Hotel checkout is at ten and the flight is at nine in the evening. That gap is the most common reason people look for luggage storage in Malta. It is easy to solve.
There are other reasons too. You may want a day in Gozo without bags on the ferry. You may have a few hours ashore from a cruise, or need somewhere to leave bags before your room is ready. All four have the same answer.
Where to put a bag
Your hotel will almost certainly hold it
Every hotel and most guesthouses here will keep bags after checkout, usually free and usually until the end of the day. It is the obvious answer and it is the one people forget to ask for.
It does tie your last afternoon to the place you have just left. That is fine in Sliema and awkward if you are spending the day elsewhere.
Where to stay
A storage point near where the day starts
Networks of shops, cafes and hotels take bags by the day. You book on your phone before you arrive, so you are not carrying a suitcase around Valletta looking for somewhere.
Prices in Malta start around four euro a day for a bag, with a small booking fee that carries the insurance. Choose a point near where you are ending the day rather than where you are starting it.
VallettaFind a storage point
Only worth it on the way out
Storing a bag at the airport does not help if you are spending the day in Valletta or Mdina. You have to travel back to the airport to collect it and then travel in again.
It makes sense in one case: a long layover where you never intend to leave Luqa for more than a few hours.
The airport guide
Booking a storage point
Radical Storage is the network with the widest coverage on the islands. Bags go into shops, bars and hotel back rooms that have signed up. You book the slot on your phone, turn up and hand the bag over. Prices start at €3.90 a bag a day, with a €1.99 booking fee that carries a €3,000 guarantee. The size of the bag makes no difference.
Book it the night before rather than on the morning. Points near the ferries and the Valletta bus terminus fill first in summer, which are exactly the ones worth having.
Worth knowing before you book
- Store the bag where the day finishes
- Store the bag where the day finishes. A point beside the airport bus is worth more than one beside your old hotel.
- Opening hours
- These are shops and bars, so they close. Check the collection window against your flight, not against your plans.
- Take out what you need first
- Passport, medication, chargers and a swimming costume. Reopening a stored bag is not always convenient.
- Sunday
- Much of Malta shuts on a Sunday and on public holidays. Confirm the point is open on the actual day.
- The ferry
- Bags are allowed on the Gozo and harbour ferries, but a suitcase on a crowded summer crossing is its own punishment.
- One bag or several
- Pricing is per bag, so a family of four with four cases pays four times. Consolidating before you go is worth a few minutes.
If your flight was delayed or cancelled, you may also be owed money. See flight delay compensation.