Public transport
Aka buses, also some ferries but focus on land for now. You may have heard the legend that buses on Malta are unreliable. I heard that too, but luckily I never experienced it. There are routes with narrow roads there are only a few bus lanes, so in high traffic, the possibility is quite high buses will be jammed. I mostly go on foot, but when I had to go to further localities by bus I was satisfied.
The negative rumors(?) are only about the schedule, the quality of the vehicles are really good. The price and the whole service are good too. Modern, good seats, even some USB connection to charge your electronics. On the other hand, I was told a story, and that this happened more times, when the driver went the wrong way, totally off the route, that won’t help to keep the schedule either.
Tickets
The bus driver can give you a ticket for 1.50 EUR, you should give the exact amount. There are some buses equipped with card terminal, but not always working, better to be prepared. Your ticket will be basically the paper from the cashier machine, and it is valid for 2 hours. You can change lines, or go back with the same bus if you are in time.
Tallinja card
You can have a prepaid card in case you don’t want to go by single tickets. You can request it on the Public Transport Malta site, not the easiest menu point to find. We both had to play a bit with the photo upload, whatever we did it wanted to display the picture sideways.
Story time
When I ordered mine, the transaction, confirm emails all went well. They say you get your card in around two weeks. In two weeks I wrote a mail to them if my card is on the way because my address will change soon. They replied it is posted already, next day I got a notification in the mailbox that I can pick it up at the nearest post office. Yes, you need to sign it that you took it, and the postman was not able to find my door next to the mailbox. When my girlfriend ordered it, she did not get the confirmation email but the transaction went through. In three weeks she wrote a mail asking for the progress, they replied, it is posted already. The next day the postman find our door, she signed and took it. In both cases, the stamp on the letter had the date of the day before (when it got into the post). Maybe a coincidence, but from here it looks like, you need to write an extra mail after ordering and you will get it the next day.
Using the tallinja card
When you step on the bus since it is always front door get on, you can tap your card on the reader next to the driver, it is on the top of the cashier machine. If it beeps and gives a green light you good to go, it happened to me that the lights were not working at all, but the beep is also noticeable (it is loud as hell). It will withdraw 0.75 EUR from your balance, yes 50% of the single ticket price. Also valid for 2 hours so when you tap it next time and it is not over the limit it does not withdraw again.
Card also has a max amount for time period, called “capping”, meaning in a day, in a week, and in a month if you reach that limit, no more withdraws will happen when you tap the card until you reach the end of the day, week or month. But you still have to tap it. Different cards have different limits. The best info I could find is in https://www.publictransport.com.mt/terms-and-conditions point 9 and 10.
Infrastructure
I already linked the website, it is really well made and informative.
Please go to the official website before taking anything as a fact from this post.
There is also the tallinja app, for both major mobile platforms, where you can manage your card, and search for routes. Google maps also has information about the bus routes and schedule, it is reliable to be used for planning.
Summary
The vehicles are good, the price options are good. The punctuality has a bit of bad history I can not confirm. Getting info is straightforward. The service is nice. The vehicles are single city buses, I was used to long articulated ones. The drivers are usually nice, once since it is easy in a short bus like this, he was asking people to move towards the end of the bus so others can get on, and did it with the most English politeness. Their driving style may vary, from quite calm sightseeing pace to heavy braking and “turning on two wheels”.
Alternative ways of moving
Bolt has a quite big reputation here, Wolt and some smaller food delivery services are also frequently used. But Bolt has taxi first and Bolt food second. In the Bolt (taxi) app you also have the option to rent electric scooters, I see them extensively used all around. Ecabs is another car renting service, you see cars with their logo everywhere.