Use one Malta base for the first three nights, then spend a night on Gozo. Choose a few paid interiors, leave time for public walks and keep the return from Gozo clear of rushed sightseeing.
Malta · Published planning example
Open a day to read the plan and its spending notes.
Visit St John’s Co-Cathedral (€15 standard adult), checking its sightseeing opening day. Leave time for the streets and harbour views instead of adding another large museum. Sleep at your Malta base.
One whole room €90 + food €25 + St John’s admission €15 + miscellaneous €5. Airport and local transport are additional.
Estimated day spending: €135.00
Take the Valletta–Sliema ferry when running, then enjoy a coastal walk. Continue towards St Julian’s only if the weather and your energy suit it. Check the return departure and sleep at the same Malta base.
One whole room €90 + food €25 + miscellaneous €5. Harbour ferry and any buses are additional. No paid attraction is included.
Estimated day spending: €120.00
Take a bus towards Rabat and walk into Mdina. Choose St Paul’s Catacombs in neighbouring Rabat (€6 standard adult) if you want an underground visit. Leave time for lunch, walking between the sites and the bus back. Sleep at the same Malta base.
One whole room €90 + food €25 + catacombs admission €6 + miscellaneous €5. Bus tickets are additional.
Estimated day spending: €126.00
Travel from your Malta base to Mġarr on Gozo, then continue to Victoria. Check in and walk around the Cittadella’s public outdoor spaces; museums and the cathedral use separate tickets. Sleep in Victoria.
One whole room €90 + food €25 + miscellaneous €5. Ferry, buses and optional museum admissions are additional.
Estimated day spending: €120.00
Return to Malta after checking the sailing notice and leaving time for the bus to Mġarr, boarding and the onward journey. Keep this day free of a temple booking. For an early flight, return to Malta the previous day and move the fourth hotel night there.
Food €25 + miscellaneous €5. No hotel night is counted. Return ferry, buses and airport travel are additional.
Estimated day spending: €30.00
Spend the first three nights in Valletta, then one night in Victoria on Gozo. Sliema and Mdina are outings from your Malta base, so they do not need extra hotel bookings. The journey cards include the return to Valletta after both day trips. If you choose another Malta base, adapt those starting points to your address.
Start with Valletta and St John’s Co-Cathedral. On the second day take the harbour ferry to Sliema and walk as far along the coast as you feel like, perhaps continuing towards St Julian’s. Keep the third day for Mdina and neighbouring Rabat. St Paul’s Catacombs are a separate visit outside the walled city.
On day four, collect your bags and travel to Gozo. The fast ferry leaves Valletta for Mġarr harbour; Victoria needs an onward bus or another transfer. Check the complete Valletta–Victoria journey rather than treating the sea crossing as the whole trip. Explore the Cittadella’s public outdoor spaces once you have settled in.
Day five is for returning to Malta. Check the ferry service notice before leaving Victoria, allow for travel to Mġarr and boarding, and keep the airport transfer separate. A ferry ticket does not protect a separately booked flight if weather or disruption changes the sailing.
For an early flight, or if you want a less dependent departure day, return to Malta on day four and spend your fourth night there. That makes Gozo a day trip. If a full Gozo temple visit matters to you, add another day instead of putting it before a ferry connection and flight. This version deliberately leaves a temple visit off the departure day.
This is a chosen spending example for one traveller, not a booking quote or a measured average. It uses four whole private-room nights at €90 (€360), five food allowances of €25 (€125), five miscellaneous allowances of €5 (€25), St John’s Co-Cathedral at €15 and St Paul’s Catacombs at €6. Together these make €531. There is no hotel night in the day-five allowance.
The room amount is the total for a room, not a per-person rate. If two people share those four rooms at the same chosen price, the room total remains €360 while meals, admissions and miscellaneous spending double: €702 altogether, or €351 each, before transport. Replace the whole room quote with the full booking amount including tax and fees.
All transport is additional to this subtotal: airport travel, harbour ferries, buses to Mdina, the journey to Gozo and the return. The bus guide and Gozo ferry comparison explain the ticket choices. Add each ticket or pass once for the journeys it covers; do not add single fares again when a valid pass already pays for those rides.
St John’s sightseeing hours exclude Sundays and public holidays. Swap the first and second days if needed. The catacombs have their own opening calendar. The Cittadella’s public outdoor area remains separate from paid museums, so a museum closure does not mean the whole fortress is closed.
Leave an indoor visit or a shorter walk as the alternative to an exposed coast outing. The plan works better when lunch, queues and a rest can fit between the main visits. Read the Valletta, Sliema, Mdina and Victoria guides for the details of each stop.
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How to get from one stop to the next. Journey times are approximate; use the ticket and timetable links to choose a departure for your travel date.
Ferry · About 5 minutes each way on the water
Take the harbour ferry from Valletta’s Marsamxett landing to Sliema Ferries, then return to Valletta to sleep. A standard adult daytime return is €5. Add the walk to each landing and waiting; a bus around the harbour is the alternative if the ferry is suspended.
Compare this journeyBus · Roughly 30–40 minutes each way on the bus
Start from your Valletta base, visit Mdina and Rabat, then take an ordinary bus back to Valletta for the third night. Route 51 is one option. A day out will usually need two singles: €4 total in winter or €5 in summer, unless your pass covers both rides. Add waiting and walking.
Compare this journeyFerry and bus · About 45 minutes at sea + 15 minutes on bus 301
Leave your Valletta room and take Gozo Highspeed from Lascaris Wharf to Mġarr, then bus 301 to Victoria. The ordinary adult one-way combination is €9.50 in winter or €10 in summer. Add boarding, interchange and walking time. Sleep in Victoria for night four.
Compare this journeyBus and ferry · About 15 minutes on bus 301 + 45 minutes at sea
Take bus 301 from Victoria to Mġarr and the passenger ferry back to Valletta, allowing for waiting and boarding. Buy the return direction’s tickets and check its sailing time. Airport travel is additional. For an early flight, move this journey to day four and spend the final night on Malta.
For three days and two nights, stay in Valletta throughout: spend day one in Valletta, day two in Mdina and Rabat, and take a short Sliema ferry outing on day three if your flight allows. Leave Gozo for a longer visit and remove its hotel night and ferry costs from your budget.
Compare your room and daily spending choices in the cost calculator. Check each journey fare, including local transfers, and count tickets covered by a pass only once.
Change the days in each city, leave out stops, and update the estimate without changing the published itinerary.
