Valletta is the Capital city of Malta, I’ve never experienced such an interesting city! You know a native Maltese person when you hear them talk. When they speak English (I actually can’t remember hearing many people speak Maltese, so I can’t speak for that, but I am sure it’s the same..obviously it has to be! lol), they talk in a sing-song style tone – which is the best way I can describe Valletta! It has steep sloping streets…so basically “sing-songy” streets! Baroque to Modern in it’s style and sooo beautiful!! The architecture here is like nothing I have ever seen either!
Valletta contains buildings from the 16th century onwards. The city is essentially Baroque in character with modern elements in selected areas. The Second World War left major scars on the city, particularly the destruction of the Royal Opera House (which I don’t think I saw). The City of Valletta was officially recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980.
To be honest, I only decided to go because I felt I had to. It’s the capital of the island. A lot of reviews online say it’s worth seeing, but I wasn’t dying to go, so we went one evening thinking a couple hours would be enough. I definitely did not plan that accordingly! A city is a city was my ignorant New York mindset!
Once you arrive in, you are greeted with this big roundabout type thing with some cool art. As fascinated as I was with this big sculpture of a hand holding a bird…..

And this interesting sculpture with description:


I stopped everything as I noticed the sun setting behind this wall over a beautiful landscape!

Definitely spent about 20 minutes there taking pictures and just taking in the view that I lost my travel partner lol.

From there, there is a main street with tons of designer shops and cafes – many the typical global brands you are familiar with, and some you aren’t. There were musicians blasting loud tunes from their trumpets and various street performers. Something definitely gave this town a very Christmasy type vibe. Christmasy yet caveman lol.




As I was walking, I kept looking to my left where I noticed through the intersections that if you went down that side you would hit the view of the ocean.

So we decided to take a detour and check it out (and then get back on the main route and continue down) OMG – even more beautiful streets.




These streets, all different but with a pattern of steep sloping roads. The architecture was so unique! Valetta is a city with so much character! You picture yourself in some old Kris Kringle meets Flintstones type town back in time, haha! That’s the vibe you get!



Anyways, was hoping to get a close up, grand view of the sea – but realizing how slopy Valletta is; from the main street we could see the sea, but when we got to the edge there was a barrier that blocked the view, that we didn’t notice from the Main Street, because of the slopes!
We headed back on to the Main Street and found ourselves at a square with a fountain, and we noticed a bunch of cafes and a lively, floral, nicely decorated area to our left.





We continued straight though because we wanted to go all the way to the end of the city hoping for a view of the sea. Once we passed the square the streets were quieter and more residential. I keep saying this but the architecture was so unique!





The vehicles were a combination of modern, nice sports cars, classic, old school cars and stuff I have never seen before lol.


At the edge of the road, there was a turn that sort of led to a wider street. We found the sea there!! The streets went on but we knew we would have gotten lost if we continued, and it was getting late.





We headed back to the cafe area which was a nice, lively area! Hoping to try something different, perhaps local Maltese cuisine, which we were still trying to figure out what that was, beside Rabbit – yes, their most famous local dish is Rabbit! Italian food is quite common, as is American/British junk food. Unfortunately that’s all we pretty much could find. Don’t go to Malta expecting amazing cuisine. Ohhh, also, for some reason, the chicken is different there. I definitely could not eat it lol. I couldn’t even stand the smell! I don’t know how to explain it, but it just wasn’t right. I think all I ate in Malta was pretty much junky pizza and fries, ugh! Europeans also have a thing for mayonnaise. Mayo, bread and cheese. LOL. Very common in Europe. Finding food was pretty frustrating and being Indian, I need spice. Lots of flaming spice. A lot of places, when I asked for hot sauce, they gave me black pepper…..#fail. They did have good ice cream though!
As we exited, I noticed some ads for Malta Fashion week! I guess I was so mesmerized by the sunset I didn’t notice them when I arrived! Hosted by Mercedes Benz, so it’s pretty legit!






Valletta is definitely a place I want to go back to and explore more than just a couple hours! I don’t think I would look for a hotel there, as I doubt there are any beach resorts, and thats sort of my thing. I def would go back to Malta, stay at a beach resort in a neighboring area and do a full day trip to Valletta again and get lost in those sloping streets!

-Karen Bahri