Valletta is the capital of Malta and, at about 0.8 square kilometres, one of the smallest capital cities in the world, with roughly 5,700 residents. The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it was built from nothing after 1566 by the Knights of St John following the Great Siege, in which a force of a few hundred knights and several thousand Maltese held off an Ottoman army for four months.

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It was designed as a fortress on a grid, which is unusual for the period, on a peninsula between two natural harbours, and it is built almost entirely from the honey-coloured local limestone that makes the whole island look as though it were carved from a single block.

The founding grandmaster, Jean de Valette, wanted a city fit for gentlemen, and one consequence is the thing nobody warns you about: Valletta is a city of staircases. The peninsula rises steeply from both harbours, and the cross-streets running downhill are stepped rather than sloped. The steps were reportedly built shallow so that knights in armour could climb them, which is small comfort in August.

The other thing to know is that Malta is an English-speaking country. English and Maltese are both official languages, everyone speaks English, road signs and menus are in English, and they drive on the left. This makes it one of the easiest Mediterranean destinations for a first solo trip.

What Makes Valletta Different to Pack For

The steps

You will climb a great deal, on worn limestone, in heat. Comfortable shoes with grip are the single most important item, and smooth-soled sandals on polished stone are a genuinely bad idea. The Barrakka Lift from the harbour up to the Upper Barrakka Gardens saves the worst climb and costs almost nothing.

The dress code at the churches

Malta is a strongly Catholic country. St John's Co-Cathedral requires shoulders and knees covered and enforces it at the door, and the same applies at Mdina Cathedral and most parish churches. Shawls are lent at the co-cathedral, and bringing your own covering is easier.

There is also a specific rule at the co-cathedral: stiletto and narrow heels are prohibited, because the floor is made of 400 inlaid marble tomb slabs and heels damage them. Flat shoes are required, and visitors are turned away for this.

Heat and no shade

July and August run 30 to 35 degrees with high humidity, and Valletta's limestone radiates. The grid streets have some shade in the mornings and none at midday. Sun protection here is not optional, and the low season is genuinely better for walking.

Wind

Malta is exposed and windy year round. The bastions, the ferry crossings and Comino are all breezier than the sheltered streets suggest, and a light windproof layer earns its place even in summer. Winter brings the northeasterly grigal, which can suspend the Gozo and Comino ferries.

Recommended Tours and Experiences

St John's Co-Cathedral at Opening

This is the reason to be up early in Valletta.

The exterior is austere, almost military, and gives no hint of what is inside. The interior is one of the great high baroque spaces in Europe: every surface carved, gilded and painted, the barrel vault covered with Mattia Preti's scenes from the life of St John, eight side chapels each belonging to one of the langues, the national divisions of the Order, competing with one another in magnificence. The floor is a continuous carpet of around 400 inlaid marble tombstones of knights, in coloured stone, with skeletons, coats of arms and memento mori.

The Caravaggio

In the Oratory hangs The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, painted in 1608, the largest canvas Caravaggio ever produced at about 3.7 by 5.2 meters and the only painting he ever signed. He signed it in the blood running from the Baptist's throat.

Caravaggio had fled Rome after killing a man and came to Malta, where he was admitted to the Order as a knight. Within months he was involved in another violent incident, imprisoned in Fort St Angelo, escaped, and was expelled from the Order in absentia as a "foul and rotten member". The painting stayed. Beside it hangs his Saint Jerome Writing.

It hangs in the room it was painted for, which almost no Caravaggio does, and the lighting is the daylight he composed for.

Why opening matters

The Oratory is a small room, cruise passengers arrive mid-morning in large groups, and at eleven you will see the painting over shoulders with a guide talking across it. At opening you can have it nearly to yourself for fifteen minutes, which is a completely different experience of a painting that rewards standing still.

Practicalities: closed to visitors on Sundays and during services, with a separate entrance from the parish one. Entry around 15 euros including an audio guide, which is genuinely good. Shoulders and knees covered, and no stiletto heels. Photography without flash is generally permitted in the cathedral and not in the Oratory, and that is enforced.

The Harbour Ferry to the Three Cities

Do not take a bus. The Valletta to Birgu ferry crosses the Grand Harbour in about ten minutes for a couple of euros, and it is the best two euros you will spend in Malta.

From the water you see what the city actually is: bastions rising sheer out of the harbour, Fort St Angelo opposite, the creeks full of boats, and the whole defensive system of the Knights laid out as it was designed to be seen. A bus goes around the head of the harbour and shows you none of it.

The ferry leaves from the Valletta Waterfront below the city, reached by the Barrakka Lift and a short walk down, and runs frequently through the day.

