Hiking Through the Malta Countryside

As discussed in the previous post, Lacey and I had some indecision and concerns about Malta. We had original plans for staying up the coast and renting a scooter or car and then... plans changed.

It's funny how things tend to work themselves out though. After quite a bit of research and a team effort of searching for things to do, we found some walks to do on the official Malta website. Lacey and I really enjoy hiking. We've been to Kentucky and Colorado to hike. Also, we had been in big cities for about 10 days straight so we really craved a change of scenery.

We woke up a little early (like 7:30am-ish). Our hotel had an excellent breakfast to choose from. I had apple cinnamon pancakes with maple syrup. Holy smokes they were delicious. Lacey had a ham and cheese omelet with toast that was also really, really good. The breakfast was included with the hotel which was great.

The Malta website lists 7 different walks but there was one particular hike that we were really excited about. One of the big attractions in Malta is an area called the Dingli cliffs. Most people rent a car and drive there for sunset in the summer. Lacey and I like to be unique so we took an hour bus ride there in the winter morning and walked alongside them haha. The information provided for the walk on the Malta website was fantastic. That combined with Google Maps made it super easy to follow the trail/road the whole way. It was great being here in the offseason because a lot of the walk is alongside busy roads which would be PACKED in summer but were mostly empty now.

So we grabbed our bus easy peasy from just outside Valletta and rode it for an hour. The streets in Malta are teeny tiny and there are cars parked everywhere and I can't believe buses fit where they do. Bus rides were always an adventure. By the end, we were the last people on the bus. Typical for us lol. We walked along the road for just a couple minutes and finally reached the cliffs. They were spectacular. We got SUPER LUCKY and it was pure sunshine all day. After being cold for so long, the sunshine felt absolutely incredible. I brought way too many clothes for the hike of course. It was a running joke all day how I wanted to throw some away while we were walking.

Parts of the Dingli cliffs are pretty much straight down to the Mediterranean Sea but most of them have some cliffs, then some countryside, then some more cliffs. This contrast of cliffs and countryside and water and oh man. It was so great. The first part of the walk was entirely along the road along the cliffs. We passed by a few beautiful churches and a radar station. There were basically no cars on the road (still too early for most people haha). This stretch took a while because we kept stopping to take more pictures because we couldn't believe how nice it was.

We reached a rock outcropping and followed the trail to the end of it. We took a bunch more pictures here. The view from one side of the rock outcropping showing the farmland with some cliffs and water was the best view all day in my opinion. Being out of the city and literally feeling like we had the country to ourselves is a feeling we won't forget.

We climbed down the side of the rock outcropping to walk down from the top of the cliffs and walk among the farmland. We walked on a tiny little road that was being reconstructed with new concrete. It was crazy seeing the big machine they used to carry the concrete from a truck down the road to where they were working. The new concrete road was really nice to walk on (very flat and smooth). Did I mention we were loving life? Because we were loving life. We walked by what we assumed were grape fields and some scallion fields as well. Nothing was really growing now of course but still amazing to see farmers out working the land.

For lunch, we ate cliff bars. Super romantic, fancy cliff bars haha. We also ate some crackers we got at a grocery store. Lucky we had plenty of water for the hike because there was very little shade (we didn't want the shade to be honest). Eventually, we made it through all the farmland and got back on the main road. Our next stop was some ruins from about 2500 BC. It was 10 euros per person to enter and we weren't that interested so we didn't look around other than to use the bathroom. I'm sure it's cool ruins but after walking for over 7 miles already, we didn't want to explore some ruins.

Our final destination was within reach. Another pretty famous area on Malta island to see is a place called the Blue Grotto. It's an area of steep cliffs where the water is very blue and there are some interesting water caves. The area between the ruins and the Blue Grotto was busier with people walking and driving. We walked along the top of the cliffs and then took the very steep road down to the water's edge. At the Blue Grotto, there were a decent amount of little restaurants.

There are small boats that will take you around the cliffs to the actual Blue Grotto sites. We took one of these boats for 7 euros. It was slightly annoying because they pack the small boats full and they wouldn't let us wait for a new boat so I was in the middle. But the views were still pretty good and it was fun to ride a boat for a bit at the bottom of these big cliffs. The whole boat tour was only about 20-25 mins but we saw a few different caves and the water was quite blue. Worth it!

After the boat, we knew we should probably eat something more for late lunch/early dinner (it was about 2:30pm at this time). We walked around all the little restaurants but none of them looked great. We settled for a cannoli hahaha. There's one bus that goes all the way to the bottom water's edge. But, to catch other buses, you have to hike back up the steep road on the top of the cliffs. After debating waiting for that bus or not, we decided to hoof it up the cliffs and catch a bus that came a lot sooner. The cannoli helped power us up the hill. We caught the bus from the top of the cliff that took us straight back to Valletta.

We really actually needed to eat food so we went back to the Food Market near our hotel. Lacey got some bao buns from an Asian place. Malta is known for its rabbit as meat (you're as surprised as me). So I figured I had to get some while we were here. I got some rabbit stew with rice. It was actually pretty darn good! A lot of people say things "taste like chicken" but the rabbit legit tasted like chicken.

We made our way back to the hotel and just hung out the rest of the night. I finished up some blog posts and we watched some more YouTube travel videos. We also planned our next hike. Our plan was to take the loooooong bus ride up Malta island and then take a small ferry to the super small island of Comino. We would hike around the island then venture back. Things were shaping up to be a really good time!

It was about 8pm and we needed to eat a little bit more after all the energy we expended on our hike. It's embarrassing but we had a little bit of McDonald's. Yeah yeah, it's not a good choice but it is what it is. The McDonalds took quite a while and the fries were cold buuuuut it was some food. After our super late dinner, we headed back, hung out some more and slept.

I've alluded to this the last post and this one but all our worrying was really for naught. I had been searching for that "wow, life-changing, always remember" moment from this trip and we found it on this hike. That view of the farms and cliffs and the sea is something I'll hold dear for a very long time. But that worrying led to researching which led to finding this hike which was amazing sooooo the worrying wasn't all for no reason. What's that saying? "Preparation leads to opportunities" or something like that.