This is Part 3 of our Complete guide to Malta with kids. Click here to see the two previous parts to this guide.
Southern and Central Malta
Southern Malta is an area of gorgeous natural beauty, rich history, and wonderful sites. You can visit these sites using public transit, but it will take about an hour one way from Valletta to reach many them. The easier option, and one we chose, is to rent a car and visit them in one day.
Marxsalokk
This small fishing village is very picturesque with its colorful boats and pretty waterfront church. There is a popular fish market on Sundays, and a lot of delicious places to grab a bite to eat. We randomly managed to finda yummy IPA to drink with our fresh calamari!
There is a playground on the southern end of the waterfront and our kids really loved playing there!
If you are looking for the best place to photograph the fishing boats and the cathedral, walk to the pier where you’ll see the docked boats.
Saint Peter’s Pool
This is definitely one of Malta’s most beautiful natural swimming pools and it is also very popular with summer vacationers. Surrounded by flat rocks where people can lay down to sunbathe and relax, the sea here is azure and light green colors. This is not a great place for little kids to swim, FYI. To reach the pool you need to walk down a trail and some stairs from the parking lot. The road to reach the parking lot is a rough single lane road.
There are several walking trails that leave from the same parking lot. We took the high trail and then dropped to a limestone flat area full of small holes that the kids loved splashing on. The views from here were also gorgeous and the scenery was like being on a different planet. The kids definitely enjoyed this area more than the pool area—probably because we didn’t have to tell them to be careful every five seconds!
Blue Grotto
This magnificent grotto is a popular site with tourists (and tour buses!). It is supposed to be a wonderful place to dive and snorkel with very clean and deep waters. The Blue Grotto is a complex of seven caves found right across from the island of Filfla. From the cliff you can see the main arch, which is approximately 30 meters high. Centuries of the persistent crashing of waves agains the hard cliffs resulted in the formation of these caves.
You can see the Blue Grotto from an overlook on the cliff, or you can take a boat tour inside. The best time to visit is from the early morning to around midday. Around that time the sun is in the best position for ideal light inside the grotto.
Playmobil Funpark
This is where Playmobil toys are made! The factory has an adjoining playroom filled with toys. Entrance to the funpark costs 2 Euros and you can choose to pay an additional fee of less than 3 Euros to get a surprise box with your entrance. The playroom is full of Playmobil toys for kids to play with! There were lots of helicopters, police cars, fire engines, boats, camper vans, etc.
There is also an outside play area with some water tables and water features. The outside space also includes two climbing structures, one for kids younger than five and another one for older kids.
The factory is kind of in the middle of an industrial park. Parking is free around the factory and there is a cafe on site.
Ghar Dalam Prehistoric Cave
This site is Malta’s oldest prehistoric site and contains a cave, a Victorian-style museum, and a garden planted with indigenous plans and trees. We really enjoyed walking inside the cave and seeing the place paleontologists found animal bones, human remains, and artifacts. This is where they found the earliest evidence of human settlement in Malta, dating back some 7,400 years, along with many ice-age animal skeletons, like dwarf elephants and hippopotamus!
The museum contains an impressive collection of bones and animal teeth that were found in the cave, along with some taxidermied animals. Our kids really enjoyed the museum.
The Hypogeum in Malta is one of the best preserved prehistoric sites in the world, and it includes a temple, a cemetery and a funeral hall. Unfortunately, kids under the age of six are not allowed inside so we couldn’t do it.
Some of our highlights for Central Malta are:
Mosta
The most recognizable sight in the town of Mosta is the magnificent dome that covers the Parish Church of Assumption. The dome is inspired by Rome’s Pantheon and it is one of the largest unsupported domes in the world. The Mosta dome is particularly revered because it survived a bomb falling through it during World War II.
On April 9th, 1942, as 300 people gathered in church waiting for service, a bomb dropped by a Nazi plane fell through the dome, bumped into the wall and rolled across the floor until it came to a stop at the altar. The bomb didn’t detonate and nobody got hurt. The Maltese people view this event as a miracle.
Our kids were fascinated by this story and they enjoyed visiting the church and the small museum (which contains a replica of the bomb). There are a lot of eateries around the church, including a cake shop right across the street.
Rabat and Mdina
The history of this Arabic walled city goes back over 4000 years. According to tradition, the Apostle St. Paul lived in Mdina after his ship wrecked on the islands. Mdina, often referred to as the Silent City, is a beautiful walled city with narrow streets that is very fun to explore, especially in the early morning hours.
Rabat (which means suburbs) is also a historic city that adjoins Mdina. It is well worth exploring. Also filled with narrow alleys and streets, this is a fun place to wander around and grab a bite to eat. If Mdina is the cultural center, Rabat is the commercial one. Some highlights in Rabat include the catacombs, churches, and Roman mosaics.
Our kids loved exploring both cities and leading the way in exploring the narrow streets.
Dingli Cliffs
About one kilometer from the town of Dingli are the Dingli Cliffs, standing tall at a spectacular 220 meters high. This is the highest point in the Maltese Islands and it provides excellent views of the coast and a lovely place to watch the sunset. There is a walking trail that takes you alongside the cliffs and to a small chapel.
This was a bit of a challenging place for the kids because kids and sheer cliffs are not the best mix, right? They were also tired after 3 days of road tripping, but we still managed to enjoy playing around the rocky areas next to the church while taking in the stunning views around us.
If you love hiking, or just walking, you could visit some of these sights by walking from one to the next. The public transit system in Malta is very good, and there are buses going to and from pretty much anywhere in the island, so you can easily get on a bus when you get tired!
Another thing to keep in mind is that Malta is probably one of the safest and friendliest places we’ve ever been to, so you’ll be totally fine walking pretty much anywhere in the islands. If you get lost, just ask for help as pretty much anyone speaks English and will be happy to help you out!
