The Maltese islands, one by one

Talking about Malta means talking about three very different islands that happen to share a country. The big one holds everything in the guidebooks, Gozo is the rural version, and Comino is more or less a nature reserve with a famous lagoon. Seeing them as separate places is, for me, the key to planning the trip well, because each one asks for a different pace. You can see where each one sits in where Malta is on the map.

The island of Malta, home to almost everyone

At 245 km² it’s the largest in the group and holds 546,461 of the country’s 588,254 residents. The Maltese government calls it the cultural, commercial and administrative centre, and you can tell. This is where you’ll find Valletta, the airport, Heritage Malta’s museums and nearly all the hotels. It’s also where density reaches 2,218 people per square kilometre, which translates into a heavily built-up coast and busy roads.

The island has distinct areas of its own, from the Grand Harbour to the northern beaches, and I break them down in the island of Malta.

Gozo, the island on a slower clock

Gozo covers 67 km², and its tourist board describes it as a third the size of Malta, more rural and far more tranquil. It’s about 5 km away, 25 minutes on the Gozo Channel ferry, which carries more than 3.3 million passengers a year. Its capital is Victoria, which Gozitans still call Rabat, with the Citadel on top.

One figure sums it up. In 2025 Gozo and Comino welcomed 589,343 tourists, and two in three (67.4%) came over from Malta itself. In other words, Gozo is where the Maltese themselves go to get away. The full guide is at Gozo.

What is there on Comino?

Comino is the smallest inhabited island, about 3 km². Spain’s foreign ministry says 3 km², the Gozo tourist board 3.5, and the same board says only two people live there. Its Maltese name, Kemmuna, comes from cumin. It was a hunting ground, had a quarantine station in Napoleonic times, and St Mary’s Tower of 1618 still watches over the plateau. It has no roads or shops, the only services are summer kiosks, and you can walk the whole island in about three hours.

The draw is the Blue Lagoon, the turquoise water between Comino and Cominotto. Since May 2025 the MTA has required a free booking by time slot to land there, and numbers are capped at 4,000. For somewhere quieter, St Mary’s Bay has sand and shallow water. The whole island is covered in Comino.

The islets you don’t set foot on

The rest of the archipelago is islets, and the best official source naming them is the EU’s Natura 2000 network. Filfla, south of Malta, is protected along with its neighbouring rocks. Cominotto sits within the Comino site. St Paul’s Islands, or Selmunett, have their own 10.75-hectare site off the north coast. And Fungus Rock, Ħaġret il-Ġeneral in Maltese, falls within the Dwejra site on Gozo.

Fungus Rock has a story I like. VisitMalta describes it as a 60-metre lump of limestone at the mouth of an almost circular lagoon. Under the Knights, a plant growing there was thought to cure all sorts of ailments, and the Grand Master made it illegal for anyone but authorised knights to climb up and pick it. Spain’s foreign ministry confirms that Comino, Cominotto and Filfla are uninhabited. There’s nothing official on landing at any of the islets, so I’d enjoy them from the water.

Getting between the islands

Between Malta and Gozo you have two choices. The Gozo Channel ferry from Ċirkewwa to Mġarr, with no booking and a €4.65 return fare you settle when leaving Gozo, or the Gozo HighSpeed fast ferry from Valletta, which takes 45 minutes. Comino is reached by boats and water taxis from Mġarr, around 15 minutes, or from Ċirkewwa, around 35. My advice is not to try all three islands in one day. Malta needs several, Gozo at least one and Comino a morning.

What changes from one island to the next

Beyond size, what I’d notice is the pace. On Malta the day revolves around the bus and museum queues. On Gozo it revolves around the ferry and the light, because its best spots, such as Dwejra and Wied il-Għasri, are on open coast. And on Comino there’s nothing to organise at all, with no roads and no shops. That contrast is what turns a 316 km² archipelago into a trip with three distinct chapters, and it’s why I’d never recommend seeing Malta without crossing to Gozo at least once.