212 sites, 21 localities
Dive sites
212 dive sites and 21 localities
Localities one place, several dives
Digital Render
Ċirkewwa
Cirkewwa, Malta
Digital RenderCominotto
Comino
Digital RenderDwejra
Gozo
Digital RenderExiles
Malta
Digital RenderGħar Lapsi
Ghar Lapsi, Malta
Digital RenderMarsaskala
Malta
Digital RenderQawra Point
Malta
Digital RenderRas il-Hobz
Gozo
Dive sites
Digital RenderAzure Reef
Dwejra, Gozo
The Azure Window fell into the sea in March 2017 and left behind a mountain range of raw limestone blocks that runs from just under the surface to past forty metres. It is the newest famous dive in Malta and it is still settling.
Digital RenderBillinghurst Cave
Reqqa Point, Gozo
A vast dark tunnel bored into Gozo's north cliffs, entered at around 28 metres and running roughly 100 metres into the rock before opening into a domed chamber with a gas pocket at the top.
Digital RenderBlue Hole
Dwejra, Gozo
A limestone sinkhole on the edge of the Dwejra headland, sheltered enough to step into and beautiful enough that it keeps winning best dive of the Mediterranean polls. An arch at nine metres lets you out into the open sea.
Digital RenderĊirkewwa Arch
Cirkewwa, Malta
A natural stone span at 12 m with eight metres of clear water beneath it, reached along a reef wall stitched with short caves and tunnels. One of the best beginner dives anywhere in the Mediterranean.
Digital RenderCoral Cave
Dwejra, Gozo
A huge, well lit cavern cut into the Dwejra wall, its ceiling and sides upholstered in colourful corals. The mouth starts around seventeen metres and runs down to the seabed near thirty.
Digital RenderCoral 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 RenderCoral Gardens
Dwejra, Gozo
The shallow limestone amphitheatre just around the corner from the Blue Hole, full of fish, colour and light, and the top end of a chimney that rises out of the mid twenties.
Digital RenderDouble Arch
Xwejni Bay, Gozo
Two enormous natural arches stacked one above the other on an offshore reef north of Xwejni, with barracuda hanging over the top and the ground falling away to 45 metres and beyond. The best-looking deep reef dive on Gozo's north coast.
Digital RenderEast Reef
Ras il-Hobz, Gozo
The sunny, shallow half of Ras il-Hobz: a gently stepping reef off the eastern side of the headland that rarely passes 20 metres and makes an easy second dive or a relaxed training site.
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 RenderFinger Reef
Ghar Lapsi, Malta
A long, narrow reef running out from Għar Lapsi with a small colourful wall, a plateau with a swim-through, and a cave you exit through a hole in the roof. Twenty metres at the deepest.
Digital RenderFortizza 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 RenderFra Ben Cave
Qawra Point, Malta
A short, shallow cavern with an open ceiling on the north side of Qawra Point, complete with a rock in the middle to swim around and a blowhole to surface in. Perfect on a sunny day and genuinely beginner friendly.
Digital RenderGħar Lapsi Cave
Ghar Lapsi, Malta
Forty-odd metres of wide, shallow cave running from the cove out to the open sea, lit by cracks in the ceiling that turn the passage into a light show on a sunny morning.
Digital RenderHMS Maori
Valletta, Malta
The forepart of a Tribal-class destroyer lying half buried in sand at sixteen metres in St Elmo Bay, reachable from a ladder and shallow enough for a newly qualified diver. Malta's most accessible piece of the war.
Digital RenderInland Sea & Tunnel
Dwejra, Gozo
You kit up in a puddle and come out on a wall. An eighty metre tunnel through the headland links a shallow lagoon to the open Mediterranean, and swimming through it is one of the great theatrical moments in Maltese diving.
Digital RenderLe Polynesien
Marsaskala, Malta
A hundred and fifty metres of French ocean liner lying on her port side east of Marsaskala, torpedoed in the last summer of the First World War. Deck structures start at forty five metres and the sand is at sixty five.
Digital RenderMiddle Finger
Ras il-Hobz, Gozo
Gozo's most famous pinnacle, a single column of coralline limestone whose splayed summit sits around 8 to 10 metres down while its outer face drops past 90 metres into the dark.
Digital RenderMV Cominoland
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
A thirty-five metre wartime minelayer turned tourist cruiser, sunk upright on sand at forty metres. Smaller and further out than the Karwela, which is exactly why some divers prefer it.
Digital RenderMV Karwela
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
The most dived wreck in Gozo, and deservedly: a fifty-metre ferry sitting dead upright on sand at forty metres with a staircase that every underwater photographer in the Mediterranean has shot.
Digital RenderP29
Cirkewwa, Malta
A 52 m East German built patrol boat sitting upright on sand at 34 m, reachable on a shore dive from Ċirkewwa. Clean, photogenic and probably the most satisfying wreck in Malta for the effort involved.
Digital RenderP31
Comino
A 52 m ex-East German minesweeper sitting upright on white sand off Comino's west coast, deck at 12 m and keel at 20 m. Easily the friendliest wreck in the islands, and shallow enough that snorkellers can see the whole thing.
Digital RenderP33
Marsaskala, Malta
A former Cold War patrol boat sunk between the Marsaskala tugs in 2021, now broken into pieces by winter storms and dived as a scattered wreckage field at around 20 metres.
Digital RenderQawra Bay
Qawra Point, Malta
The sheltered shallow bay on the south side of Qawra Point, two to ten metres of sand and seagrass, and the place half of Malta learns to dive. Unglamorous, dependable, and better on fish than it has any right to be.
Digital RenderReef
Xwejni Bay, Gozo
The shallow rock shelf just outside Xwejni Bay, 5 to 15 metres of ledges, grass and small canyons. Nobody travels to Gozo for it, but it is a lovely second dive, a reliable night dive and a forgiving classroom.
