Scuba Dive Malta

Scuba Dive Malta, which also trades under the name AquaVenture Malta as it works through a rebrand, is a small, family-run outfit based at the Luna Holiday Complex in Mellieha, a few minutes from Cirkewwa Marine Park on Malta's northwest coast. It is built around two people: instructor Helene "Lee" Martin and dive guide Paul Eley, who between them bring over 35 years in the diving industry and more than 10,000 dives around Malta, Gozo and Comino. Paul moved to Malta from Nottingham in 2005, trained with Lee the following year, and has guided professionally since 2007.

The centre runs on deliberately small numbers: a maximum of two divers per instructor while teaching and four qualified divers per guide on fun dives. The standard week is Monday to Saturday, with two morning shore dives departing the shop around 8am and returning by early afternoon. A boat-dive add-on to Comino runs April through October, and a shore-dive add-on covering the south of Malta is available for groups of two or more. SSI courses span the full ladder from Try Scuba through Open Water, Advanced, Deep, Wreck and Nitrox specialties.

Reviews spanning 2023 to 2026 are dominated by personal, named-instructor teaching: Lee and Paul appear by name in most accounts, with a strong safety and patience framing for first-time and nervous divers. Several reviewers explicitly compare the small-group approach favourably against larger operators, and one recent review highlights environmental awareness as part of the standard briefing. Google reviewers rate the centre 5.0 out of 5 from 129 write-ups; the TripAdvisor listing, still under the Aqua Venture name, sits at 4.8 out of 5 from 158, with only a small share landing below Good and no recurring complaint pattern behind them.