Valletta in 2 days, on foot

This 2-day self-guided walking plan for Valletta covers 14 narrated sights in an easy day-by-day order. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon loop, and every stop has a two to three minute audio story in the Gingerguide app.

You set the pace: this is a suggested order, not a schedule. Walk it in 2 days, or stretch it out. Reorder freely; Valletta rewards a detour.

The Valletta route at a glance

Day 1

Day 1 covers 7 stops over about 1.7 km as the crow flies, from St John's Co-Cathedral to Manoel Theatre. ≈ 1.7 km between stops, straight line

Morning

1. St John's Co-Cathedral: The Order of St John's conventual church hides a plain fortress face over a gilded Baroque interior, a marble floor of knights' tombs, and two Caravaggio paintings. 0.1 km to the next stop
2. Church of St Paul's Shipwreck: One of Valletta's original parish churches, keeper of the story that St Paul was shipwrecked on Malta, with venerated relics and a much-loved gilded statue of the saint. 0.4 km to the next stop
3. Lower Barrakka Gardens: The quieter of Valletta's two bastion gardens, with a neoclassical temple to Sir Alexander Ball and, just beside it, the great Siege Bell War Memorial above the harbour entrance. 0.5 km to the next stop
4. Fort St Elmo: The star fort at Valletta's tip that fell after a month's siege in 1565, now the National War Museum, home to Malta's George Cross and the Gladiator 'Faith'. 0.4 km to the next stop

Afternoon

1. Casa Rocca Piccola: A 16th-century palace on Republic Street, still home to the de Piro family: fifty-odd rooms of silver, costume and lace, with WWII air-raid shelters cut into the rock below. 0.2 km to the next stop
2. The Grandmaster's Palace: For centuries the Grand Masters ruled Malta from this palace; today it is the Office of the President, with grand State Rooms and one of Europe's great armouries. 0.2 km to the next stop
3. Manoel Theatre: Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena built this jewel-box theatre in 1731: an oval of gilded boxes under a painted sky, among the oldest working theatres in Europe.

Day 2

Day 2 covers 7 stops over about 1.4 km as the crow flies, from National Museum of Archaeology to Valletta Waterfront (Pinto Wharf). ≈ 1.4 km between stops, straight line

Morning

1. National Museum of Archaeology: Inside a 1571 knights' inn, Malta's prehistory: temple altars, corpulent Tarxien statues, and the palm-sized Sleeping Lady figurine from the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, asleep for five millennia. 0.2 km to the next stop
2. Auberge de Castille: Often called the grandest of the knights' auberges, this monumental Baroque palace crowns Valletta's high ground and now serves as the Office of the Prime Minister. 0.1 km to the next stop
3. Upper Barrakka Gardens: A terraced garden high on Valletta's bastions, with a sweeping view over the Grand Harbour and the Three Cities, and a ceremonial cannon firing daily at noon below. 0.2 km to the next stop
4. Our Lady of Victory Church: The first building finished in Valletta, in 1566, raised over the city's foundation stone to thank the Virgin for the victory that ended the Great Siege. 0.1 km to the next stop

Afternoon

1. City Gate: Valletta's main gate, a deliberately modern 2011-2014 Renzo Piano breach in the old bastions, with his Parliament House and an open-air theatre in the bombed Opera House ruins. 0.1 km to the next stop
2. Triton Fountain: Three straining bronze sea-gods hold up a giant basin just outside City Gate. Sculpted by Vincent Apap and unveiled in 1959, restored to full flow by 2018. 0.6 km to the next stop
3. Valletta Waterfront (Pinto Wharf): A restored row of Baroque harbour warehouses in Floriana, begun under Grand Master Vilhena and expanded by Pinto, now a cruise terminal and waterfront dining promenade on the Grand Harbour.

Distances are straight-line between stops; streets add a little.

Updated: September 14, 2026

Full Valletta guide and all stops →