Plan a group trip to Malta

Weather and what it means for planning

Hot dry summers reaching the mid thirties in July and August, and mild winters that rarely drop below 10°C. Sea temperature stays swimmable well into October.

On your Holiday Board, each day shows a forecast once a reliable one exists, which is roughly two weeks ahead. Further out than that we show nothing rather than guessing, because a made-up forecast is worse than none when you are deciding what to pack.

What to pack for Malta

• High factor sun cream. The midday sun in summer is genuinely fierce and shade is scarce on the rocks
• Something to cover shoulders and knees for churches, including St John's Co-Cathedral
• Water shoes if you plan to swim anywhere other than a sandy beach, since much of the coast is rock
• A light layer for evenings, especially on boats and in shoulder season
• A refillable water bottle, and plan on drinking more than you expect

Add these to your plans as bring items while you are setting up the trip and they turn up on everyone’s packing list automatically, with duplicates merged.

An example Malta day structure

A workable shape for a 5 to 7 days trip. Copy whichever of these fit onto your own days and ignore the rest.

Practical things worth knowing

• Euro. Cards are widely accepted, but keep some cash for smaller kiosks and boat operators
• Driving is on the left, which surprises people who assume otherwise
• Tap water is safe but heavily desalinated and unpopular locally. Most people drink bottled
• Buses are cheap and cover the island but are slow. Factor generous leave times if you rely on them

Getting around

The island is small, roughly 27km end to end, but journeys take longer than the distance suggests. Taxis and ride hailing work well between the main towns. Set leave times with a buffer.

This is the reason leave time exists as its own field on every plan. The start time is when the thing happens. The leave time is when you actually need to be out of the door, and in Malta the gap between those two is bigger than people expect.

Money on a Malta trip

Malta uses the Euro. If your group counts in pounds, set EUR as the local currency and GBP as the home currency when you create the holiday. Every expense then shows both, and the rate is saved with the expense so past spending never shifts when rates move.

At the end, the expense splitter nets everything off into the fewest possible payments.