Malta is not a cheap Mediterranean destination in the way Albania or parts of the Balkans can be, but it is also relatively easy to control your spending once accommodation is sorted. Public transport is inexpensive, distances are short, many historic areas and coastal spots can be explored for free, and cheap Maltese bakery food makes it possible to offset the cost of hotels and restaurant meals.
For a trip excluding international flights, around €65–90 per person per day is a workable backpacker budget if you stay in hostels, use buses and keep restaurant meals limited. For most travelers who want a private room, regular restaurant meals and a few paid attractions, €110–170 per person per day is a more useful planning range. In July and August, particularly around Valletta, Sliema and St Julian’s, accommodation can push the total considerably higher.
| Travel style | Approximate daily budget | What that usually means |
|---|---|---|
| Budget | €65–90 per person | Hostel, buses, bakery food and inexpensive meals, selective paid sights |
| Comfortable | €110–170 per person | Shared private room or hotel, restaurants, buses plus occasional taxis, several attractions |
| Higher-spend trip | €190+ per person | Better hotel, frequent restaurants and taxis, boat trips and multiple paid attractions |
Accommodation is the expense that changes the answer
A traveler who finds a €25 hostel bed and a couple paying €180 for a hotel room can have almost identical food and transport costs but finish the week with completely different budgets. This is why asking whether Malta itself is cheap is less useful than looking first at where and when you plan to stay.
Valletta is convenient for sightseeing but has a limited accommodation supply inside its compact historic center, and staying there can be expensive. Sliema often gives travelers more choice while still providing straightforward access to Valletta by bus and ferry. St Julian’s has everything from hostels to large international hotels, but prices can rise quickly around the waterfront and the Paceville nightlife area. Current planning ranges vary from roughly €15–35 for hostel beds to €100–160 or more for conventional three-star rooms in popular areas, with peak-summer central accommodation sometimes much higher. These are useful budget bands rather than fixed rates because hotel prices vary heavily by date.
The most important decision is therefore not whether to save €1 on lunch, but whether you really need to stay in central Valletta or beside the St Julian’s waterfront. If Malta is part sightseeing trip and part beach holiday, choosing a well-connected base and using public transport can reduce the accommodation bill without making the itinerary inconvenient.
Transport is one of the easier places to keep costs low
Malta’s bus system is unusually useful for a budget trip because the same network covers both Malta and Gozo. A normal daytime journey currently costs €2 in winter and €2.50 in summer when paid on board by cash or contactless card, and the ticket allows transfers for two hours. Night buses cost €3.
If you will be sightseeing intensively for a full week, paying for every journey separately is not always the cheapest option. The Explore Adult card costs €25 for seven consecutive days of unlimited travel on regular day and night routes, while the €27 seven-day Explore Flex bus offer also includes Airport Direct. The €19 card with 12 journeys can be shared, which can make more sense for couples or travelers who expect to walk a lot rather than use buses several times every day.
Gozo is also inexpensive to reach independently. The standard Gozo Channel passenger fare is €4.65, so there is little financial reason to book an organized excursion simply because you need transport to the island. If you are working out how much of Malta you can realistically cover, the First2Travel guide to how many days you need in Malta compares shorter trips with itineraries that include Gozo and Comino.
A rental car is useful for some trips, not a default expense
Malta looks like an obvious place to rent a car because the island is small, but a car often adds cost without adding much value if your trip revolves around Valletta, Sliema and St Julian’s. Parking in dense urban areas can be awkward, traffic can be slow, and Malta drives on the left. For a city-based trip, buses, ferries and occasional taxi-app rides are usually easier.
A car becomes more useful when you want to combine several beaches, villages or archaeological sites in one day, or when you are exploring Gozo on your own schedule. The headline rental price also should not be treated as the final cost: insurance, the excess or deposit, additional drivers and parking can matter more than a very low advertised daily rate. The separate guide to renting a car in Malta explains when hiring one actually makes sense.
