Watersports in Malta: 2026 Prices, Bays & No-Licence Boats

You can do almost every watersport in Malta without any licence: self-drive rental boats stay under Transport Malta's 30 HP threshold, jet skis run in supervised zones, and everything else comes with a skipper or a tow boat. Budget 45 to 70 EUR for a jet ski, from 120 EUR for a self-drive boat, and 10 to 15 EUR an hour for a kayak.

I live in St Julian's, a five minute walk from Spinola Bay, so from June to September the soundtrack of my life is jet skis. I have watched this industry operate at close range for years, and the pricing and the rules confuse almost everyone who arrives here. This guide is the answer I give friends who visit: what each activity costs in 2026, which bay to do it from, and exactly when you need a boat licence (almost never).

Malta watersports prices 2026

Activity	2026 price (EUR)	What you get
Kayak or SUP hire	10-15	per hour
Banana boat / towed tube	20-25	per 10-minute ride
Parasailing	45-60	10-15 minute flight
Jet ski	45-70	20-30 minutes
Self-drive boat, no licence	from 120	2-3 hour entry rental
Self-drive boat, half to full day	185-390	fuel and deposit extra
Guided jet ski safari	135-195	~90 minutes, Comino or St Paul's Islands
Skippered charter	from 180	whole boat, skipper included

Prices are starting rates gathered in July 2026 from operator sites and booking platforms like CheckYeti; high season weekends run higher, and walk-up prices at the kiosk sometimes run lower, especially in June and September.

Do you need a boat licence in Malta?

Here is the rule that unlocks everything else. Transport Malta requires a nautical licence only when you operate a powerboat, sailing vessel or jet ski with a combined engine power of 30 HP or more (up to 24 m in length), or when you tow someone for waterskiing, according to Sailing School Malta, one of the Transport Malta approved schools. The official service page is on servizz.gov.mt.

Everything below that threshold is fair game. That single number explains the shape of the whole rental market:

• Self-drive boats are kept under 30 HP precisely so that anyone can rent them. No licence, no paperwork beyond an ID and a briefing.
• Jet skis are all well above 30 HP, so operators run them in supervised or designated zones under their own arrangements, which is why every rental comes with a briefing and boundaries rather than a licence check. Drivers generally need to be 18 or over.
• Parasailing, banana boats and tubes: the operator drives the tow boat, you are cargo. Nothing required.
• Skippered charters: the skipper holds the licence, whatever the size of the boat.

If you are a resident and want the licence itself (for a 40 HP+ boat, waterskiing with friends, or just to stop renting), the short version: you must be 18, get a GP fitness certificate, sit a course of at least 24 hours at an approved school (250 to 340 EUR at the private schools; the MCAST evening route via MG2i costs 175 EUR but its next intakes are in 2027), pass a 40 EUR Transport Malta oral exam, then pay 23.29 EUR for the card, which is valid ten years. The application runs through servizz.gov.mt and needs a Maltese residential address and an eID, so this is a resident's project, not something you do on holiday. If you are settling here, sorting your Maltese ID card comes first anyway.

One honest caveat: you will also see operators renting boats well above 30 HP to unlicensed drivers, subject to age and experience conditions they set themselves. A1 Sliema, for example, rents a 115 HP Ranieri to drivers 21 and over. How each operator squares that with their insurance is their business; the unambiguous option for a first-timer is a sub-30 HP boat.

Renting a boat without a licence

This is the one to build a day around, and the thing I push visiting friends towards instead of a third beach day. A small self-drive boat turns the coastline into your itinerary: St Paul's Islands, the caves along the northern cliffs, lunch at anchor in a bay with no road access.

What it costs in 2026:

• Entry rentals (2-3 hours): from about 120 EUR. The cheapest listings I can find are SIPS Watersports from St Thomas Bay at 120 EUR and Oh Yeah Malta in Mellieha at 140 EUR, per CheckYeti's licence-free board.
• Half day: 185 to 290 EUR depending on boat and base. Oh Yeah Malta publishes clean tiers: 150 EUR for 2 hours, 220 for 4, 290 for 6.
• Full day: up to about 390 EUR (A1 Sliema Watersports charges 290 for a half day and 390 for a full day on its bigger boat).
• The extras: fuel is almost always billed on top (Oh Yeah meters it at 1.80 EUR per litre: you leave with a full tank and pay for what you burn). Deposits range from zero to 300 EUR. Bring photo ID, and expect a minimum driver age of 18 to 21 depending on the operator.

