Three islands, one short ferry apart.
Which Blue Lagoon boat leaves before the crowd does. What a full Gozo day really costs. Where the Sunday fish market actually sets up. Every tour in Malta, reviewed.
The Blue Lagoon, Mdina’s gate, and the days in between.
Malta is 27 kilometres end to end, so nothing here is far. What changes is the kind of day: a boat out to Comino, a walk inside Valletta’s walls, a whole island given over to Gozo.
Getting to the Blue Lagoon is the whole decision.
All Blue Lagoon trips →
Same water, four different days. The big cruisers stop at Gozo and the caves and give you two hours in the lagoon; the small boats stay out longer; a charter gets you into Crystal Lagoon before the fleet arrives.
Gozo, Comino and the lagoon in one sailing
One boat, three stops: the Gozo shore, the sea caves under the cliffs, then the anchorage in the lagoon itself. The cheapest way to see all of it in a day.
Crystal Lagoon before the fleet arrives
Crystal Lagoon sits around the headland from the famous one and empties first. A chartered boat can be in it at nine and back for lunch.
Paddling the Comino channel
The caves along Comino’s north shore are cut for a kayak, not a cruiser. Slower, wetter, and the only way into the narrow ones.
Most of Malta’s top ten leave from a quay.
Straight to the full list →The tours more travellers take than anything else on the islands, and what each one actually gives you for the day.
1
Gozo & Comino Islands, Blue Lagoon & Seacaves Tour
Catamaran from Bugibba to Gozo and Comino with Blue Lagoon swim, sea caves, Crystal Lagoon photos, and a big waterslide.
From · $28
Read our review →
2
Cruise to Comino, Crystal Lagoon, and Blue Lagoon
from $41
3
Gozo, Comino & Blue Lagoon Cruise – swim & sightsee
from $28
4
Blue Lagoon, Crystal Lagoon, and Seacaves Tour
from $35
5
Full-Day Gozo UTV Tour with Lunch and Boat Ride
from $94
6
Gozo, Comino and Blue Lagoon Cruise
from $41
7
Blue Lagoon & Caves Boat Cruise
from $35
8
The Original Valletta Walking Tour
from $26
Gozo runs slower than the island you can see from it.
Twenty-five minutes on the Cirkewwa ferry and the traffic stops. Ggantija is older than the pyramids, the Citadel looks over the whole island, and Ramla’s sand is red. Most people give it a day; it takes three.
What a day out costs between Valletta and Gozo.
Every tour on the site grouped by what you actually pay. Malta is cheap by Mediterranean standards, and the water costs least of all.
Ferry crossings, walking tours, entry tickets and the round trip to the Blue Lagoon.
The standard island day: a full cruise with swim stops, a Gozo bus-and-boat, a food walk with tastings.
Quads and jeeps on Gozo, chartered boats, private drivers and the days built around one small group.
Valletta is half a mile long and still takes three days.
The knights laid it out on a grid in 1566 and every street ends at water. Walk it downhill in the morning, take the harbour by boat in the afternoon, and eat somewhere on Strait Street after.
Mdina is loudest at noon and best after dark.
The old capital holds about three hundred residents behind its walls, so once the coaches leave for the coast the lanes go quiet enough to hear your own footsteps. Rabat and the catacombs sit just outside the gate.
- 1Highlights of Malta & Mdina Full Day Tour with Lunchfrom $79
- 2Mdina and Rabat Walking Tour with Catacombsfrom $29
- 3Mdina, Dingli Cliffs and San Anton Botanical Gardensfrom $41
A painted boat, a stone circle, and a film set nobody took down.
Cliffs and clear water you can find all round this sea. The luzzu’s painted eye, temples older than any pyramid, and Popeye’s village belong to these islands alone.
The Luzzu’s Eye
Every Maltese fishing boat carries a pair of eyes on the bow, painted the same yellow, blue and red for so long that nobody agrees whether they came from the Phoenicians or the Greeks. Marsaxlokk keeps a whole harbour of them. Sunday is the market, so the boats stay in and the quay fills with fish, honey and lace.
- 1Blue Grotto & Sunday Market at Marsaxlokk Fishing Village★★★★★★★★★★ 3.6 · 803 reviews
- 2Marsaxlokk, Blue Grotto, and Qrendi Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 547 reviews
- 3Private Jet Ski Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 245 reviews
The Stone Temples
Ggantija on Gozo went up around 3600 BC, which makes it older than Giza and older than Stonehenge, and it was built by people who had no metal. Hagar Qim and Mnajdra sit on the south cliffs above the sea. They are limestone, they are roofed against the weather now, and they are still standing.
- 1Gozo Day Trip Including Ggantija Temples★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 2,399 reviews
- 2Prehistoric Temples of Malta Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 517 reviews
- 3Prehistoric Temples, Limestone Heritage & Blue Grotto★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 412 reviews
Popeye’s Village
A film crew built a whole wooden village at Anchor Bay in 1980 for a musical that flopped, and then simply left it there. Forty years on it is painted brighter than ever, sitting in a cove on the northwest coast with a swimming beach below it. Malta doubles for half the Mediterranean on screen; this is the set that stayed.
- 1Popeye Village Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 2,070 reviews
- 2Popeye Village Malta Filmset Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,802 reviews
- 3Popeye Village with Optional Private Transfers★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 551 reviews
Grand Harbour is worth staying up for.
Every evening out →
Marsamxett Harbour and Grand Harbour Cruise by Night
Read our review →
Valletta Waterfront Area, Mdina, and Rabat Night Tour
Read our review →Book these before you land in Malta.
Most of Malta can be arranged the night before from your hotel. These four cannot, because there is only ever one of them running: one boat, one convoy, one sailing.
- 01Private Day Sailing Boat CharterOne booking takes the whole boat, so a single party sails per day. Summer weekends are spoken for first.
- 02Full-Day Gozo UTV Tour with Lunch and Boat RideThe buggies leave in one convoy of a fixed size. When the vehicles are taken, the day is full.
- 03Gozo All Inclusive Chauffeured Tuk Tuk Day Tour – Blue LagoonA tuk-tuk seats six and runs one Gozo day. The size of the fleet is the number of tickets.
- 04Sunset Cruise to the Blue LagoonOne sailing a day, timed to the sun. Miss it and the next chance is tomorrow evening.
When the gregale blows, the Comino boats stay in.
Malta’s northeasterly can shut the Blue Lagoon crossings for a day or two at a time, most often between November and March, and no operator sails against it. The answer is inland and uphill: walled Mdina, the catacombs under Rabat, a temple on the cliffs, a table with somebody pouring.
By town — and by island
Valletta148 tours
Gozo221 tours- Comino195 tours
Sliema41 tours
Mellieha68 tours
Mdina69 tours
St Paul’s Bay31 tours
The Three Cities28 tours
Marsaxlokk19 tours- Every town on the islands →
By kind of day — boat, stone or engine?
Malta in the order it actually works.
Latest Malta tour reviews.
The new arrivals →
Gozo Full-Day Group Coach Tour including Lunch and Transfers
Read our review →
Vintage Bus Tour: Aviation Museum & Mosta Church inc Platter
Read our review →
Visit Tarxien Temples, Kalanka Bay, Blue Grotto, Marsaxlokk
Read our review →
Victoria, Gozo: Sunset Walking Food and Drink Tour
Read our review →
Valletta Street Food & History Tour With Private Transfers
Read our review →
Afternoon Harbours Cruise with Guide and Roundtrip Transfers
Read our review →
