Malta vs Sardinia vs Corsica: Choosing Between the Islands

Malta vs Sardinia is a closer contest than the map suggests. One is a compact, English-speaking island nation of honey-coloured limestone towns, Baroque churches and Neolithic temples; the other is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean, with Bronze Age nuraghe towers, a granite coast and a thinly settled mountain interior. Add Sicily and Corsica and the choice widens again. This guide sets the four islands side by side, pairing by pairing, for travellers deciding where to spend their time, and shows how Odyssey’s Mediterranean Islands of Malta, Sicily, Sardinia & Corsica small group tour joins all four in one journey.

The four islands at a glance

The short version: Sicily and Sardinia are big islands with mainland-scale distances, Corsica is a mountain range rising out of the sea, and Malta is small enough that nothing is far from anything else. The figures below are rounded from the latest official counts.

• Malta: 316 square kilometres across Malta, Gozo and Comino, with about 575,000 people, one of the most densely populated countries in Europe. Maltese and English are both official languages. Three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the City of Valletta, the Megalithic Temples of Malta and the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum. Independent since 1964 and in the European Union since 2004. Best for: a great deal of history in a small space, English spoken everywhere, short transfers.
• Sicily: about 25,700 square kilometres, the largest island in the Mediterranean, with about 4.8 million people. Italian, with Sicilian widely spoken. Seven UNESCO sites, among them Agrigento, the Villa Romana del Casale, the Baroque towns of the Val di Noto, Syracuse, Mount Etna and Arab-Norman Palermo. Best for: Greek temples, Baroque towns, food, and the richest list of monuments of the four.
• Sardinia: about 24,100 square kilometres, the second-largest island, with about 1.6 million people. Italian, with Sardinian, and Catalan in Alghero, recognised as minority languages. Two UNESCO sites: Su Nuraxi di Barumini and, since 2025, the prehistoric rock-cut tombs known as domus de janas. Highest point Punta La Marmora, 1,834 metres. Best for: prehistory, coastline, open space and a slower pace.
• Corsica: about 8,700 square kilometres, the fourth-largest Mediterranean island after Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus, with about 355,000 people. French, with Corsican. One UNESCO site, the Gulf of Porto (the Calanche of Piana, the Gulf of Girolata and the Scandola Reserve). Monte Cinto reaches 2,706 metres. Best for: mountain scenery, Genoese citadels and walking.

All four use the euro, and all four were once ruled by Rome, which is why the history in each so often rhymes.

Valletta’s limestone bastions above Marsamxett Harbour, with the dome of the Carmelite church and the spire of St Paul’s Pro-Cathedral on the skyline.

Malta vs Sardinia: which is better?

Malta is the better choice if you want dense history, short travelling distances and English spoken everywhere; Sardinia is better if you want space, prehistoric sites in open country and a coastline that rewards slower travel. The difference in scale is the first thing to grasp: Sardinia is roughly 76 times the size of the Maltese islands, yet with fewer than three times as many people.

Landscape. Malta is a low limestone plateau of terraced fields, dry-stone walls and cliffs, with its highest point only 253 metres above the sea. Sardinia has granite headlands and islands in the north-east, the limestone cliffs of the Gulf of Orosei on the east coast, and the Gennargentu massif in the centre, where shepherding villages still set the rhythm of the interior.

History. Malta’s story runs from the Neolithic temples, built more than 5,000 years ago, to the Knights of St John, who held the islands from 1530 to 1798 and withstood the Ottoman Great Siege of 1565, and on to the Second World War, when King George VI awarded the George Cross to the island and its people in 1942. Sardinia’s signature is older and stranger: some 7,000 nuraghi, the stone towers of a Bronze Age culture found nowhere else, of which Su Nuraxi at Barumini is the best known.

Pace and walking. In Malta you can stay in one hotel and reach almost everything as a day trip; Odyssey’s tour keeps the same base for all five of its Malta days. Sardinia means longer drives and changes of hotel, and its archaeological sites are often reached across uneven ground. Food: Malta offers pastizzi, rabbit stew and fresh fish with a strong Sicilian accent; Sardinia offers pecorino, flat pane carasau, roast suckling pig and robust Cannonau red wine. Cost: neither is cheap in high summer, and Sardinia’s smartest resort coasts can be among the most expensive in the Mediterranean, but spring and autumn ease prices on both.

