Hypogeum, Lascaris War Rooms

[bighedz]

Has anyone been to either of these?  I've read mixed reviews on TripAdvisor.  Curious if they are worth the time while visiting Valetta.  I do like history and underground ancient caverns too 🙂

 

[cruisemom42]

I haven't been to the War Rooms but the Hal Saflieni hypogeum was an unforgettable experience. Yes, it's a bit of a production to get the tickets in advance and find the place, but worth it in my opinion -- of course I am a huge ancient history buff, so it was a shoo-in for me.

 

 

[frantic36]

3 hours ago, bighedz said:

Has anyone been to either of these?  I've read mixed reviews on TripAdvisor.  Curious if they are worth the time while visiting Valetta.  I do like history and underground ancient caverns too 🙂

 

 

I have done both and enjoyed both but the Hypogeum is definitely a must see. As cruisemom42 said you do need to preplan with booking the Hypogeum as they are strict with only I think it was 10 people per visit. You also have to book well in advance by a few months especially when travelling in peak season. We did the two on seperate visits. 

 

The war tunnels was interesting and the guides gave a good history of the strategic part that Malta played in WW2. We did find the pace a little slow for us but we would use the time to either go looking at some of the side exhibits or study the large strategic Map that was used in the planning of attacks. The tour was only about 1-1.5 hours I can't remember exactly.

 

 

 

We did St John's Co-Cathedral first and bought our tickets at the church as soon as it opened.We then went to watch the firing of the cannon on the battlements. We did this before we did the War tunnels as it is in the same area and it is at 12 Noon precisely, in photo 2 you can see the soldier checking his watch for correct timing.