![Mdina](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/04/17/TELEMMGLPICT000298994066_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqO01YeN1_1OjnpEyFFQBYxJH1m1zGGz39sfbjHn7K1go.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Seeing Malta’s top sights has never been easier – here’s why
A fleet of 400 eco-friendly buses has replaced the old chuggers – and the best bit is how incredibly good value they are
![Mdina](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/04/17/TELEMMGLPICT000298994066_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqO01YeN1_1OjnpEyFFQBYxJH1m1zGGz39sfbjHn7K1go.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Fifteen years ago I wrote the book on Malta. My travel guide described a sunny nation that turned in early after a supper of rabbit and chips. Boy that’s changed. During a long weekend in Valletta I’ve ticked off contemporary art, rooftop bars and a palazzo that’s bookable on Airbnb. Welcome to Malta 2023.
The biggest change? The buses. In the noughties they were British Leyland chuggers with logos from a Devon coach company. Today a fleet of 400 eco-friendly buses connects every top sight.
The best bit? To combat Malta’s chronic traffic problem, since late 2022 Malta’s buses have become incredibly good value.
All you need do is register online prior to your arrival for a €15 Tallinja travel card (for 12 single journeys). Or purchase a seven-day card on arrival for €21 and unlimited travel if you can’t face the faff.
![Equipped with his travel card, Tristan is ready to see the sights](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/04/17/TELEMMGLPICT000330032864_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=350)
I alight from the 201 bus at Ta' Betta winery for a taste of things to come. Rows of young vines ripple across the Maltese countryside. The vineyard’s first blends were crafted in a rural hut flanked by carob trees and ancient olives.
“We called it Chateau Garage”, says Ta' Betta’s French wine host Marie.
The €70 Ta' Betta wine experience includes three glasses of their latest vintages. The winery’s Jaean Parisot is a white Chardonnay harvested in the August heat. High sugars boost alcohol volume to 14 per cent; it’s like drinking liquid honey.
![Malta has over 400,000 cars for a population of 500,000, who share under 2,000 miles of roads](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/04/17/TELEMMGLPICT000312264122_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Ta’ Betta wines are fermented in concrete egg-shaped casks, which look like futuristic amphorae designed by Philippe Starck. After two hours I stagger contentedly back to the bus stop. Good job I’m not driving.
A far older attraction sits 20 minutes down the coast by bus. The archeological site of Hagar Qim predates the pyramids.
The ancient ones selected a fabulous location. Set against a winking Mediterranean, and scented by wild fennel, these 20-ton blocks form the oldest free-standing stone structures in the world. It’s the oldest building you’ll ever enter. During restoration works in 1949, four obese statuettes known as the “fat ladies” were unearthed. Each boasts a big bum and massive boobs. Imagine Love Island in 3,500BC.
![The archeological site of Hagar Qim predates the pyramids - and features some Love Island-esque ancient artwork](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/04/17/TELEMMGLPICT000299010947_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq2aizoQ_BaLt4dX785YMTtfKkFEqdTZKNDlUqURLrobk.jpeg?imwidth=350)
The bus home features comfy seats and picture windows that show a panorama of timeless Malta. Out here parcels of land are so petite that they are tilled with hoes and rakes. I make a quick stop at the silent city of Mdina. The timeless streets have such an abundance of palaces that you can sleep (Xara Palace), eat a pizza (Costanzo Palace) or gawp at fancy furniture (Falson Palace) in a series of mega-mansions.
The following day I have another appointment with aristocracy. In Valletta the Casa Rocca Piccola is a 16th-century "living museum" owned and inhabited by the 9th Marquis de Piro. If you stay at the attached five-room B&B (book direct or on Airbnb) the marquis himself can give you an emphatic tour of his family palazzo.
![The Marquis will see you now: explore Valletta's Casa Rocca Piccola, a 16th-century "living museum" owned and inhabited by the 9th Marquis de Piro](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/04/17/TELEMMGLPICT000331971982_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=350)
The 50 bling-tastic rooms feature chandeliers from Murano and a gold palanquin for escorting aristos from port. Creaking bookshelves host biographies of Churchill and a copy of Burke’s Peerage from 1947. Always handy if your forebears were knights.