Our day-by-day Malta itinerary shows how much fits into five days there.

Malta vs Sicily: how do they compare?

Choose Malta for a concentrated week of Knights, temples and harbour views; choose Sicily for range, from Greek temples and Roman mosaics to Arab-Norman churches, Baroque towns and Mount Etna, spread across an island about 80 times Malta’s size. The two are only about 93 kilometres apart, and for centuries their histories ran together: both were taken by Arab rulers in the ninth century and by the Normans after them, and the Knights received Malta in 1530 as a fief of the Sicilian crown.

The practical difference is movement. Malta can be seen from one base; Sicily rewards a route, and Odyssey’s tour moves from Syracuse to Agrigento, Trapani and Palermo over six days. Sicily is also the stronger food island of the two, with arancini, caponata, cannoli and, in Trapani, a fish couscous that reflects the island’s North African links. Our Sicily itinerary follows that route, and the early history of Sicily explains why so many civilisations wanted it.

If Malta and Sicily alone appeal, the 12-day Malta & Sicily – Mediterranean Islands small group tour follows much the same route through both islands and ends in Palermo.

The unfinished Doric temple at Segesta in western Sicily, among pines and dry grassland. The 25-day tour stops here on Day 9.

Sardinia vs Corsica: which island suits you?

Sardinia suits travellers who want archaeology and long sandy beaches; Corsica suits those who want mountains running almost to the sea and fortified Genoese towns with a French accent. They lie only about 11 kilometres apart across the Strait of Bonifacio, yet they feel like different countries, because they are: Sardinia has been Italian since unification, while Genoa ceded Corsica to France in 1768, the year before Napoleon was born in Ajaccio.

Landscape and walking. Corsica is the higher and wilder island, with Monte Cinto at 2,706 metres, chestnut and pine forests, and the dense scrub the Corsicans call maquis. Its GR20 trail across the mountains is reputed to be one of the toughest long-distance walks in Europe. Sardinia’s mountains are lower and its coast gentler, with the clear water of the La Maddalena archipelago in the north-east.

Towns and culture. Corsica’s character lies in its citadels at Bonifacio, Calvi and Bastia, its hill villages, and the memory of Pasquale Paoli’s short-lived independent republic. Sardinia offers Cagliari’s walled Castello, Catalan-speaking Alghero and an interior where Sardinian is still spoken. Food: Corsica is a land of charcuterie, chestnut flour and brocciu, a fresh whey cheese made from sheep or goat milk (see our guide to Corsican food); Sardinia’s table is pastoral and Italian. Cost: Corsica generally runs at French prices and fills up quickly in high summer.

For a fuller picture of the French island, see our list of things to do in Corsica.

Boats anchored in the turquoise water of Cala Corsara, in the La Maddalena archipelago off Sardinia’s north-east coast.

Sicily or Sardinia: which should you choose?

Pick Sicily if monuments are the point of the trip and Sardinia if landscape and prehistory are. Sicily has seven World Heritage Sites to Sardinia’s two, and roughly three times the population on a similar area: about 185 people per square kilometre against about 65 in Sardinia. That density shows in the traffic and the crowds at the famous sites, but also in the liveliness of Palermo, Catania and Syracuse.

Both are Italian regions with a special statute of autonomy, and both carry layers of Phoenician, Carthaginian and Roman history. What Sardinia has that Sicily lacks is the Nuragic world: towers, sacred wells and village ruins from the second millennium BC, explained in our article on the Nuragic civilisation of Sardinia. Our Sardinia itinerary shows how Cagliari, Barumini and the north-east coast fit together.

The central stone tower and surrounding village ruins of Su Nuraxi at Barumini, Sardinia’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Is Corsica or Malta better?

