Għar Lapsi, the locals' swimming spot facing Filfla

Għar Lapsi doesn’t feature on lists of Malta’s famous beaches, and to me that’s part of its appeal. It’s a fishing hamlet on the south coast, which Visit Malta lists among the places around Siġġiewi, where Maltese families come to swim in summer. You won’t find sand or a seafront, only rock, very clean water and a view of Filfla that few swimming spots on the island can match.

What Għar Lapsi is

Visit Malta, in its page on Siġġiewi, describes it as a picturesque fishing hamlet, a favourite summer bathing place and a beauty spot. The name tells you what lies beneath. On its diving page, the tourism site explains that għar means cave in Maltese.

What you’ll find is a rocky shore with water access Visit Malta calls easy, a few houses and a couple of places to eat. The MTA register lists two restaurants with a Għar Lapsi address, and Heritage Malta mentions it, together with Wied iż-Żurrieq, as where to eat after visiting the temples of Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra. That also tells you where it is, on the same stretch of the south coast.

The best of it is underwater

If you bring one thing, make it a mask. Visit Malta says that a few strokes from the entry point there’s a shallow system of caves lit by shafts of sunlight coming through their many exits. For scuba divers, the area is mostly between 15 and 20 metres, with parallel reefs and hollows home to typical Mediterranean marine life. It’s a shore dive, no boat needed, which is why dive centres offer it. There’s more in my guide to diving in Malta.

The sea in front of you is protected. The European Environment Agency’s Natura 2000 database lists a 2,628.61-hectare marine area called Għar Lapsi and Filfla, and protects the islet separately. Filfla, uninhabited, is the silhouette on the horizon, and I have no source saying you can land there.

Is it safe to swim at Għar Lapsi?

The same honesty applies as at St Peter’s Pool. Spain’s foreign ministry lists Għar Lapsi among the places in Malta where you should take care because of rockfalls. I haven’t found any source for a lifeguard or a Blue Flag either. My rule on rocky shores stands, water shoes, no lying under the cliff face and no swimming if there’s a swell.

One curious detail that has nothing to do with swimming. Here stands one of the Water Services Corporation’s three reverse osmosis plants, which between them provide well over half of the water the corporation supplies in a year.

The cliffs around it

Għar Lapsi sits on the island’s highest and most rugged stretch of coast. The whole cliff coast from Ċirkewwa round to the point of Bengħisa, Dingli included, forms one 2,315-hectare Natura 2000 site. That’s the landscape you see on the way down to the inlet, and it explains both the beauty of the place and the rockfall warning. As for the season, Visit Malta notes that sea swimming in Malta often lasts until mid to late October, so this is a spot for autumn breaks as well as summer ones.

The Malta Tourism Authority’s beach flag code is worth knowing before any swim here, even though I have no source for flags at this inlet. Purple means jellyfish and double red means no swimming.

Food-wise, the two licensed restaurants the MTA lists at the inlet make it easy to turn a swim into a long lunch. I haven’t got menus or prices with a source, so I’ll leave the choice to you.

Getting there

This is the weak spot. No official source lists a bus that reaches the inlet. Route 62 runs from Valletta to Siġġiewi via Ħamrun, Qormi and Żebbuġ, and from the town you continue by road. A hire car makes it far easier, and with Malta driving on the left like the UK, it’s an easy adjustment. See driving in Malta before you set off. If you don’t drive, a taxi from Siġġiewi is the sensible alternative.

My plan would be temples in the morning at Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra, then a swim and a late lunch here. That’s a well-rounded day on the south coast.