How to Make Friends in Malta as an Expat, Student or

Last updated: 21 October 2026. No affiliate links. ZONDI is our own app; we say so where it appears.

Quick answer: To make friends in Malta after moving here, pick one weekly social event and one weekly activity, and keep going back to both for at least a month. Good starting points are English Café Malta's weekly evenings in St Julian's, the Thursday Social by Malta Mates in Sliema, Sunday walks with the Ramblers' Association of Malta, Sunday Run Club Malta, ESN Malta if you are a student, and volunteering with groups such as BirdLife Malta or Żibel. To meet Maltese people rather than only other newcomers, join something local and long-running: a sports club, your village festa, a Maltese class or a volunteering team. If you live in Gozo, expect a quieter, more local social life and use the ferry to join events on the main island.

Key Takeaways

Almost one in three people living in Malta is a foreign national (31.1% at the end of 2025), and English is an official language, so meeting other newcomers is easy.
The hard part is turnover. Many people stay for weeks or months, so build friendships with people who are staying too, including Maltese locals.
Repetition beats variety: the same Thursday social, the same Sunday walk or the same run club every week is how acquaintances turn into friends.
Students have ESN Malta and their school's social life; digital nomads have coworking spaces and weekly socials; Gozo residents have diving, local events and the ferry.
You can build a social life without bars: hiking, running, climbing, clean-ups, board games, film clubs and dinners with strangers all run regularly.
Maltese social life centres on family, parish and village, so meeting locals takes longer. Festas, band clubs, sports clubs and learning a little Maltese help.

This guide is for people who live in Malta or are about to move here: expats who came for work, English language students, university and Erasmus students, digital nomads and anyone settling in Gozo. If you are visiting for a week or two, our guide to making friends in Malta as a solo traveller is a better fit.

Why Malta Is Easy, and Hard, for Making Friends

On paper, Malta is one of the easiest places in Europe to build a social life. The country had 588,254 residents at the end of 2025, and 31.1% of them were non-Maltese citizens. Maltese and English are both official languages, so you can talk to almost anyone from your first day. Distances are short: Sliema, St Julian's, Gżira and Valletta are minutes apart, which makes a spontaneous coffee or walk easy to arrange.

Even so, plenty of newcomers find that a few months in, they still have no close friends here. There are three common reasons:

Turnover. Malta welcomes a constant flow of short-stay residents. English language students, for example, stayed 3.4 weeks on average in 2025. If most of your friends are in that group, your circle keeps resetting.
The expat bubble. It is easy to spend all your time in Sliema and St Julian's with other internationals and never meet Maltese people.
Established local circles. Many Maltese people's social lives revolve around family, school friends, their parish and their village. They are friendly and welcoming, but close friendships usually grow through repeated contact over time rather than one big night out.

The fix is simple, if not instant: choose a few things you can repeat every week, mix newcomers with people who are staying, and give it a couple of months.

Your First 30 Days in Malta: A Simple Plan

Week	What to do	Why it works
Week 1	Go to one weekly social event, such as English Café Malta's Thursday Social Mixer or the Malta Mates Thursday Social in Sliema.	You meet many people at once, and you learn which groups and faces are regulars.
Week 2	Pick one weekly activity and commit to it: a Sunday walk, a run club, climbing or a padel group.	Shared activities make conversation easy, and seeing the same people weekly builds familiarity.
Week 3	Host one small plan yourself: coffee after work, a swim, a short hike. Invite two or three people you met.	Most newcomers wait to be invited. The person who suggests a specific plan becomes the connector.
Week 4	Add one thing with mostly Maltese members: a sports club, volunteering, a Maltese class or your local festa.	This is how you meet people who will still be here next year.

