Car hire in Sliema and St Julian's

One of the 31 operator records on this site gives a St Julian's address, and not one gives a Sliema address. That is the honest starting point, and it is not the same as saying nobody is there: three companies publish a St Julian's presence on their own sites, and several more will drive a car to your hotel. Nobody at all publishes a Sliema address.

This guide sets out who is actually in the two towns as we could verify it on 22 September 2026, who delivers instead, what parking is like once you have the car, and the case for not hiring one at all while you are staying on this stretch of coast.

Nobody publishes a Sliema base

We keep a record for each of the 31 companies we track, and each one lists the locations that company publishes. Searching every one of them for "Sliema" returns nothing, and searching for "St Julian's" returns exactly one — Princess Garage's, since we corrected it on 23 September 2026. The other bases those records name are the airport, Luqa, Qormi, Qawra, Lija, Mellieħa, Valletta, Birżebbuġa, Victoria on Gozo and the Mġarr ferry port — and for nine of the 31 the record describes delivery rather than a counter you walk into.

We do keep Sliema as a pick-up area of its own, and the note we wrote when we created it says the same thing in fewer words: it is a "Town-centre pickup/delivery area used by several local operators", with "No single canonical rental-desk address identified from public sources". We left its coordinates empty rather than drop a pin on the town centre and imply a desk that we could not find.

So the question is not "which desk in Sliema?" but "who will meet me on this coast, and how?".

The three companies with a St Julian's presence on their own sites

Avis has a desk at the Hilton in Portomaso. Avis's own site lists "Malta Hilton Hotel St Julians" among its Malta locations and says "You'll find our friendly Avis team on hand to offer advice and provide the perfect rental car for your trip at several locations on Malta and its sister island of Gozo." Its page for that office, read on 22 September 2026, names it "Avis Hilton Office,portomaso" — the missing space is theirs — puts it in "Portomaso", "St Julians", gives the phone as +356 25677202, and lists opening hours of 09:00 to 14:00 Monday to Saturday with Sunday closed. It also advertises a 24-hour drop-off. Those morning-only hours are the thing to plan around: a 15:00 collection is not possible at that desk.

Budget is at the same hotel. Budget's own locations page says "Rent a car in 10 locations across Malta" and names St Julians among them, alongside Bugibba, Luqa, Msida, Valletta, Mgarr and Gozo Port. Sliema is not on that list. Its St Julians page names the branch "The Hilton Hotel", gives the address as "The Hilton, Saint Julians, Malta", the phone as 25677202, the hours as "Mon - Sat 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM", and adds "Free pickup service available" and "Keydrop Location".

Read those two entries together before you book both: Avis's Hilton office and Budget's Hilton branch publish the same phone number and the same Monday-to-Saturday 09:00–14:00 hours at the same hotel. Treat them as one counter with two brands on it, not two places to try.

Princess Garage says St Julian's is its home base. Its own St Julian's and Sliema page states plainly: "St Julian's is where Princess Garage is based, which makes it the simplest place of all to pick up a car." Its site footer gives the address as "Sharay, Fraxxnu Street", "St Julian's, Malta", and the hours as "Open daily 09:00 to 17:00 · delivery & collection to suit your booking time".

Our own record used to disagree with that, and no longer does. Captured on 16 August 2026, it filed Princess as a Gozo family garage and gave its location as "Gozo, island-wide". On 23 September 2026 we re-read the company's home page, its St Julian's page and its contact page, and corrected the record to the St Julian's address above, adding Malta alongside Gozo to the islands it serves — which is why Princess now appears on our Malta and Malta Airport comparisons. Its written verdict was rewritten to match on 23 September 2026, with the owner's sign-off, and its name on this site no longer carries the "(Gozo)" the old record gave it.

A fourth company has an address here without calling it a rental base: Vai Drive's own site gives its address as "Ecabs Logistics Centre, Triq Santu Wistin, Pacevile, St. Julians, Malta". It publishes no St Julian's pick-up desk, so read that as a company address, not a counter.

And one to read carefully rather than quickly: Enterprise's Malta page has sections headed "Sliema" and "St. Julian's", but they are descriptions of places to drive to — "Malta Airport to Sliema is just a 30-minute drive" — not branches. Its own "Malta Car Rental Locations" list on the same page names "Luqa", "Malta International Airport (MLA)" and "Marsa", and neither town. Destination copy on a rental site is not a location.

Who will bring the car to you

Nine of the 31 records we keep describe delivery rather than a counter, and six of those serve Malta: Drifter ("Delivers to any location in Malta & Gozo"), JS Car Hire ("Malta-wide, with airport delivery"), MSG Malta ("Malta-wide, delivery-based"), Percius ("Free delivery to airport, hotel, or any address"), Princess Garage ("Delivers and collects anywhere in Malta, including Malta International Airport") and Roscar ("Malta-wide delivery model"). The other three deliver on Gozo.

Two of them name this coast specifically. Percius's own quote form has a "Collection town..." and a "Drop off town..." picker, and Sliema, Paceville, San Giljan and Swieqi are all on the list. Roscar's Malta page suggests it as a tactic: "Avoid airport pickup when possible: Consider pickup locations in Valletta, Sliema or other towns to reduce additional airport service fees." Princess makes the same offer from its base up the road — it delivers "to your hotel anywhere along the St Julian's, Paceville and Sliema front" and collects the same way.

