Most of Malta is a boat ride away.
Which Blue Lagoon crossing leaves before the crush. What a Gozo day really costs. Whether the sea caves are worth the extra hour. Every tour on these three islands, reviewed and ranked.
One boat, three islands: Malta, Comino, Gozo.
All boat trips & cruises →
Nearly every crossing runs the same shape of day — out along the cliffs, into the caves, a long stop in the lagoon, a look at Gozo on the way back. What actually separates them is the boat, the swim time and the price.
Comino, and the caves around it
A garrigue rock with no town on it, ringed by caves the small boats can get inside. Most Comino days spend as long on the water as in it.
See all 169 →
The Blue Lagoon itself
The channel between Comino and Cominotto, shallow enough to read the bottom. It is also the busiest water in Malta from June to September — the early and late boats get it back.
See all 161 →
Gozo, on its own terms
Ġgantija, Victoria’s citadel, the salt pans and a coastline that stays green longer than Malta’s. Worth a whole day rather than an hour off a cruise.
See all 182 →What most people actually book in Malta.
Every review →Ranked by the number of travellers who have been and rated it — not by what anyone is pushing this week.
1
Gozo & Comino Islands, Blue Lagoon & Seacaves Tour
A 7-hour catamaran day from Bugibba to Blue Lagoon, Comino caves, and Gozo, plus Crystal Lagoon photos and a waterslide for about $28.
From · $28
Read our review →
2
Comino: Blue Lagoon, Crystal Lagoon, and Seacaves Tour
from $35
3
Blue Lagoon, Beaches & Bays Trip by Catamaran
from $62
4
Gozo, Comino, Blue & Crystal Lagoon, & Caves Cruise
from $34
5
Full-Day Gozo UTV Tour with Lunch and Boat Ride
from $94
6
From Sliema: Comino, Crystal Lagoon, and Blue Lagoon Cruise
from $40
7
From Sliema: Gozo, Comino and Blue Lagoon Cruise
from $41
8
Comino, Blue Lagoon, Crystal Lagoon & Caves Cruise
from $34
The places a Malta trip gets built around.
Three islands, one harbour city, one walled town and a coastline full of holes. Almost every itinerary is some combination of these, and each one books differently.
What a day out in Malta actually costs.
Every tour on the site sorted by price. Malta is cheap for a Mediterranean island until you hire a boat, and then it is not.
Group crossings to the lagoon, hop-on buses, harbour cruises, walking tours and entry tickets. The bulk of the island sits here.
Full days: Gozo with lunch, catamaran sailings with an open bar, jeep and quad routes, the guided temple runs.
Mostly boats you take over completely — charters, powerboats and private guides, priced for the whole party rather than the seat.
You can walk across Valletta in twenty minutes. Do not.
A grid of limestone dropped on a peninsula between two harbours, with the Three Cities facing it across the water. The good half of a Valletta day is the crossing — by dgħajsa, by ferry, or on a harbour cruise that shows you the bastions from below.
The Malta that has nothing to do with swimming.
Stone temples raised before the pyramids, a cave that turns the water electric, and a harbour where every boat is painted with a pair of eyes.
The Megalithic Temples
Ġgantija on Gozo, Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra above the southern cliffs: free-standing stone buildings older than the Egyptian pyramids and older than Stonehenge. Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra now sit under protective canopies, which changes the photographs and not much else. Guided runs usually pair two sites with the coast road between them.
- 1Gozo Day Trip Including Ggantija Temples★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 2,399 reviews
- 2Gozo Full-Day Tour with Guide, Temples, & Train★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 567 reviews
- 3Prehistoric Temples of Malta Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 517 reviews
The Blue Grotto
Small wooden boats leave from the slipway at Wied iż-Żurrieq and duck into a run of caves under the cliffs; the water lights up because the sunlight bounces off white sand below it. Morning is the light you want. It is also the first thing cancelled when the sea gets up, so keep it flexible.
