Malta tour buses not enough time.
Booked 2 tours on 25th June 2025 for 2 people = €100 with this company's rep in Bugibba Malta office.
North island tour on 27th June 2025 picked up outside our Topaz hotel in Bugibba. Tour started in Sliema. Visited Valletta, Ta' Cali crafts centre and Mdina. Spent an hour in Valleti. Ta'Cali was just some shops and nothing like it sounded so we got back on the bus. Mdina was nice but only a short stay again because of tour bus pickup times. It would have been impossible to stop at any of the listed places for any reasonable time as their wasn't enough time. Bus took us back to Topaz hotel.
South island tour Sunday 29th June 2025. We were advised by the maltasightseeing rep to do this tour on a Sunday as that was the day the market was open in the fishing village of Marsaxlokk. Picked up at our hotel Topaz in Bugibba by tour bus and again, tour started in Sliema. Managed a 2 hour stay in Valletta this time and next stop Marsaxlokk where we stayed an hour. As we only got there at 1.30pm, the market stalls were packing up ready to leave. We chose the 2.30pm bus back as didn't want to chance the last one as 3.30pm was the last bus. This took us back to Sliema and no other stops and visits could be made. We were abandoned in Sliema and told to come back in an hour when we would be taken back to our hotel by a Supreme travel bus.
We told the driver we were going to the Topaz hotel twice and were the last ones on board apart from a couple at the back. We mentioned again our stop was Topaz. The driver drove past our turn off and onto a duel carriageway away from Bugibba. I approached him and he said he'd forgotten so he had to travel for miles before U-Turning and taking us back.
In summary. My advise, if you want to spend time in more of these places then leave this tour alone. It's fine if you want to stay on the bus and learn the history of the island but there's just not enough time to get around and see, on foot, more than a couple of places and the market in Marsaxlokk, as it's only on Sundays and starts to pack up at 1.30pm, makes this tour a waste of time.
There are plenty of regular buses to use and car hire would give you the opportunity to spend more time at the places of your choice.
The bus time table shows plenty of pick up times which look good but remember, you have to spend time traveling during these which greatly reduces your time spent at the actual place so your hop off choices are limited.