Delivery is the realistic answer for most people staying here, and it has a second advantage: the car arrives when your holiday actually needs it, rather than sitting in a parking space for the two days you spend on the seafront.

Parking, honestly

Valletta's charging zone does not reach here. The Controlled Vehicular Access scheme is a Valletta scheme: its operator describes a strategy "aimed at reducing private vehicular traffic in Valletta", and every camera entry point it lists is a Valletta street. Sliema and St Julian's are outside it. Our parking guide has the tariffs, the hours, the exemptions and the Floriana park-and-ride, and it is the page to read before you drive into the capital.

On the seafront, the rule is the line colours. White lines mean anyone can park, yellow means do not, and green and blue are residents' bays — the detail, with its source, is in the parking guide. Princess Garage, which is based here, puts it the same way on its own page: "Street parking on white lines is free. The seafront around Spinola Bay and the Sliema front gets busy, so allow a little time to find a space and avoid double yellow lines and reserved bays."

Expect to spend time looking. A long-running Malta guide describes Sliema as "a very busy town known for traffic congestion and limited parking spaces" and, on the same page, notes the town's "ever-increasing problem of traffic congestion and parking".

What we could not source. We looked for an official, current map of paid car parks and residents-only bays across Sliema and St Julian's and did not find one we would put our name to — nothing from Transport Malta or either local council that we could cite and date the way we have cited the CVA tariffs. So we are not going to draw you one. Confirm hotel or apartment parking in writing before you book a car, and treat the line colours as the rule on the street.

On this coast the car is not the hard part. The space to leave it is.

The ferry is the way into Valletta

From Sliema you can reach the capital without driving at all. Valletta Ferry Services runs the catamaran across Marsamxett Harbour, and when we read its published schedule on 22 September 2026 the site said the "Sliema - Valletta Ferry Service is Operating Summer Schedule". On that timetable, which it dates 1 June to 31 October, departures from Sliema run every half hour from 06:45 to 20:15, then 21:15, 23:45 and 01:00. The winter timetable, 1 November to 31 May, ends at 19:15. The fares it publishes are €3.00 for an adult day single and €5.00 return, €1.00 and €1.50 for children, and €3.50 single or €5.20 return on the night service that "Commences @ 19.30".

Malta Public Transport's own fares page says a tallinja card topped up with credit can be used to pay "for services, including the Valletta ferry between Valletta and either Sliema or The Three Cities", and lists a sales office at Sliema Ferries. One caution about that page: when we read it on 22 September 2026 it still displayed a winter single-fare notice whose stated validity ended on 13 June 2026, so check the current bus fare on the day rather than from the page.

Taken together: a car is not how you see Valletta from Sliema. It is how you see everything the buses are slow to reach.

When not to hire a car here

The honest case against is strong for a certain trip. Sliema and St Julian's sit on the busiest stretch of road on the island, the parking is the problem described above, and the two towns are walkable into each other. One long-running Malta guide goes further than we would: "Although you can opt to hire a car in Sliema, I usually recommend against doing so."

Our own position is that it depends on the shape of the trip, not on the town. If your days are the promenade, Paceville, the Point and a ferry to Valletta, a car is an expense and a parking problem. If they include Mdina, the southern temples, Marsaxlokk, the northern bays or the Gozo ferry, a car earns its place — and the sensible pattern is to hire it for the days you will actually use it rather than the whole stay.

Our decision framework runs that question by itinerary, and includes the buses and ride-hailing alternatives. If a Gozo day is on the list, our Gozo guide covers whether to take a car across or rent on the island.

If you do hire one

• Collect at the airport and drive in. Around 30 companies operate at Malta International Airport — the Park East walk-through shows where the desks are and our airport comparison lists who is there. Enterprise's own page puts St Julian's 20 minutes from the airport and Sliema 30.
• Or have it delivered to the hotel, from one of the five Malta-wide delivery operators above, and hand it back the same way.
• Or use a St Julian's counter — the Hilton desk, which both Avis and Budget publish as theirs, or Princess in Fraxxnu Street. The Hilton desk's published hours end at 14:00 and it does not open on Sunday; Princess publishes 09:00 to 17:00 daily.
• Check the deposit before you commit, whichever you choose: our debit-card guide sets out which companies take which card for the block.
• Ask where you are meant to park it overnight, and get the answer from the hotel in writing.

Sources

Company pages, all read 22 September 2026: Avis — Malta and Gozo locations and Avis — Malta Hilton Hotel St Julians (address, phone, opening hours, 24-hour drop-off); Budget — Malta locations and Budget — St Julians (the Hilton branch, its address, phone and hours); Princess Garage — car hire in St Julian's and Sliema, its Gozo page and its home page (base, address, hours, delivery, parking note); Vai Drive (company address); Enterprise — Malta locations (the Sliema and St Julian's destination sections and drive times); Percius — rent a car (Sliema among its collection and drop-off towns); Roscar Malta (the pick-up-in-town tip).

Getting around: Valletta Ferry Services (Sliema–Valletta timetable and fares, summer schedule); Malta Public Transport — fares and tickets (tallinja credit on the Valletta ferry, the Sliema Ferries sales office, the winter-fare notice); cva.gov.mt — FAQ (the CVA scheme's Valletta scope and its entry points); maltauncovered.com — Sliema (congestion, parking, the recommendation against hiring in Sliema).

Operator locations are from our own records, captured 16 August 2026 and shown with their sources on each company profile.