Diving in Sliema
9 dive sites around Sliema: 5 wrecks, 1 cave and 5 reefs. The stretch takes in Tas-Sliema, Tigné, Exiles, Gżira, Manoel Island and Marsamxett.
Depths run from 5 to 25 m. 6 suit Open Water divers. Every one is a shore dive. Exiles and Sliema are localities with several dives each.
Most of these sites close when the wind or swell comes from the N, NE and E, and almost all are sheltered in a wind from the S, SW, W and NW.
The most dived: Coral Gardens (Sliema), Exiles Reef, Fortizza Reef and Tug 2. Every site below has live sea conditions, a seabed sketch and the marine life to look for.
Best right now
- X127 Lighter58Marginal
- Qui Si SanaSliema3Stay dry
- Coral GardensSliema0Stay dry
Scores blend the wave, swell and wind forecasts for each site against the directions it is open to. Check the site page before you go.
Localities
Dive sites around Sliema
Digital Render
Coral Gardens
Sliema, Malta
Sliema's canyon reef: narrow rock valleys, odd formations and short swimthroughs in 15 metres or less, right next door to Fortizza Reef.
Digital RenderExiles Reef
Exiles, Malta
The natural half of the Exiles site: a shallow limestone reef cut by narrow gullies and overhangs, wrapped in Posidonia and busy with small fish. Twenty metres is about as deep as it gets.
Digital Render
Fortizza Reef
Sliema, Malta
The best-structured of the Sliema shore reefs: caverns, arches, tunnels and gullies carved into the limestone below the old battery, none of it deeper than about 15 metres.
Digital Render
Tug 2
Exiles, Malta
A 30 m Grand Harbour tugboat put on the bottom off Exiles in 2013, sitting upright at 22 m with an open wheelhouse and engine room you can swim through.
Digital RenderQui Si Sana
Sliema, Malta
The plain, practical end of the Sliema reefs, tucked under the Tigne seafront. Shallow, sheltered and mostly used for training and try dives.
Digital RenderX127 Lighter
Sliema, Malta
A little WWII fuel lighter sitting upright on a harbour slope, bow shallow enough for a first wreck dive and stern deep enough to feel like a proper one. Shore access, five minutes of finning, and a hull that has been quietly turning into a reef since 1942.
Digital RenderFireworks Barge
Exiles, Malta
A 30 m firework launching barge that blew itself apart in 2009 and now lies upside down on sand at 10 m in St Julian's Bay. Shallow, odd, and almost nobody dives it.
Digital RenderHMS Greetham
Sliema, Malta
A wooden hulled 1950s minesweeper that became a Libyan patrol boat, then a Maltese tour boat in Kit Kat colours, then a wreck on her own moorings in Sliema Creek. Broken up as a navigation hazard in 2011, so there is very little left to dive.
Digital RenderTent Peg Wreck
Sliema, Malta
The flattened remains of an unnamed steel cargo steamer in Marsamxett Harbour, named for the thousands of tent pegs that are all that survives of its cargo. Silty, sheltered and only for people who enjoy poking about.