Paceville: in the middle, with the noise
This is the club district, and sleeping in it means walking home in two minutes. That is the argument and it is a real one: no taxi, no wait, no haggling over a fare. The downside is obvious, the noise does not stop before five, and street-facing rooms are unliveable if you want to sleep before then. It is the right call if the whole group goes out every night, the wrong one if anyone wants to sleep.
St Julian's outside Paceville: the compromise
Five to ten minutes' walk from the clubs, around Spinola Bay, the noise drops away completely. You keep the walk home and lose the bass through the walls. Prices are a little above Sliema but the position is the best on purely practical grounds. It is what most groups pick on a second visit.
Sliema: cheaper, fifteen minutes on foot
Sliema is across the bay. Allow fifteen to twenty minutes on foot along the seafront to Paceville, or five minutes by Bolt for six to ten euros. In exchange, accommodation prices drop noticeably, restaurants are better and cheaper, and you sleep. The Sliema seafront has its own bars too, which gives you an option on the nights you do not want a club.
Valletta: beautiful, but beside the point
The capital is magnificent and worth a night for itself, but it is twenty-five minutes by car from Paceville and its nightlife is a different animal: wine bars, terraces, nothing that closes at four. Sleeping there when you have come for the clubs means adding a twenty-five-euro journey to every end of night.
The actual maths
A room in Sliema often costs twenty to thirty euros a night less than one in Paceville. Over a week that is a hundred and fifty euros saved. A night Bolt costs six to ten euros, split four ways that is under three each. Which means Sliema still wins even taking a taxi every night, provided you are in a group. Travelling alone, the numbers get closer.
The detail that ruins the end of nights
Night buses exist but are infrequent and packed after three. Ride-hailing apps work well in Malta and cost less than a street taxi, whose fare is negotiated before you get in. Book the ride home before you leave the club, not on the pavement at four: that is when prices double.