Malta: What Needs Booking Before You Go (Blue Lagoon Included)

Malta is small enough that people arrive without a plan, and mostly that works. But three of the best things on the island now have gates in front of them — one of which did not exist when I visited in 2023 — and turning up without having dealt with them is how a day gets wasted.

So this guide starts with what to book, then covers the islands themselves.

Book these before you fly

The Blue Lagoon landing, on Comino. Since 1 May 2025 everyone going ashore at the Blue Lagoon must pre-book a slot through the Malta Tourism Authority’s system at bluelagooncomino.mt; the scheme is described on the Malta Tourism Authority announcement. The booking is free, you choose one of three daily windows (08:00-13:00, 13:30-17:30, 18:00-22:00), and you receive a QR code that is exchanged for a wristband at the landing point. The cap is 4,000 people on site at any one time — down from roughly 12,000 at peak hours in summer 2024.

The part that catches people out: this booking is not a boat ticket. The landing slot is free and separate; you still buy your crossing from a ferry or excursion operator, and you need both. Check that whatever tour you book actually lands within the window you have reserved.

The Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni. A prehistoric underground burial complex cut into rock, and one of the most extraordinary places in the Mediterranean. Conservation limits admissions to a small number of visitors per day in timed groups, and tickets routinely go months in advance through Heritage Malta. If Malta is on your calendar, book this before you book anything else — it is the single hardest ticket on the islands.

St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta. Book a time online. Two things to know before you go: it holds Caravaggio’s The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist — his largest canvas and the only painting he ever signed — along with his Saint Jerome Writing, both in the Oratory. And there is a dress code: shoulders and knees covered, and no stiletto heels, because the entire floor is a carpet of inlaid marble tomb slabs.

Valletta

The capital is a fortified grid on a peninsula, small enough to cross in twenty minutes and dense enough to fill two days.

Beyond the Co-Cathedral: the Upper Barrakka Gardens look down over the Grand Harbour, and the Saluting Battery below them fires at noon and at 4pm — a genuinely good thing to time a walk around. The Barrakka Lift drops you from the gardens to the harbour in seconds, which is how you reach the boats. The Grand Master’s Palace and Fort St Elmo, with the National War Museum, cover the Knights and the two sieges. Casa Rocca Piccola is a still-inhabited 16th-century noble house, which is a different and more human kind of visit.

The Three Cities, and the right way to arrive

Across the Grand Harbour lie Birgu (Vittoriosa), Isla (Senglea) and Bormla (Cospicua) — older than Valletta, quieter, and where the Knights actually lived first.

Get there by dgħajsa, the traditional high-prowed water taxi, from the Valletta Waterfront. It takes minutes, costs little, and it means you see the harbour and the bastions from the water, which is the only way the scale of them makes sense. Once across, Birgu’s back lanes and the Inquisitor’s Palace are the reason to go; the Senglea garden point (Gardjola) gives the classic view back at Valletta.

Gozo

The ferry runs from Ċirkewwa in the north to Mġarr on Gozo, roughly 25 minutes, frequently, with the Gozo Channel Line. It is a different island in pace, not just in size.

• The Cittadella in Victoria — a fortified hilltop core with a view over the whole island.
• Ġgantija, at Xagħra — megalithic temples built before the Egyptian pyramids and before Stonehenge, and among the oldest free-standing structures anywhere. UNESCO listed.
• Ta’ Pinu — the national shrine, isolated in open countryside, and quietly impressive for the wall of ex-voto offerings inside.
• Dwejra — worth knowing that the Azure Window collapsed into the sea in March 2017. Plenty of older guides and photos still feature it. The Inland Sea and the diving are still there; the arch is not.

Gozo deserves an overnight if you can. As a day trip it is doable but tight.

Beaches and the rest of Malta

Malta’s coast is mostly rock rather than sand, which is not a complaint — the swimming is excellent — but if you specifically want sand, the main options are Mellieħa Bay (Għadira), the largest, and Golden Bay and Għajn Tuffieħa on the west coast, the second reached down a long flight of steps that keeps it quieter.

Inland, Mdina is the old capital: walled, silent, and almost car-free, with residents’ vehicles the only traffic. Go in the evening after the coaches leave. Just outside it, Rabat has St Paul’s Catacombs, an extensive early Christian underground cemetery.

Sliema is where most people stay — a seafront of hotels and shops facing Valletta across the water, with a regular ferry that is faster than the bus. St Julian’s and Paceville next door are the nightlife, concentrated and loud, which is useful information in whichever direction you need it.

Getting around

Buses reach nearly everywhere via Malta Public Transport, and a Tallinja card is worth it for a stay of several days. They are cheap and comprehensive, and in July and August they are also slow and full — build in more time than the timetable suggests.

The ferries are the underrated part of the network: Valletta-Sliema and Valletta-Three Cities are quick, scenic, and skip the traffic entirely.

Practical notes: driving is on the left, both Maltese and English are official languages so nothing is a language problem, and the plugs are UK-style three-pin — which surprises Italian visitors more than anything else on this list.

When to go

May-June and September-October are the sweet spot: swimmable sea, manageable heat, and the Blue Lagoon at something other than maximum capacity. July and August are hot, crowded and windy in the afternoons, and the Comino slots for the best windows go early.

A note on this article: the trip itself was in 2023, and the practical information above has been re-checked and updated — the Comino booking system in particular did not exist then. Where a detail affects a decision, I have linked the official source so you can confirm the current position rather than trusting a two-year-old memory, mine included.