Food can be cheap if every meal is not a sit-down meal
Restaurant prices are where Malta starts to feel much less like a budget destination. Current crowdsourced price data puts a basic restaurant meal at about €15 nationally, with Valletta closer to €20, while a mid-range three-course dinner for two is around €75 nationally and approximately €80 in Valletta. These are market averages rather than menu guarantees, but they show why eating three restaurant meals every day changes the budget quickly.
Fortunately, eating cheaply in Malta does not require living on supermarket sandwiches. Pastizzi, usually filled with ricotta or peas, are sold in bakeries across the islands, and Maltese bakeries also sell pies, pizza-style snacks and filled bread that work well for inexpensive breakfasts or lunches. Using bakeries for one meal and choosing a restaurant for dinner is a much more realistic cost-cutting strategy than trying to find the cheapest sit-down restaurant three times a day.
Location matters as well. Restaurants directly around major Valletta sights or along heavily visited waterfronts naturally target a large tourist market. Walking away from the most obvious restaurant strips gives you more choice, while an apartment with even a basic kitchen can noticeably reduce costs on a week-long stay.
You do not need a large sightseeing budget every day
Malta has enough paid historical sites to make attraction costs significant, but there is no reason to stack several of them into every day. St John’s Co-Cathedral currently costs €15 for an adult ticket, while the Grand Master’s Palace charges €12. The Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum is a more substantial expense at €35 for a standard adult ticket and €50 for limited last-minute tickets.
On another day, however, you can spend very little. Walking through Mdina, exploring Valletta’s streets and fortifications, visiting viewpoints such as the Upper Barrakka Gardens, swimming from the coast or spending time along the Sliema promenade does not require a full attraction budget. Alternating paid heritage days with mostly free sightseeing is one of the easiest ways to keep the average daily cost under control without skipping Malta’s main experiences.
Remember the accommodation tax
Malta increased its eco-contribution in 2026. For stays beginning on or after July 1, visitors aged 18 and over pay €1.50 per person per night, capped at €22.50 per person for a visit. A couple staying for seven nights therefore pays €21 in total.
The charge is small compared with the hotel bill, but it is worth knowing about because older Malta guides may still show the previous lower rate.
Summer is where Malta becomes much harder to do cheaply
July and August create the biggest budget problem because accommodation demand around the coast is high. Bus tickets only become slightly more expensive in summer, so transport is not what causes a trip to jump in price; the difference is much more likely to come from hotel rates, boat activities and the limited availability of cheaper rooms.
If swimming is important but peak prices are not, June and September can be easier months around which to build a lower-cost trip. Spring and autumn also work particularly well for sightseeing-focused visits when spending long days walking through Valletta, Mdina and the archaeological sites matters more than guaranteed beach weather. The month-by-month guide to the best time to visit Malta covers the trade-offs between weather, crowds and seasonality in more detail.
What a cheaper Malta trip actually looks like
The most effective budget strategy is to make a few large decisions correctly rather than trying to save small amounts on everything. Secure reasonably priced accommodation first, use buses for ordinary sightseeing, and rent a car only if a particular day genuinely benefits from one. Buy inexpensive local food for some breakfasts or lunches, then keep enough of the budget for restaurants and attractions you actually care about.
- Stay outside central Valletta if the room-price difference is substantial.
- Compare individual bus fares with the seven-day passes based on how many trips you will really take.
- Travel to Gozo independently unless you specifically want the convenience of a tour.
- Use bakeries for some meals rather than treating every lunch as a restaurant occasion.
- Choose paid historical sites selectively and combine them with free walking and coastal days.
- Avoid renting a car for an entire week if you only need it for one or two countryside days.
So, is Malta cheap to visit?
Not really, once accommodation and regular restaurant dining are included. Malta is closer to a mainstream Mediterranean holiday destination than a classic low-cost backpacking country, and travelers expecting Balkan-style hotel and restaurant prices are likely to find it expensive.
What makes Malta workable on a moderate budget is that the expensive parts are relatively easy to identify. Solve the accommodation problem, avoid unnecessary taxis and car-rental days, and use the inexpensive bus network and local food strategically. A backpacker can still aim for roughly €65–90 per day, while €110–170 per person per day is a more realistic range for a comfortable trip with private accommodation, restaurants and paid sightseeing.
Natali