Diving in Malta

Malta's diving splits cleanly into three islands, and each does something different. Malta itself is the wreck capital: Um El Faroud, a 115-metre tanker deliberately scuttled off Wied iz-Zurrieq, is reached on foot from a slipway, no boat required. At Cirkewwa on the northwest tip, the patrol boat P29 and the tug Rozi lie a short swim apart, paired with a natural limestone arch. HMS Maori, a genuine WWII destroyer bow at just 14 metres in Valletta's harbour, is gentle enough for a first wreck dive. The coast here is hard limestone rather than coral, carved into arches and shelving reefs that hold grouper, moray, octopus and circling barracuda.

Gozo, the calmer neighbour, pairs its own wreck trio with dramatic natural formations. Off Xatt l-Ahmar, the scuttled ferries Karwela, Cominoland and the upside-down Xlendi sit together on one shore entry. At Dwejra on the west coast, the Blue Hole drops through a limestone shaft and an underwater arch onto an open wall, next to the boulder field left when the Azure Window collapsed in 2017. A short fin away, the Inland Sea's tunnel is Gozo's gentlest overhead dive, open to Open Water divers. The north coast adds Reqqa Point's wall and long, lit caverns at Cathedral and Billinghurst.

Comino, the smallest island, has no resident dive centre: every dive starts on someone else's boat from Malta or Gozo. Santa Marija's shallow cavern maze suits beginners and photographers alike, the training wreck P31 sits well inside Open Water limits, and Lantern Point's chimney drops onto a wall running past fifty metres for advanced divers.

Choosing between them comes down to what you want most. Malta gives shore-accessible wrecks and the easiest logistics. Gozo adds its own ferry trio alongside caverns found nowhere else in the archipelago. Comino trades a resident dive base for a boat day mixing the two. All three share the same limestone geology, the same warm Mediterranean water, and English as the working language of the dive industry.

One rule governs independent diving across all three islands: a 30-metre certification, Advanced Open Water or CMAS two-star, lets you dive unguided. Below that, a licensed instructor must accompany you. In practice this barely changes a typical trip, since most visitors already dive with a local centre for site knowledge and weather calls. The Malta Tourism Authority licenses every operator across Malta, Gozo and Comino.

Much of the coastline, including Dwejra on Gozo and all of Comino, lies within Natura 2000 habitat conservation zones. These protect seabirds and marine habitat rather than functioning as no-take reserves, so there is no dive permit, quota or reserve fee anywhere in the archipelago. You pay only for a centre's services.

Weather, not season, decides which coast is diveable on a given day. Wind and swell close one side while the opposite stays calm, so local centres route divers to whichever access point works that morning rather than following a fixed itinerary. This holds especially for Comino, reached entirely by boat, and for the exposed sites on Gozo's west and north coasts.

May to October brings the warmest water and calmest seas, September the most-cited month across all three islands. The archipelago dives year-round, though: winter surface water drops to the mid-teens, and a 7mm semi-dry or drysuit is the sensible choice for the deeper wrecks and walls whatever the season. Getting between islands means flying into Malta International Airport and, for Gozo or Comino day trips, taking the short Gozo Channel ferry from Cirkewwa.