If You Moved to Malta for Work

Expats who move for a job often have colleagues but no friends outside work. These regular events are a good place to start:

English Café Malta has run international meetups since 2014. Its weekly programme in St Julian's includes games on Mondays, a conversation night called Talk Time on Tuesdays, karaoke on Wednesdays and a Social Mixer on Thursdays, plus weekend trips and Sunday hikes. Events are listed on Meetup and are paid, with evening events costing a few euros.
Malta Mates runs a weekly Thursday Social at Club Lounge in Sliema, plus hikes, beach days and festival outings for expats, locals and visitors.
Malta Social (expats & locals) on Meetup has run book clubs, film nights, theatre trips, wine tastings and kayaking.
InterNations has a Malta community aimed at expat networking; check its events calendar.
Women Friends Malta organises meetups for women, such as coffee get-togethers in Sliema.

Facebook also matters in Malta: there are active expat groups for Malta and for Gozo, plus groups for specific nationalities. Search for "Malta expats", "Gozo expats" or your nationality plus "in Malta", and look for groups with recent event posts.

If You Are an English Language Student

Malta's 34 licensed English language schools welcomed 76,063 foreign students in 2025. Italy, Germany and France sent the most. With an average stay of 3.4 weeks, your classmates will change fast, so start socialising from day one:

Use your school's social programme in week one. If your school organises trips or evening activities, join them early, before groups form.
Practise English outside class. English Café Malta's Tuesday Talk Time is a conversation night designed for this, and its other weekly evenings are full of students and newcomers.
Mix with people who are staying. Run clubs, hiking groups and volunteering bring you into contact with residents, which gives you better English practice and friendships that do not end when a course does.

If You Study at University or Are on Erasmus

The University of Malta has more than 13,000 students, including about 2,000 international students from 130 countries in 2026/27. The main social network for international students is ESN Malta (Erasmus Student Network), which works with the University of Malta, MCAST and other institutions. ESN Malta runs orientation activities, trips (including Gozo outings and hikes), parties, sports events and volunteering, and offers the ESNcard.

To meet Maltese students as well, join something on campus that is not aimed only at international students, such as a sports team, a society linked to your course or a volunteering project. Local students who see you every week are far more likely to invite you along than those you meet once at a party.

If You Are a Digital Nomad or Remote Worker

Malta offers a Nomad Residence Permit for non-EU/EEA/Swiss remote workers. It requires a minimum gross income of €42,000 a year, is valid for one year and can be renewed up to a total of four years, at the discretion of Residency Malta Agency, which runs the scheme. That means many nomads stay long enough to build a real circle.

Coworking spaces: SOHO Office Space (Gżira and St Julian's) and Grand Central (Valletta) advertise community and networking events, and 230 Works in Mosta also has event space. Working from the same space every day is one of the easiest ways to make friends as a remote worker.
Weekly socials: the Malta Mates "Cultural Nomads" group on Meetup runs the Thursday Social in Sliema, plus hikes and beach days.
Turn work into plans: suggest a lunch break, an after-work swim or a weekend hike to the people you see at your coworking space. Specific, low-pressure plans work best.

If You Live in Gozo

Gozo and Comino had 41,253 residents at the end of 2024, including about 9,500 foreign citizens. Social life is quieter and more local than in Sliema, which can be lonely at first, but it also means you meet your Gozitan neighbours faster.

Getting across: the Gozo Channel ferry between Ċirkewwa and Mġarr takes about 25 minutes. Fast ferries run from Valletta to Mġarr in about 45 minutes, and since May 2026 there is also a fast ferry from Sliema and Buġibba (check the current timetable). Joining an evening event on the main island is very doable.
Diving: Gozo is one of the Mediterranean's best-known dive destinations, with dive centres in Xlendi, Marsalforn and Għajnsielem. Courses and regular dives are a natural way to meet people.
Local life in Victoria (Rabat): the morning market at It-Tokk (Independence Square), the autumn opera season at the Aurora and Astra theatres, and community events listed on the Events in Gozo calendar. Heritage NGO Wirt Għawdex also runs public talks.
Expat groups: search Facebook for Gozo expat groups, which often post meetups and practical tips.

