What is the Valletta outdoor escape game?
The Valletta outdoor escape game is an escape room moved into the street grid of a fortress city: a puzzle waits at each of 10 landmarks, beginning in Floriana and carrying on inside the walls, and the whole game runs on your phone. Count on roughly 2 hours, 45 minutes of it walking over 3.4 km, and start on the day you prefer.
Puzzles are set at the Tritons' Fountain outside City Gate, on the terrace of the Upper Barrakka Gardens above the Grand Harbour, at the plain façade of St John's Co-Cathedral and on St George's Square before the Grandmaster's Palace. Each stands alone, with no story joining them, and three hint levels are there if needed. The knights laid Valletta out on a grid of straight streets, so the walking stays short and simple to follow.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 45 min · 3.4 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do on the escape game
Work it out
Every landmark sets a puzzle you answer from the limestone around you, by reasoning and not by reading up first.
Read the detail
Coats of arms, Latin inscriptions and sculpted figures carry the clues, so look along a façade before you commit.
Walk the grid
Google Maps leads you from stop to stop: 45 minutes of walking across 3.4 km.
Keep your own pace
No clock is counting. Take a hint, step into the shade for a cold drink and continue later or on another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it suits
Friends
Each puzzle gives the group something to settle before the next corner, and nobody needs to know Malta's history.
Couples
A shared puzzle between harbour views, with nothing timing how long you stay on a terrace.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, so colleagues can start together with very little planning.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from Floriana to St Paul's Pro-Cathedral
10 stops · about 45 min walking · start: St Publius Parish Church (Floriana) · finish: St Paul's Anglican Pro-Cathedral
The game opens outside the walls, in Floriana, where St Publius Parish Church holds puzzle one; the Tritons' Fountain and Renzo Piano's Parliament House then bring you through City Gate. Next come the Upper Barrakka Gardens above the Grand Harbour and the Church of St Catherine of Italy, followed by St John's Co-Cathedral, Great Siege Square, the National Library and St George's Square in front of the Grandmaster's Palace. Puzzle ten waits at St Paul's Anglican Pro-Cathedral. Daylight helps, the app reorders stops, and no entry tickets are involved.
Open the route map ↗
1St Publius Parish Church (Floriana)Start
Floriana's parish church, just outside Valletta, was begun in 1733 and is dedicated to St Publius, who according to tradition welcomed St Paul after his shipwreck and became Malta's first bishop. Bombs destroyed part of its façade and its dome in 1942, and the wide square in front is dotted with the round stone lids of old underground granaries.
2Tritons' Fountain
The Tritons' Fountain outside Valletta's City Gate was created by the sculptor Vincent Apap between 1952 and 1959: three bronze Tritons hold up a wide basin, a symbol of Malta's bond with the sea. The basin collapsed in 1978, and after a full restoration the fountain was officially inaugurated in 2018.
Read the full story →
3Parliament of Malta
Malta's Parliament House stands just inside City Gate and was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano as part of his redesign of the city entrance. The parliament moved here from the Grandmaster's Palace in 2015. Look at the two blocks raised on pillars and clad in Maltese limestone, cut so that the facade lets in light while giving shade.
4Upper Barrakka Gardens
The Upper Barrakka Gardens were laid out in 1661 by the Italian knight Flaminio Balbiani as a retreat for the knights of the Italian langue, and opened to the public after 1800. The terrace looks over the Grand Harbour and the Three Cities, and below it lies the Saluting Battery, where ceremonial gun salutes are still fired.
5Church of St Catherine of Italy
The Italian knights built this church in 1576 to plans by Girolamo Cassar, next to their Auberge d'Italie. An octagonal church was added in the 17th century, and Mattia Preti painted its dome and gave the church its altarpiece showing the martyrdom of St Catherine of Alexandria.
6St John's Co-Cathedral
The conventual church of the Knights of St John was built in 1573–1577 to designs by Girolamo Cassar, behind a deliberately plain façade. Inside are Mattia Preti's painted vault, hundreds of inlaid marble tombstones of knights and Caravaggio's Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, painted in Malta in 1608.
7Great Siege Square
Great Siege Square on Republic Street lies between the Law Courts and the side of St John's Co-Cathedral. Its monument by Antonio Sciortino honours the Great Siege of 1565, when the Knights and the Maltese held out against the Ottoman army, with three bronze figures representing Faith, Fortitude and Civilisation.
8National Library of Malta
The National Library, known as the Bibliotheca, was designed by Stefano Ittar and was one of the last buildings the Knights put up before the French took Malta in 1798. It keeps the archives of the Order of St John, and a marble statue of Queen Victoria stands in Republic Square in front of it.
9St George's Square (Palace Square)
St George's Square is overlooked by the Grandmaster's Palace, seat of the Grand Masters of the Order and later of the British governors, and today the Office of the President of Malta. Opposite stands the Main Guard, where a Latin inscription of 1814 beneath the British coat of arms records the islands' attachment to Britain.
Read the full story →
10St Paul's Anglican Pro-CathedralFinish
St Paul's was paid for by Queen Adelaide, widow of King William IV, after her stay in Malta, and built between 1839 and 1844 on the site of the Auberge d'Allemagne, the inn of the German knights. Its tall spire is one of the landmarks of the Valletta skyline when seen from Marsamxett Harbour.
Read the full story →
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Caroline– France –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Énigmes assez simples. Il manque les consignes de chaque énigme.
Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Sehr informativ und schön gestaltet
Damien– France –
Collected on GetYourGuide
belle façon de découvrir la ville, mais besoin d’être actualisé en fonction des travaux. Dommage également qu’il ne soit pas précisé qu’en étant pour 12h ou 16h aux canons de salut, nous aurions pu assister au tir quotidien. nous l’avons découvert 20 minutes trop tard.
Mick– United Kingdom –
Collected on GetYourGuide
An entertaining way to cover the key sites in Valletta – worthwhile activity