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Malta Like a Local
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The places

Every town and bay has a story it doesn't tell strangers. Here they are.

Valletta

The dome of the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel rising over Valletta's rooftops by the harbour

Valletta

A whole capital in under a square kilometre: baroque churches, wine bars in cellars, and everyone's nanna's parish.

Grand Harbour

Fort St Angelo standing over Birgu at the tip of the Three Cities

The Three Cities (Birgu, Senglea, Cospicua)

Where Malta's harbour history actually happened: quieter than Valletta, prouder too, and still a real neighbourhood.

The dense limestone grid of the harbour cities from above

Paola and the Hypogeum

An ordinary working town sitting on top of the most extraordinary prehistoric site in Europe.

Central Malta

A Sliema street of mixed facades running toward the sea

Sliema

The seafront promenade where all Malta walks, swims off the rocks, and argues about the new towers.

Bright blue double doors under a stone arch

St Julian's

Fishing boats at Spinola, Malta's nightlife strip up the hill, and a greasy pole every August.

A curved stone street inside the walls of the Silent City

Mdina

Malta's old capital behind honey-coloured walls: 202 residents, hardly any cars, and centuries of quiet.

Twin red doors on a limestone townhouse in Rabat

Rabat

Catacombs under the streets, Malta's best pastizzi above them: Mdina's workaday twin does the living.

The great dome of the Mosta Rotunda against the sky

Mosta

An ordinary town under an extraordinary dome (the third-largest in the world) with one unexploded-bomb story.

The north

Mellieħa ridge falling to the sea on Malta's green north-west coast

Mellieħa

Malta's biggest sandy beach, a ridge-top town, and a cave shrine locals still walk to.

Houses gathered on a headland above the open sea

St Paul's Bay, Buġibba and Xemxija

Malta's biggest town by population: seafront promenades, a shipwrecked saint, and the best-value hotel beds on the island.

The west

The sheer drop of Dingli Cliffs into open sea

Dingli

Malta's highest village, where the island simply stops: 250-metre cliffs, one cliff-edge chapel, and very little fuss.

The south

A small boat tracing the base of the cliffs

Siġġiewi

Limestone, onion fields, a Lorenzo Gafà church far too grand for the town, and Għar Lapsi below.

The great limestone arch of the Blue Grotto over cobalt water

Żurrieq and the Blue Grotto

A working southern village with Mattia Preti canvases, a functioning windmill, and that famous blue sea cave.

The south-east

Waves breaking on the low rocky shore of the Delimara peninsula

Birżebbuġa and Għar Dalam

Seaside town of the deep south: a sandy bay, giant container cranes, and Malta's oldest cave of bones.

Marsaxlokk's fleet of painted fishing boats filling the bay

Marsaxlokk

Luzzu boats, Sunday fish stalls and open-air lunch: the fishing village every Maltese takes visitors to.

Gozo

The Cathedral within Victoria's Citadel, Gozo

Victoria (Rabat)

Gozo's capital: a walled Citadel, a morning market, two opera houses and a festa rivalry centuries old.

Deep blue water wrapping Gozo's headlands

Xagħra and Ramla

Temples older than the pyramids, a 1725 windmill, and Gozo's best red-sand beach at the bottom of the hill.

Gozo's cliffs dropping to a small bay far below

Xlendi

A fishing inlet squeezed between cliffs, now Gozo's supper table: fish restaurants a few steps from the water.

A natural limestone window over the sea on Gozo's coast

Dwejra and San Lawrenz

The Azure Window has gone; the Inland Sea, Fungus Rock and Gozo's wildest coast are still here.

Comino

The Blue Lagoon's impossible turquoise between Comino and Cominotto

Comino

Three and a half square kilometres, one Knights' tower, one famous lagoon, and almost nobody home.