How to Meet Maltese Locals, Not Just Other Expats

This is the question most long-term residents ask after their first year. A few things make a real difference:

Go to your village festa. Festas celebrate each parish's patron saint over several days, with band marches, decorations, food stalls and fireworks. The season runs from late May into September, and in 2023 UNESCO added the Maltese village festa to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Go to yours, and go back next year: being recognised is how you become part of a village.
Get to know your band club. There are about 91 band clubs (każini tal-banda) in Malta and Gozo. They play an important community role, teach music to young people and organise cultural events that peak around the festa. Going to their concerts and festa events is a good way in.
Join a sports club. Marsa Sports Club offers tennis, padel, squash, cricket and more, with day and monthly passes for visitors. Sports clubs mix Maltese members and expats, and you see the same faces every week.
Volunteer with a Maltese organisation. BirdLife Malta takes volunteers for reserve maintenance, events and bird rehabilitation; Żibel runs monthly coastal clean-ups; Island Sanctuary in Marsaxlokk needs help caring for rescue dogs; Nature Trust – FEE Malta runs a wildlife rescue team.
Learn some Maltese. The University of Malta runs Maltese as a Foreign Language courses online, and the Directorate for Lifelong Learning and Employability offers paid Maltese courses. Even a few words are appreciated, especially outside Sliema.
Become a regular. The same café, the same bakery, the same bus stop chat. In a small country, familiarity builds trust quickly.

How to Meet People in Malta Without Going to Bars or Clubs

Malta's nightlife, especially in Paceville, gets a lot of attention, but you do not need it to build a social life. These activities run regularly:

Hiking and walking: the Ramblers' Association of Malta organises around 50 walks a year, mostly on Sundays, and guests are welcome to try any walk. BirdLife Malta runs free guided nature walks that you book online. English Café Malta runs Sunday hikes that leave from Sliema. October to May is the best season for walking, with winter daytime highs of around 15–17°C.
Running: Sunday Run Club Malta organises weekly group runs for beginners and experienced runners, plus events such as track nights and 5 km runs, and raises money for the Richmond Foundation.
Climbing: Crashpad Bouldering Centre in Mrieħel is an indoor option that welcomes beginners, and ClimbMT (Malta Climbing Club) holds members' sessions at the Sliema bouldering wall.
Clean-ups: Żibel's monthly coastal clean-ups are a sociable morning outdoors that ends with you knowing a dozen people.
Board games: the Boardgames in Sliema group on Meetup holds free sessions in Sliema.
Film and books: The Cinemates MLT runs a free film club in Valletta, and Malta Social has organised book clubs.
Dinners with strangers: Around the table Malta is a new Meetup group that brings people together over dinner (a small membership fee applies, and you pay for your own meal).
Dancing: salsa and bachata socials run weekly in Sliema and Valletta and are listed on dance-event sites such as SalsaVida.
Padel: padel is popular in Malta and doubles games are a quick way to meet people. See our guide to the best apps to find padel partners.

Moving to Malta in autumn? Our guide to meeting people in Malta in winter covers the cooler months in detail, and Fairyland at Triton Fountain, which usually runs from early December to early January, makes an easy first meetup.

Where to Meet People in Malta: Area by Area

Sliema and St Julian's: the busiest area for expats and language students. The seafront promenade from Sliema towards St Julian's, about 3–4 km long, is full of runners and walkers, Balluta Bay has a square lined with cafés, and Spinola Bay is lined with restaurants. Paceville is the nightlife district, so skip it if you want the opposite of bars.
Gżira and Msida: quieter and popular with long-term residents. The Gżira Strand looks across to Valletta and is close to the University, which makes it a good spot for coffee and waterfront walks.
Valletta: culture, film nights and weekday professionals. See our Valletta guide.
Gozo: a slower, more local social life (see above).

