Malta is about 27 kilometres long. You can watch the sun come up over one coast and go down behind the other on the same day.
The west coast gets the sunset and the east coast gets the sunrise. There is no more to it than that.
For the sunset
- Dingli Cliffs. The highest point on the island, 250 metres above the sea, with nothing between you and the horizon.
- Golden Bay and Għajn Tuffieħa. Sand, west facing, and the cliffs either side turn red.
- Ta’ Ċenċ in Gozo. Cliffs even higher than Dingli and almost nobody there.
- Marsalforn and Xlendi in Gozo. Both face roughly west and both have tables at the water.
- Fomm ir-Riħ. The hardest to reach and the emptiest.
Dingli has no lighting and no barrier along much of the edge. Take a torch and start walking back before it is fully dark.
For the sunrise
- Marsaxlokk. The sun comes up behind the harbour and the fishing boats are already out.
- St Peter’s Pool. Ten minutes from Marsaxlokk, empty at that hour, and the rock catches the first light.
- Sliema front. Easy, walkable and it looks straight into the sunrise across open sea.
- Delimara and Xrobb l-Għaġin on the same headland as St Peter’s Pool.
Without leaving the city
The Upper Barrakka faces southeast over the Grand Harbour, so it takes the sunrise rather than the sunset.
For sunset in Valletta, the Hastings Gardens on the Floriana side look out over Marsamxett and Sliema.
Mdina’s bastion faces north and east. It is the wrong direction for either, and it is still worth being there at dusk.
Roughly what time
In June the sun sets around 20:20 and rises around 05:45.
In December it sets around 17:00 and rises around 07:00.
September sits in between, with sunset moving from about 19:30 at the start of the month to 18:50 at the end.
Malta keeps summer time until the last Sunday in October, when the clocks go back an hour.
Two practical things
Buses to Dingli and the northwest bays thin out in the evening and stop early. Check the last one before you go, or drive.
The best colour is often twenty minutes after the sun has gone rather than at the moment it drops.
Most people leave too early. The cliffs empty within five minutes of the sun touching the water.