The Three Cities are Birgu, also called Vittoriosa, Bormla or Cospicua, and Isla or Senglea. These are older than Valletta and were where the Knights first settled, and they are where the Great Siege was actually fought. Birgu's lanes are quieter and more lived-in than Valletta's, with the Inquisitor's Palace, Fort St Angelo, and a marina of superyachts sitting incongruously beneath medieval walls. Senglea's Gardjola watchtower, carved with an eye and an ear, gives the best view back at Valletta.

What to wear: the same shoes, because Birgu is also steep, and a layer for the crossing, which is windy.

Mdina at Dusk

Mdina was Malta's capital before Valletta, a fortified hill town in the centre of the island, inhabited for 4,000 years and walled by the Arabs, who gave it its name. About 250 people still live inside the walls and cars are almost entirely excluded, which is why it is called the Silent City.

Go at dusk. Mdina receives a very large number of day visitors between ten and five, and it empties in the evening. After the coaches leave, the lanes are lit by lamps, the limestone goes gold and then blue, and the town becomes what its nickname claims: genuinely silent, with your own footsteps echoing off the walls. It is the single best hour on the island.

What to see: the Mdina Cathedral, with a floor of inlaid marble tombstones like the co-cathedral's and two Mattia Preti works; the bastion viewpoint looking across half of Malta to the sea; Palazzo Falson; and the lanes themselves, which are the point. Rabat, immediately outside the gate, has St Paul's Catacombs, an early Christian burial complex, and is where most of the local life is.

Practical notes: the last buses back to Valletta run reasonably late, and a taxi or Bolt is inexpensive if you miss one. Cathedral dress code applies. The lanes are uneven and dimly lit in the evening, which is part of the appeal and a reason for sensible shoes.

The Blue Lagoon on a Morning Ferry

Comino is a small island between Malta and Gozo with a permanent population in single figures, and the Blue Lagoon is a shallow channel between it and a rocky islet where the water is an improbable turquoise over white sand.

It is also, in July and August, one of the most crowded places in the Mediterranean, with thousands of day visitors, a wall of deckchairs and boats moored across the channel.

Take the first ferry of the day. From Ċirkewwa the crossing is about 25 minutes, and boats start early. Arriving before nine gives you an hour or two of the lagoon looking like the photographs, before the big tour boats from Sliema and Bugibba arrive around ten. Alternatively come in May, June, September or October, when it is warm enough to swim and a fraction as busy.

Practical notes: there is almost no shade and no real infrastructure beyond a few kiosks, so bring water, sunscreen and a hat. The rocks at the water's edge are sharp, which is what water shoes are for. Walk fifteen minutes to Santa Marija Bay or the Crystal Lagoon and the crowds vanish. Boat operators sell "Blue Lagoon trips" from several resorts that spend more time selling drinks than swimming, so the public ferry from Ċirkewwa is usually the better option.

The Valletta Packing List

Base layers

Two Roman Trail Women's Merino Wool Base Layers ($49-59) in long sleeve. The long sleeve is doing real work here: it satisfies the cathedral dress codes without carrying a separate shawl, protects you from sun on unshaded bastions and boats, and handles the swing between a 30-degree afternoon and a windy evening on the water. Merino also stays wearable through several days of Mediterranean heat and humidity.

Mid and outer layers

A Columbia Women's Fast Trek II Jacket ($65) for the winter, when Malta sits at 12 to 17 degrees and is damp and windy, and for evenings from October to April.

A Marmot Women's PreCip Eco Rain Jacket ($110), which matters less for rain, since Malta is dry, than as the windproof layer on the bastions, the harbour ferry and the Comino crossing, where it is always breezier than in the streets.

Footwear, which matters most

One properly comfortable flat walking shoe with grip. Valletta's stepped streets, Mdina's lanes and Birgu's slopes are worn limestone, which is slippery when polished. This is the most important item on the list.

And it must be flat if you are visiting St John's Co-Cathedral, where stiletto and narrow heels are prohibited to protect the marble tomb slabs and visitors are turned away.

ELETON Barefoot Hiking and Water Shoes ($23.99) for the Blue Lagoon and the rocky swimming entries, which are sharp everywhere in Malta, since the island has very little sand.

The Darn Tough Women's Hiker Micro Crew Merino Socks ($28), two pairs, for the step count.

Sun and sea

A Wide Brim Sun Hat Women UPF 50 ($25) with a chin strap, because Malta is windy and the bastions, Comino and the boat decks have no shade at all.

High-factor sunscreen, sunglasses, two swimsuits, a quick-dry towel, and a refillable bottle. Maltese tap water is desalinated, safe and unpleasant to drink, so most people buy or filter.

Covered clothing and organisation

A light scarf or a linen shirt that covers shoulders, which you will use at every church. Modest clothing generally in the towns, since beachwear away from the water reads badly in a Catholic country.

The Eagle Creek Pack-It Cube Set ($59), which on a short island trip keeps the beach half separate from the city half.

