Malta Walking Tour: Two Valletta Walks Compared

At $22 per person, the small-group listing is the Malta walking tour with the higher rating: 4.9 from 1,272 reviews, 2.5 hours with a live guide in English. It mixes the main streets with side streets that see fewer visitors, and the guide tells the story of a city that thousands of new arrivals turned into a melting pot of cultures.

You walk in through the City Gate, a modern project by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, who also planned the Parliament building beside it. Then comes Republic Street, busy with shops, museums, churches and palaces, and the guide takes you past St John’s Co-Cathedral.

The squares follow: Republic Square with its statue of Queen Victoria; St George’s Square with the Grand Master’s Palace; and Independence Square with the Anglican Cathedral and a jacaranda tree. The walk passes the palaces the Knights built and finishes at the Upper Barrakka Gardens, looking out over the Grand Harbour.

At $25 per person, the second listing is the walking tour of Valletta Malta’s visitors have reviewed most: 2,823 reviews at 4.8. A licensed guide leads it in English, and it runs half an hour longer than the small-group walk.

The route takes in the modern parts of the city as well as the historic streets of the centre, with stories from the days of the Knights of St John and Grand Master Jean de Valette. Expect Baroque architecture and some of the finest palaces in Europe, as the listing puts it.

The stops it names: the façade of St John’s Co-Cathedral, Piazza Regina and the Bibliotheca, the national library. You also get the view of the Grand Harbour from the Upper Barrakka Gardens, and the new Parliament building by Renzo Piano, which the listing itself calls controversial.

Book the small-group walk. At $22 per person it is the cheaper Malta walking tour of the two and the higher rated, 4.9 from 1,272 reviews, and its listing names every square on the route before ending at the Upper Barrakka Gardens.

Want a longer walk with the most reviews? The 3-hour walk at $25 per person gives you half an hour more, a licensed guide and 2,823 reviews at 4.8.

Neither listing says you go inside St John’s Co-Cathedral: the 3-hour walk admires its façade, and the small-group walk goes past it. No entry tickets appear in either description, so a Malta walking tour here means streets, squares and gardens, with the guide’s stories doing the work.

Both walks stay inside Valletta. If you want a Malta city tour beyond the capital, the old walled city is in our Mdina and Rabat guide, the fortified towns across the harbour are in our Three Cities guide, and Valletta with tastings on the way is in our guide to the food walks.

A Malta walking tour shows you the Grand Harbour from above; the next day, see the islands from the sea. Our top pick, the boat and bus day to Gozo and the Blue Lagoon, costs $50 per person for 7.5 hours from Sliema: a boat to Gozo, a bus to Victoria, then a stop at the Blue Lagoon on Comino. Compare it with the other ten in our full list of boat trips.