Malta is one of the best places to dive in the Mediterranean. The reasons are unglamorous. Visibility is reliably high and there is almost no tide. The water is warm for much of the year, and many sites can be reached from the shore.
Check your travel insurance covers diving to the depth you intend before you book.
What there is to dive
Wrecks
Malta has deliberately sunk a number of vessels as dive sites, alongside genuine wartime wrecks. They sit at a range of depths, so there’s something for a newly qualified diver and something that needs technical training.
Check what qualification a site needs before you book. Depth here climbs faster than people expect.
Dive packages
Ċirkewwa
This is the busiest shore-diving site in Malta, at the northern tip near the Gozo ferry. It has an arch, wrecks and easy entry, which is why every school goes there.
Gozo is generally the better diving and quieter with it. The Blue Hole at Dwejra is the famous one. Comino is caves and clear shallow water, usually done by boat.
Diving in GozoBook a shore dive
Caves and caverns
The limestone is full of them, and several of the best-known sites take you inside. That’s a different skill set from open water and needs the right qualification.
Malta has a recompression chamber, which is one reason the technical diving community is so well established here.
Other things on the waterBook a guided dive
Water temperature swings a lot
The sea runs from the mid-twenties in late summer to the mid-teens in late winter. A wetsuit that works in September will be too thin in March. Ask what thickness is provided.
Schools operate all year and the shoulder seasons are the most comfortable: warm water and no crowds.
Month by month
Where to dive
The main sites
- Wrecks
- Malta has deliberately scuttled a number of vessels as dive sites, alongside genuine wartime wrecks, at a range of depths.
- Caves and caverns
- The limestone is full of them. Several of the best-known sites are overhead environments and need the right qualification.
- Ċirkewwa
- This is the busiest shore-diving site in Malta, at the northern tip near the Gozo ferry. Arch, wrecks and easy entry.
- Gozo
- Generally the better diving. The Blue Hole at Dwejra is the famous one, and Gozo’s sites are quieter than Malta’s equivalents.
- Comino
- Caves and clear shallow water, usually done by boat.
Dwejra’s entry and exit are over rock and dangerous in any swell. People are hurt there most years getting out, not underwater. If the sea is moving at all a dive school will call it off, and that judgement is worth deferring to.
A bright calm-looking day with a north-westerly running will still shut half the sites on the island. Which coast is diveable changes daily, and any decent school will move you rather than cancel.
What changes with the season
You get the best walking of the year, and the island is green.
- The countryside is green from February to April and burnt brown by June, so put the walking days early in the trip.
- The sea does not really warm up until May. Treat a beach day as a coast day and you will not be disappointed.
- Holy Week moves every year and changes opening hours across a lot of towns. Check the dates before you fix a day to Valletta.
Everything is open and everything is busy. The heat sets the timetable.
- The midday heat limits you more than the distance does. Start early, stop between one and four, then go out again in the evening.
- The Blue Lagoon needs a slot booked in advance. It is free, but it is not optional.
- Beaches fill from mid-morning, and the northern buses fill with them. A full bus will drive straight past your stop.
The sea is still warm and the crowds have gone. Many people prefer October for that reason.
- The water lags the air by about a month, so swimming is still on the table through October.
- The Valletta harbour ferries switch to their winter timetable on 1 November, and the last crossing comes earlier than people expect.
- Rain returns in November. Keep one flexible day rather than booking every morning.
Swap the beach days for walking days and the itineraries still work.
- The sea is too cold for most people, so every beach day in these routes becomes a coast walk instead.
- Comino boats run to a reduced service or stop altogether, so treat the Blue Lagoon as a summer plan.
- The sites and the museums are almost empty in winter, so this is a good time to walk round them.
Schools will take walk-ins when they have space, but a course or a guided dive is worth arranging before you arrive in summer. You can book diving in Malta through Klook.
Every wreck a diver can reach here, with depths and what each one was, is on the wrecks page.