Mdina & Rabat Audio Tour

Starts at

The main gate of Mdina, across the bridge over the ditch. Bus stops and the car parks are on the Rabat side of it, a couple of minutes’ walk away.

Finishes at

St Agatha’s crypt and catacombs in Rabat, outside the walls, a few minutes from where the buses leave. The route crosses out of Mdina and does not come back, so there is no walk to retrace.

Getting there

Buses from Valletta and from most of the north of the island stop at Rabat, a short level walk from the bridge. Cars are not allowed inside Mdina; the car parks are in Rabat, and the walk in is part of the point.

Underfoot

Flat inside the walls, on limestone paving polished by four hundred years of use — the surface is genuinely slippery when wet, which on Malta means the winter. Bastion Square and the Greeks Gate involve a few steps. The catacombs at the end are underground: steep, narrow steps and low headroom.

Accessibility

Mdina is small and level and much of this walk can be done on wheels, which is unusual for a walled town. The Greeks Gate and parts of the bastions have steps and cannot. St Paul’s Catacombs are underground and are not accessible; the stop above ground still works without going down.

Best time

Early morning or after six in the evening. Between about ten and four Mdina belongs to coach groups, and the streets it is famous for being silent in are not. In the evening the whole town lights by lamp and there is nobody in it.

• People live in Mdina — around three hundred of them. Voices carry a very long way between these walls, particularly at night.
• Almost no shade in Bastion Square or on the bastions, and no shops inside the walls to speak of. Bring water.
• Cafés, toilets and the bus stops are all on the Rabat side of the gate rather than inside.

None of these are included in the price of the guide, and none of them are needed to do the walk — every stop is written and narrated from where you stand in the street. This is simply what charges admission if you decide to go in.

• St Paul’s Cathedral and the Cathedral Museum opposite charge admission on one combined ticket.
• Palazzo Falson charges admission.
• The Domus Romana charges admission.
• St Paul’s Catacombs charge admission and are run as a heritage site with its own opening hours.
• The Carmelite Priory museum, Casa Bernard and St Agatha’s crypt and catacombs each charge admission; Casa Bernard and the crypt are seen on guided tours at set times.

Deliberately no prices and no opening hours here. Both change, a page that lists them is wrong within a season, and being wrong about money while you are standing at a ticket desk is worse than saying nothing. Check the site’s own page on the day. Practical notes on this tour last gone over in September 2026.

One story, followed across the stops that carry it. Open the walk filtered to a thread and the map keeps only those stops.

• The Great Siege of 1565 · 2 stops hereWalk this thread
• Malta at War, 1940–1943 · 1 stops hereWalk this thread
• Caravaggio, Preti and the Knights’ Painters · 1 stops hereWalk this thread
• The Knights of St John · 4 stops hereWalk this thread