Malta's Blue Grotto, by boat from Wied iż-Żurrieq

The Blue Grotto is one of those trips that depends more on the weather than on you. You can have everything planned and still stay ashore because the wind has swung round to the south. So that’s where I’ll start, before getting to how lovely the place is, which it very much is.

What is Malta’s Blue Grotto?

Malta’s tourism site describes it as a series of natural sea-level caves, reached on a short boat trip from the tiny harbour of Wied iż-Żurrieq, at the end of a rugged valley. The boatmen’s cooperative names the Reflection Cave and the Blue Window Cave in its guide, and Qrendi Local Council adds that in calm seas the boats slip into smaller caves as well, including one you go into on one side and come out of on the other.

What you’re here for is the colour. The council talks about the deep blue of the water and the colours of the coral and sea life. I won’t promise you an exact shade, because it changes with the light and the sea, but the name isn’t a marketing invention.

One clarification that spares a lot of muddle. This isn’t Capri’s Grotta Azzurra, which crops up in half the searches, and it’s nothing to do with Comino either, where the caves are the Santa Marija Caves. Malta’s Blue Grotto is here, on the south coast of the main island.

Who runs the boats, and when?

The cooperative tells its own story, and I find it refreshingly straight. In the early 1950s British servicemen and their families came to swim at Wied iż-Żurrieq and asked the fishermen to take them to the grotto. The fishermen were busy, so their sons did it instead. In 1958 the government brought in licences and issued eight; by 1964 there were 59. In 1968 the group became Blue Grotto Boat Service, which capped the numbers at 25 boats a day, split into two shifts.

The rule that matters is a different one. The cooperative doesn’t work when there’s a southerly wind, as it churns up the sea at Wied iż-Żurrieq, and its committee decides on the day. I’d check the forecast the evening before and, if it looks marginal, ring the booth on +356 2164 0058.

Is the boat trip safe?

It’s the obvious question before climbing into a small boat under a cliff, and the cooperative answers it fairly well. From the start, every boat had to be passed by a surveyor and carry a life jacket for each passenger, and the coxswains had to sit an exam set by the Captain of Ports. These days they make sure there are always two or three boats in the area to help one another, seat people so the boat stays balanced, and give older passengers a hand getting in. They say they haven’t had an accident in forty years. With small children I still wouldn’t go out on a lumpy sea even if they were running, but that’s my own call.

How much does it cost?

I can’t give you a sourced figure, and I’d rather say so. The cooperative doesn’t publish prices, trip length or times on its website, and you pay at the landing. If you’re looking at an organised tour, check what’s included, because what the boatman charges and what an agent charges needn’t be the same.

Getting to Wied iż-Żurrieq

By bus, the 74 from Valletta gets to Żurrieq after passing through Ħamrun, Marsa, Luqa and Mqabba. From the airport, routes 71 and 73 go to Żurrieq and route 72 to Qrendi, stopping at Ċintra. No official source names the stop nearest the landing, so I’d use Malta Public Transport’s journey planner alongside my guide to Malta’s buses.

Some sightseeing buses include the Blue Grotto on their southern loop, from April to October only according to the operator; I cover that in my page on the Malta hop-on hop-off bus.

How I’d pair it

Wied iż-Żurrieq is a small harbour with a handful of restaurants, which is why Heritage Malta sends visitors to the Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra temples there for lunch. I’d pair the two in one outing, the boat while the sea is calm early on and the temples afterwards.

On the horizon you’ll see Filfla, an islet that Qrendi council says has been a nature reserve since 1988 and that nobody may visit without a permit. If you fancy a proper village afterwards, Żurrieq, with a parish church full of Mattia Preti paintings, is a few minutes away. And to compare it with other trips on the water, I’ve rounded them up in Malta boat trips.