Here you can find information about Maltese islands, diving, weather, historical wrecks, scuttled wrecks and statues, dive clubs, centres and shops and accommodation.
Maltese islands
VisitMalta and VisitGozo have plenty of information about Maltese islands.
Gozo Channel provides the ferry service between the two main islands Malta and Gozo.
Diving in Malta
Malta is a great diving destination. Visibility is always good (around 20 to 40 meters) and currents are usually weak except on the deeper wreck sites further out. As Malta is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea there is very little tidal activity. All common dive sites are considered safe and well maintained.
Due the depth of the dive sites around Malta, beginners are not allowed to dive unguided. All divers in unaccompanied group have to be at least PADI AOWD or equivalent.
We can highly recommend a book called "Scuba Diving Malta Gozo Comino" by Peter G. Lemon. It covers most of the Maltese recreational diving sites and provides great underwater maps of the popular dive sites.
For technical divers Malta offers great selection of technical wreck dives that will keep anyone busy for at least couple of weeks.
To find more information about the individual dive sites, we highly recommend checking out the sites from our interactive dive site map or from the dive site list. If you need offline access, feel free to download the dive sites as KML file which you can import to Google Maps for example, but don't forget to refresh your offline copy once in a while.
Weather in Malta
For current weather and sea conditions we recommend WindFinder, Windy and Malta Airport MetOffice. Few webcameras from Skyline and VisitMalta provide visual information about the current conditions around Maltese islands.
With proper equipment Malta is divable throughout the whole year. From January to March it's commonly quite cold, windy and rainy, so it's considered to be the worst time for outdoor activities. During April and May the weather is getting warmer and the island's nature is blooming but the sea is still quite cold. The summer months are the high season for diving. Surface water temperatures soar, but the deeper waters take much longer to heat up. September and October are still great months for diving; sea is still warm and slowly cooling down. The autumn storms arrive during November and December, but normally there is always sheltered dive locations. The chart below shows the rough average monthly air and sea temperatures and rainfall.
Read more climate information from MaltaWeather.
For longer dives (and comfort), drysuit is recommended from January to May and something like 3mm-5mm full wetsuit is perfect from July to September. We don't recommend diving in shorties due common wreck penetrations, caves and swim throughs where you need a bit of protection.
Historical wrecks
Maltese waters have plenty of wrecks from World War I and II. The following wrecks with significant historical value are managed by Heritage Malta’s Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit, and diving them requires a special permit (see approved dive schools). Maltese ID card holders can get Heritage Malta Shipwreck Club membership through a local dive club.
World War I wrecks
- SS Polynesien – 65 m
- HMS Nasturtium – 68 m
- SS Luciston – 104 m
- HMS Russell – 115 m
World War II wrecks
- Junkers Ju 88 (airplane) – 55 m
- B-24 Liberator Bomber (airplane) – 55 m
- Schnellboot S-31 – 66 m
- Fairey Swordfish (airplane) – 70 m
- HMS Southwold – bow 68 m and stern 73 m
- HMD Trusty Star – 90 m
- ORP Kujawiak (HMS Oakley) – 98 m
- Junkers Ju 88 (airplane) – 106 m
- HMS Olympus (submarine) – 130 m
Post war wrecks
More info: Heritage Malta's Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit (UCHU)
Scuttled wrecks and statues
Malta has several wrecks that have been scuttled as scuba diving attractions. These wrecks have been made safe both for environment and for divers before scuttling. Most of them are dived from the shore, but Imperial Eagle, P31, Stubborn, Neptune, and Statue of Christ are boat dives.
Wrecks scuttled for scuba diving
- 1992 – Tugboat Rozi
- 1998 – Tugboat 10 and St. Michael
- 1998 – Um El Faroud
- 1999 – Imperial Eagle
- 1999 – Xlendi
- 2006 – Cominoland and Karwela
- 2007 – Patrol boat P29
- 2009 – Patrol boat P31
- 2013 – Tugboat 2
- 2021 – Patrol boat P33
- 2022 – Hephaestus
Wrecks scuttled for other purposes
- 1946 – HMS Stubborn submarine wreck was scuttled as a submarine sonar training target
- 1950s – Lockheed P2V Neptune airplane wreck was scuttled as a movie set
Underwater statues in Malta
- 1987 – Statue of Our Lady (Madonna)
- 1990 – Statue of Christ (Kristu tal-Bahhara)
- 1992 – Crib
- 2005 – Diving helmet
Dive clubs, centres and shops
Local dive clubs (in alphabetical order)
We will list some dive centres and shops here with short descriptions later on.
Accommodation
For hotel accommodation we recommend checking out TripAdvisor or Hotels.com. For short let apartments we recommend ShortLetsMalta and Airbnb.