Malta is also very nice for hiking and excursions to several historic places and prehistoric temples. Very interesting are the ruins of the Temple of Hagar Qim, built about 3,000 before Christ, and the Clapham Junction Cart Ruts, some grooves in the bare rocks that presumably stem from ancient vehicles. In the morning hours you should take a boat trip from the fjord At-il-Hnejja to the Blue Grotto, several blue caves, whose ceilings marvelously reflect the turquoise waters of the sea.

Mdina, the medieval capital of Malta, and Rabat are two other places, you should not miss. The most beautiful building, built before the Baroque age, can be seen in Mdina, which was home of the Maltese nobility, whose Sicilian-Norman style palazzos flank the narrow streets. The cathedral of Mdina was destroyed by the earthquake of 1693 and rebuilt in Baroque style by the Knights.

The warm and crystal clear blue waters around the island of Gozo offer perfect diving conditions. Divers from all over the world enjoy exploring the tunnels, caves, grottos, reefs, and spectacular scenery abundant of marine life as well as penetrating the 260-foot-long wreck of the MV Xlendi, an ex Malta-Gozo ferry that was scuttled in a diver and environmental friendly way off the coast of Xatt L'Ahmar in November 1999.

Hotel and apartment owners provide a taxi service from the airport to your accommodation on Gozo and a driver will bring you to the ferry port in Cirkewwa in the north of Malta. The ferry, which passes the island of Comino, will then take you to Mgarr (speak imdschar) on the south-east coast of Gozo in about half an hour. There, another taxi will bring you either to Xlendi (pronounced shlendi) in the south-west of the island, Gharb in the west, Marsalforn on the north coast, or any other place of your choice.

Marsalforn, once a small fishing village, has become a popular holiday resort in the recent years and there are several hotels and private-run apartments as well as diving centers where you can rent the diving gear and equipment that you did not want to take with you. There you also have to purchase a Maltese Diving Permit for unaccompanied dives or you can book different diving trips, accompanied by professional instructors or guides, who are familiar with all the sites and the conditions there.

To visit the interesting diving sites, it is best to rent a jeep. A rocky and bumpy road leads you from Marsalforn to Reqqa Point, the most northerly spot of Gozo, which is a small curved low spur, jutting into the sea next to several rows of salt pans. The first rough hollows were hewn in the sandstone rocks there in the 18th century to obtain salt by the evaporation of sea water. Newer, rectangular hollows are still chiseled into the cliffs today to cover the demand for salt. Depending on the weather and direction of wind, diving conditions might be a bit choppy at Reqqa Point. At an average depth of 80 feet, you can dive along the walls that are almost vertical in many places and are cut by numerous fissures, caves, and crevices until you get to the Shrimp Cave – habitat of several species of these creatures. On the submarine section of the headland, there are two chimneys or holes that drop down through the reef. One hole goes down from twenty to fifty feet, whereas the other one is more dangerous and should be penetrated by very experienced divers only.

Cathedral Cave, west of Reqqa Point, is another beautiful diving site at the end of a narrow valley that goes from the village of Ghasri to the sea. The dome is near a very distinctive deep winding cut in the headland. The entrance is only sixteen feet below sea level and leads you to a domed vault, where you can surface. Huge boulders lie on the seabed of the cave and you have a wonderful view out to the blue of the ocean. Although there are few fish in the cave, the walls are covered with delicate corals, hydroids, sponges, and golden zoanthids. The site can be reached via a long flight of steps from the rocks down to the fjord-like gorge or preferably by a dive boat. 

The most spectacular diving site is Blue Hole on the west coast, where the surf lashes against 220-foot-high limestone cliffs and through Azure Window, a natural opening that looks like a huge gate cut into the rocks. The Blue Hole is reached via a fairly difficult walk over coralline limestone but offers a sheltered entry for a number of dives because it is protected by a fringe of rock. The site includes a huge archway that starts at about 25 feet and the daylight is reflected in azure blue colors as if you look through a big window. Large boulders, dotted with tiny tube worms, lie underneath the archway, where they have fallen from above. Damselfish, wrasse, parrotfish and many different species of bream can be found along the walls. Deeper down, amongst the boulders on the seabed, dusky groupers, recognizable by the yellow fringe on their dorsal fin, can be watched. At an average visibility of 140 feet, you might dive into a fissure down to 110 feet, where a large cave can be explored at the bottom of the hole.

Being back on the shore again, you will discern Crocodile Rock some yards to the south. Not far away, Fungus Rock rises 180 feet above sea level and a myriad of fossils are embedded in the rocks along the coast. Near the parking lot at the end of the road that winds down from the village of San Lawrenz, there is Inland Sea (strictly speaking). It’s a natural swimming pool, which is connected with the outside sea by a tunnel, running under 150 feet of solid rock. Weather permitting, you can explore the underwater flora in the deep indigo blue waters along the 260-foot-long tunnel and some vertical fissures in the cliff. Though fishermen carry visitors in small fishing boats from the Inland Sea through the tunnel to nearby caves, there is no danger of collision other than at the beginning and the end of the dive.

If you want to have a rest from diving or bask in the Mediterranean sun, you should not miss Ramla Bay, a nice sandy beach east of Marsalforn. The boulders in the sea are overgrown with smooth algae, providing a habitat for tiny colored fish and shells. It’s an ideal place for snorkeling as the clear blue sea allows a visibility of about 100 feet. Ramla Bay isn’t far from the Calypso Cave, a labyrinth of caves which is referred to by the Grecian poet Homer in his epic poem Odyssey. According to the legend, Calypso, the daughter of the Titan Atlas, dwelt in this cave and kept Ulysses, the Grecian hero of Troy, as a captive for seven years after his ship had sunk in the Mediterranean waters during a thunderstorm.

If Ulysses had been a diver, he would surely have spent all his days diving at these or all the other beautiful sites, such as Billinghurst Cave, Coral Gardens, Forma Point, Anchor Reef, Double Arches, Xwejni Bay, Mgarr Ix-Xini, and San Dimitri Point – just to name some other beautiful spots of Gozo’s coastline.