The Malta archipelago consists of different islands in the Mediterranean Sea between Africa and Europe, of which Malta and the smaller Gozo island are the most well-known, with the non-inhabited Comino in between. For people loving culture, this is a great place as it has a rich history with many prehistoric buildings and temples. This is not our interest but could be good to know when people want to combine hiking with cultural activities. Also, there are quite some all-in hotels and Malta was crowded with many tourists, but you can still find places that are relatively remote. We went in december so temperatures were nice, around 25°C. Anyhow, the inland is dry without forest so mainly the superb coastline is the interesting part for hiking. On hiking apps, such as All trails, you even find a trail that covers the whole coastline of Malta (155km) and Gozo. Our experience was that often trails are not really well indicated, but using hiking apps this can be solved. We had 5 days here and walked along the great coast, with many cliffs, rocks, caves, small beaches and simply great views over the sea. Maybe a bit less variation in the walks but definitely worth exploring. If we would do this again I guess we would hike around the whole coastline of Gozo. A major advantage is that Malta is small, and distances from airport to anywhere and from anywhere to hiking spots are short. We hired a car to be able to drive to starting points of All Trails hikes or to park somewhere, then order a Bolt driver using the Bolt app (cheap!) to bring us kilometers further and hike back to the car. This way you can easily make non-looped trails. Easier and less time-consuming than public transport. So below the description is merely driven by All Trails hikes that we walked.

Coral lagoon

Coral lagoon is on the northside of the island and we did the All Trails Coral Lagoon walk of about 10km. The lagoon is a hole carved into the limestone rock in which you can see the nice blue sea, and is created by natural erosion. Here also the sea water bumps against the rocks, offering splendid views of water waves and splashing water. We started in the Ramla Bay Resort region and did not like the first few kilometres as there was quite some garbage and many buildings, but closer to Coral lagoon and after that, the hike was nice. Expect, as always in Malta, great coastlines, azure water, rocks and cliffs. The final part of the trail goes a bit more inland and is good, before taking a road back to the starting point. Not bad, especially Coral Lagoon itself, but our opinion is that there are better hikes in this island to carry out with less people on the trails.

Fomm ir-rih and Gneja bay

Fomm ir-Riħ is a small bay with vertical cliffs. Here we hiked the Fomm ir-Riħ Bay to Ġnejna Bay Circular Trail on All Trails, which is around 5 km. Gneja beach is listed as a beautiful beach with azure blue water for swimming and snorkeling but we did not go there as we noticed the sunbeds and a lot of people. On the track there is a great place at the top in which a whole is carved out from the rocks, with a nice view on the cliffs. 

Il-Majistral park area and Golden bay

This trail (Gnajn Znuber loop at All Trails) starts at Golden Bay on a small sandy beach and heads towards the rugged coastline, returning through a zone with stone huts and some architectural features, including the limestone Gnajn Znuber tower. About 6kms in length, this walk contains dusty red earth and stones, and a great coastline with a nice rocky beach area, which we used to soak our feet.  

Blue Grotto, Ghar Hanex, Xaqqa and Dingli cliffs

The area that we describe here on the southwestern side of the island is a must! Here you find touristic places such as Blue Grotto and Dingli Cliffs, so a bit more audience but despite that, you need to do this, as the scenery is amazing. We took the car and parked on Sint Dominica Chapel in Dingli and then took a Bolt taxi to drop us off at Blue Grotto. We hiked back from here encountering stunning viewpoints over the Mediterranean Sea. Before doing that, we took a small tourist boat to visit Blue Grotto, a network of six caves, with clear azure blue water. As is the case with other caves on the island as well, you cannot see this from the coast and although we dislike big tourist explosions, this was definitely a nice thing to do. Back on the shore, we started to hike towards Hagar Qim Archeological Site over the road (Triq Il-Wied), because we aimed to reach the coastline and Ghar Hanex. Ghar Hanex is a natural rock formation with an arch or opening carved out by waves, surrounded by amazing cliffs and rock formations. Anyhow, it was not to easy to get there so we are not giving suggestions here on how to reach the trail in this area, as we climbed rocks from an area behind the Archeological Complex. Maybe you can reach it easily after paying entrance here or from the west instead of east but still ... just make sure you reach it. We spent a long time here just watching the rocks and eroded cliffs. The paths continue over Ghar Lapsi and the Xaqqa and finally Dingli Cliffs, where you can see breathtaking sunsets. Nice!

St Peter’s Pool area

We followed the All Trails ‘St. Peter's Pool - Ras Il-Fenek - XRobb I-Ghagin’ walk in the South East Malta region, that is about 6km long. There is a parking nearby St Peter’s Pool. This is a bay where you can swim and sunbath on a large flat stone slab surrounding the pool. Further the nice walk on a well-maintained trail you will see nice cliffs, viewpoints, beautiful azure blue water and the Hofriet Window, an arch former by erosion. Easy trail but worth a visit.

Gozo

Gozo is a small island with a great coastline, as everywhere in Malta, and here you can even take a multi-day hike on All Trails that goes around the whole island in 55 kms. We took the Ferry at Cirkewwa Terminal in Malta and then drove to San Lowrenz by Gharb, took a Bolt taxi that brought us to the Xwenjni Salt Pans, and then we walked back about 15 kms on paths that followed the coast. The hike we did is basically the Zebbu to Dwerja walk on All Trails. You will pass an area with sandwaves. This is a formation with wind-sculpted, wave-like patterns in the limestone and causes surprising views. Furhter you will encounter a variety of cliffs but also il-Mielah window that is carved out of the rocks in the sea forming a square window. Mushroom rock is a bit further, a great sculpture created by erosion of different types of limestone. The final part of the walk goes to a diving site with some restuarants, after which we went back to find the car. 

Ghar-ir-Rih

Before leaving to the airplane we visited Cathedral’s Cave (Ghar ir-Rih) ad this was supposed to be a hidden gem, and it was! This is a small sea cave in the cliffs with a great view over the Mediterranean. Check Google maps and try to find it. There are numerous reports on how to take the best route if you do an internet search, including you tube videos, or just park, walk and search, what we did. When looking into a small path that mentioned ‘No entry’ a local told us ‘Here it is, just go’, so when going down we could find the relatively hidden entrance soon. After entering the cave and walking further, there is a turn and then you can see the opening over the ocean. Beautiful! No one there, so we enjoyed the scenery for half an hour before leaving this amazing place. On the pictures below you see the entrance, and the opening above the sea, which is about 20 meters high and 6 meters width, and many meters above sea level. Be careful as there is no fence.