VacationSelector

Catania or Valletta?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

Catania
52
match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

Valletta
✓ Best match
60
match

Wins on sights concentration and beaches & swimming with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

The verdict

Choose Catania if you want the hotter summer, up to 35°C, and about twice as many restaurants near the centre, with its drinking spots clustered close together.

Choose Valletta if you want the sea at the edge of the centre, 22 beaches within reach rather than 5, and about three times as many notable places within walking distance.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

CataniaValletta
Beaches & swimming. Valletta leads by 19 points.19
CataniaValletta
Score5877
Swim season months56
Beaches 10 km522
Coast distance1 km0 km
Water distance1 km0 km
Places to eat. Valletta leads by 9 points.9
CataniaValletta
Score4958
Restaurants within 2 km of centre637416
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km1435
Museums & heritage. Valletta leads by 2 points.2
CataniaValletta
Score5961
Museums within 10 km3446
Museums within 2 km of centre2729
Share of museums within 2 km %7963
Unesco sites within 50 km33
Nightlife. Catania and Valletta are level on 47.
CataniaValletta
Score4747
Drinking venues within 4 km537522
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre403250
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %7548
Nightclubs within 4 km1827
Nature & day trips. Valletta leads by 15 points.15
CataniaValletta
Score3146
Protected land share 50 km %10—
Landscape blanket share 50 km %00
Land share of disc %616
Park area within 2 km11 hectares24 hectares
Good for families. Valletta leads by 10 points.10
CataniaValletta
Score3646
Tourist attractions within 2 km2532
Park area within 2 km11 hectares24 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km11
Sights concentration. Valletta leads by 22 points.22
CataniaValletta
Score3961
Notable places within 2 km37133
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Valletta leads by 1 points.1
CataniaValletta
Score6869
Price level global64.962.8
Daily budget€155€129
Year-round weather. Valletta leads by 2 points.2
CataniaValletta
Score7779
Monthly daytime high15.8 °C to 34.5 °C15.7 °C to 31.9 °C
Monthly rainfall9 mm to 83 mm0 mm to 90 mm
Dry months56
0255075100

Where they differ

Catania's edge is heat and dining density: about twice as many restaurants near the centre, and daytime highs of 16-35°C across the year against Valletta's 16-32°C. Its drinking places sit close to the centre, so an evening out involves less moving about.

Valletta has about three times as many notable places within walking distance, so sightseeing is done on foot. The sea starts at its centre, 0km against 1km, with 22 beaches nearby rather than 5, and about twice as much park space near the centre.

Where they are alike

Nightlife is the closest call. The two have a similar number of places to drink, and while Valletta has about twice as many nightclubs, only about half sit near its centre, against nearly all of Catania's, so the walkable evening is much the same size.

Both also share a mild floor to winter, with 16°C highs at the coldest, comparable museum holdings, 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach each, and national price levels that sit close together.

Which traveller are you?

Swimmers should take Valletta. The sea starts at the centre, with 22 beaches nearby against 5, and it stays at 21°C or more for a longer stretch of the year.

Families lean to Valletta as well: somewhat more tourist attractions near the centre and about twice as much park space. Each has one theme park within reach, so that is not the decider.

Anyone travelling mainly to eat has a genuine choice. Catania has about twice as many restaurants near the centre; Valletta spreads across a wider range of kitchens. If you also want maximum heat, Catania reaches 35°C in high summer.

What the numbers don't tell you

The daily budget figures, €155 and €129, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of Catania or Valletta. A capital or a heavily visited city can sit further from its own country's average than the two countries sit from each other, so the gap says little about what either trip will actually cost.

Both rate best in May, but the sea is only 18-19°C then, so the best month for walking is not the best month for swimming. Valletta's beach advantage is a count of places, not of space when the sea is at its warmest and demand highest.

When should you go?

The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Catania
16
16
19
21
26
31
34
35
30
26
21
17
Valletta
16
16
17
20
24
29
32
32
29
25
21
17
Sea temperature, °C
Catania
15
15
15
16
18
22
25
26
25
23
20
17
Valletta
16
15
15
16
19
22
25
27
26
24
21
18
Rainfall, mm
Catania
65
45
42
32
18
11
9
9
49
51
71
83
Valletta
80
72
39
19
10
5
0
10
63
74
90
85
Daylight, hours per day
Catania
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
14
13
11
10
10
Valletta
10
11
12
13
14
15
14
14
12
11
10
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Catania
4
5
6
7
9
10
11
10
7
6
5
4
Valletta
6
6
7
8
10
11
12
11
8
7
6
5

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Catania: 1991-2020 normals, Catania / Sigonella (18.9 km from centre). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Catania peaks in May, at 26°C with 18mm of rain, and holds up in October, when it is the drier of the two. Midsummer climbs to 35°C, hot for walking but good for the water.

Valletta's warm season is longer: June sits near 29°C with about 5mm of rain, and the sea reaches 27°C by late summer. Its late autumn and winter are the wetter of the two, close to 90mm in November.

Getting there

Flying fromCataniaValletta
MilanMXP, BGY, LIN
1 h 55 m
€45-94
CTA · 4 km
2 h 5 m
€62-92
MLA · 6 km
RomeFCO, CIA
1 h 20 m
€38-50
CTA · 4 km
1 h 30 m
€37-71
MLA · 6 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
3 h 0 m
€106-144
1 stop
CTA · 4 km
3 h 10 m
€91-131
1 stop
MLA · 6 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
2 h 35 m
€91-153
1 stop
CTA · 4 km
2 h 45 m
€99-132
1 stop
MLA · 6 km
BolognaBLQ
1 h 40 m
€38-100
CTA · 4 km
1 h 50 m
no fares
MLA · 6 km
VeniceVCE, TSF
1 h 45 m
€49-57
CTA · 4 km
1 h 55 m
€51-63
MLA · 6 km
NaplesNAP
1 h 5 m
€44-56
CTA · 4 km
1 h 20 m
€113-138
1 stop
MLA · 6 km
MunichMUC
2 h 5 m
€195-231
1 stop
CTA · 4 km
2 h 20 m
€165-259
MLA · 6 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
5 h 25 m
no fares
CTA · 4 km
5 h 25 m
no fares
MLA · 6 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
9 h 15 m
no fares
CTA · 4 km
9 h 20 m
no fares
MLA · 6 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureCataniaValletta
Official languageItalianEnglish, Maltese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation7 m56 m
Main airportCatania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)4 km from centre95 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCataniaValletta
City population311,5846,444
People per km²1,7048,055
Museums within 10 km2515
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Distinct cuisines in the centre3055
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Catania or Valletta somewhere new.

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.