Costs

ℹ️ Short answer: A realistic 2026 Malta budget per person per day, before flights: €55–80 backpacker, €120–180 mid-range, €250–450 splurge. A 7-day mid-range couple’s trip lands around €1,400–2,000 all-in (excluding flights). Summer (Jul–Aug) adds 30–60% to hotel rates; winter (Nov–Feb) drops them by half. Eating local pastizzi-and-ftira costs a third of hotel-restaurant prices and is genuinely better. Malta is cheaper than it looks if you eat where Maltese people eat, take the bus until the bus stops making sense, and don’t book a hotel on the Sliema seafront in August. It’s more expensive than you’d think if you do the standard “stay on the waterfront, eat at the restaurants with English menus, taxi everywhere” approach — at which point Malta in summer can quietly hit €300+ per person per day.