weather proof | 7 nights | from $1,690 per person
Malta Vacation Package: Seven Nights, Stone Towns, One Car
Seven nights, a car, and towns that work in rain. This Malta vacation package has exactly one weather dependent part, the crossing to Gozo, and we print how often it stops.
What weather proof means here
The whole archipelago is 122 square miles. The main island runs 17 miles end to end, and almost every fixed point on this week is inside a building, inside a walled town, or in a car with a roof over it. Rain reorders the days. It does not delete them.
There is one exception, and it is the only reason this page exists. A Malta vacation package sold as weather proof has to name the part that is not.
- What the weather can cancel
- The boat crossings, and nothing else. The Gozo ferry and the small boats out to Comino are the only two parts of the week that stop for conditions; the walled towns, the museums and the car keep working in rain.
- How often it actually happens
- The Gozo ferry is suspended on roughly 4 to 8 days a year, almost all of them between December and February, when the gregale out of the northeast runs above 30 knots. The Comino boats stop more often than that, close to 1 day in 10 from November through March.
- What you do instead
- You drive the main island that day and Gozo moves to a later date in the same week, which is why the crossing is never set for your final morning. If the wind holds two days running, and it has, Gozo goes and the other six days stand as written.
- What money comes back
- None. The apartment, the car and the seven nights are paid whether you cross or not, and a boat operator refunds nothing for a sailing you never held a ticket on. Travel insurance is not arranged here and no provider is recommended.
- Who should not book this
- Anyone whose whole reason for going is swimming off Comino. From November to March the sea sits at 16 to 19C and the boats out to it are the least reliable thing in the country. Also anyone unwilling to drive on the left through streets laid out for carts.
The fourth row is the one this trade prints smallest, and on most of these trips it says nothing comes back. It stands above the price deliberately.
What the price carries
- Seven nights for two sharing, in one place, in a stone town rather than a beach strip. You unpack once and the car does the moving.
- A car for all seven days, collected on arrival, with the fuel terms and the damage excess read out to you before anything is signed. Without one you lose about half the island.
- Return crossings to Gozo for two adults and the vehicle, valid on any sailing on any day of the week.
- Entry paid ahead at four sites: two in Valletta, one inside Mdina, one prehistoric temple group on the south coast.
- A printed route sheet with parking that exists, including where to leave the car outside Valletta and walk in through the gate.
- A phone number that reaches a person on the island rather than a queue.
What you pay separately
- Getting to the country. Flights sit outside the figure. We price them from your home airport and show you the number before anything is held.
- Meals other than breakfast. Two people eating one sit-down meal a day spend $45 to $70.
- Fuel at roughly $1.60 a liter, plus paid parking in the larger towns.
- The boat out to Comino, sold at the quay on the day, about $30 a head return.
- Travel insurance. It is not arranged here, and we do not name a company that sells it.
What it costs
from $1,690 per person
- Covering
- 7 nights, self-drive island week.
- Taken as read
- A room shared between two, except where any of the six otherwise for your case.
- What lifts it
- A crowded month, a better room, a decision left late, and every hour you hand to somebody else to arrange.
- When it stops moving
- The moment an operator signs its own name under it. Before that, read it as the floor of a spread this desk has actually seen.
You settle with the operator, through whatever system they run. Not a cent of it passes through here, and this office never sees a card.
The months this runs, and the two weeks to skip
Rain here arrives as a season, not a scatter. October through February takes about 85 percent of the yearly 550 mm. December is the wettest month at roughly 110 mm across 13 or 14 days with measurable rain, and daylight falls to nine and a half hours. March to May and mid-September to late October give 20 to 25C, three to six rain days a month, and light until seven in the evening.
July and August often pass without rain at all. They also sit at 33 to 35C by mid-afternoon, and limestone holds that heat long after dark.
Two stretches I would steer you off. The first fortnight of August, because the towns are at their fullest and the stone never cools overnight. And the last week of December into the first week of January, because that is when the gregale, the northeast wind, most often runs above 30 knots for two or three days together, and that wind is what stops the Gozo boats.
What gets settled at confirmation
Four things stay open until we speak. Which side of the island you sleep on, since the southeast is quieter and 25 minutes further from the airport. Which day Gozo sits on, and how much slack is left behind it. Whether the car is a manual or the automatic that adds about $90 across the week. And whether the seven nights run Saturday to Saturday or midweek, which moves the figure by roughly $120 a person.