Malta is better for concentrated history and easy travel, Corsica for mountain scenery and serious walking: Malta packs Neolithic temples, the Knights’ fortifications and Second World War history into 316 square kilometres, while Corsica is a sparsely settled mountain island where the scenery is the main event. Malta has about 1,800 people per square kilometre; Corsica about 41. Malta is English-speaking and easy to navigate without a car; Corsica is French-speaking, with winding mountain roads where distances take longer than the map suggests. Walkers will find coastal cliff paths in Malta, but Corsica is the serious walking island.

Red cliffs dropping into the sea on Corsica’s west coast around the Gulf of Porto, inscribed by UNESCO in 1983.

What do Malta, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica have in common?

A shared history of conquest. Rome ruled all four islands for centuries; after the western empire fell, Vandals, Goths and Byzantines followed, and from the ninth century Arab rulers took Sicily and Malta. The Normans won Sicily back for Latin Christendom and made it the heart of a kingdom that included mainland southern Italy, while the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa fought over Sardinia and Corsica.

From there the stories part. Malta passed to the Knights of St John, then briefly to Napoleon’s France and in 1800 to Britain, which held it until independence in 1964. Sardinia passed from Spanish rule, after a brief Austrian interlude, to the House of Savoy, whose Kingdom of Sardinia became the core of unified Italy. Corsica rebelled against Genoa, governed itself for a time under Paoli, and was then handed to France. Travelling from one island to the next, you follow sea routes used by Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs, and see how each conqueror left a different mark.

The Balagne village of Speloncato in northern Corsica, in late evening light, with the Regino valley and the sea behind.

When is the best time to visit the islands?

Spring and autumn are the best seasons for all four islands: warm enough for the coast, cool enough for long days on archaeological sites, and quieter than high summer. Midsummer heat makes exposed sites such as Agrigento and the Maltese temples hard work in the middle of the day, and Corsica and Sardinia’s north coast are at their busiest then. Malta’s mild winters make it the best of the four out of season. Our guide to the best time to visit Sicily looks at the seasons in more detail; check opening hours and any site closures before you go.

How do you get between Malta, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica?

By ferry and plane: Malta to Sicily and Sardinia to Corsica are short sea crossings, while Sicily to Sardinia is a longer journey, which Odyssey’s tour makes as a flight via Rome or Milan. Routes and crossing times are covered in our guide to travelling between Malta, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica.

Why not all four?

If the comparison leaves you unable to choose, you do not have to. Odyssey’s 25-day Mediterranean Islands of Malta, Sicily, Sardinia & Corsica tour travels from Malta to Bastia, giving each island its own chapter:

• Malta, Days 1 to 5: the Tarxien Temples and Għar Dalam cave, Valletta’s Grandmaster’s Palace and St John’s Co-Cathedral, Mdina, Mosta and Rabat, and a full day on Gozo with the Ġgantija Temples.
• Sicily, Days 6 to 11: a morning ferry to Pozzallo, then Noto and two nights in Syracuse, the mosaics of the Villa Romana del Casale, the Valley of the Temples and Segesta, Trapani with Mozia and Erice, and Monreale and Palermo.
• Sardinia, Days 12 to 18: a flight to Cagliari, the Roman city of Nora, Su Nuraxi at Barumini, a night in the mountains at Fonni, then Olbia as a base for La Maddalena and Alghero.
• Corsica, Days 19 to 25: the ferry from Santa Teresa di Gallura to Bonifacio, Sartène, the stone warriors of Filitosa, Ajaccio’s Palais Fesch, the Gulf of Porto, Calvi, Corte, Cap Corse and Saint-Florent, ending in Bastia.

The group is small, up to 16 travellers, led by an Odyssey Program Leader with local guides, and solo travellers are welcome. The activity level is moderate to challenging, with up to six hours of activity a day over varied terrain. Our Mediterranean islands itinerary walks through the route day by day.

Malta, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica share a sea and much of a history, but each answers a different question: Malta for concentrated history, Sicily for monuments and food, Sardinia for prehistory and coast, Corsica for mountains. For mature travellers who would rather compare them in person than on paper, travelling the four in sequence is the clearest way to see what each one does best.