Malta Film Location Tours 2026/2027

The Mediterranean

Malta on screen

Malta is about 17 miles long, but film crews have been coming here for more than half a century. The reasons are simple: honey-colored stone forts and walled towns that can pass for almost any old Mediterranean city, sea light all year, and water tanks at the old Mediterranean Film Studios in Kalkara built for shooting at sea. Midnight Express turned Fort St Elmo into a Turkish prison in 1978. Robert Altman built a whole fishing village for Popeye in 1980, and it is still standing. Ridley Scott raised part of a Colosseum inside Fort Ricasoli for Gladiator (2000), and the same fort became the city of Troy four years later. In 2010 the first season of Game of Thrones used Mdina's gate as the entrance to King's Landing and Gozo's coast for the Dothraki wedding.

Our Malta tour stays four nights in Valletta and covers the main island and a day on Gozo by ferry. Clayton Farrugia, a licensed Maltese guide who lives in Sliema, leads every departure. He is straight about what you can and cannot see: Fort Ricasoli is closed to the public, so we see it from the water, and the Azure Window, the rock arch behind the Dothraki wedding, fell into the sea in 2017.

The filming locations below, on the map.Map: Esri, OpenStreetMap contributors

Filming locations

Where Malta and Gozo have played other worlds

The baroque Main Gate of Mdina lit at dusk at the end of its stone bridge

01

Mdina and the Main Gate

Mdina is the old walled capital of Malta, on a ridge in the middle of the island, and it is so quiet that people call it the Silent City. Only residents may drive inside. You enter over a stone bridge across the dry moat and through the baroque Main Gate, built in 1724. In the first season of Game of Thrones this gate was the entrance to King's Landing, where Catelyn Stark rides into the capital, and the small squares and narrow streets behind it were used for several street scenes. Mdina is open at all hours and free to walk. We come in the morning, before the tour buses, and finish in Rabat next door, where the St Paul's Catacombs are worth an hour.

The 1724 Main Gate, King's Landing in season 1
The quiet lanes of the Silent City
The view from the bastion walls across Malta

Best time: Early morning, any month
Good for: TV series
Small towns

Tours that visit Mdina and the Main Gate

Malta: Gladiator, Popeye and Game of Thrones5 days, from $2,290

The star-shaped Fort St Elmo at the tip of Valletta, with Marsamxett Harbour behind

02

Valletta and Fort St Elmo

Valletta is the capital, built by the Knights of St John after the Great Siege of 1565 on a grid of steep, stepped streets. At its tip stands Fort St Elmo, the star-shaped fort that held out for a month in the siege. In 1978 it became the Turkish prison of Midnight Express, after the production was refused permission to film in Istanbul, and the crew of World War Z (2013) used the fort and nearby streets as Jerusalem. Today the fort houses the National War Museum, open daily, and you can walk its walls and parade grounds. Up the hill, the Upper Barrakka Gardens look down on the Grand Harbour, where a cannon of the Saluting Battery is fired at noon.

Fort St Elmo, the prison of Midnight Express
The streets that played Jerusalem in World War Z
The noon gun at the Upper Barrakka Gardens

Best time: Mornings, all year; noon for the Saluting Battery
Good for: Screen classics
Big city

Tours that visit Valletta and Fort St Elmo

Malta: Gladiator, Popeye and Game of Thrones5 days, from $2,290

The honey-colored bastions of Fort Ricasoli rising from the sea at the Grand Harbour mouth

03

Fort Ricasoli, Kalkara

Fort Ricasoli guards the eastern side of the mouth of the Grand Harbour, facing Fort St Elmo across the water. The Knights started it in 1670, and it is one of the largest forts in Malta. Most of it has been leased for film work, and it holds two famous sets in its history: part of the Colosseum built for Gladiator (2000), where Russell Crowe fought, and the walls of the city in Troy (2004). We want to be clear: the fort is closed to the public, much of it is in poor repair, and nobody can sell you a visit. You can see it well from the Valletta side of the harbor and from the water, so our harbor cruise passes right under its walls.

