Comino, Malta: Complete Travel Guide

Comino is essentially a single photograph waiting to happen, and the photograph is always the same: that impossible turquoise water at the Blue Lagoon, shallow enough to see your feet from twenty metres up, coloured like something a graphic designer would reject for being too unrealistic. The thing is, the photograph is accurate. The water genuinely looks like that, and standing in it feels like standing inside a gemstone. That alone justifies the ferry ride.

But let’s be honest about what you’re actually visiting. Comino is tiny, nearly carless, and almost completely without permanent residents, which sounds romantic until July when three hundred boats are moored in the lagoon simultaneously and you’re sharing a postage stamp of beach with half of central Europe. The island gets genuinely overwhelmed in peak summer. The Blue Lagoon becomes a floating party, loud and sociable and fun if that’s your mood, but nothing like the wilderness escape the Instagram posts suggest. This is why April, May, September and October exist. Visit then and the water is still warm, the crowds thin to something manageable, and you can actually hear the wind moving through the wild thyme and rosemary that covers the interior like a fragrant carpet.

Most visitors arrive, drop their bag at the lagoon, swim for three hours and leave. That’s fine, but the interior of the island rewards an hour of walking. The scrubland paths between the old watchtower and the small chapel pass through herb-covered hillsides with views across to both Malta and Gozo simultaneously. It’s rough underfoot and offers no shade, but it gives you the island’s actual character rather than just its famous corner. The watchtower itself dates to the Knights of St John and requires almost no effort to reach.

There’s also Santa Marija Bay on the eastern side, quieter than the lagoon by a significant margin, with cleaner entry points for snorkelling and far fewer day-trippers. This is the thing most tourists miss entirely, simply because it’s a fifteen-minute walk from where the ferry drops them.

Comino suits swimmers, snorkellers, people comfortable with minimal facilities, and anyone who can time their visit outside the crush of high summer. It doesn’t suit those expecting restaurants, shade structures, or organised anything. Bring water, bring lunch, bring fins. The island asks very little of you except that you arrive prepared and leave nothing behind.

Weather in Comino

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• Day Trips: Find Comino tours on Viator

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