We had initially planned to spend half a day in Valletta on the day we arrived but including Gozo shifted our plans around and we ended up visiting on our last day.

Most of travel brochures and pictures on the internet show Valletta as the main attraction in Malta. It is the largest city and the capital of Malta. Perhaps due to this it was the most crowded spot we encountered in all of Malta!

We booked an Uber as the free hotel shuttle was full. We dropped our bags off at the reception after checking out. Uber wasn’t as common as Bolt in this part of the world. Hence the wait for the taxi was longer. We made our way through some densely populated areas and busy roads to the city and were dropped off near the Triton Fountain. It was a large fountain and was a great center piece at the entrance to the walled city of Valletta.

We then passed the parliament of Malta that was built pretty recently but has a facade that matched the rest of the historical buildings in the city. The city was bustling with people, shops and restaurants. There were a lot of souvenir shops and every kind of restaurant one could think of. The city appeared to be a fusion between the UK and Europe!

We walked to the St. John’s co-cathedral and saw there was a queue for entering. However since we saw some elaborate interiors in the churches around the other parts of Malta for free we had no interested to spend to see the interiors. We also did not have much time to spend as we had to return to the hotel and leave for the airport by 2 pm

We passed the Republic Square with it’s restaurants and a statue of Queen Victoria to see the fountains at St. George’s Square. The Square was the most expansive square in the city of Valletta and was beautiful surrounded by the traditional buildings with their typical Maltese architecture. 

Our next stop was St. Elmo’s fort. Valletta is blessed with a natural harbour that is enclosed by the three cities on one side and the city of Valletta on the other. This made it easy for the Maltese to keep a heavy control on who entered their harbour. Hence you can find fortresses and canons all along the harbour.

After catching a glimpse of the entrance to the world famous harbour, we made our way back to the main parts of the city. The streets of Valletta are rarely flat. It either goes up or goes down. From Fort St. Elmo it was a climb to get back to the main parts of the city.

We passed the quaint St. Lucia’s Street with its lights and chandeliers before climbing up more to stop at the famed red telephone booth and the hotel with the red windows and balcony.

Next we walked over to St. Barbara Bastion from where we caught the canon firing at 12 noon from the Saluting Battery. St. Barbara Bastion has lovely houses overlooking the harbour with bring painted windows and balconies.

We then climbed some more to reach the Upper Barakka Gardens. It was a warm day and we were exhausted with all the climbing. Thankfully there was shade, a good breeze and benches to sit in the Gardens. The Garden has lovely views overlooking the harbour and the three cities. The Saluting Battery with its canons was right below the Gardens. 

We realised we still had time to spend. Our choices were Birgu in the three cities or the famed view point of Valletta. We were, to be honest, quite sick of the crowds in Valletta and decided to take a ferry to the three cities. That meant we had to climb all the way down!! Fear not, there’s the Barakka Lift! The Lift was located right behind the Gardens and cost €1 for a round trip!

The Lift shuttled us very quickly to the sea level and we made our way over to the boarding point for the three cities ferry. It costs €2 one way and took 15 minutes to reach passing the famed harbour and several moored yachts and boats in the Birgu harbour.

We walked from the harbour to the old city of Birgu passing beautiful churches through the fort walls. Every city in this area appeared to be a walled fortress! Their defence systems have been impressive!

Birgu was quieter than Valletta with hardly any tourists around. We enjoy the peace and quiet after the busy Valletta. The most popular spot in Birgu is the famed Triq Il-Palazz Ta’L-Isqof. That’s quite a mouthful. The street is a charming street with beautiful houses and their colourful balconies. All the streets around this were quiet and quaint! We spent quite a bit of time here. 

We then thought of making our way back to Valletta to see the viewpoint but then we just missed the ferry and the next one was 30 minutes later. So we decided to Bolt back to the hotel.

We returned to the hotel, picked our bags and Bolted to the airport. I had already checked-in online and we made our way to security and departure gates. We had not had our lunch and we quickly grabbed some overpriced airport food before boarding our flight to the UK. 

We flew over the beautiful island of Malta with its distinct coastal landforms and islands. It is beautiful city and a good stop for a weekend.