Gladiator's Colosseum set was built inside
The walls of the city in Troy
Seen from the water on our harbor cruise

Best time: From the water, morning or late afternoon
Good for: Screen classics

Tours that visit Fort Ricasoli, Kalkara

Malta: Gladiator, Popeye and Game of Thrones5 days, from $2,290

The colorful wooden Popeye Village film set across the turquoise water of Anchor Bay, Malta

04

Popeye Village, Anchor Bay

In 1979 the crew of Robert Altman's Popeye spent months building Sweethaven, a crooked wooden fishing village, on the rocks of Anchor Bay in the northwest of Malta. Robin Williams played Popeye and Shelley Duvall played Olive Oyl, and the film came out in 1980. The production left the set behind, and it has been open to visitors ever since as Popeye Village: about twenty wooden houses with sagging roofs, a small film museum and a little cinema, with boat rides in the bay in summer. It is open daily all year, and it is unashamedly made for families. The best view is free, from the road above the bay on the north side, where we stop first.

Sweethaven, the 1980 film set still standing
The view over Anchor Bay from the cliff road
The small film museum inside

Best time: Afternoon light, March to June and September to November
Good for: Screen classics
Studio tours

Tours that visit Popeye Village, Anchor Bay

Malta: Gladiator, Popeye and Game of Thrones5 days, from $2,290

Fungus Rock and the limestone shore of Dwejra Bay on Gozo

05

Dwejra Bay, Gozo

Dwejra is on the west coast of Gozo, Malta's smaller and greener sister island. Until March 2017 a huge limestone arch called the Azure Window stood here, and in the first episode of Game of Thrones it rose behind the Dothraki wedding of Daenerys and Khal Drogo. A storm brought the arch down into the sea in 2017, and it is gone for good. What remains is still worth the trip: Fungus Rock standing off the shore, the flat fossil-studded limestone where the wedding was shot, and the Inland Sea, a lagoon linked to the open water by a tunnel in the cliff, where small boats take you out to the arch's old site. On the way back we stop at Mġarr ix-Xini, the narrow inlet where By the Sea (2015) was filmed.

The shore of the Dothraki wedding, without the arch
A boat through the Inland Sea tunnel
Mġarr ix-Xini, the inlet from By the Sea

Best time: May, June, September and October; calm days for the boat
Good for: Islands
TV series

Tours that visit Dwejra Bay, Gozo

Malta: Gladiator, Popeye and Game of Thrones5 days, from $2,290

Malta film location tours for 2026 and 2027

Price per person sharing a double room; day tours per person. Flights to the start city are not included.

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Malta: Gladiator, Popeye and Game of Thrones

5 daysValletta to GozoMax 14

Next departure Nov 8, 2026

Screen classics
TV series
Islands

from $2,290per person, sharing

View tour: Malta film tour

Getting around

How our tours get around Malta

01

A van and driver on Malta

Distances are short but the roads are slow and narrow, and Malta drives on the left. A professional driver takes us between Valletta, Mdina and Anchor Bay in a Mercedes Sprinter; the longest drive is about 45 minutes.

02

The ferry to Gozo

The Gozo Channel ferry leaves Ċirkewwa, at the north tip of Malta, about every 45 minutes and takes 25 minutes. Our van and driver come across with us, so the Gozo day is one easy loop.

03

A boat around the harbors

One afternoon we take a harbor cruise from Sliema around the Grand Harbour and Marsamxett Harbour. It is the only good way to see Fort Ricasoli and the forts of the Three Cities up close.

04

Walking in Valletta and Mdina

Both towns are compact and best on foot. Valletta's streets are steep and stepped toward the water, so expect some climbing, with cafes for breaks.

What is included

What our Malta tours include

In Malta

A harbor cruise past Fort Ricasoli and the Three Cities
Entry to Popeye Village
Entry to Fort St Elmo and the National War Museum
The Gozo ferry, with a boat ride at Dwejra when the sea allows
Clayton Farrugia, our Malta tour leader, on every day of the tour
A central 4-star hotel in Valletta for all four nights

On every tour

Central hotels with daily breakfast on trips of two days or more
A named Scenes Found tour leader with the group from the first day to the last
Airport transfers on the first and last day of the tour
Hotel taxes, parking, park entry and local guide fees
Our 24/7 line while you travel, in every time zone

Not included: flights to the start city and home, meals not listed, drinks, tips and travel insurance. Each tour page lists exactly what is in the price.

