Fodor's Expert Review Buskett Gardens

Get your tree fix at Buskett Gardens, a short drive (or 40-minute walk) south of Rabat. This pleasant stretch of woodland was a former hunting ground for the Knights of St. John, and, as such, is one of few surviving patches of forest on Malta (trees cover barely 1% of the islands) after the Knights cut down the rest to build their warships. It surrounds Verdala Castle, a 16th-century hunting lodge that is now used by the president of Malta to host distinguished visitors and is sadly not open to the public. Just up the road are the prehistoric "Clapham Junction" cart ruts, a dense collection of V-shape gouges (some up to 60 cm-deep) thought to have been used for transportation, and the il-Kbhur cave complex, which was inhabited up until 1835.