Going to Malta

Bradt has an excellent travel guide book for Malta & Gozo: Bradt Malta & Gozo Guidebook (5th Edition, March 2025). We used their 4th Edition for our trip in Fall of 2023.

If you are not familiar with Bradt guidebooks, you are in for a treat. They're awesome, and have coverage for a lot of places that are not quite in the tourism mainstream (though Malta certainly is). Their Malta/Gozo book is excellent.

Malta is a bit of an odd duck, often overlooked by North Americans (though very well known to those from the UK). Rick only gives a passing glance at it, featured on his "Island Hopping" Mediterranean cruise ship ports TV episode, but he's there only briefly, via cruise ship (which is how the majority of tourists experience Malta). There's lots to see there (and yes, lots of cruise ships). I found Malta and Gozo a fascinating destination for 10 days, could have stayed longer.

A few photos to perhaps whet your appetite here.

Any of the major travel publishers are fine—lonely planet, DK. I recall Malta having an excellent tourism bureau website.

@David,
Thank you for the book reference!
Looking at the images, Malta seems to have a similar flavor as what I saw several years ago during a trip that included Gibraltar.
Barry

Yes, it has a strange vibe. In many ways, it's like "Baja Italy" - similar to the far south of mainland Italy, like Sicily, only "more extreme" in some ways. With more than a little North African influence (language, food, chaotic driving...) but also with long, deep, impossible-to-miss historic and cultural ties to not just the UK, but it seemed specifically Victorian-era, imperial UK (and the Royal Navy). Overflowing with history and faded glory everywhere you turn. Quite the heady mix. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I loved it. Don't miss Gozo, it's said to be "like Malta was 30 years ago," before the tourism boom.