Best time to go

Best time to visit Malta

Malta is warm enough to visit all year. March to May and September to November are the best months for a film tour: 65 to 78 F by day, a sea warm enough to swim from June to October, and fewer people at Popeye Village and Mdina. July and August are hot and humid, often 88 to 92 F, and the islands are full of summer visitors. Winter is mild, 58 to 64 F, with some rain and wind between November and February; on the roughest days the Dwejra boats do not go out and the Gozo ferry can be delayed, but the forts and towns are pleasantly empty.

Jan: good months
Feb: good months
Mar: best months
Apr: best months
May: best months
Jun: good months
Jul: good months
Aug: good months
Sep: best months
Oct: best months
Nov: best months
Dec: good months

Best monthsGood monthsNo departures

Practical

Malta at a glance

Best months: Mar to May, Sep to Nov
Airport: Malta International Airport (MLA) at Luqa, about 5 miles from Valletta, 20 minutes by road. There are no nonstop flights from the US; most travelers connect in London, Rome, Frankfurt or Istanbul.
Getting around: Our van and driver on Malta and Gozo, the Gozo Channel ferry, a harbor cruise and walking in Valletta and Mdina
Time zone: Central European Time, 6 hours ahead of New York
Weather: Mild and sunny: 58 to 64 F in winter, 65 to 78 F in spring and fall, near 90 F in July and August
Filming today: Film crews work in Malta all year, from period dramas to big studio films, and the old Mediterranean Film Studios in Kalkara has large water tanks. A closed street in Valletta or Mdina usually means a shoot.
Location etiquette: Churches expect covered shoulders and knees, and Mdina asks visitors to keep noise down, as people live there. Swimwear belongs on the beach, not in town.
Book ahead: We buy entry to Fort St Elmo, Popeye Village and the harbor cruise. Fort Ricasoli is closed to the public and no tour can take you inside.
Tipping: Around 5 to 10 percent in restaurants if service is not included; tips for your tour leader and driver are at your discretion
Entry rules and plugs: Malta is in the Schengen area and uses the euro. US citizens need a passport valid at least 3 months beyond the day you leave the Schengen area; no visa for stays up to 90 days. The EU is introducing ETIAS, an online travel authorization; we tell booked travelers when it becomes required. English is an official language, and sockets are the British three-pin type.

FAQ

Malta tour FAQs

More on the FAQ page, or call +1 (323) 641-2870.

Can we go inside Fort Ricasoli, where Gladiator was filmed?

No. The fort is closed to the public and used for film work, and much of it is in poor repair. Anyone who sells you a visit is not telling the truth. We see it from the water on our harbor cruise and from the Valletta side, which is the best view anyway.

Is the Azure Window still there?

No. The arch collapsed into the sea in a storm in March 2017. We still go to Dwejra, where the Dothraki wedding was filmed, because the shore, Fungus Rock and the Inland Sea are still there, and Clayton shows you stills of where the arch stood.

Is Popeye Village worth it for adults?

If you remember the film, yes. It is an original 1980 set that was never taken down, and the view of it from the cliff above Anchor Bay is one of the best in Malta. Inside it is cheerful and made for families, so we keep the visit to about 90 minutes.

Do people speak English in Malta?

Yes. English is an official language alongside Maltese, road signs are in both, and you will have no trouble anywhere on the islands.

Why stay in Valletta and not Sliema or St Julian's?

Valletta puts you inside the film sets: Fort St Elmo, the Upper Barrakka Gardens and the harbor are a walk from the hotel, and the city is quiet at night once day visitors leave. Sliema is a 10-minute ferry ride across the water.

What was filmed at the Mediterranean Film Studios?

Sea scenes for many films, among them Raise the Titanic (1980), were shot in its large water tanks in Kalkara, next to Fort Ricasoli. It is not open to visitors, so it is not on our program.

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