Our Honeymoon in Malta - A Five Day Itinerary

Hanging out by the blue lagoon in Camino, Malta. Steps away from where our boat docked.

Malta is an island I’ve always been curious about but it was never really my first choice when it came to choosing a destination. I always saw it as an add-on to a Euro trip or a place I would go to if I found a good flight deal.

At the entrance of the silent city, Mdina in Malta.

For those of you who follow me on social media, you may know that I had initially booked Chile for our honeymoon. I booked and planned it all; flights (both international and domestic), accommodations, and had carefully gone through all the things we were going to do during our 10 day stay there. Then, just weeks before our wedding, the political unrest in Chile began and we had to cancel our trip.

The beautiful sun peaking through a lemon tree at the limestone museum in Malta. This is one of the main materials used in buildings throughout the country.

I was devastated. I had been dreaming about going to Chile for years and was so excited, but alas, there’s only so much we have control over. I was super stressed with my wedding being less than two weeks out so I did something I’ve never done before, I called Flight Centre and worked with a travel agent to help me find some options.

Hanging out during one of our day trips. It wasn’t Chile but it was an amazing experience!

We went back and forth on quite a few places and options but what I made clear to her was Europe was calling my name. Europe is filled with incredible destinations, but when you’re looking to book your trip in late November, your options for warmer destinations are very slim. It was between Southern Spain and Malta.

Malta was a lot cooler than we thought it would be. I was often wearing a sweater under my leather jacket.

I did a lot of research on Southern Spain as well but ultimately decided that it was a trip I would want to thoroughly plan on my own when I’d have more time to do so. So, with the guidance of Victoria from the Flight Centre Kingsway, we finally booked our trip to Malta two weeks before our departure.

So how did our honeymoon that I didn’t really plan go?

Malta was a delight. Despite the cooler weather (19-20 degrees Celsius is NOT as warm when it’s windy, cloudy or raining) we truly enjoyed everything that Malta had to offer in late November. Yes, there was a day where one of the two rainy days really got to me, but overall, the Maltese Islands hold a kind of charm that you can’t find everywhere.

The view just steps away from the entrance of Valetta.

From being home to Valetta, the smallest Capital city of Europe where every corner is worth capturing a photo, to the walled city of Mdina that takes you back centuries, Malta is a true treasure in the Mediterranean Sea. It is filled to the brim with history, is easy and safe to navigate and is home to some of the warmest people.

A view of Valletta from Fort St. Elmo. Europe’s smallest capital.

Beautiful water can be found all over the Caribbean, countries rich in history can be found all over the world, fun partying spots can be found in most major cities, but it is seldom that you’ll find all of this within a thirty-minute drive of one another. For this reason, I would suggest adding Malta to your list of places to visit.

The Triton fountain just outside the gate of Valetta.

Let’s start with getting there.

Traveling from Toronto with no direct flights (yet) meant we had a bit of a journey getting to Malta. It’s for this very reason that I wish we had a) stayed a little longer or b) added it on our itinerary with another European destination. If you can, plan accordingly and you will thank yourself later. We booked airport transfers in advance to take us to our hotels but I would suggest just calling a taxi when you get there. Depending on where you’re staying it may be cheaper to just call a cab. In Malta, the equivalent of Uber is ECCabs. I’m sure there’s a way to use public transportation as well, but to be quite honest, we did not look into it.

Malta is located just south of Italy so you can easily add it to an Italy trip.

Now let’s move onto accommodations.

So we decided to split our time between two hotels. Both were in different parts of Malta and both were completely different experiences.

The first hotel we stayed at was Hugo’s Boutique Hotel in Paceville, St. Julian’s. We really loved this hotel and would highly recommend it. The service is really good and the rooms are beautiful and clean. This place does get loud at night so if you’re a light sleeper or don’t like being in a party area I would not suggest this hotel. For all others, this hotel allows you to be in the middle of all the action without having to take a taxi home.

Hugo’s Boutique Hotel was a great experience. In the middle of all the action with amazing customer service and beautiful rooms.

