Comino Blue Lagoon Day Trip: Pass, Boats & Prices 2026

Landing at Comino's Blue Lagoon needs a free Visitor Pass, booked in advance at blcomino.com for one of three daily time slots. The boat from Ċirkewwa costs about €15 return and takes 20 minutes. The water really is that colour. The crowd is the part nobody warns you about.

If you're mapping out a wider trip, the Blue Lagoon and the quieter Santa Marija Bay are both pinned on the interactive Malta map alongside the rest of the island's sights and day trips. If you only have a long weekend, the swim slots into my 3-day Malta itinerary without much trouble.

Do you need the Blue Lagoon Visitor Pass?

Yes, if your feet touch the shore. Since 1 May 2025 an online booking system has capped the number of people allowed on site, which protects a Natura 2000 area that was being loved to death every August.

The pass is free. You book it at blcomino.com, the government system the Malta Tourism Authority launched under the name "Book, Protect, Enjoy". There are three slots a day: 08:00 to 13:00, 13:30 to 17:30, and 18:00 to 22:00. No more than 4,000 visitors are allowed at the Blue Lagoon at any one time. Your booking generates a QR code by email, you show it to the officials at the coastal and land access points, and they give you a wristband valid for your slot. Turning up without one may land you a fine.

Two things people get wrong. First, the pass covers landing, not swimming: if you stay aboard a boat anchored in the lagoon and swim from it, you don't need one, which is why the self-drive rental crowd in my Malta watersports guide often skips the whole process. Second, the pass is not a boat ticket. Nobody at the ferry pontoon will sell you one, and no ferry company books it for you unless their tour explicitly says so. Do it yourself, at home, before you go. In July and August the good slots are gone well before the day itself.

Getting there, and what each boat actually buys you

From Malta, the scheduled boats leave from Ċirkewwa and Marfa at the northern tip of the island and take about 20 minutes. Comino Ferries runs from 8:40 in the morning until 17:00 out of Ċirkewwa, with returns from the lagoon roughly hourly between 9:30 and 18:00, at €15 return for adults and €7 for children under 10. Buying online is cheaper than buying at the kiosk on the quay.

From Gozo it's shorter and slightly cheaper. Boats leave Mġarr harbour and reach the lagoon in about 15 minutes, from €13 return with Ebsons. Anyone based on the other island, or reading my guide to living in Gozo, has by far the easiest version of this day out.

Getting to either departure point without a car is straightforward once you know the network. My Malta and Gozo transport guide covers the buses to Ċirkewwa and the Gozo Channel crossing, and buses are free for residents.

Then there are the full-day cruises out of Sliema and Bugibba, sold from every pavement office on the seafront, usually with a buffet lunch and an open bar for something in the region of €20 to €35 a head. They're decent value as a day at sea and a poor way to see the Blue Lagoon, because the boat sets the timetable and that timetable is always the middle of the day. If you go this route, Captain Morgan and Seahorse Cruises are the established names.

Which time slot to book

This is the whole game. At midday in August, the Blue Lagoon is a bay the size of a couple of football pitches holding thousands of people, dozens of moored boats and every sunbed already rented. The water is still extraordinary. You just share it with the population of a small village.

Book the 08:00 to 13:00 slot and take the first boat, ideally the 8:40 from Ċirkewwa. You get an hour, maybe ninety minutes, of something close to the photographs before the day-trip fleet arrives around ten. By eleven it has turned into a beach club.

The evening slot looks tempting on paper and mostly isn't practical, because the scheduled boats stop returning at 18:00. Unless your operator runs later or you have your own boat, you'd be booking a slot you can't get home from. Check the return times before you commit.

The real answer, if your dates allow it, is to go outside July and August altogether. A weekday in June, late September or October gives you warm water and a fraction of the people. In March or April you'll have the place nearly to yourself, though the boats run a reduced schedule and the water is bracing. That trade is one I'd take every time, and it's the same logic I apply to Malta's other beaches.

What it costs once you're on the island

Comino has no ATM, no supermarket, no pharmacy and about 2 permanent residents. Everything on sale arrived by boat and is priced accordingly. Bring cash. Card acceptance at the kiosks is patchy and there is no fallback.

