Prehistoric Temples and Highlights of the South Full-Day Tour
Description
This tour is ideal for those guests who want to visit Malta’s southern region and experience some of its most interesting highlights in just one day, carefully designed to make your day a truly memorable one.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Located in the traditional Maltese village of Siġġiewi, The Limestone Heritage Park & Gardens is a unique and innovative attraction which highlights the beauty of the Maltese stone and its incredible 22 million years of history, relish the opportunity to immerse yourselves in the islands’ eclectic history, through an engaging audio-visual presentation and a very informative audio guided walk-through, this attraction offers an immense insight into the islands’ compelling history and broad culture.
From here we will proceed to visit the megalithic temples complex of Ħaġar Qim, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992, the complex is located on the southern edge of the island on a hilltop overlooking the sea and the islet of Filfa, these temples are amongst the most ancient religious sites on Earth and are described by the World Heritage Sites committee as “unique architectural masterpieces”, dating back to c. 3600-3200 BC they are over 5000 years old, pre-dating the pyramids of Egypt by approximately 1000 years! The site consists of a central building and the remains of at least two more structures. The large forecourt and the monumental façade of the central structure follow the pattern typical of Maltese Prehistoric Temples. Along the external wall, one may find some of the largest megaliths used in the building of these structures, such as a 5.2 meters high stone and a huge megalith estimated to weigh close to 20 tonnes.
Our next stop is Żurrieq Valley where we will visit the magnificent Blue Grotto and appreciate the fantastic scenery and breath-taking views surrounding the entire site. The Blue Grotto is a complex of seven caves found along the southern coast of the island, this complex comprises of a massive and very impressive main arch, which is approximately 30 meters in height, as well as a system of 6 other caves, amongst which you will find the Honeymoon Cave, the Cat’s Cave, and the beautiful Reflection Cave. Featured in numerous movies shot in Malta, owing to its natural beauty, enchanting structure, and perfect location, such as Cutthroat Island (1995), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) & Troy (2004), this extremely popular site attracts many visitors each year, with many opting to see the amazing grotto up-close, weather permitting you will also have the time and opportunity to visit the grotto and caves by taking one of the boat trips (boat trip is not included in the price).
Our next stop is at the picturesque fishing village of Marsaxlokk. The village is the largest fishing harbour in Malta, and has been so since antiquity, today the greater part of fish sold on the islands are caught by fishermen coming from this village. Traditional “luzzu’s” (brightly coloured traditional fishing boats) and larger fishing vessels line the sheltered harbour in a colourful display that has been the subject of countless photoshoots.
Marsaxlokk is also popular for its many delightful restaurants and nice cafés huddled along its entire promenade and for it’s charming and large open-air market, selling a vast assortment of food and a wide array of durable goods, such as fish, locally produced honey and fruit jams, traditional sweets and other delicacies, local wines and liquors, souvenirs, clothes, shoes, traditional lacework and crafts, custom jewellery, accessories and many more.
We end our tour with a visit to Għar Dalam Cave; Malta’s oldest prehistoric site, dating back to c. 5200 BC, Għar Dalam (meaning Cave of Darkness) is a 144-metre-long phreatic tube and cave, or cul-de-sac, located in the outskirts of the village of Birżebbuġa. The cave contains the bone remains of animals that were stranded and subsequently became extinct in Malta at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, such as the dwarf elephant, hippopotamus, giant swan, deer, and bear, which have not lived on the Maltese islands for thousands of years. It is also here that the earliest evidence of human settlement in Malta, some 7,400 years ago, was discovered. Due to its paleontological and archaeological significance this site is viewed as one of Malta's most important national monuments.
A lunch (fixed menu) with a glass of wine is included during one of our stops.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
9:45 AM is the approximate start time of the activity and not the time when you will be picked up from your hotel (or closest meeting point). At least a few days before the date of your activity, you need to make sure to contact the tour operator to confirm your pick-up location and pick-up time. Your pick-up time can be any time between 8:30 AM and 9:15 AM, depending on where you are staying. If your pick-up location is a hotel, please wait outside near the main entrance. Do not wait in the lobby or inside the hotel. When the guide or driver arrives, they will have a list of names and will ask those waiting outside for identification. They will not enter the hotel to look for guests. Transportation will not wait for late arrivals. If you miss your morning pick-up, you will not be able to join the tour later. Once the tour has started, it cannot be interrupted to accommodate latecomers.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- The time shown on the website or on your ticket is the approximate start time of the activity and not the time when you will be picked up from your hotel (or closest meeting point). At least a few days before the date of your activity, you need to make sure to contact the tour operator to confirm your pick-up location and pick-up time. Your pick-up time can be anytime between 8:30 AM and 9:15 AM, depending on where you are staying.