The second hotel we stayed at was the Phoenicia Malta in Valetta. This hotel is was beautiful as well. Though the room was significantly smaller than the one at Hugo’s, it had everything we needed. It was right outside of the entrance of Valetta and is perfect if you want to stay near the capital. It was significantly quieter and the crowd at this hotel was a lot older. I would highly recommend it but it is more expensive.

Another area you can stay at which I heard from a lot of people is nice is in Sliema.

The views from our pool at the Phoenicia Malta. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Next, let’s talk about what we did while we were there.

Hagar Qim

Hagar Qim is a megalithic temple complex and is among the most ancient religious sites on earth. It is a UNESCO world heritage site. As a history buff, I found this stop on our trip to be fascinating. However, if you are not big on history, I would suggest skipping this site.

The Blue Grotto

Ghar Dhalam

Armin looking over the view from the Ghat Dhalam site.

Marsaloxx

Mdina

Valetta

Fort St. Elmo

Gozo

This photo was taken near where the Azure window was. It collapsed in 2017.

Blue Lagoon (Comino Island)

Getting off our boat to Camino Island. A very different dock.

Paceville

Now, this is what we missed (and wished we had the time to do).

We slept in until Noon-ish twice on the trip and we had two days of rain so we did do less than we had initially wanted to.

The day we visited Mdina was one of the days we slept in. It meant we couldn’t visit museums like this one but we were still able to walk the entire silent city.

At first, I was a little apprehensive that we hadn’t seen everything we wanted to but Armin reminded me that that’s not necessarily what you need from a vacation. There’s value in staying at a restaurant a little too long or sleeping in. Your vacation is supposed to recharge you and not exhaust you and that’s something he’s helping me learn. And I’m grateful for that because in the midst of planning and not wanting to miss a thing, this can so easily be forgotten.

On this day we slept in as well. We switched hotels and walked the streets of Valetta. It wasn’t the most eventful day but it was one of my favourite days.

Some of the things we missed that were on my list however were (in order of priority):

· The Dingli Cliffs

· The Upper and Lower Barraka Gardens (though I’m sure I saw this while I was walking)

· The Sunset from Café del Mar

· The Lascaris War Rooms

· The boat to the Blue Grotto (it was too windy)

· The boat in the inland sea (it was too rainy and windy)

· Popeye Village

Roman ruins right outside Mdina. We couldn’t go inside a small it closed at 5pm.

Looking at this list, it looks like we’ve missed enough to warrant another trip back in the future (perhaps an anniversary trip) in the summer or early fall but we have a lot more to see before we come back here.

This is where I had the best pasta in Malta and the second best pasta in my life. There’s something for everyone here and it’s located inside Valetta. The food here was decently priced.

Now, let’s get into my least favourite but important part of it all, The Cost.

I would like start off by saying, I was not really able to do as much research as I normally would have liked to before booking a trip but the overall cost for our flights, accommodations (that were on the higher end), two private transfers to and from the airport, two tours (Full Day in Gozo and Full day seeing Hagar Qim, the Blue Grotto, Ghar Dhalam and Marsalokk) came up to just under $4000 CAD for the two of us.

We ended up spending approximately 761.60 euros (380.80 euros per person) in total on food, transportation and one additional tour to the Blue Lagoon on Comino Island. The majority of our expenses were food 610.50 euros ($1143 CAD) which is approximately 50 euros a day per person on food. Since it was our honeymoon we mainly ate at sit down restaurants and both Armin and I have a fairly big appetite. We also got snacks at the grocery stores. The way we are and the amount we are is very different from previous travels I’ve done in the past with just girls.

We bought a decent amount of our snacks from the grocery store. To my delight, there were so many brutish chocolates to try out!

That brings us to a grand total of $5143 ($2571 per person) for a six-day trip to Malta.

We spent additional money on shopping but we’ll just keep that grand total to ourselves ;).

All in all it was a fairly affordable trip. We came under budget, which gives us a little more to play with in 2020 so I’d say that was an overall win!

Well there you have it. That’s Malta in a nutshell. I hope I’ve inspired you to visit this small but ever so charming country.

Until next time,

Mahreen