Mdina Transportation

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Lots of horse-carriages are waiting at Howard Garden ( that is the park in front of Mdina-gate, where all the tourbuses will drop their passangers). A ride in such a carriage might make sense for elderly or handicapped people, but for ordinary tourists it is certainly the best to walk these short distances, because Mdina is really just quite a small town with only a few steets to walk through, and you might miss a lot of the fine details in architecture, lovely door-knockers etc. when you rush through Mdina in a carriage.

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To Mdina take Bus 80 or 81 from Valetta
or bus 65 from Sliema!Although these vintage-buses of Malta might seem to be unreliable at a first glace, their system is really quite perfect all over Malta and riding these buses is also great fun !
Mostly the buses dont have a door at all, or the door is fixed to stand open and it is not unusual to see people jumping in or out while the bus is stoping at a traficlight.
You can use a button to tell the driver that you want to get out at the next official stop and in some of the older buses you have a string to pull and that string rings a bell for the driver, thats funny.
Mostly you pay just 47 cents for a single ride p.p. and some drivers charge extra for your luggage, some dont, and in any case you have to take your luggage inside the bus yourself. Even in the airportbus you have to take your luggage into the bus, place it on the seats or what-ever !

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To Mdina & Rabat by the Hop-on & off-bus is one of the possibilities to get there. Buses are going each 30 min and for the full day you pay 15 euros. I took the very first bus, spent some time in the park of the presdident, 1 hour in the Aviation-museum,30 min in Mosta and 1,5 hour in Mdina, that was the maximum I could do in a single day. All the other places of the tour I stayed onboard and got back by the last bus in the evening.
The seats on the lower floor of the bus are simply too hot, the ones on top are great, but sometimes you are hit by branches of trees and you need a cap that will not fly away in the winds.

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The fortified city of Mdina can easily be explored on foot, especially as it is closed for traffic anyway.

Just a few cars of local residents as well as emergency vehicles are allowed within Mdina. Only about 250 people live within the city walls.

Many of the cobbled alleys aren't accessible to cars as they are too narrow.

Also Mdina is rather small, so that you can go from the southern to the northern end or from the western to the eastern end within about 15 Minutes.

It is easy to get to Mdina from Valletta on the public bus. 20 minutes and €0.47.

Ask the driver to let you off as you arrive there, before he heads into Rabat. On the way back, the buses stop close to the main gate.

Services 65, 80, 81, 84 & 86 will take you. Drivers are all helpful. Try to have €0.50 or €1 for him, and not a €50 note (or he may be less happy).

New to 2008 has been the introduction of a small "train" to take you round the outskirts of Mdina. I did not see it at all through the city gates, but caught it on camera as I was waiting for the bus to go back to Sliema. Therefore I cannot give you any more information at this stage. When I do, I will update this tip.

In my opinion the best way to get to know Mdina is to walk through it's narow streets and sniff the old ancient air of the town. For those who hate to walk there is this guided Carriage tour through the town, not cheap, but a nice experience. Total tourtime stops included 1,5 hrs. the driver told me!

Anyway I prefer to walk!

The bus route 80 and 81 goes from Valetta to Mdina. However we took a so-called "direct bus" as we've been in Mosta before. This direct bus is route 86 and goes from Buggiba via Mosta to Mdina. It stops directly in front of the main gate, so that you cannot miss it!