- The tour will be guided in the language you have booked, however please note that at times, depending on operational circumstances, the commentary might be provided by a multilingual guide (limited to a maximum of 2 languages).
- The tour in Spanish will be conducted by either a Spanish-speaking guide (subject to availability) or an English-speaking guide together with a Spanish-speaking host serving as a translator.
- The boat trip at the Blue Grotto is optional (to be paid on location), and it’s always subject to favourable weather conditions. The fee for the boat trip is around €10 for adults and €5 for children (the fee can change without any prior notice).
- The provider reserves the right to change the order of the visits without any prior notice.
- Not recommended for travellers with mobility impairments
Reviews(29)
Highly recommend this tour, especially if you're interested in ancient history and archaeology. Our English-speaking guide Elizabeth was fantastic! She's a fluid storyteller, very proud of her motherland, and eager to share her knowledge with visitors. The trip, including transportation, was very well organized. Our itinerary changed a bit - we had to skip boat rides at the Blue Grotto due to windy conditions, so spent very little time at that location (luckily, we got out on the boats the previous day on a different tour). But we made up for it with additional time at several other locations. Overall, we learned a lot, saw a lot, and had a 5-star experience
It was well organized. Our German speaking guide was top, she explained the objects well and always told interesting things on the drive, from flora and fauna to politics and general life in Malta. For Rita 100 points 😀
An awesome day - really well organised, everything went like clockwork, tour guide was first class and everywhere we visited was fantastic… great value and thoroughly enjoyed
Guide was great . She was a lot of fun but very informative. Bus drivers were excellent. They must have the courage of a lion and the reflexes of a fox to drive those roads. Would highly recommend!!
Great tour, but our guide was really confused. She was searching her words, didn't tell us how long we had when we stopped, and never explained why we had to take another bus to go for lunch. The places we visited were great, but the guide was disapppointing. Oh, and bring food! We had lunch at 2 pm... we were starving!
S.o. to Phillipe Vancell. Very knowledgeable and engaging tour guide. A must do! The history and the blue Grotto and caves and fishing village. Amazing day tour.
The company is poor at communicating. We never received a pick up time hence we missed the tour. When contacted to ask if we could catch up. We were told it was too hard. They claim they rang us 4 times there were no calls on our phone. The email in April gave us a location for pick up but no specific time. And of course no refund. Not impressed. We hired a taxi van to do the trip for quarter of the price.
Ref. 1249172035 - BOTH your pick-up time and pick-up location were communicated to you VERY CLEARLY via email and ALSO via WhatsApp. On top of that, your ticket includes simple instructions on how to obtain your pick-up information/details (this information is included in no less than 4 sections ....). Apparently, reading a couple of lines was too much of an effort for you. We called you four times on the day of your tour — all of which went unanswered. Out of 75 clients that day, you were the only one who failed to show up and missed the transport, so it’s pretty clear who was unable to handle basic planning ... So before throwing around criticism, take some responsibility. If following a schedule and reading simple instructions is too much to handle, stay at your hotel or book a private tour — organised group tours clearly aren’t for someone who can’t manage basic timing and instructions.
Interesting tour very good guide gave a lot of information and was very helpful obviously can become quite busy being a major tourist attraction
An excellent, well organised tour with our guide, Marysol, looking after us very well and providing us with much information at each site. Particularly enjoyed the Hagar Qim Temples and the Ghar Dalam Cave - both their adjoining museums also proved very interesting. The Blue Grotto is not to be missed. Lunch was delicious but service was slow. I would not hesitate to recommend this tour.
This was a good tour if you want to see several sites in one day without having to organise transport yourself. However too many people on the tour and several tour groups in the same places at the same time. A lot of time spent organising groups and various coaches which was rather tedious. Although good to see several places of interest there wasn't really time to appreciate them fully due to limited time at each stop. Guide was knowledgeable and provided comprehensive and interesting commentary. Included lunch was OK but nothing special