- 1Blue Grotto & Sunday Market at Marsaxlokk Fishing Village★★★★★★★★★★ 3.6 · 803 reviews
- 2Marsaxlokk, Blue Grotto, and Qrendi Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 547 reviews
- 3Prehistoric Temples, Limestone Heritage & Blue Grotto★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 412 reviews
Marsaxlokk & the Luzzu
The fishing harbour in the south-east, packed with luzzijiet — painted wooden boats carrying an eye on each side of the prow, a habit older than the church behind them. Sunday is the big market. Almost every tour that comes here pairs it with the Blue Grotto twenty minutes up the coast.
- 1Blue Grotto & Sunday Market at Marsaxlokk Fishing Village★★★★★★★★★★ 3.6 · 803 reviews
- 2Marsaxlokk, Blue Grotto, and Qrendi Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 547 reviews
- 3Valletta: Sunday Vintage Bus to Marsaxlokk★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 117 reviews
Mdina, Rabat and the towns the sea never reached.
The old capital sits on a hill in the middle of the island with about three hundred people still living inside the walls. Come in the evening, when the coaches have gone and the lanes are lit by not very much. Rabat, the catacombs and the Mosta dome are the same afternoon.
Hire the whole boat and the Blue Lagoon changes.
A charter is priced for the boat, not the seat, so a group of six or eight often pays less each than the big cruise does. What you are really buying is the timetable: leave at eight, be in the lagoon before the fleet arrives, and be somewhere else by the time it fills.
- 1Private Day Sailing Boat Charterfrom $707
- 2Malta Private Charter from Mellieha: Gozo, Comino, Blue Lagoonfrom $337
- 3Private Boat Charter Comino, Blue Lagoon, Crystal Lagoon, Gozofrom $786
Four things the Blue Lagoon photographs leave out.
None of this is a reason not to go. It is the difference between the day you imagined and the day you get, and every one of them is fixed at the booking stage rather than on the jetty.
- 01From Bugibba: Blue Lagoon Afternoon Swim with Sunset CruiseMidday is the crush. Afternoon and sunset departures get the lagoon back, and the light is better anyway.
- 02Private Boat Tour: Crystal Lagoon, Blue Lagoon, Comino and GozoThere is no town on Comino. Bring water and food, or take a boat that carries lunch — the island cannot feed a crowd.
- 03Blue Lagoon, Beaches & Bays Trip by CatamaranThe big catamarans buy you shade, a deck and somewhere to sit down. On a full day out that matters more than speed.
- 04Sliema: Comino Blue Lagoon Powerboat Tour with Comino CavesA powerboat roughly halves the crossing, which is most of what you are paying for. It is also the first thing off in a swell.
By base — where you are staying
Valletta129 tours
Mellieha65 tours
Sliema34 tours
St Paul’s Bay & Bugibba32 tours
St Julian’s16 tours- Every review, wherever you are staying →
By day — what kind of day is it?
Malta on the days the boats stay in the harbour.
Winter, and any windy week in between, closes the crossings and the grotto without much notice. The island keeps working: a walled city, three sets of temples, catacombs under Rabat and a dome you can climb to. None of it depends on the sea state.
The newest Malta tour reviews.
All recent →
Tour of Malta (Private Driver) Including Lunch Platter & Wine in the countryside
Read our review →
Half Day Tour in Marsaxlokk Village, Market, Blue Grotto & Qrendi
Read our review →
Valletta Private Historical and Cultural Walking Tour
Read our review →
Valletta: Express Walk with a Local in 60 minutes
Read our review →
Shore Excursion: Private Full-Day Tour of Valletta & Mdina
Read our review →
Private Tour of the Maltese Island (Private Driver)
Read our review →
Private Tour in Malta Prehistoric Temples & Mdina
Read our review →
30-Minute Mdina Experience Audio-Visual Show Ticket (Open Ticket)
Read our review →
Sensory Coffee Master Class: A Unique Island Experience
Read our review →
