Do you need a car in Malta? Buses vs rental, by trip type

For most visitors on a city-based holiday, you do not need a car in Malta. If you are staying in Sliema, St Julian’s or Valletta and want to see the main towns and beaches, the bus network and a €25 weekly bus card will cover almost everything you plan to do. You only really need a car if your trip depends on Gozo, the south and west coast, or the quieter beaches where buses run slowly or not often — and even then, usually only for the days you actually go there.

That is the honest answer. The rest of this guide shows you how to decide for your own trip, with the real cost of each option side by side.

Key facts

• Malta’s only public transport is the bus. A single fare is €2.00 in winter (19 Oct–13 Jun) and €2.50 in summer (14 Jun–18 Oct); each ticket lasts 2 hours with free transfers.
• A 7-day Explore card is €25 for unlimited buses (not valid on the Tallinja Direct express routes).
• Buses are free only for residents with a personalised Tallinja Card. Short-stay visitors pay.
• Economy car hire is seasonal: about €10–17/day in winter, €29–58/day at the July–August peak, before insurance.
• Malta drives on the left. Cars reach Gozo on the Ċirkewwa–Mġarr ferry (€15.70 return, car + driver, about 25 min). Comino has no cars or roads.

Getting around without a car

Malta has one form of public transport: the bus. There is no metro, tram or train — the whole island runs on the Tallinja bus network, and it reaches almost every town, village and popular beach.

A single fare is €2.00 in winter (19 October–13 June) and €2.50 in summer (14 June–18 October). One ticket lasts two hours and lets you change buses for free within that window, so a single fare often covers a whole journey, connection included.

If you are staying a week and using buses most days, buy an Explore card: €25 for seven days of unlimited bus travel. It pays for itself at roughly ten rides in summer or thirteen in winter — easy to reach if you are out each day. One thing to know: the Explore card does not cover the Tallinja Direct express routes, which are priced separately.

There are also inter-harbour passenger ferries across the water, and ride-hailing apps such as Bolt and eCabs work across the islands — handy for door-to-door trips or when buses are less frequent.

When a car earns its keep — a simple decision tree

The real question is not “car or no car”. It is “what does your trip look like?” Match yours to the list:

• City-based beach holiday (Sliema, St Julian’s or Valletta): buses are fine. Skip the car.
• One or two day trips to Gozo or Comino: go car-free and use the ferries (see below). Renting a car for the week to sit parked most days rarely makes sense.
• Gozo-heavy trip, or several days in Gozo’s countryside: a car is worth the cost. Gozo’s own buses are slower and less frequent than Malta’s.
• South and west coast, hidden beaches, cliffs, out-of-the-way villages: a car saves real time. Buses reach these places, but slowly and rarely.
• Mixed trip: rent a car only for the specific days you travel beyond the towns, and use buses in town. You avoid paying for parking and a vehicle you are not using.

The local-guide consensus lines up with this: buses are enough for a Sliema, St Julian’s or Valletta base; a car is worth it for Gozo touring, the south and west coast, and the beaches buses serve poorly.

What driving in Malta is really like

A few things to know before you book.

Malta drives on the left, a legacy of British rule. If you are used to driving on the right, give yourself time to adjust, especially at roundabouts and on narrow village lanes where two cars barely pass.

Licences: a non-EU licence is valid here for up to 12 months, but carry an International Driving Permit (IDP) — a standard official translation of your licence — if yours is not in English, because hire desks and the police may ask for it. To rent, you must be at least 21 and have held your licence for a year; drivers under 25 usually pay a young-driver surcharge.

Valletta, the capital, is largely pedestrian and sits inside a Controlled Vehicular Access (CVA) zone: cameras read your number plate and charge you to drive in, the same idea as an Italian ZTL. The simple way round it is to leave the car at the Floriana Park & Ride just outside the city (over 750 spaces) and take the free shuttle, which runs every 5–10 minutes.

Taking a car to Gozo — or leaving it behind

Only one ferry carries cars to Gozo: the Gozo Channel service between Ċirkewwa, at Malta’s northern tip, and Mġarr on Gozo. The crossing takes about 25 minutes. A car plus driver costs €15.70 for the return, and you pay on the Gozo side, not on the way over.

There is a faster option — the Valletta–Gozo fast ferry, roughly 45 minutes — but it carries passengers only, no cars. So if you are doing Gozo as a foot-passenger day trip, the fast ferry from Valletta is often the smarter choice: no queuing a car onto the boat, and you step off ready to pick up a local bus, taxi or tour. Take the car ferry when you genuinely want your own car on Gozo for touring.

One more island to note: Comino has no roads and no cars at all. You reach it only by boat, so a hire car makes no difference to that part of your trip.

The real cost, side by side

Here is a week compared two ways: a city base using buses, and a Gozo-touring trip with a car. Car hire is very seasonal, so we show both winter and peak-summer rates.

Getting around for 7 days	City base — buses only	Gozo-touring — economy car
Bus travel	Explore card €25	Buses for town days, if wanted
Car hire — winter	—	~€70–119 (€10–17/day)
Car hire — peak Jul–Aug	—	~€203–406 (€29–58/day)
Excess-reduction cover (optional)	—	~€17–25/day if added
Gozo car ferry (car + driver, return)	Use passenger fast ferry instead	€15.70
Valletta	Free shuttle from Floriana Park & Ride	Free shuttle from Floriana Park & Ride
Rough weekly total to get around	~€25	~€86 (winter) to €420+ (peak), plus fuel

The gap is clear. A car-free city week costs about €25 a person to get around. A week with an economy car runs from roughly €86 in winter to €420 or more at the July–August peak, before fuel — because the daily hire rate alone climbs from about €10–17 in winter to €29–58 in high summer. If you only need the car for two or three days beyond the towns, hiring just for those days sits between the two and is often the best balance of cost and freedom.