Sunbeds and parasols are the one thing worth budgeting for, because shade is close to nonexistent. Rates vary a lot between the kiosks, from around €20 for two beds and a parasol up to €50 for the same thing at the pitch nearest the landing. It's worth walking thirty seconds further along the rocks before handing over money. In peak summer the loungers are all gone by mid-morning, so this is another argument for the early boat.

Food is a handful of kiosks and food trucks doing sandwiches, pastizzi, ftira and cold drinks. It's fine and it's not cheap. A picnic and a couple of frozen water bottles bought at Ċirkewwa will save you both money and a queue.

What to bring, and what to leave

Ignore the generic packing lists. Only a few things matter on Comino specifically, and shade is the big one: there are no trees at the Blue Lagoon and almost no natural cover, so if you're not renting a parasol you should bring one or a beach tent. Five hours of unbroken July sun on bare rock is not a joke, and the glare bouncing off pale limestone doubles it.

Bring more water than you think you need, since the alternative is a kiosk queue at kiosk prices. Two litres a person in summer is a sensible floor. And bring shoes you can walk in: the lagoon shore is rock rather than sand, and the paths to Santa Marija Bay and the tower are dusty and uneven. Water shoes earn their place if you're getting in and out over the rocks.

Santa Marija Bay and the Crystal Lagoon

The best move at the Blue Lagoon is often to leave it. Two alternatives sit within a short walk.

Santa Marija Bay is about 15 minutes on foot across the island, on the northern side. It's the only proper sandy beach on Comino, it has a line of tamarisk trees giving real shade, and it holds a fraction of the crowd. A small chapel sits above the shore. If you're bringing children, or you just want to read a book without someone's inflatable flamingo landing on you, go there and treat the Blue Lagoon as a twenty-minute swim on the way in.

The Crystal Lagoon is a few minutes the other way, a deep inlet between high cliffs on the south side. No sand, no kiosks, no shade, and it's mainly a boat destination rather than a swimming spot you settle into for the day. As a place to jump in for a look at that water against the cliffs, it beats the main lagoon on any summer afternoon.

Santa Marija Tower, the 17th-century watchtower on the ridge, is worth the climb for the view over the channel. Check before you plan around it: Din l-Art Ħelwa, the trust that runs it, currently lists it as closed for restoration works. When it's open, that's usually Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from April to the end of October, between 10:30 and 15:00, and the giveaway is the flag flying from the roof. The tower's Knights-era role in the island's defensive chain is part of the broader story in my Maltese culture and history guide.

Jellyfish, cliff jumping and the swim to Cominotto

Jellyfish are a real seasonal nuisance in Maltese waters rather than a constant threat. The one that matters is the mauve stinger, Pelagia noctiluca, a small purple thing whose tentacles trail well beyond its body and whose sting, per the Malta National Aquarium, is unpleasant rather than dangerous. Blooms drift in and out on the wind, so a bay can be clear one day and unswimmable the next. Ask at the kiosk, look at what's washed up on the waterline before you get in, and if you see a few in the water assume there are many more.

Cliff jumping is the one thing I'd tell people to skip. Depth around the lagoon varies a lot over short distances, submerged rock is not always visible from above, and the water clarity that makes the place beautiful also makes it look deeper than it is. Malta's emergency services fish someone out of this kind of thing most summers.

The swim across to Cominotto, the islet facing the lagoon, is shorter than it looks and tempting for that reason. Two problems: the current in the channel picks up with the wind, and the channel is where every boat entering the lagoon passes. If you're going to do it, go early before the traffic starts, go with someone, and use a tow float so you're visible.

So is the Blue Lagoon worth a day of your trip?

On the right day, yes, without hesitation. Nothing else in the Maltese islands looks like it, and the booking system has taken the edge off the worst of the crowding.

On an August Saturday at 13:00, off a cruise boat that gives you two hours ashore, it's a queue with a nice view. That's the version most visitors get, and it's why the place has a reputation for being overrated.

The difference between those two days costs nothing: a free pass booked two weeks earlier, the first boat instead of the third, and a fifteen-minute walk to Santa Marija Bay when the lagoon fills up.