11.05pm. On weekdays, line 15 to Sliema, for example, runs from 5.30am to 10pm every 30 minutes, line 2 to Birgu from 5.15am to 10.45pm, line 13 towards Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq from 5.05am to 10.45pm and line 91 to Marsaskala from 5.30am to 11pm. The circular line 133 through Valletta, which also serves the ferry landing stages, runs Monday to Saturday from 6am to 10pm every 30 minutes, and on Sundays from 6am to 8pm, mostly hourly. The ferry between Sliema and Valletta leaves in each direction every 30 minutes, from Valletta from 7am to 7.30pm (1 November to 31 May) or until 1.30am (1 June to 31 October), less often in the evening in summer. On Sundays and public holidays it starts at 8.45am. The ferry to Cospicua leaves Valletta from 6.45am to 7.15pm, in summer until 1.30am, and on Sundays and public holidays from 9am. Transport Malta publishes the current Barrakka Lift times.

Night service. Night lines have an N before the line number, and a journey costs €3. The most important from Valletta is the N13 to St Julian’s (San Ġiljan), which runs daily from 11.10pm to 2.10am, every 10 minutes until 12.50am and every 20 minutes after that. The other night lines from Valletta terminal run only a few times in the evening, for example the N3 to Kalkara at 10.55pm and 11.25pm, the N52 to Dingli at 11pm and 11.30pm and the N48 to Buġibba on weekdays at 11.05pm, 11.35pm and 12.05am, and on Saturdays and Sundays every 15 minutes from 11pm to 12.45am. The airport bus TD4 runs until 12.50am from the airport and until about 1am from Valletta. In summer (1 June to 31 October) the ferry to Sliema runs until 1.30am, at the night price of €3.50 after 7.30pm. The on-demand bus tallinja On Demand runs from Friday to Sunday from 7pm to 3am, but only in Sliema, San Ġwann, St Julian’s and Swieqi, not in Valletta.

Buying tickets. You buy a single ticket on boarding directly from the driver, in cash or contactless with Visa, Mastercard or Maestro, also by phone or smartwatch. If paying cash, you need the exact fare, as drivers may refuse €10, €20 and €50 notes. The ticket is valid for 2 hours, and transfers are free during this time. Passes such as the Explore Flex and the 12 Single Day Journeys are available at the sales offices of Malta Public Transport, at Valletta terminal next to bay A1 daily from 6am to 7.30pm, at the airport in the arrivals hall (Welcomers’ Hall) daily from 8am to midnight and in the baggage reclaim from 8am to 8pm, and also at ticket machines accessible around the clock (including at Valletta terminal by bay A1 and three at the airport) and in all branches of Agenda Bookshops, 8TillLate and WHSmith. Anyone inspected without a valid ticket or without a validated card pays a €50 fine.

App and payment. For a single journey you need no app, as you hold your contactless bank card (Visa, Mastercard, Maestro), phone or smartwatch against the reader at the driver. The free tallinja app for Android and iOS has a journey planner with walking routes, shows the buses in real time on the map and reports disruptions on saved lines. The app sells tickets only in connection with an Explore Flex card. You buy the card at the counter or from a machine, add it in the app under "My Cards" by QR code or card number, top up the balance by credit card and use it to buy offers such as multi-day passes. You can also book the on-demand bus tallinja On Demand through the app.

Which ticket. A single ride on the day lines costs €2 in the winter half-year and €2.50 in the summer half-year (in 2025/26 the winter price applied from 19 October 2025 to 13 June 2026) and is valid for 2 hours with free transfers. Night lines, special lines and most tallinja Direct lines such as the airport bus TD4 cost €3, and the TD1 €3.50. Holders of a personalised tallinja Card with name and photo travel free on day and night lines, on the ferries to Sliema and the Three Cities and in the Barrakka Lift, but not on tallinja Direct, Airport Direct and On Demand. Non-residents with a passport can also apply for the card. It costs €25 plus postage, and Malta Public Transport publishes the current postage costs. The card usually arrives by post within two weeks. The 12 Single Day Journeys card costs €19, which is €1.58 a ride. It is shareable and valid for six months, and night lines and Airport Direct count double. Explore Flex, with 4 days of unlimited travel for €21, costs the same as 8.4 summer or 10.5 winter rides. The 7-day version for €27 costs the same as 10.8 or 13.5 rides respectively. Both include night lines and Airport Direct. Children under 4 travel free, and the Explore Child for ages 4 to 10 costs €7 for 7 days.

Fare zones. There are no fare zones, and a flat price per type of line applies across the whole of Malta and Gozo. Day lines cost €2 in winter and €2.50 in summer, night lines (N), special lines (S) and tallinja Direct (TD) €3, and the TD1 to the ferry port Ċirkewwa €3.50. The ticket is valid for 2 hours from purchase, and during this time you can transfer at no extra charge. All passes from Malta Public Transport are valid on Malta and Gozo alike.

Tip. To get from the Grand Harbour to the upper town, take the Barrakka Lift from Lascaris Wharf to the Upper Barrakka Gardens. The two 58 m high lifts take around 25 seconds. If you arrive by ferry from Cospicua, the lift ticket is included.

Getting there

Main station

Location. The bus terminal is directly in front of City Gate, Valletta's main entrance, next to the Triton Fountain. Through the gate you walk straight into the old town without a detour. Circular line 133 runs from bay A1 through Valletta and also stops at the ferry landing stages on Marsamxett Harbour. It runs Monday to Saturday from 6am to 10pm every 30 minutes, and on Sundays from 6am to 8pm, mostly hourly. A tallinja Bike station stands to the left of the Triton Fountain, and another at the Barrakka Lift.