What Else to See, and When

The Upper Barrakka Gardens and the Saluting Battery, where a cannon is fired at noon and four o'clock, with the best view over the Grand Harbour. Free, and the Barrakka Lift up from the waterfront saves the climb.

The Grandmaster's Palace and the National Museum of Archaeology, the latter holding the finds from Malta's prehistoric temples including the Sleeping Lady from the Hypogeum.

The Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni, a subterranean prehistoric burial complex, is the most extraordinary site in Malta and admits only a handful of visitors a day in timed groups to protect the microclimate. Tickets sell out weeks ahead and must be booked well in advance. If you want to see it, book before anything else.

The megalithic temples at Ġgantija on Gozo, Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra on the south coast are among the oldest free-standing stone structures in the world, older than Stonehenge and the pyramids. Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra are on an exposed clifftop with no shade.

Gozo, a 25-minute ferry from Ċirkewwa, is greener, slower and more rural, with the citadel at Victoria, salt pans, and good diving and walking. Worth a night rather than a day.

Marsaxlokk, a fishing village in the southeast with the painted luzzu boats and a Sunday fish market.

Valletta in the evening is the pleasant surprise: the city empties of day visitors, Strait Street reopens as a bar quarter, and the whole place becomes relaxed and local.

What Not to Bring

Heels of any kind. Banned at the co-cathedral, unwise on limestone steps.

Beachwear for the churches or the towns.

A car, in Valletta. The city is tiny, largely pedestrianised, and parking is impossible.

An expectation of a quiet Blue Lagoon in August unless you take the first boat.

An unbooked Hypogeum plan. Weeks ahead or not at all.

Confidence in the tap water's taste. Safe, and heavily desalinated.

Essential Resources for Women in Valletta

Emergency numbers in Malta: 112 is the European emergency line covering police, ambulance and fire. 196 reaches the ambulance service directly and 199 the fire service.

Police: Malta has a Community and Tourism Police unit with a presence in Valletta, Sliema and St Julian's, and officers speak English as a matter of course, since it is an official language. Reports for insurance can be filed at any district police station.

Maritime emergencies: the Armed Forces of Malta operate search and rescue, reachable via 112. Ferries to Gozo and Comino are suspended in high winds, which is common in winter with the northeasterly grigal.

US consular services: the US Embassy in Malta is at Ta' Qali, near Attard, outside Valletta. Contact details, hours and the after-hours emergency number are at mt.usembassy.gov.

Hospitals: Mater Dei Hospital at Msida is the main public hospital with a 24-hour emergency department and is the largest in the country, and St James Hospital and Da Vinci Hospital are the private options. Gozo General Hospital serves Gozo, with serious cases transferred to Mater Dei, occasionally by helicopter. EU and UK visitors should carry a European Health Insurance Card or its UK equivalent, which covers public treatment; everyone else needs travel insurance, and it should cover diving if you intend to dive, since Malta is a major diving destination and many policies exclude it.

Official health authority: the Maltese Ministry for Health at deputyprimeminister.gov.mt.

Official tourism authority: visitmalta.com, the Malta Tourism Authority, which is where to book Hypogeum tickets and check ferry and site opening times.

US State Department travel advisory for Malta: current advisory level and detail.

UK FCDO travel advice for Malta: entry requirements, safety and health guidance.

Solo women safety assessment: Malta is one of the easiest and safest destinations in Europe for a woman travelling alone, and the fact that it is an English-speaking country with a strong rule of law makes it a particularly good choice for a first solo trip. Violent crime is very low, Valletta is small and busy in the evening, and buses and ferries are safe and straightforward. The genuine risks are physical: worn limestone steps, which are the leading cause of visitor injury here and are slippery when polished or wet, and swimming entries over sharp rock, since Malta has very little sand and the water is deep close in. There are few lifeguards outside the main sandy bays. Two other notes: St Julian's and Paceville form the island's nightlife district and have the usual late-night drinking behaviour, drink-spiking reports and pushy club promoters, which is worth knowing if you go out there rather than staying in Valletta, where the evening scene is calmer. And traffic is the other hazard, because Maltese driving is fast, roads are narrow, pavements are often absent, and they drive on the left, which catches out European visitors crossing the road.

Reading On

Valletta is the smallest capital in Europe with one of its greatest baroque interiors, and Malta is an unusually easy first solo destination. The Malta travel guide for women covers the islands as a whole, and the Malta packing list for women covers the wider country. Ninety kilometres north, the Sicily travel guide for women is the nearest neighbour and a natural pairing by ferry or a short flight, with the Italy travel guide for women beyond it. The Valletta travel guide for women goes deeper on the city, and the travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why one merino long sleeve covers a cathedral dress code, an exposed bastion and a windy ferry crossing, the merino wool base layer guide explains the fibre, and the full collection is at Roman Trail women's merino base layers.

If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.