Digital RenderRozi
Cirkewwa, Malta
A 33 m Grand Harbour tug scuttled in 1992, sitting upright and remarkably whole on sand at 34 m with her mast reaching up to 20 m. Malta's most dived wreck, and deservedly so.
Digital RenderShrimp's Cave
Reqqa Point, Gozo
A small chamber tucked into the wall west of Reqqa Point whose ceiling glitters with thousands of shrimp. Turn the torch off for a second and you can hear them.
Digital RenderSt. Michael
Marsaskala, Malta
A Canadian-built wartime Tanac tug scuttled off Żonqor Point in 1998, lying upright in 22 metres and reached on the same shore dive as Tugboat 10.
Digital RenderSubmarine Cave
Xwejni Bay, Gozo
A long, winding cave on the offshore wall between Xwejni and Qbajjar. The mouth yawns at about 21 metres and the floor runs back and down into silt at 34 metres, which makes it a serious dive dressed up as a reef swim.
Digital RenderSusie's Pool
Cirkewwa, Malta
A sheltered rocky pool and six metre plateau where half of Malta has learned to dive, with a reef wall dropping to 30 m and a Madonna statue tucked in a cave at 18 m.
Digital RenderThe Point
Reqqa Point, Gozo
The tip of the Reqqa headland itself: a sheer limestone face where the reef ends and the deep water begins, with the biggest fish on this coast patrolling the corner.
Digital RenderTug 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 RenderTugboat 10
Marsaskala, Malta
A little Grand Harbour tug sunk on purpose in 1998, sitting upright in about 21 metres of water a short swim from the Marsaskala shore, and usually dived back to back with her neighbour St. Michael.
Digital RenderUm El Faroud
Wied iz-Zurrieq, Malta
A 110 metre Libyan tanker sitting upright on sand at 36 metres, reachable on a shore dive, and broken clean in two by a winter storm. If Malta has one signature wreck for recreational divers, this is it.
Digital Render
Washing Machine
Xwejni Bay, Gozo
A small U-shaped notch in the salt pan shelf west of Xwejni that gives straight onto a rocky plateau at 8 metres. The name is a warning as much as a joke: in winter the sea churns in the notch exactly like a drum on spin cycle.
Digital RenderWest Reef & Caves
Wied iz-Zurrieq, Malta
The right-hand reef out of Wied iż-Żurrieq, all drop-offs, ledges and boulder gullies, with two caves and a brass diving helmet sitting on the sand at 28 metres.
Digital RenderAnchor Bay Reef
Anchor Bay, Malta
A tumble of cliff fallen limestone blocks on both sides of the bay, stitched together with sand channels and Posidonia, making short swim throughs and cracks that are absolutely stuffed with small life. Twelve metres at the deepest.
Digital RenderAnchor Bay Training Area
Anchor Bay, Malta
The sheltered inner corner of Anchor Bay behind the jetty, one to six metres deep over sand, rock and seagrass. This is where a lot of people in Malta take their very first breath underwater, and where everyone else finishes their dive.
Digital Render
B-24 Liberator Bomber
Birżebbuġa, Malta
An American four engine heavy bomber that ditched off southern Malta in May 1943, found again in 2015 and opened to permitted technical divers in 2020. It lies upright on sand at about 55 metres with both wings spread and the engine nacelles unmistakable. It is also a war grave.
Digital RenderBlat ta' Bologna
Mgarr ix-Xini, Gozo
A proper deep wall and drop-off just outside Mgarr ix-Xini, falling past fifty metres with big fallen boulders strewn along its foot. The grown-up dive of this stretch of south coast.
Digital RenderCathedral Cave
Marsalforn, Gozo
Swim into a five-metre entrance on Gozo's north coast, follow the passage up, and surface inside an enormous domed chamber with fifteen metres of air above your head. Take the regulator out and listen to everyone else laughing.
Digital RenderCrib
Ghar Lapsi, Malta
Life sized nativity figures cut from sheet steel, standing under a rock overhang at about 22 m on the outer reef at Ghar Lapsi. Getting there is a reef and sand navigation exercise, and finding it is half the fun.
Digital RenderEast Reef
Wied iz-Zurrieq, Malta
Turn left out of the valley and the reef runs east for a few hundred metres as a broad ledge that tips over into a wall dropping past 30 metres. Big shoals, big visibility, and far fewer divers than the wreck.
Digital RenderHephaestus
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
Gozo's newest big wreck: a sixty-metre bunkering tanker that wrecked itself on Qawra Point in a storm, then got a second career on the sand at Xatt l-Ahmar. Deep, upright and still sharp-edged.
Digital RenderHMS Southwold
Marsaskala, Malta
A Hunt-class destroyer broken cleanly into two off Marsaskala, the bow on her starboard side around sixty eight to seventy two metres and the stern sitting upright at seventy three. Two very different dives on one ship, and probably the most dived of Malta's permitted deep wrecks.
Digital RenderHMS Stubborn
St Paul's Bay, Malta
A sixty six metre S-class submarine sitting upright and beautifully intact on sand northeast of Qawra, top of the conning tower around forty five metres and the sand at fifty six. The best submarine dive in Malta and a rite of passage for local tech divers.
Digital RenderInland Sea
L'Ahrax Point, Malta
A roofless cavern at the top of Malta where the rock has fallen in and left a near-circular pool ringed by walls ten metres high. You can surface inside, take your regulator out and look straight up at the sky.
Digital RenderKantra Caves
Mgarr ix-Xini, Gozo
Two small caves set into the wall near the mouth of Mgarr ix-Xini, shallow enough for a newly certified diver and dark enough to make good backlit photographs. Worth doing as part of the bay, not as a special journey.