MALTA TRAVEL TIPS FOR FIRST TIMERS | 20+ Must-Knows Before Visiting Malta + What NOT to Do!

Planning to visit Malta for the first time? In this video, I’m sharing all my best Malta travel tips for new visitors, from important must-knows for your Malta trip to common mistakes that tourists make in Malta. Don’t miss this video if you’re planning your own trip to Malta!

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00:00 INTRODUCTION
00:27 MALTA BASICS & TRAVEL PLANNING TIPS
2:26 MALTA TRANSPORT TIPS & GETTING AROUND
4:26 MALTA CULTURE & ETIQUETTE TIPS
6:20 MALTA FOOD & DRINK TIPS
7:21 MALTA TIPS FOR SIGHTSEEING & ATTRACTIONS

CHRISTINA’S TRAVEL GEAR
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Travelling to Malta for the first time? In need of Malta travel advice that caters to a newbie? This Malta travel guide is packed with must-knows before you visit Malta as a tourist, with a rundown of common tourist mistakes in Malta as well as answers to common questions like Malta culture shocks, Malta culture and etiquette tips, where to go in Malta, places to visit in Malta, and more so you can have the Malta trip of your dreams. Whether you’re looking for general Malta tips or tips for Malta hidden gems, be sure to watch this video!

If you’re planning to visit Malta make sure you watch this video because in it I’ll be sharing all sorts of tips and must knows for first-time visitors hi I’m Christina from happytoander.com and honestly Malta is one of my favorite underrated destinations in Europe it is such a beautiful country one of the

Smallest countries in the world in fact but in that small area they pack so much culture so much amazing food so much history and I highly recommend you visit if you’ve never been there before so before you do that be sure to watch this video I’m going to be sharing all my

Best tips and must knows for first-time visitors first off when we talk about the country of Malta what we’re really talking about is this set of islands right here the three largest islands are the only ones that are inhabited and are known as Malta godzo and kamino

In terms of how long to plan your trip Malta is a very small country but the fact is it’s absolutely packed with amazing sites and attractions so I’d highly recommend going there for at least four days especially if you plan to go to gotzo or kamino while you’re there

Now speaking of Godzilla a lot of people myself included tend to go to goto as a day trip but I highly recommend if you want to make the most of it to actually stay a night there maybe stay two nights there because it’s an absolutely magical Island and there’s tons to see there

Beyond the typical mussies another great Plus for Malta is its relatively affordable compared to some other European destinations and so I think you get a lot of bang for your buck although it is starting to get quite expensive in some of the more touristy areas that said Malta is very

Compact so if you want to save money actually a really good idea is to stay maybe outside of Valletta which is the capital and where the most expensive hotels are you can easily stay in the three cities and then take a really quick boat ride over or you can stay in

Slima although that’s also quite expensive these days but there are a lot of different options and if you want to go even further off the beaten path you can book a stay somewhere more remote which will obviously be cheaper and it’s also just a nice way to kind of escape

The crowds and explore a bit more off the beaten path as well now in terms of the best time to go Malta is commonly considered a beachy hot summer destination so a lot of people will come here in the summer but honestly if you’re like me and you’re planning to

Visit Malta for the historical attractions and to see the Landscapes summer might be the worst time to go just because it’s really really hot and it gets very busy and chaotic and more expensive as well for me I think I’d really recommend going in the spring my

First trip to Malta was in April and the temperatures were just honestly perfect effect and it wasn’t super crowded I’ve also been in August and I just remember it being so hot that I wasn’t really able to enjoy myself that said if you do plan on going in the summer some tips I

Have for maximizing your time is to get up really early just get up right after sunrise and then that way you can explore town and go to attractions when it’s not too hot and also when it’s not too busy now I love visiting Malta but the major issue with it is that it’s

Very tough to get around and the reason for that is Malta is a very tiny country with a very big population and increasingly more tourists every year and so it is actually one of the most densely populated countries in the entire world and so with that comes a

Lot of chaos on the roads and also permanent traffic for that reason renting a car isn’t ideal but if you want to get more off the beaten path or you want to see a lot more attractions during your time in Malta it is actually quite essential to have a car I got

