Tipping in Malta is normal but modest. Nobody here depends on tips the way waiting staff do in the United States, and nobody will chase you down the street over it.
The short version: 10% in a restaurant, coins in a bar, a rounded-up fare in a taxi.
Restaurants
10% for good service. Round up to a sensible number rather than working it out to the cent.
Check the bill first. Some places add a service charge of 10% automatically, and a second tip on top of that is not expected.
The charge is usually printed at the bottom of the menu as well as on the bill. Tourist-area restaurants in Valletta, Sliema and St Julian’s add it more often than village places do.
Bars and cafés
Leave the coins from your change. For a coffee at the counter, nothing at all is normal.
Village bars are the least formal of all. A €2 beer and a €1.50 coffee are ordinary prices, and nobody is counting.
Taxis and transfers
Round the fare up to the nearest euro or two. Nothing more is expected.
Ride-hailing app fares are fixed before you get in and the app handles any tip, so you do not need cash. A driver who helps with heavy bags at the airport is worth €2 to €5.
Guides and boat crews
€5 a head at the end of a half-day trip is usual and appreciated. On a small boat, hand it to the skipper for the crew rather than to one person.
Walking tours in Valletta and Mdina follow the same rule. Free walking tours are the exception, since the tip is the fee.
Where you do not tip
- Buses. Fares are fixed and the driver takes no tips.
- Museums and Heritage Malta sites. Not the custom.
- Pastizzerijas and takeaways. You pay at the counter and leave.
- Petrol stations. Attendants are paid staff.
Carry some cash
Cards work almost everywhere now. A tip added to a card payment does not always reach the person who served you.
Small notes and coins are worth carrying for exactly this. Some village bars and the smaller Marsaxlokk food stalls are still cash only.
