Discover Malta Island

Malta Island beaches & seafront

Here is where honesty earns its keep. Malta is not a sandy island in the way Turkey or Greece are — most of its coast is flat, sun-warmed limestone shelving straight into deep, exceptionally clear water, and along the east coast at Sliema, Gzira and St Julian's you swim from ladders and rock lidos rather than sand. Once you know that, it stops being a disappointment and starts being a feature: the water is cleaner and deeper than most hotel beaches, sunbathing on the flat rock is a Maltese institution, and the swimming off Sliema's front is genuinely lovely on a calm day.

The real sand lives in the north-west. Mellieħa Bay (Għadira) is the island's largest beach, a wide, shallow, family-friendly curve; over the ridge, Golden Bay and its wilder neighbour Għajn Tuffieħa give you the two prettiest sandy bays on Malta, backed by low cliffs and the island's best sunsets. Around St Paul's Bay there are smaller sandy patches and a string of lidos, plus the departure point for boats to the clear water of Comino. So the rule of thumb is simple: if a proper beach is the centre of your holiday, base yourself in the sandy north around Mellieħa; if you want a town, a promenade and easy sightseeing with your swimming off a lido, the east coast is made for you. Either way the sea stays warm and swimmable from June deep into October.

A couple of practical notes the brochures skip. The rock lidos of Sliema and St Julian's are more comfortable than they sound — the better hotels have their own sun-terraces cut into the shore with ladders, showers and a bar, and locals swear the deep, clear water off the rocks beats any hotel beach for actual swimming. On the sandy side, Mellieħa Bay shelves so gently that it suits nervous paddlers but fills up in August, while Golden Bay and Għajn Tuffieħa are prettier and wilder with a flight of steps down to the sand. Wherever you swim, the summer sun is fierce and shade is limited on the open rock, so a good hat and high-factor sun cream matter more here than the sea temperature ever will.

Things to do around Malta Island

You could fill a fortnight and still leave things unseen. Valletta alone is a day — St John's Co-Cathedral, the Grandmaster's Palace, the Upper Barrakka Gardens and the daily saluting-battery gun over the Grand Harbour — and the Three Cities across the water are a gentler half-day by water-taxi. Mdina and neighbouring Rabat make a classic morning inland, best finished with a pastizzi and a coffee in the silent city's main square. On the south coast, the megalithic temples of Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra pair naturally with a Blue Grotto boat trip, while the Hypogeum — an underground prehistoric burial complex — is so fragile that tickets sell out weeks ahead, so book before you fly.

For lighter, family days there's the Malta National Aquarium and the little bays of the north, plenty of boat trips out to Comino and around the harbours, and Popeye Village — the film-set turned family attraction — overlooking Anchor Bay near Mellieħa. Divers come to Malta specifically for its wrecks and caverns and warm, clear water; walkers take the coast paths above Għajn Tuffieħa; and everyone ends up on a harbour cruise at least once.

A few days out reward a little planning. The Sunday market at Marsaxlokk is as much about the harbour full of painted boats and the fish-lunch tavernas as the stalls themselves. Mosta's Rotunda, one of the largest unsupported domes in Europe, still bears the scar of a wartime bomb that fell through the roof during Mass and failed to explode. The vintage Gozo Channel ferry from Čirkewwa is a sight in itself, and even if you don't cross for the day the drive up to the terminal takes you past the north's best beaches. And if the heat gets much in July and August, the trick locals use is simple — sightsee early, retreat to the water or a shaded lido at midday, and save Valletta and Mdina for the golden hour, when the stone glows and the crowds have gone home.

Valletta & Mdina: Malta's baroque capitals

No holiday to the main island is complete without its two capitals, old and new. Valletta is the working one — a grid of golden streets built entirely by the Knights of St John, walkable end to end in twenty minutes, and crammed with more than its share of masterpieces: Caravaggio's vast Beheading of Saint John in the co-cathedral, the war-tunnel museums, and the Upper Barrakka Gardens looking clean across the Grand Harbour to the Three Cities. Time your visit for noon and you'll catch the saluting battery fire its cannon over the water, a ritual that has barely changed in centuries. Because the capital is a ten-minute ferry from Sliema and Gzira, most of our guests treat it as an easy repeat trip rather than a single big day out.

Mdina is the opposite mood entirely: the fortified medieval capital in the centre of the island, all silent honey-stone lanes, noble palazzos and one show-stopping view from the bastions across half of Malta. Day-trippers fill it by afternoon and drain away by evening, so the local move is to arrive late, have dinner within the walls, and walk the empty streets after dark when it earns its nickname, the Silent City. Pair the two on separate days rather than trying to cram both into one, and you'll understand quickly why Malta punches so far above its size for anyone who likes their beach week with a serious dose of history attached.

Comino & the Blue Lagoon by boat

Floating in the channel between Malta and Gozo is Comino, an almost-uninhabited scrap of an island whose one great asset is the Blue Lagoon — a shallow, sheltered channel of water so clear and so improbably turquoise that first-timers assume the photos are faked. They aren't. It is the finest swimming and snorkelling anywhere in the Maltese islands, and boats run to it all summer from St Paul's Bay, Buġibba, Sliema and the Cirkewwa ferry terminal, either as a quick shuttle or as part of a full-day harbour-and-caves cruise. The catch is its fame: by mid-morning in peak season the lagoon is busy, so the seasoned move is to take the earliest boat or a late-afternoon trip and have the water closer to yourself.

Comino rewards a little more effort, too. Walk fifteen minutes from the lagoon and the crowds thin to almost nothing, leaving the Santa Marija caves, the old watchtower and quiet rocky coves for swimming. Bring water, a hat and your own shade — facilities are deliberately minimal — and treat it as a half-day rather than a whole one so you're back on Malta for dinner. It is the single most photographed spot in the country for good reason, and no week on the main island is really finished until you've been in that water.