Where Apps Fit In

Apps will not build your social life for you, but they help fill the gaps between weekly events, and they are useful when you want to do something today rather than next Thursday. For a full comparison, see our guide to the best apps to meet people in Malta, and for friendship apps in general, the best apps to make friends (not dating apps).

ZONDI is our own app, so we are biased. It is an activity-first app for meeting people nearby: you choose something to do, see who nearby wants to join, chat to agree the details and meet in real life. It is not a dating app. Plans that work well in Malta look like this:

"Ramblers' walk on Sunday, anyone going from Sliema?"
"Coffee in Gżira after work, 6pm"
"Ferry to Gozo Saturday morning for a swim at Xlendi"
"Padel in Pembroke, need a fourth"

You can verify your profile and choose to see verified people only, your location is shown approximately rather than live, and Report and Block are built in. Core meetup features are free, the app is available in 8 languages, and it is live in Malta. Download it on iOS or Android, or use it on the web at zondi.app.

Whichever app or group you use, meet new people in public places first, tell a friend where you are going, and trust your instincts.

Common Mistakes When Building a Social Life in Malta

Only befriending people who are about to leave. Enjoy short-stay friends, but make sure part of your circle lives here long term.
Judging a group on the first visit. Go at least three times. The second and third visits are when people start to recognise you.
Never leaving the Sliema bubble. Some of the best experiences, and most of the Maltese friendships, happen in the villages, in Valletta and in Gozo.
Waiting to be invited. A specific plan ("Golden Bay, Saturday at 10, who's in?") gets far more yeses than "we should hang out sometime".

FAQs

How do you make friends in Malta as an expat?

Choose one weekly social event (for example English Café Malta's evenings in St Julian's or the Malta Mates Thursday Social in Sliema) and one weekly activity (a Sunday walk, a run club, climbing or padel), and keep going back for at least a month. Add one local activity, such as a sports club or volunteering, to meet people who live here long term.

How can I meet Maltese locals, not just other expats?

Join long-running local activities: your village festa, a band club event, a sports club such as Marsa Sports Club, volunteering with BirdLife Malta or Żibel, or a Maltese language course. Maltese friendships tend to grow through repeated contact, so consistency matters more than any single event.

Where can I meet people in Sliema and St Julian's?

Weekly socials by English Café Malta (St Julian's) and Malta Mates (Sliema), English Café Malta's Sunday hikes that leave from Sliema, the Boardgames in Sliema group, the seafront promenade (popular with runners and walkers) and the cafés around Balluta Bay. Paceville is the area for nightlife.

How do English language students make friends in Malta?

Join your school's activities in the first week, go to conversation nights such as English Café Malta's Tuesday Talk Time, and add an activity where you meet residents, such as a run club, hiking group or volunteering, so your friendships last longer than your course.

Is there a digital nomad community in Malta?

Yes. Malta has a Nomad Residence Permit, coworking spaces such as SOHO Office Space and Grand Central that host community events, and weekly socials such as the Malta Mates Thursday Social in Sliema. Facebook groups for digital nomads in Malta also share meetups and housing tips.

How do you meet people in Gozo?

Through diving centres, local events in Victoria (the It-Tokk market, the opera season and the Events in Gozo calendar), Gozo expat groups on Facebook and getting to know your neighbours. For bigger social events, the ferry to the main island takes about 25 minutes from Mġarr to Ċirkewwa, and fast ferries run to Valletta and Sliema.

How can I meet people in Malta without going to bars or clubs?

Try hiking with the Ramblers' Association or BirdLife Malta, running with Sunday Run Club Malta, indoor bouldering, Żibel clean-ups, board-game meetups, film clubs or volunteering.

Where can I find people to go hiking with in Malta?

The Ramblers' Association of Malta runs walks most Sundays and welcomes guests, BirdLife Malta organises free guided nature walks, and English Café Malta runs Sunday hikes from Sliema. You can also post a hike as a plan in an activity app such as ZONDI. October to May is the best hiking season.

How to Make Friends in Malta as an Expat, Student or Digital Nomad (2026)