Malta is truly a majestic place to visit with year round sunshine, amazingly beautiful islands, grand architectures and very nice people! Visiting Malta was long due for me and it happened this year, in April 2023. I went with my family and stayed there for a week. Here are the highlights from my visit...
Before we begin...
Just to let you know that I am like everyone else who loves to travel, enjoy seeing new places, trying different food, and a spend a nice time with my family. But I have an added wish attached to every travel - Photography! My photos have to look good otherwise the trip feels incomplete, and therefore the choice of my travel camera gear is very important to me. So what did I take to Malta? For the first time, I decided to take my iPhone (my iPhone 14 Pro Max) as my only camera. In the past I always used to carry a camera bag of Nikon cameras and lenses and even if I had an iPhone, it was always an accessory, never the main equipment. So my expectation was to produce the same level of images that I got with my camera in the past if not better. I was very skeptical about the decision to be honest. We will find in the end how it turned out but let’s go back to the travel blog.
Malta's Grand Churches and Chapels
One of things that I would recommend for your Malta itinerary is to go visit the churches, even if you don't usually do it or not religious. Malta's devotion to Christianity is well known and as I visited Malta during the Easter period, I got to witness the large gatherings and beautiful rituals inside the churches.
Maltese Architecture - the fabulous doors and windows
I fell in love with Malta’s architecture and those long narrow streets when I visited Valletta (the capital) or Sliema or Mdina (the old capital) or the 3-cities. The artistic colourful doors and windows are there on almost every streets. I wish that even for those modern looking houses that are being constructed on a large scale in various parts of Malta, should retain the Maltese style, at least on the exterior.
Getting Around in Malta
The sightseeing attractions in Malta are divided in groups by directions - the North (including the famous Gozo and Comino islands), the south (which has Valletta, Blue Grotto etc.) and the central (incl. the former capital city Mdina). You can reach the inland Malta destinations by public transport (bus), but we found the hop-on hop-off buses driven by Malta Sightseeing to be quite useful. These are run by several transportation companies, and they offer cruise ferries to Gozo and Comino islands. We booked all our tours upfront from the sightseeing kiosks near to where we stayed, and never felt the need of buying any public transport cards in advance. Also, to our delight, we enjoyed our rides in Uber cars very much - saved us a lot of time for many one-off destinations. Ubers in Malta are very reliable and efficient.
The Blue Grotto
The vast blue ocean, an exciting boat trip to the inside of the sea caverns and a sunny day made our Blue Grotto trip in the south of Malta memorable. We reached there by HoHo bus through Marsaxlokk, the famous fishing village.
The Gozo Island and Qala Belvedere
After finishing Malta's south, and the beautiful city of Valletta, we set out to the Gozo and Comino islands in a cruise. We sat on the top of the cruise and froze to death by the fierce sea winds. But it was more refreshing than sitting inside the closed bottom of the boat and feeling nauseous caused by the giant rolling waves of the Mediterranean :). In the end magnificent Gozo island made us forget that all.
The Blue Lagoon
The Blue Lagoon in the Comino Island, just 5 mins by boat from Gozo is a pristine beauty (I hope it remains the same during Summer). The island is only 3.5 sq. kms and you can spend an entire day there swimming or walking along the shore (rocky not sandy)...
The Harbours and Promenades
The Valletta Grand Harbour, 3-cities harbours, the promenade connecting Sliema and St. Julians are spectacular. We either took the ferry or bus or Uber to reach these places and then walked all along the promenade to enjoy the view.
The Triton Fountain
When I saw Triton Fountain in Valletta during the daytime, it looked ordinary, so I decided to come back during the night and found it absolutely gorgeous.
We finished our trip with Mdina...
Honest confession, I thought of skipping Mdina and go to other beaches and "sandy bays" in Malta, but I am glad I did not make that mistake. Not because the beaches were not good (they were great) but Mdina must not be missed. The former capital city was featured in Game of Thrones, and as we arrived at the Mdina gate it appeared rightly so...
As we entered Mdina, it was just as described, a walled city with houses of the nobles and vibrant with beautiful-beautiful architecture and narrow alleys.
In Rabat, the neighbourhood of Mdina, couple of things which attracted me was this shop selling the famous Maltese lace designs and of course the architecture of the Basilica of St. Paul.
What about the Food?
Maltese food is fun and delicious. Pastizzi were part of our daily food, and I made sure that I wouldn't leave Malta without having a Pastizz. Another one was Arancini. We tried Maltese wine and Maltese Spritz too and they were all very good.
Final Words
It was a great week of travel in Malta. My iPhone did not disappoint me as a travel camera, in fact it has proved its worth to be the only camera that I may need for majority of my travel, especially when I am flying and need not bother about protecting my camera bag in the airport or inside the airplane cabin. I would probably post about my findings of iPhone as the only travel camera for those of you who are photography enthusiasts. I would like to end my blog with these two lovely photos in Malta. See you in my next blog...
Credits:
Photos © Copyright 2023 Chitro Raychowdhury and ChitroTravelCam