Busketto Woodland Malta Tour

The Busketto Woodland Tour takes you on a peaceful, enjoyable walk through the Buskett of Malta, meaning ‘small forest' in Italian, where one will see the typical Mediterranean trees, flowers, birds and butterflies. Later, the tour continues to Maltese Steppe and Garigue, which mainly consist of hard coralline limestone with rock plants and small bushes.

Around noon there is time for a lunch picnic that includes large Maltese Ftira bread with tuna, tomato paste, olive oil, local herbs and vegetables, a bottle of water, savory snacks and a chocolate bar.

The final part of the walk is along the coast of Dingi Cliffs, the highest point of Malta, offering amazing views of Mediterranean Sea during the entire walk. The tour gives you a good work out and immense possibilities to photograph Malta's beautiful flora.

- Meeting time is 9.15 - 9.30 am at the Verdala Palace where there is a bus stop.

- Excursion starts towards the heart of Buskett, adorned with numerous types of trees (including many Mediterranean samples) of all sizes and shapes. We also pass by a natural spring that flows even during summer after 2-3 months of absolutely no rain.

- We then climb to a hilly plateau for a nice view over the whole Buskett area, Verdala Palace and the entire Eastern Malta.

- We make our way to Clapham Junction and the garigue of this area to explore some interesting rocky plants that you would not find in northern Europe or US.

- Around noon it is our official 'Half-time' and finally we can rest for a long picnic lunch. There is a small hotel and restaurant close by in case you need to buy some extra things or use the restrooms.

- By 1 pm we continue further on our way to the coastal area and have a peaceful and easy, but rather long walk along Gebel Ciantar and Dingli Cliffs. Here we can see the national plant of Malta (the Maltese centaury), orchids, lilies, hyacinths, asphodels, germander and some water plant species, depending on the season. There is also the loudest choir of chirping birds in Malta. If time permits we can have a look at the old local residences in huge caves.

- The last leg of the tour takes us to the county town of Dingli. From Dingli Cliffs we take the bus to Valletta via Rabat and Attard. Tour ends at around 4:00 - 4:30 pm.