I then take a busman’s holiday around the Maltese capital by accident. Bus 133 is a circle line that links every Valletta neighbourhood - with views so pretty I end up back where I started. Visible from the bus are freshly painted façades in bright pastels that create a Valletta in Technicolor. Raised gardens like Barrakka (there’s a free elevator for Tallinja travel card holders) offer postcard views.
My favourite sights on the Valletta circular bus are gallarija, or Maltese closed balconies. From within, residents can gaze voyeuristically over street bustle without being seen. Like a webcam from times of yore.
Today’s Valletta is a heady mix of old and new. St John's Co-Cathedral contains 17th-century masterpieces by Caravaggio.
Nearby the MUZA art museum shows a Turner watercolour of Malta's Grand Harbour, and serves a cracking risotto (€12) at lunch. Just outside it’s the 21st century. Street drinkers sit hugger mugger on stools strewn willy nilly all the way down to the Valletta waterfront.
From here I ride the ferry across Grand Harbour (free with my travel card) to the three fortified suburbs of Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua. They look like a historic movie set with honey-hued houses and flaming bougainvillaea.
The zone is Malta as-was: €1 cups of coffee in fisherfolk cafés and €8 harbour tours on a gondola. I take a stroll to Fort Ricasoli - and bump into several prospective actors. This year the fort will be used to shoot Gladiator 2, the swords and sandals sequel to the original, which starred Oliver Reed, who died while arm wrestling in a Valletta boozer mid-shoot.
Vittoriosa was home to the original auberges, or residences, of the eight nationalities of the Knights of Malta. One plaque marks the fancy Auberge d’Angleterre. Sadly the English knights withdrew from this European security pact during Henry VIII’s rule. Think of it as a mediaeval Brexit, overseen by an English leader who loved women, wine and picking fights with the French. Sound familiar?
!['My favourite sights on the Valletta circular bus are gallarija, or Maltese closed balconies. From within, residents can gaze voyeuristically over street bustle without being seen'](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/04/17/TELEMMGLPICT000331972355_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=350)
The next morning I follow the Maltese tradition of spending Sunday by the sea. I’m not the only one. The 81 bus eases out of Valletta bus station - and hits traffic. Malta has over 400,000 cars for a population of 500,000, who share under 2,000 miles of roads. Hence the shock tactic of making all the buses free. Some of my fellow passengers are trying their bus network for the very first time. Their favourite part? That they don’t have to hunt for a parking space on arrival.
Jam over, we arrive at Marsaxlokk on Malta’s southern shore. This gorgeous fishing village welcomes passengers with a smack of ozone and a clang of church bells. The Sunday market is in full flow with kannoli pastries, unfiltered honey and giant fig rolls. Seafood from the market makes its way into the amphitheatre of fish restaurants that encircle the handsome port.
I’m tempted by a harbour tour in one of the colourful luzzu fishing boats, which are painted like a children’s nursery. Alas I’ve seen that movie: both the Ottomans and Napoleon anchored in Marsaxlokk bay then came a cropper. Instead I take a coastal walk to St Peter’s Pool, a perfect swimming pool of aquamarine sea. The scene is bucolic: birdsong, wildflowers and endless ocean. (Swim south and it’s next stop Libya).
![Sunday by the sea: a Maltese tradition](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/travel/2023/04/17/TELEMMGLPICT000319477823_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=350)
My final morning features Malta’s newest attraction. The Farsons Brewery Visitor Experience (€15) opened in March 2023 in the art deco factory that produced, until recently, Malta's best beer. Copper tanks made in England regularly brewed 100,000 pints per day, which were served to British troops around the Mediterranean in a savvy circular economy.
I ask our guide, a former brewer, about the name of their lager-like beer, Cisk. It’s so-named because the banking family behind the brewery introduced cheques - which became ‘Cisk’ after a few mouthfuls - to the country. Visitors can sink a pint in the new Cisk Tap rooftop bar above the old factory. Bizarrely, across from my table sit ten tough-as-nails gents clad entirely in black, whom I’m told just arrived on the fast ferry from Sicily to Valletta. I’m too nervous to ask if they caught the 52 bus here.
My final bus (the 73) deposits me at Valletta Airport’s car rental depot. Unlike driving, this big weekend has been low cost and low stress. This buzzing nation, the same size of the Isle of Wight, is simply better by bus.
Essentials
Tallinja travel cards can be purchased online and regular Explore travel cards at kiosks at Valletta Airport.
The five museum-like rooms at Casa Rocca Piccola cost from €160pn (£140).