Mdina Tour Malta: Two Walks Compared

At $28 per person, the catacombs tour is the fuller of the two: 2.5 hours with a live guide in English, rated 4.8 from 1,732 reviews. You meet outside the Mdina Gate, next to the playing field, and walk into the city the listing calls by its medieval name, Città Notabile, the noble city.

Inside the walls the route passes Vilhena Palace, St Agatha’s Chapel, the Banca Giuratale and Mdina Cathedral, with its baroque front. The guide shows you the Greeks Gate and the panoramas from the bastion walls, and fills in the history: people have lived on this plateau since at least the Bronze Age, the Normans made it the capital, and the building of Valletta later took away much of its role.

Then the tour crosses into Rabat. There you enter the Wignacourt museum and go down to the WW2 shelters, the catacombs and St Paul’s Grotto. Entry to all of them is included in the price.

The walk costs $22 per person and takes 2 hours, rated 4.8 from 660 reviews. You meet your guide at Mdina’s Main Gate, next to the bridge, and start with the city’s background: a fortified hilltop town at the heart of the islands, once the capital and still the seat of Malta’s bishop.

From there the pace is leisurely. You walk the narrow medieval streets past the palaces, churches and convents that line them, home to Malta’s noble families then as now. Then you cross to Rabat, a stone’s throw away, and walk its old quarter for the Maltese vernacular architecture.

There is no catacombs visit and no museum entry on this one. It is the lighter Mdina tour Malta visitors can take in comfortable shoes, as the listing advises.

Book the catacombs tour. For $6 more than the walk, the $28 per person listing adds Rabat’s catacombs, St Paul’s Grotto, the WW2 shelters and the Wignacourt museum, with entry included, and it has more reviews: 1,732 against 660, both at 4.8. It is the fuller Mdina tour Malta has on offer.

Short on time, or happier above ground? The $22 per person walk covers the walled city and Rabat’s old quarter in 2 hours, with the same 4.8 rating.

After a Mdina tour Malta has a very different day waiting at sea. Our top pick, the boat and bus day from Sliema, costs $50 per person for 7.5 hours: a boat to Gozo, time on your own in Victoria and a swim stop at the Blue Lagoon on Comino. Compare it with the other ten trips in our list of boat trips, and if you plan to step ashore at the Blue Lagoon, book the pass in advance.