Have you ever considered going to Malta? Neither did I…until we saw how cheap and expensive the trip could be. Here is the perfect Malta travel guide for an inexpensive weekend get away!

I opened an incognito tab on Google and searched “flights from Italy.”

It was a beautiful Friday in Madrid, however, my friends and I had spent the last two hours hidden in the corner of a small cafe glued to our computers. Powered by cups of coffee and hot chocolate, we scanned the internet for cheap flights home from our upcoming trip to Amalfi.

Surprisingly, the difficult part was not leaving Madrid. We already had tickets to Italy (read more here about our trip to the Amalfi Coast.) The hard part was getting back to Madrid. Every flight from Italy cost an arm and a leg.

“I found something…!” Vivienne gasped, breaking the silence. Lexi and I appeared from behind our computer monitors. “Oh…wait it’s gone.” She sighed. Back to clicking.

“Wait!” I cried a few minutes later. I clicked around Easy Jet’s website to find the three, €40 tickets to Barcelona I had just seen advertised. “Sold out” the site read. Darn.

After the waiter delivered another round of double espressos, Lexi pipped up. “Guys…” she said, her Californian, Valley Girl accent making the single-syllabled word sound exceptionally dramatic. “I found €9 tickets.”

It turns out, the €9 tickets flew us across the Mediterranean to Malta, from which, we were able to snag cheap flights back to Madrid two days later. Before the espressos had cooled, we had flights to a country we knew nothing about.

Malta is a small island country in the Mediterranean south of Sicily. The language and culture is a mix of Arabic, English, Italian, and French influences. The country is famous for St. Paul’s shipwreck in 60 A.D., the residence of the Knights of St.John during the Middle Ages, and–of equally high significance–the filming of Russel Crowe’s Gladiator in 2000. (l mean…“Are you not entertained” is a good line, people.)

Travel and Stay

We arrived late Friday night and explored the streets of Valletta. Valetta is a walled peninsula built by the Knights of St. John as a fortress during the Crusades. Most movies and TV shows filmed in Malta–such as Gladiator (2000), Murder on the Orient Express (2017), and Game of Thrones (2011-2019)–are filmed in Valetta. We stayed in Sliema Marina Hotel. It was nothing glamorous, but it was clean, cheap, and convenient (and not a hostel!).

Tip:

• Visit Valetta. It was a hidden gem that my friends and I never expected. While it was the “off season” for Malta (it is summer destination), the tiny streets were filled with locals and some tourists nibbling away at food and sipping their drinks.
• There are few places to stay in Valetta itself. Most hotels are located in Sliema. However–do not fear! It is merely a skip across the water. It takes only ten minutes by ferry to cross.

Fun Fact: My friend Vivienne is a huge BTS fan. When the ferry docked in Valletta, she let out a gasp, grabbed her phone, and started taking photos of this white building. “It’s pretty… but what’s the hype?” I thought.

It turns out that, in 2018, BTS stayed in this exact apartment while filming their travel-reality TV show “Bon Voyage.”

Eats:

Maltese food is wonderful. They take pride in their rabbit, olives, pastizzi, sea food, sausage, hummus, and butter beans. My favorite place we ate was D’Office. We sat at a small table in the street, enjoyed fresh calamari and a platter of traditional Maltese Mezze (bean dip, Maltese sausage, sundried tomates, olives, peppered goat cheese, butter beans, and crackers) and people watched into the late hours.

I highly recommend finding pastizzi. This is a hand-held, savory pastry filled with peas or ricotta. The best are found at the small, street side stands.

Tip: Buy your own pastizzi. Don’t share.

See:

St. John’s Cathedral is extraordinary. In addition to its architecture and rich historical significance, it is home to two of Caravaggio’s, a 16th and 17th century Italian painter, most famous works: The Beheading of St. John the Baptist and St. Jerome Writing (pictured above.)

Spend:

Malta is known for its handmade lace and artesian, wire jewelry. I brought back a lace bookmark for my mom and a bracelet for my Grandmother.

Tip:

I recommend visiting Joseph Busuttil. It is one of the oldest and most authentic stores to purchase these little treasures.

For a €9 pit stop on our way back to Madrid, Malta did not disappoint. On the contrary, it is one of the most lovely places I have been. Sure, it is a little out of the way from central Europe and I wouldn’t recommend more than a day or two for Valetta. However, there is wonderful hiking on the Northern end of the island that we were unable to get explore. Please go for me and tell me if you like it. I’d like to go again soon. 🙂

Coincidently, Russel Crowe was on the island the same time we were for Gladiator’s 20 year anniversary. We kept our eyes peeled the whole trip.