Best beaches in Malta

Mellieħa Bay, also called Għadira, is the usual answer. No sand beach in Malta is bigger, it lies up in the north, and it shelves so gently that a small child can be a long way from the towels and still standing up. That same shelf is why the bay fills fast once the season starts.

Overwhelmingly rocky. Sand beaches are scarce here and rock coastline is everywhere, so getting into the sea off a platform is ordinary rather than a compromise. Plan on sand and you have committed yourself to a short list of crowded bays.

Cross to a coast that faces somewhere else. The north easterly, the grigal, drives swell into anything open to the north or the east, so the sheltered option that day is usually southward or behind high ground. We are working that out from the direction each bay faces rather than from a measurement, so use it to pick a shortlist and then look at the sea.

Ramla Bay, and the colour is genuinely unusual rather than a trick of the light. San Blas Bay, also on Gozo, has the same red sand in a much smaller cove, but you reach it down a steep descent, which is exactly why it holds fewer people.

No. The Blue Lagoon sits in the narrow strait dividing Comino from the islet of Cominotto, and there are no cars on Comino and barely anyone lives there, so every single visit begins on a boat. That is why the boat crossings get a named section of their own further down this page rather than a passing mention.

The large sand bays beside towns are the ones a bus network is built to serve, and the awkward ones are those that finish with a descent on foot no matter what you arrive in. Fomm ir-Riħ is the hardest of the lot and St Peter's Pool has nothing waiting for you at the end. We do not print route numbers we cannot source, so confirm the current network with Malta Public Transport.

They are next door to one another with a headland in between, so the sea is much the same at both. What separates them is the long flight of steps down to Għajn Tuffieħa, and those steps are why it stays quieter. Take them if you want the quieter beach, and give them a miss if there is a cool box and a toddler in the party.