Safety
Walking these towns safely
Nothing on these routes is dangerous if you are paying attention. The trouble is that an audio guide is very good at taking your attention somewhere else, so this is worth two minutes before you set off.
Look up, not down
The narration is written so the phone can stay in your pocket. Everything you need to look at is described out loud. If you find yourself reading the screen while walking, put it away — that is the failure mode these tours are designed to avoid.
One earbud, not two
These are working streets. Cars come round blind corners in lanes barely wider than they are, and in Birgu and Senglea there are stretches with no pavement at all. Keep one ear on the traffic and walk facing it where there is nowhere else to walk.
Stop walking to cross
Pause the narration, cross, start it again. Nothing in it is urgent. The audio waits; a van does not.
The bastions have no railings
Long unguarded drops are normal on Maltese fortifications — at Bastion Square, on the Citadella ramparts and around the Senglea point. Do not sit on a parapet, and hold onto children.
Limestone is slippery
Centuries of feet have polished the paving to a shine, and it is genuinely treacherous in the wet. Flat shoes with some grip, and take the stepped streets slowly, particularly going down.
The sun is the real hazard
From May to September the middle of the day is punishing and there is far less shade than the photographs suggest. Water, a hat, and start early or go late — several of these routes have long stretches with no cover at all.
If a route looks wrong
Directions are written in good faith and conditions change: streets close, scaffolding goes up, stairs get wet, and a lane that was open last year is a building site this one. Use your own judgement. If the route looks unsafe or impassable, do not take it — skip to the next stop and pick the walk back up there. Nothing in the guide depends on having walked every metre of it.
Each tour page says what the ground is like before you commit to it: Valletta, Mdina, The Three Cities and Victoria & the Citadella.
In an emergency
The emergency number in Malta is 112, free from any phone, and it reaches police, ambulance and fire. It works with no credit and, on most phones, with no signal from your own network.
You are responsible for your own safety and for anyone with you. The terms say the same thing in fewer words and more of them.