Getting around Valletta
By TD4 bus from the airport, on foot in Valletta, to Gozo by bus and ferry or the fast boat from Lascaris Wharf.
- From the airport
- bus TD4, €3, 25–35 min
- Ride
- €2 winter
- 12 journeys
- €19
Nothing in Valletta asks for a vehicle, and nearly everything outside it asks for a bus and a plan. The airport line brings you to the edge of the walls, your own feet do the rest of the city, and the day trips each start from a different stop or quay. Learn four routes and the island opens up.
From the airport to Valletta
Take TD4, which runs from Malta International Airport to the Valletta terminus, and not TD1, which goes north. The ride costs €3 and takes 25–35 min. You pay on the bus, in cash or by card.
TD4 stops at the Valletta terminus, and from there the choice is a walk with the suitcase or a local bus. The walk is short on a map and steep in places, because the city is built in steps. The airport is the only one on the island.
hostel, dorm bed, per night
Buses and tickets
City buses are run by Malta Public Transport, and one ticket lets you ride for two hours. The fare changes with the season: €2 winter, €2.50 summer. The summer tariff runs until 18 October 2026 and the winter tariff begins on 19 October. Night routes and the Tallinja Direct lines cost the same, a little more than a day bus, and both cash and contactless cards are accepted.
The official tariff lists no 24-hour ticket.
Stairs, the lift, the zone
Valletta is a walk. The streets climb and drop in steps, and the best stretch of the plan is the one between the co-cathedral, the Palace and the Upper Barrakka Gardens. From the gardens a lift goes down to Lascaris Wharf for €1, free with a ferry ticket, and that is useful if the next stop is a ferry rather than a bench.
Anyone who hires a car meets two local rules. Traffic drives on the left, which takes a few junctions to get used to, and the Valletta zone is charged only to vehicles with Maltese plates. Neither rule matters much for the plan on this site, because the city is better done on foot and the outings run on buses and ferries.
To Gozo and Mdina
Gozo by public transport means bus 41 or 42 to Ċirkewwa, which takes about an hour and a quarter, then the ferry across to Mġarr in about 25 minutes. The fare is €4.65 for a foot passenger, collected only on the way back. The fast boat from Lascaris Wharf takes about 45 minutes, carries foot passengers only and can be cancelled in winter or in bad weather.
Mdina is simpler: a bus from Valletta to Rabat takes between 30 and 45 minutes, and Mdina begins 500 m from the stop in Rabat. Entry to the town costs nothing, and you leave the bus in Rabat, so the Domvs Romana or the Catacombs of St Paul can share the same trip.
Where to next
Mistakes everyone makes in Valletta
→The mistakes are the Hypogeum without a slot, Sunday in Valletta, Comino without a pass and the co-cathedral in the middle of the cruise hour.
Malta
→Three islands, a capital smaller than a square kilometre and megalithic temples from the fourth millennium BC
How well does Valletta suit you?
→Six questions: a score for this place and others like it.
Nomadinho scores out of 100, the same ones behind “Where to go”.
If you like Valletta
Three places with the closest scores, from any country.
Ready for Valletta?
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