Explora Journeys in La Valletta

Valletta is the fortified 16th-century capital the Knights of St John built on a peninsula above Grand Harbour, one of the deepest natural harbors in the Mediterranean. The whole city is a grid of honey-limestone streets inside bastion walls, dense enough to walk end to end, and it holds Caravaggio's largest painting in the cathedral the Knights raised. The sail-in past the bastions is part of the experience, and a lift carries you from the quay straight up into the center.

What to do on a day in La Valletta

• St John's Co-Cathedral: plain outside, overwhelming inside, home to Caravaggio's Beheading of St John the Baptist, his largest canvas and the only one he signed
• Upper Barrakka Gardens: the terrace at the top of the Barrakka Lift, overlooking Grand Harbour and the Three Cities across the water
• The Saluting Battery below the gardens, where cannons are fired at noon and 4 PM
• Grandmaster's Palace and the State Rooms on Republic Street, the city's main spine
• Fort St Elmo and the National War Museum at the tip of the peninsula
• A short harbor ferry across to the Three Cities (Vittoriosa, Senglea, Cospicua) for the best view back at Valletta's walls

Getting ashore

Ships dock at Valletta Cruise Port along the Grand Harbour waterfront below the city walls; from there the Barrakka Lift rises about 58 meters into the Upper Barrakka Gardens in under a minute, or you can walk up in 15 to 20 minutes. Valletta is compact and one day on foot covers the core comfortably, with the lift doing the only real climbing.

When to book the ship's excursion vs your own →

Weather and when to visit

• April to May (spring). Typically mild and pleasant, daytime highs rising from the high teens C to the low-to-mid 20s C, low rainfall
• June to August (summer). Typically hot and dry with high humidity, August highs commonly in the upper 20s to low 30s C, very little rain
• September to October (autumn). Typically still summery in September, highs in the high 20s C, with the first thundery breakdowns possible from late September into October