Valletta is a fortress city built by warrior-monks, a grid of golden limestone packed onto a peninsula between two harbours.
Enclosed balconies in faded colours lean over streets that drop in stairways to the sea, and bastions ring the whole thing. The Knights of St John left baroque churches and a co-cathedral floored with the marble tombs of a city designed for siege.
It's tiny and dense, sun-bleached and history-soaked, the Mediterranean glittering at the end of every street.
Eat flaky pastizzi and slow-cooked rabbit, and try the bittersweet local soda Kinnie.
Round trip from Prague, any dates in October 2026.