What Is The Malta Experience?
The Malta Experience takes you on a 45-minute audio-visual journey through Malta’s 7000-year history. It takes place in a purpose built, air-conditioned auditorium- a perfect way to escape the summer heat. The show is offered in 17 different languages, so once you’re seated in the theatre, pop on your headphones and choose your language. Setting your language is even easy for someone as technologically challenged as me. Have to admit, we did wonder if the history changed a little, if you were maybe French or German 🙂
It’s a great place to visit at the start of your trip to Malta as it will definitely give you a better understanding of the country and some of the historical sites you’ll be visiting.
The first couple of minutes and the last couple of minutes were a bit schmaltzy, but the rest of the show was actually quite fascinating. Great cinematography and the 45 minutes passed very quickly.
When you leave the theatre -surprise, surprise, you pass through a shop, but there were some excellent value Maltese souvenirs and a collection of books about Malta.
La Sacra Infermeria
Following the show, and included in the price of your ticket, is a tour of La Sacra Infermeria which is now part of the Mediterranean Conference Centre.
The Sacra Infermeria was built in 1574 and at the time was the most revolutionary hospital in Europe. Many groundbreaking treatments were invented here, such as serving food on silver plates to prevent bacteria from spreading and using honey to treat wounds. According to our guide, if they needed ever to amputate, rather than use a saw, limbs were swiftly removed with a guillotine. Remember there was no anaesthetic in those days- ouch!!
The tour takes around 25 minutes, and the guide was very interesting.
If you wanted to learn more about the hospital, there’s also a small private museum within the Conference Centre that’s not connected to the Malta Experience, although they will offer you a discount to enter. It is usually €5,50 to visit or with the discount, just €3. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to go inside. Maybe next time. If you go there, please tell us what it’s like in the comments below.
See also:
- Our Valletta Malta Travel Guide
- Inquisitor’s Palace Malta
- How To Visit the Hagar Qim and Mnajdra Temples in Malta
- Senglea – One Of The Three Cities of Malta
How Do I Get To The Malta Experience?
- The Malta Experience is located in the St. Elmo Bastions in
Valletta. - Buses from all over Malta stop at the Valletta City Gate and from there, it’s just a 15 minutes walk. Follow the signs.
- Coming by car, go via Barriera street. Remember though; parking is a bit of a nightmare in Valletta.
- Coming from Sliema or The Three Cities, we’d recommend taking the ferry.
How Much Does It Cost To See The Malta Experience?
- Adult €16
- Children (5-11 years old) €6
- Children (0-4 years old) Free
The price of the ticket includes The Malta Experience Show and the Sacra Infermeria Tour.
Top Tip – We bought our tickets on through Deal Today in Malta and got a Malta Experience discount, and the cost of the ticket was only €9 per person. This site is also handy for finding deals on other tours, boat trips and spas. By the way, we are not affiliated with this site at all; we just like finding deals.
What Time Is The Maltese Experience Show?
- Monday to Friday:
Shows take place on the hour at 11:00 – 12:00 – 13:00 – 14:00 – 15:00 – 16.00.
There’s an extra showing at 10:00 in the month of June. - Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays:
11:00 – 12:00 – 13:00 -14:00*
*Note that there’s no 14:00 show on Sundays from July to September. - The Ticket Booth opens daily at 10:30 hrs (except in June, see above).
- The Malta Experience is closed Christmas Day, Easter Day and New Year’s Day.
Is The Malta Experience Worth It?
Yes, we both enjoyed it more than we thought we would. For those coming to Malta to see Valletta and some of the island’s many historical sights, we really recommend seeing the show. It will definitely give you a better understanding of what makes Malta so unique.
Nice! This was one of the first things I did when I was in Malta. Very much worth it.
We enjoyed popping into this when we were staying in Valletta – it’s good that young kids are free as my nephew didn’t want to stay still for long and wiggled away!
I’m sold on the Malta experience! It’s still a country I haven’t yet seen, which is super frustrating, as we’re in Sicily every summer! I’ll definitely be doing this when I finally make it there.
Malta is somewhere I always wanted to go! Thanks for sharing this! definitely doing this.
To start any trip knowing it’s history is a great way to kickoff any trip. Malta has been on my list for a long time. Guess will be taking this your when I visit. Thanks for sharing this post!!
An amazing show with a lot history, it is really something we all should know in detail. Thank you so much for sharing it.
I was in Malta last year but unfortunately I didn’t do this. Even though I’m a big history fan!!!
What a fun way to get a summary of Malta’s 7000 year history. Certainly a great spot to start a visit to Malta. Interesting that the show includes a tour of the Sacra Infermeria. Thanks for the tip about buying tickets online in advance.
This is so cool! 😀
As I have said before, I love the history of St John, so I would love to do this 😀