Magical Malta: See temples older than the pyramids, relive iconic scenes from movies and more

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SLIEMA, Malta – What do the movies Troy (2004) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022) and the series Game Of Thrones (2011 to 2019) have in common? They all shot in Malta.

 

Hundreds of shows have used the photogenic archipelago as a filming location, yet it is not a tourist destination as popular among Singaporeans as, say, South Korea.

 

Which is perfect for me and my family as we head to the islands located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea in May.

 

We discover that Malta is a treasure trove of surprises for travellers, from relics older than the pyramids to natural wonders to delicious eats.

 

Malta’s diminutive size – at 316 sq km, it has less than half the land area of Singapore – belies its strategic importance to the Romans, Ottomans and British.

 

Their influence lives on in its culture. The Maltese language, for instance, is an intriguing blend of Italian and Arabic, with a dash of English and French.

 

Most of its over 500,000 residents speak English fluently, though, as it was a British colony from the 1800s until 1964, when it gained independence.

 

Our five-night stay there is chock-full of activities and still too short to explore it all. Start planning your trip with these tips.

 

1. Frolic in Gozo

 

The second largest of the five islands in the Maltese archipelago is a popular day trip for travellers.

 

We book a full-day quad bike tour, which has us riding down village streets in a convoy of 20 vehicles. It is an adrenaline rush, but, in hindsight, I would have chosen a private jeep tour for more time to take photos at each stop, rather than just five to 10 minutes.

 

Still, we manage to see the reddish sand at Ramla Beach – which looks like it belongs in a Dune movie – picturesque Xlendi Bay and the surreal landscape of the salt pans along the northern coast.

 

The shallow pans, cut into the pale limestone like a giant child’s paint palette, have been tended by hand for five generations. I marvel at how these tiny crystals have sustained the few families in the business for so long.

 

The best part of the tour, however, is boarding a small boat in the Inland Sea – a misnomer as it is more like a lagoon – and travelling through an 80m-long tunnel. It opens dramatically to the Mediterranean Sea, where we explore sea caves.

 

Tip: Besides day tours, there are regular ferries you can take to Gozo. If time permits, stay overnight to explore the island at leisure. And remember to apply for your international driving permit in Singapore if you wish to drive any vehicle, including the quad bike.

 

2. Visit everything blue

 

If you are searching for places to visit in Malta, you may be confused by the Blue Grotto, Blue Hole and Blue Lagoon, as we were.

 

We skip the Blue Hole, an underwater limestone cave in Gozo popular with divers for its ethereal surroundings, because the weather is unseasonably chilly in early May – think 16 deg C water temperature.

 

Instead, my husband, an advanced open water diver, braves the cold to dive at a shipwreck off Sliema, a town where we stay, but does not see much marine life.

 

We pass by the Blue Lagoon, off the small island of Comino, on our way back from Gozo.

 

The water is a tempting shade of turquoise and there is just a sprinkling of bathers in the water, but come summer, we are told, the lagoon is a mass of bodies seeking relief from the searing heat, when temperatures can soar to over 40 deg C.

 

The Blue Grotto is a series of dramatic sea caverns along south-eastern Malta that deserves a pit stop. On good days, you can take a small boat inside, but the current is not in our favour on the windy morning we are there.

 

Instead, we gape at the 30m-high main arch from above and watch the waves crash against the rocks in a hypnotic dance of the elements.

 

Tip: Just a 20-minute drive from the Blue Grotto is the fishing village of Marsaxlokk. Have lunch at the picturesque seafront, where you can see traditional boats with multicoloured layers like kueh lapis bobbing up and down.

 

Our meal of freshly caught fish and seafood stew at Ir-Rizzu restaurant along the waterfront is excellent. The bill is €131 (S$193) for two soups, a starter, a huge lobster pasta, another pasta dish, a whole grilled fish, white wine and bottled water. It is a bit pricey, but also too much food for the three of us.

 

3. See temples older than the pyramids

 

Hagar Qim, a megalithic temple complex located atop a promontory in southern Malta, is more than 5,000 years old. That makes it older than the Egyptian pyramids, which are over 4,500 years old.

 

What Hagar Qim lacks in grandeur, it makes up for in mystery. Its neolithic builders had no advanced technology, metal tools or even writing, but they created what is considered the world’s oldest freestanding stone monuments.

 

Walking among the giant limestone slabs, I struggle to process how the inhabitants could have cut and arranged them into a complicated temple, complete with curlicue decorative accents.

 

Nearby, a second site at Mnajdra reveals that its southern temple aligns perfectly with the rising sun during the equinoxes. But how was it used, and what do the drilled holes that create a pattern in the stone mean? Were they a type of ancient calendar?

 

Every answer begs another question, as we explore the temples in hushed reverence.  

 

Tip: There are many such impressive sites in Malta. They are well run with good audio guides and, in Hagar Qim’s case, an excellent theatre show as well. Buy the multiple entry ticket (ours cost €13 each), which is cheaper if you intend to visit a few of them. Go to heritagemalta.mt

 

4. Explore a walled city

 

We are almost late for our guided tour of Mdina because of the midday traffic, which our Bolt driver says stretches from about 1 to 6pm.

 

But the ancient walled city, the capital of Malta in the Middle Ages, is worth the almost hour-long drive from Sliema. Its blend of mediaeval and Baroque architecture is so eye-catching that we stop every few minutes to take photos.

 

Situated 200m above sea level, it is also up to 10 deg C cooler than the capital, Valletta.

 

Only nobility can live inside Mdina, which is home to a few hundred people today, says our guide, Ms Julia Ellul of Malta Unwrapped.

