Explore
Blue Lagoon (Comino)

Blue Lagoon (Comino)

Beaches & CovesMaltaComino,Malta

A channel between two Maltese islets whose floor of pale limestone throws sunlight back through a few metres of water and turns the sea turquoise.

September·Peaking now

Sep–Oct

The sweet spot: the sea holds its warmth — about 26°C in September, still 24°C through October — while the day-boats and their crowds thin, and BirdLife's autumn ringing runs in October. Warm, calm, turquoise water without the summer crush.



Year-round The turquoise channel and its white sand bed are there every month; only the warmth, the crowds and the migrations change.

The Blue Lagoon takes its colour from the seabed, not the sea. A floor of pale limestone sand, ground fine by the waves, throws sunlight back up through only a few metres of water. The channel between Comino and the uninhabited islet of Cominotto turns an electric turquoise so bright that moored boats seem to hang above it rather than float. You wade in from a thin strip of sand, and by late August the water is bath-warm: a shallow, sheltered channel heats faster than open sea, and it still holds 23-24°C through October. Swim the short crossing to Cominotto, drop off the low limestone ledges, or stand waist-deep and watch your own shadow travel across the bright floor. Comino itself is 3.5 square kilometres of low garrigue with two permanent residents, named after the cumin that once grew wild on it. Corsairs sheltered in its caves, and the island later served as a place of quarantine and exile. Saint Mary's Tower has watched the channel from 80 metres up since 1618. Above the shore the garrigue flushes purple with wild thyme in May and June, the plant behind Maltese honey. The whole island is a bird sanctuary and a Natura 2000 site, so hunting and trapping are banned here all year. The crowds are the catch. Since May 2025 every visitor arriving by boat must pre-book a free slot, one of three a day. Numbers are capped at 4,000 people at a time and checked with a QR code and a wristband at the landing. In winter the day-boats stop, the visitors disappear, and the two residents have the lagoon to themselves again.

Worth knowing

Good to know

  • Booking is free but compulsory — every visitor arriving by boat needs one of the three daily slots, and there is no walk-on entry to the lagoon any more.
  • The day-boats own the middle of the day — take the first crossing from Ċirkewwa or the evening slot, when the operators pack up and the water goes quiet again.
  • Wear something on your feet — the sand is a thin strip over rock, and the ledges people jump from are sharp, weathered limestone.
  • Comino is bare rock with only a few vegetated hollows — the one real patch of shade is the stand of tamarisk and vitex behind Santa Marija Bay, a walk across the island.
  • Strong wind cancels the boats — crossings from Ċirkewwa stop when the sea gets up, so keep the day flexible rather than booking it as your last one.

Things to do

  1. 1

    Swim to Cominotto and jump off the ledges

    Swim to Cominotto and jump off the ledges

    The crossing to the uninhabited islet of Cominotto is short, and the pale floor stays visible under you the whole way, so light keeps coming back up from below. Keep going and you reach the hard line where the sand stops and the bottom drops into navy. Back on the Comino side, low limestone shelves let you jump straight in — the water is clear enough to see where you will land, and even in August the first second is a shock of cold.

  2. 2

    Climb to Saint Mary's Tower

    Climb to Saint Mary's Tower

    A short walk up the bare hillside reaches the watchtower on Comino's high ground. From the top the lagoon reads as a bright seam of turquoise between two dry islands, with Gozo across the channel and almost no buildings anywhere in the frame.

  3. 3

    Slip through to the Crystal Lagoon and the sea caves

    Slip through to the Crystal Lagoon and the sea caves

    A short boat ride round the headland reaches the Crystal Lagoon, a cove walled in by sheer cliffs where you swim straight off the boat because there is nowhere to stand. Lit off a rocky floor rather than white sand, the sea here deepens from turquoise to bottle green. The same waves have cut arches and caves into Comino's limestone, and small boats and kayaks slip inside, where the water glows deep blue on light coming in from below.

Nearby

Blue Grotto 24 km

Blue Grotto

MaltaSouthern Region,Malta
Mount Etna 202 km

Mount Etna

ItalySicily,Italy
Tropea 327 km

Tropea

ItalyCalabria,Italy
Jouvida Places worth discovering
AtlasCitiesExperiencesBriefingAtlas indexProfileAbout JouvidaGet the app
PrivacyCookiesTermsLegal noticePhoto creditsSupport
© 2026 Jouvida
/