Really lucky because both of my trips to Malta have been with work and so each time I’ve had a driver able to take us places and so I think that’s a really good option if your budget allows for it luckily Malta is quite affordable and booking Private Tours and transfers can

Actually be really cheap so for instance you can actually book a tour from Malta to go to goto for the day and you get transport and lunch is included and all of that is only 80 Euros which I think is not bad at all so if I were to plan

My own trip to Malta today which I wish I was what I would probably do is not rent a car and instead pick a base and then book day tours out of that base so that I can get all the perks of having a vehicle and not need to rent my own

That’s it if you’re on a budget the good news is buses are actually very affordable in Malta so a typical fare for one-way trip is about two Euro and if you book any of the discount passes you can get it for way cheaper so the best option for Taurus is either getting

A 12 single day Journeys card for 15 Euros which saves you pretty much half price on each Journey or if you plan on being in Malta longer and you think you’re going to take the bus a lot you can also get a seven day explore card which offers unlimited Journeys for 21

Euro and there also seems to be another option that’s the explore plus Meep which offers unlimited travel as well as two Ferry trips I couldn’t find the price for this on their website so it’s unclear if it’s still something that they offer but be sure to ask and you

Can get these cards at a bunch of different vendors all across Malta you can find a full list here now all that said it’s worth noting that buses in Malta can get really busy and are notoriously unreliable in terms of punctuality so that’s why I’d advise

Booking with the driver tour if you can afford it but just keep that in mind that you know if you’re waiting for a bus sometimes it’ll come early sometimes it’ll come late sometimes it’ll be full and peak season and you’ll have to wait for the next one so it’s not really the

Most reliable or convenient way to get around but it is very cheap another tip I have for you is to do a bit of research about the history of Malta before you arrive I usually would recommend this for any destination but specifically for Malta this is really important because this tiny country has

Had such an interesting and turbulent history and understanding the history will really help you understand sort of the unique cultural mix that you encounter when you get to Malta for instance there are some temples on the island that are a thousand years older than the Pyramids of Giza so there’s a

Lot of history there and it’s really really interesting to read about now Beyond just having years and years of History under its belt Malta also has a very unique character that is unlike any other place in the world and that’s probably because up until 1964 they were actually under continual occupation from

A bunch of different groups and so the unique identity of Malta that we see today is actually thanks to the combined influence of the carthaginians the Romans the byzantines the Arabs the French and more recently the British now another interesting byproduct of malta’s history is that it is remarkably British

In a lot of ways this shocks a lot of first-time visitors it definitely shocked me I knew that Malta was a part of the British Empire once upon a time but I didn’t realize just how much of the influence you’d see in the day-to-day for instance they drive on

The left side of the road you have to bring an adapter because they actually have the three prong plugs just like in the UK they have red foam boots in certain parts of historic Valletta all these different things that really reflect the British influence the good

Thing is though you don’t need to bring any alternative currencies if you’re coming from Europe just because they do use the euro here now some good news for English speakers English happens to be one of the official languages of Malta so you’ll have no trouble getting by with English especially in touristy

Areas pretty much everybody speaks it of course it is still more polite to at least know the basics and Maltese like hello and thank you so to say thank you it’s a simple Grazie if you’re saying good morning it’s a simple bonjour if you’re saying good evening it’s bonsoir

And if you’re saying good afternoon it’s yeah I know it took me a very long time to get that so maybe just say hello to people in the mornings and the evenings as I mentioned before Malta has been influenced by so many different cultures over the years and based on their

Cuisine they’ve literally just taken the most delicious parts of every culture that’s come through there and put it in their food because I love Maltese food there are so many delicious Specialties that you have to try so a few of them include pastizzi you can find these everywhere they’re super cheap they’re

Like little pockets of joy that are wrapped in like a crispy phyllo dough and it’s usually filled with ricotta or peas another must try is IM added which is a date filled pastry that sometimes they serve with like creamy Maltese ice cream I don’t know what they put in

