Malta and Messina

We are sailing Celebrity Constellation in October and have Malta and Messina on our trip. We don't really want to do tours to save a little money any suggestions on how to get around and what are must sees?

We've been to Malta and Messina twice in the last 5 years and we've absolutely loved these 2 ports.

MALTA - During our first Malta trip, we tried the Malta segway ride. The segway was a super way to see the city and we could then decide which places we would like to see more of. You can easily spend the day at Merchant street which is like a little walled town, brimming with little stores which sell clothes and other merchandise. Getting there is very easy. Disembark from your ship, walk out of the beautiful port (The Valletta waterfront port is the best in Europe) and go towards the new elevator which takes you up to the Upper Barrakka Gardens. Its a beautiful spot which gives you a 360 degree eagles eye view of the island. Merchant street is a short walk from there (max 5 mins). There is a free wifi spot at this garden.

MESSINA - We absolutely loved the port of Messina. We did the cruise excursion which was the beautiful town of Taormina followed by Mt Etna. If this is your first time here, do both. If you have already seen Etna, you can easily spend a day in Taormina. We absolutely feel in love with this place and the 2 hours which we were given to see it was just not enough.

We are sailing Celebrity Constellation in October and have Malta and Messina on our trip. We don't really want to do tours to save a little money any suggestions on how to get around and what are must sees?

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

Please join your roll call, you will find another cruisers on your sailing to share ideas about private tours...

There are ways to save lots of money at every port by simply doing things on your own (DIY) and taking advantage of inexpensive public transit. For example, in Malta one can easily take the local bus (for less then 2 Euros) to Mdina rather then using an overpriced tour. As to Messina, the really inexpensive day would be to just walk off the ship and explore the part of Messina relatively close to the ship (many enjoy the clock tower). But it is even possible to get to Taormina without spending the big bucks on an excursion...although this takes a little research and is a bit more complicated.

Hank

Malta - we used the hop on/hop off bus - we ended up on the red one (other is blue) which turned out to be the better of the two (more buses and no break downs). It was 15€ each and you had the choice of a north or south tour. We has enough time to do both plus had some time to visit the main stopping street. Only negative was there was no a/c, which wasn't that bad, but we had no water and they ran out on the bus.

North route took us to Mdin and South route to Blue Grotto.

Messina - we took ship transfer to Taromina for about $35/pp. Thought this was the easier/best price vs walking to train then bus/taxi to top of hill. Well worth the price!

There are MANY posts on here regarding Messina.

I recently went to both and we did not do a tour.

Thyere are a few options. There is a search button up the top. Type your port name and you'll find more info than you can handle.

Malta is wonderful BTW:D

I will be on that cruise too. (celeb constellation?) Looking into the hop on hop off bus. Sounds like north preferred direction? Any suggestions where to get off? Sounds like Mdina is one place! First time on cruise critic. My apologies if im doing this wrong. Look forward to suggestions. working my way through the ports.

Here's an old post about Messina on a Sunday (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=16067304#post16067304). I went back a few years later & visited Mt Etna on a wonderful excursion.

I second the suggestions about Mdina in Malta.

Have a great time!

Cool Cruiser this is my first time on Cruise Critic as well, muddling through the best I can, but so far everyone has been really helpful with thier answers.

We also did the HOHO bus in Malta for 10 Euros pp. We hired a taxi at the Messina port and went to Savoca and Taormina.