It rains here between October and March, rarely for long, and hardly ever in summer. When it does come it comes hard and it is usually over within the hour. The real indoor season is a July afternoon, when you want to be inside for a completely different reason.
Good places to sit it out
St John’s Co-Cathedral
All indoors, and the Caravaggio in the side oratory is worth an afternoon by itself. It is the biggest painting he ever made and the only one he signed.
Any parish church works at short notice too. They are everywhere, they are free, and most of them are far grander than they have any right to be.
Museums and historic sitesBuy entry tickets
Head underground to the war rooms
The Lascaris War Rooms and the Malta at War Museum are both dug into the rock, so the weather makes no difference at all. The Hypogeum is underground too, but you need to book that months ahead, not on the day.
The National Museum of Archaeology is small, it is central, and it makes far more sense of everything else you will see here.
Temples and prehistory
Sit down and have a long lunch
This is not a fallback plan. When the weather turns, people here wait out the rain over a three-hour lunch in a village restaurant.
Nobody will rush you or ask you to move on. The rain will have stopped before your coffee arrives.
Where and what to eat
Stay dry at the covered market
Is-Suq tal-Belt is a restored Victorian market hall in the middle of Valletta, full of food stalls and open late. It is a proper hour out of the rain rather than somewhere to kill time.
With children, the National Aquarium at Qawra is the safe bet, and it is just as weatherproof.
Markets worth planning a day around
Maltese drains cannot cope with sudden heavy rain and roads flood fast, especially low junctions and valley roads. Driving in a downpour is worse than it looks and the buses crawl. Wait an hour and it usually sorts itself out.