Is it worth renting a car in Malta?
An honest answer: it depends where you're staying and what you want to see. When a hire car earns its keep in Malta, and when the bus is genuinely fine.
Updated 21 July 2026 · 5 min read
The short answer
If you're staying in Sliema or St Julian's for a long weekend and mostly want the seafront, the ferry and a couple of restaurants, you don't need a car. The area is walkable, the Valletta ferry is quick, and parking is the worst on the island.
If you're staying anywhere else, or you're here more than about four days, or there's a beach or a village on your list — a car changes the trip substantially.
What the buses do well
Malta's bus network is genuinely useful and reaches most towns. For a single trip along a main route it's cheap and perfectly pleasant, and it removes any parking question entirely.
Where it struggles is the tail: services thin out in the evenings, popular routes fill up in summer, and a journey that looks short on a map can involve a change and a wait. Over a week those add up into the trips you decided not to bother with.
Where a car genuinely wins
The north-coast beaches — Għadira, Golden Bay, Għajn Tuffieħa — are the clearest case. They're where people actually want to go and where public transport is slowest.
Gozo is the second. The island is rural, the sights are spread out, and a car crossing on the ferry turns a logistical day into an easy one.
The third is the inland villages and the south: Mdina, Dingli, Marsaxlokk, the Three Cities. Each is reachable by bus and each is considerably better as part of a half-day drive.
The honest costs
Beyond the daily rate, budget for fuel — modest, given the distances — and for parking being occasionally annoying rather than expensive. Malta doesn't have widespread paid parking outside the busiest areas, but it does have a shortage of spaces where you most want one.
The excess hold is the cost people forget. It isn't money spent, but it does sit on your card for the trip unless you take a lower-excess option.
A reasonable compromise
Plenty of visitors hire for part of the stay rather than all of it — a few days in the middle for the beaches, Gozo and Mdina, walking and ferrying the rest. It's often the best value of all, and free cancellation up to 48 hours means you can decide late.
Sorted the reading — now the car
From €6 a day, collected a few minutes' walk from arrivals. Insurance and unlimited mileage included, nothing charged online, free cancellation up to 48 hours.
Book your carCommon questions
- Do I need a car in Malta for a week?
- For a week, most people are glad of one for at least part of it. The exception is a stay entirely within Sliema and Valletta, where walking and the ferry cover almost everything.
- Is it cheaper to use taxis than hire a car?
- For one or two trips, yes. Beyond about two journeys a day for several days, a hire car is usually cheaper and always more flexible.
- Can I hire a car for just part of my stay?
- Yes, and it's a sensible approach. Book the days you want it, and free cancellation up to 48 hours before means you can adjust if plans change.