Their ice cream but it is so thick and so delicious another one is two foot taufenek which is like a rabbit stew and it’s oh it’s just like the most tender and delicious dish another one is bijila which is a creamy bean dip that goes really well with just everything it’s so

Tasty and there’s also braggioli which is translated to beef Olive but that’s just like a really strange translation it’s more or less just like beef rolls that are stuffed with egg bacon breadcrumbs stuff like that and then braised in this like wine sauce and lastly apart from all those Specialties

Be sure to try the seafood okay as you can imagine there’s a lot of sea around Malta so there’s a lot of amazing Seafood to be had especially if you’re going to one of those fishing villages like Marsa schlock oh the fish is like the freshest fish

That you’ll ever try it’s so good so make sure to try some of that now to get your attention back after talking about all that food another thing to keep an eye out for is churches so in Malta they have so many churches almost one for

Every day of the year so needless to say as you’re walking around you’re definitely going to encounter a church or two so if you’re passing by and the door is open be sure to peek in and take a look because Maltese churches are insane they are so beautiful so detailed

The most famous one is definitely the St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta but there’s a lot of really nice hidden gems scattered around as well so be sure to poke your head in and take a look that said make sure your shoulders and knees are always covered I would really

Recommend bringing the scarf or something to drape over your shoulders and to wear longer pants if you plan on going in just out of respect now before we wrap up I do want to do a quick Instagram versus reality session because I think Malta is just one of those

Places that’s so beautiful and it’s so photogenic but a lot of people tend to post photos from the same places that don’t necessarily give an accurate picture of what it’s actually like to visit so first off if you’ve seen photos of this amazing spot in Malta unfortunately it no longer looks like

This if you haven’t heard this natural Arch was once known as the Azure window it was a very famous Arch but sadly it collapsed into the sea in 2017 and so it’s no longer there I’m really sad because this collapse actually happened about a month before I visited Malta for

The first time so it’s really sad that I never got to see it but alas there’s a lot of other great places to see as well so just keep that in mind that this Arch no longer exists another spot you’ll see lots of photos of is Popeye Village this

Very colorful Village that people often pose with in the background and what you need to know about this place is it’s very pretty but it’s actually quite far up north and so it’s not really that close to Valletta and not close to a lot of the main tourist attractions so you

Will be kind of going out of your way to go see it another thing is it’s not just a cute fishing Village it’s actually a film set from the 80s that was converted into a Popeye themed amusement park and to this day I don’t know very many

People who have actually gone inside the amusement park but I have because I love stuff like that and I honestly have to say I really loved it because I love quirky and strange little attractions but if you’re looking for a full-on theme park you’re not going to find it

Here it is quite outdated but overall if you are going with kids I think it’s a great option if you love quirky attractions I think it’s a great option but otherwise I wouldn’t necessarily make it a priority lastly we have to talk about the Blue Lagoon on Camino so most of the time

When people post photos it’ll look like this and actually when I went in April it did look like this because we took the last boat over and we practically had the island to ourselves but it wasn’t warm enough to swim so anyways we just kind of like looked at the water

And then went home but if you go in the summer this is definitely one of the most popular spots to go swimming so it’s not going to look like this there’s going to be tons and tons of other swimmers in fact I’ve read some reviews that kind of liken this experience to

Swimming in a hotel pool so just know it’s not going to be super quiet and peaceful so just keep that in mind and have your expectations in check all right last but not least this is a very dorky tip but I highly recommend you binge watch TV shows and movies that

Were set in Malta before your trip and the reason I say this is because over the years Malta has been used as a film set time and time again because it’s such a unique and beautiful place so I guarantee there’s probably a movie that you’ve watched that has filmed in Malta

In the past some big names include Assassin’s Creed murder on the Orient Express Gladiator Troy and season one of Game of Thrones so be sure to watch those and just get hyped for your trip because I think it’s just so fun to be able to go to a place and recognize them

From a TV show or movie that you watched alright I hope you enjoyed that list of Malta travel tips as usual if you have any questions let me know in the comments and if you want more practical travel videos just like this one be sure to like And subscribe for more alright

I’ll see you guys next week bye