Malta / The verdict

Is a food tour in Malta worth it?

Yes for a first Malta visit: three guided hours of pastizzi, ftira, fenek, Kinnie and local wine for about EUR 50 to 70, plus restaurant intel that pays off all week. Confident DIY eaters on tight budgets can assemble the same stops for less.

By The Real Traveler Experiences team. We earn a commission if you book through our links. It never changes a verdict.

Why this verdict

Yes, for a first visit to Malta. A Valletta food tour costs EUR 50 to 70 and spends about three hours walking you through the dishes that tourist menus tend to skip. Of 13 logged reports, 11 are positive and 2 mixed, with none negative. The tour reports agree on the format and the payoff: pastizzi, Maltese coffee, ftira, sweets such as imqaret, and Kinnie or Cisk, in enough quantity that one traveler called it filling enough to skip a meal. One video reviewer called the tasting format the fastest way to decode Maltese food, and a first-person tour report came away with a list of places to go back to.

The mixed reports explain why a guide helps and when you can do without one. One warns that the restaurants on Republic Street can be forgettable and overpriced, which is the gap a good tour fills. Another lists the same bakeries and snack bars that tours visit and treats the tour as orientation that confident eaters can replace by walking the route themselves. A street-food guide maps Valletta snacks under EUR 4, so the money argument is real: if you already know what hobz biz-zejt and qassatat are, you can eat the same circuit for far less.

The tour pays off early in a stay. Taken on day one or two, it works as breakfast and lunch plus a map of where to eat for the rest of the week. Taken on your last day, it is an expensive lunch.

Timing and tickets

Book direct with the operator. Do Eat Better runs its Valletta tour daily at 10:30 and Monday to Saturday at 18:00, from EUR 69.95, with groups of 2 to 12 meeting at the Upper Barrakka Fountain. Its tastings include pastizzi, a Maltese pasta dish at lunch or ravjul at dinner, bigilla with galletti, imqaret, and Maltese coffee, Cisk or Kinnie. Colour My Travel charges EUR 50 for three hours, meets at the New Parliament Building on Republic Street, and posts its dates on a calendar; it includes one drink at the final stop.

Check your diet before paying. Colour My Travel offers a vegetarian option if you email when booking but says it cannot cater for allergies or intolerances. Do Eat Better says alternatives depend on its partners and the season. Vegans and celiacs should ask first.

Skip a meal before you go, since the tastings add up to a full meal.

Getting to the start is easy on the bus. A single fare on day routes costs EUR 2 from 18 October 2026 to 12 June 2027 and EUR 2.50 in summer, paid on board, with free transfers for two hours.

If you prefer to go alone, reports point to ricotta pastizzi from a long-running pastizzeria and traditional dinners in Spinola Bay, and a street-food guide makes a ready-made route.