 

With no regular traffic allowed inside except for residents’ cars and emergency vehicles, Mdina lives up to its nickname, the Silent City.

 

There are crowds around its distinctive main gate (probably because it was featured in the first season of Game Of Thrones), but inside, the city does not feel overcrowded during our afternoon visit.

 

We wonder about Mdina’s distinctive curved streets and are told that they aided in defence against arrows, which fly straight.

 

Afterwards, we walk to the adjacent town of Rabat for a teatime treat of pastizzi at Is-Serkin restaurant.

 

Freshly made with savoury fillings, including ricotta cheese, peas, chicken and anchovies, the pastries remind us of curry puffs. Our favourite: the peas, which have a hint of cumin.

 

Our guide takes us to Chez Eman, a snack bar that sells the best ftira, a ring-shaped Maltese sourdough bread that you can customise with meat and vegetables.

 

I regret not taking photos of the chicken ftira I buy for my breakfast the next day, for it is full of flavour even after reheating.

 

Tip: You can explore Mdina and Rabat on your own, but having a guide helped us appreciate it more. Our three-hour private guided tour for three people with pastizzi experience, transport excluded, cost $100.80. Leave at least half a day for this trip. There are plenty of cafes in Mdina and Rabat if you are peckish.

 

5. Immerse yourself in Maltese architecture

 

In Malta, I fall in love with door knobs and knockers.

 

Elephant heads painted a burnished gold, ornate faces in weathered brass, detailed family crests, fish flexing their metal bodies – every other door in Sliema, our base for most of the trip, makes us do a double take.

 

Some depict family occupations such as fishing, but generally, the bigger the knob or knocker, the wealthier the family. What stories beckon behind their closed doors, I wonder.

 

Just as beguiling is the Maltese balcony, which is often painted in bright colours matching the main door and windows.

 

The ornate balconies, called gallarija in Maltese, are thought to have been inspired by covered balconies in Muslim countries, although there is still debate about their origin.

 

Whatever the real reason, they turn a simple stroll into a sensory pleasure.

 

Tip: Besides Sliema, Mdina, Rabat and Valletta are good places to find unusual doorknobs and knockers and Maltese balconies. We also pass by a shop in Mdina selling doorknobs.

 

6. Walk and gawk in capital Valletta

 

We save Malta’s capital for our last night, but should have spent at least two days in this gorgeous city.

 

There are many free walking tours of Valletta at www.guruwalk.com/valletta. Ours takes us at breakneck speed across the highlights, from the panoramic views of the upper and lower Barrakka Gardens, to the stately Grandmaster’s Palace with its unique wraparound Maltese balcony. Remember to tip the guide – we give €50 for three adults.

 

Art lovers should make time to see Caravaggio’s masterpiece, The Beheading Of St John The Baptist, in St John’s Co-Cathedral, but beware of the queue.

 

Valletta’s many charms are, however, dampened by the crowds that are thicker than anywhere else in Malta we visit because of a passing cruise ship.

 

Still, this is where we finally find authentic Asian food – at the Valletta Food Market, a foodcourt.

 

The Chinese dumplings turn out to be savoury har gow, and the garlic fried rice with prawns has wok hei, to our surprise. The Vietnamese pho is passable.

 

Valletta at night is lively, just like its inhabitants.

 

On our last evening, we pass by side roads lit with fairy lights reflecting a warm glow on the limestone buildings, the chatter of happy diners adding to the convivial atmosphere.

 

If only we had a few more days here, I think. Malta does that to you.

 

Tip: Time your visit to the Upper Barrakka Gardens so you can catch the noon or 4pm gun salutes.

 

Getting there

 

There are no direct flights from Singapore to Malta. You can connect from a European city such as Zurich, Rome or Frankfurt, or via Middle Eastern airports in Istanbul, Doha or Dubai.

 

The fastest flights take about 16 hours from Singapore, including one layover.

 

We take a circuitous route, stopping in Dubai over three nights because we find a good deal on Singapore Airlines, before flying to Malta via Istanbul on Turkish Airlines to maximise our Star Alliance air miles.

 

Book your tickets and accommodation as early as possible to grab the best deals and avoid peak-season spikes.

 

Singaporeans have visa-free access to Malta, which is part of the European Union.

 

Its currency is the euro, and many food outlets accept cashless payment, although you may want to keep cash on hand if you want to get a better tour price from a taxi driver.

 

Getting around

 

It is easy to rent a car or hire a taxi driver to take you around. Both Bolt and Uber apps work there. Those on a budget can tap the well-connected bus services that ply the island.

 

The Malta Tourism Authority’s Visit Malta website (www.visitmalta.com) has information and links on getting around. We also find the Travelling to Malta Facebook group useful for recommendations on where to go and what to do.

 

Where to stay

 

We stay for the most part in Sliema, a resort town on the east coast that is quiet at night, but close enough to the restaurants and cafes of St Julian’s, which is considered party central.

 

Our spacious two-bedroom apartment in Doris Suites Sliema (dorisuites.com) costs $1,000 for four nights in early May, which is shoulder season.

 

If you like cats, stop by Sliema’s waterfront promenade, Independence Gardens, where you can make friends with the resident felines at a shelter run by volunteers. Look for the giant cat statue.

 

In Valletta, we stay at hotel Palazzo Jean Parisot Boutique Suites (pjp.com.mt), which has self-catering apartments in the heart of the city.

 

Our sea-view penthouse for three costs a pricey €340 a night, but the room and views are stunning, service is exemplary, and the continental breakfast is yummy. We end up not using the small hob because there is a good foodcourt around the corner.

 

If you are carrying heavy suitcases, it is best to book an apartment with a lift, which both of ours had.

 

 

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Reproduced with permission.

 

 

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