Long-distance trains. Malta has no railway. Instead of a main station, Valletta bus terminal is the central interchange for bus lines across the whole island. It has three zones, Zone A for lines to the south, to Pembroke Park and Ride and to Buġibba, Zone B for the north and Zone C for the middle of the island. Important lines are the 15 to Sliema, the 42 via Mosta and Mellieħa to Ċirkewwa, the 62 to Siġġiewi, the 74 to Żurrieq, the 85 to Marsaxlokk, the 91 to Marsaskala and the airport bus TD4. The express bus X300 runs on weekdays from 4.10am to 10.15pm about every 45 minutes to the ferry port Ċirkewwa, from where Gozo Channel sails to Gozo. The terminal has ticket machines available around the clock, a sales office, real-time displays at every bay, accessible toilets, kiosks, covered waiting areas and a tallinja Bike station.

Opening hours. Valletta bus terminal operates daily. The day lines run from about 5am, depending on the line, and the earliest departure is the express bus X300 to Ċirkewwa at 4.10am. The last day buses run around 11pm, after which the night lines take over, the last being the N13 to St Julian’s at 2.10am. The Malta Public Transport sales office next to bay A1, where you can get passes, information and top-ups, is open daily from 6am to 7.30pm. The ticket machines by bay A1 are accessible around the clock. Inspectors and information staff are on site for most of the day.

Airports

MLA

Into the city. The express bus TD4 (Airport Direct 4) leaves from the bus station at the airport, signposted from the arrivals hall, daily from 5.20am to 12.50am every 30 minutes and reaches Valletta terminal (bay B1) after around 12 minutes. In the other direction it leaves Valletta B1 from 5.32am to about 1am via Lascaris and Floriana and reaches the airport after around 18 minutes. The journey costs €3, in cash or contactless to the driver, and is included in the Explore Flex cards, but is not free with the personalised tallinja Card. The buses have luggage space, Wi-Fi and USB sockets, and no reservation is needed. The normal day line 88 runs via Gudja, from Valletta on weekdays from 5.30am to 10.50pm every 20 minutes and on Saturdays and Sundays every 30 minutes, and takes 28 to 38 minutes to the airport depending on the time of day. It costs the normal day price of €2 in winter and €2.50 in summer. Malta Public Transport sales offices are in the arrivals hall (8am to midnight) and in the baggage reclaim (8am to 8pm). The official taxi service at the airport is Malta Taxi.

Local quirks

The bus stops only if you signal. Buses stop only at stops with a sign, and only if you clearly signal to the driver. To get off, ring the bell once shortly beforehand. At the terminal, board only at the official bay. X lines and some other lines skip stops, so check beforehand that your bus stops there. The driver may refuse large luggage if there is no space.
The harbour ferry has a day and a night price. On the ferries to Sliema and to Cospicua a single journey costs €3 during the day, and €5 return. From 7.30pm the night price of €3.50 applies, €5.20 return. Children pay €1, €1.50 return. With the personalised tallinja Card the ferry is free. A free shuttle timed to the departures links the Marsamxett landing stage with Lascaris, and the ferry ticket from Cospicua includes the Barrakka Lift.
The Sicily ferry docks at Marsa. The Virtu Ferries catamarans from Pozzallo in Sicily take around 1 hour 45 minutes and do not dock in Valletta but at the Virtu Passenger Terminal in Marsa. Line 130 stops right outside the terminal at the Ħatab stop. It leaves Valletta bay A1 hourly from 6.40am to 8.40pm and takes around 5 minutes.

Good to know

Currency: EUR €
Emergency number: 112
Plug type: G
Time zone: Europe/Malta
Driving: left

Speed limits. built-up areas 50 km/h, outside towns 80 km/h, motorway no motorway

Malta has no motorways. The limits for cars and motorcycles are 50 km/h in towns and villages and 80 km/h outside them, unless signs show otherwise. Some residential areas are signposted at 30 km/h. Minibuses and vans may drive at most 40 km/h in built-up areas and 60 km/h outside them. Driving is on the left, as in Great Britain. The drink-drive limit is 0.5 g of alcohol per litre of blood (0.05%).

Tipping. Tipping is customary in Malta. A tip of 5 to 10% is appropriate if the service was good. If a service charge is already on the bill, no tip is needed. If in doubt, ask in the restaurant. The public car parks operated by Transport Malta are free of charge, and you can give the attendants a small tip if you like.

Tolls. There is no motorway toll, as Malta has no motorways. Charges arise in two places. Access to Valletta is charged by length of stay through the CVA system. The car ferry from Ċirkewwa on Malta to Mġarr on Gozo costs €15.70 for a car with driver, pedestrians pay €4.65, children aged 3 to 12 €1.15, and children aged 2 and under travel free. The fare covers the return journey. Payment and validation take place only in Mġarr before the return trip, and on the outward journey from Ċirkewwa you drive on without a ticket. Vehicle tickets are available online or at the counters in Mġarr, and children's tickets only at the counters. From November to March a night rate applies for departures from Mġarr after 8pm, of €12.80 for a car with driver and €4.05 for pedestrians. You cannot reserve a space.

Access restrictions. Cameras record every number plate at the Valletta city boundary. The system measures how long a vehicle stays in the zone and calculates the fee from this according to the Transport Malta tariff. On weekdays from 8am to 6pm access is chargeable, with the first 30 minutes free. If you only enter after 2pm, you pay nothing. At weekends and on public holidays access is free. The bill arrives afterwards. Residents are exempt. With a hire car, ask the rental company how it settles the fee.