Where to rent from:

• St Paul's Bay / Bugibba / Qawra is classic self-drive territory: Waterworld at the Sunny Coast Resort in Qawra, plus a thick cluster of listings on Click&Boat. From here you putter out to St Paul's Islands in twenty minutes.
• Sliema has pickups along the Strand and the Tigne seafront (A1 Sliema and the long-running Malta Self Drive Boats kiosk). Good if you are based in the Sliema / St Julian's corridor and want to skip a bus ride.
• Mellieha Bay puts you closest to Comino for the shortest crossing on a rental clock.
• St Thomas Bay, Marsaskala is the southeast option nobody talks about. SIPS and Sensi both run from here, the prices are the sharpest on the island, and you share the water with a fraction of the traffic.
• Xlendi, Gozo: Gozo Boat Hire rents boats and jet skis out of a calm, cliff-walled bay. If you are staying on the smaller island (or living there), the south coast caves are spectacular.

How a self-drive rental works, step by step

If you have never rented a boat before, here is the sequence, so nothing at the kiosk surprises you:

1. Book or walk up. In July and August, book the boat a few days out; shoulder season, the kiosk will usually have something within the hour.
2. Paperwork. Photo ID for the driver (passport or EU ID card), a signed damage waiver, and the deposit if the operator takes one (zero to 300 EUR; some skip it and hold you liable for damage instead). Minimum driver age is 18 at most operators, 21 at some.
3. The briefing. Ten to fifteen minutes: throttle, kill-switch lanyard, anchor, and a laminated map of where you may and may not go. Take a photo of that map with your phone. They will also give you the day's wind call and a hard "back by" time.
4. The zone. Small rentals are typically restricted to a stated area (say, the stretch between the home bay and Comino) and must stay out of the buoyed swimmer lanes along every beach. The enforcement RIBs do patrol in August.
5. Fuel. You leave with a full tank and settle for what you burned at return (Oh Yeah meters it at 1.80 EUR per litre). Gentle throttle roughly halves consumption versus running flat out, which is the cheapest seamanship lesson you will ever get.
6. Coming back. Return late and you pay for the extra time at the worst rate on the card. Build in a half-hour margin: afternoon chop makes the return leg slower than the morning leg out.

None of it is hard. If you can drive a scooter carefully, you can drive a 30 HP boat in calm morning water.

What a Comino boat day costs, all-in

To make the numbers concrete, here is the realistic budget for the classic outing, two people, self-drive from the north coast, July 2026: a 4-hour boat at around 220 EUR, fuel on return that I would expect in the 25 to 40 EUR range for a Comino round trip at sensible throttle, and the Blue Lagoon pass at exactly zero (free, and only needed if you step ashore). Call it 250 to 270 EUR for the boat split between everyone on board, plus your picnic. With four adults aboard, that lands within sight of what the commercial boat-trip version of the same day costs per head, while giving you the anchorage, the timing and the swim ladder to yourselves.

The obvious destination is Comino's Blue Lagoon, and here the 2026 rule matters: you only need the free Visitor Pass if you step ashore at the Blue Lagoon. Anchor in the lagoon and swim from the boat and no pass is needed. If you do want to land, book the free slot at bluelagooncomino.mt before you go; capacity is capped and summer slots go early. The full system, with ferry alternatives, is in my Comino day trip guide.

Two pieces of advice from watching renters come back rattled. First, go in the morning: the prevailing northwesterly usually builds through the afternoon and the exposed northern bays get choppy, which is miserable in a small boat. Second, respect the buoyed swimmer zones along every popular beach; the enforcement boats do patrol in summer.

Jet ski rental and safaris

The 20 to 30 minute blast is the standard product: 45 to 70 EUR depending on the bay. Cheapest rides I can point to in 2026 are Mellieha Bay at 45 EUR single / 50 double for 20 minutes (via GetMyBoat), with the big-name bases a step up: Aquamarine at Golden Bay runs a fleet of current-model Sea-Doo GTX at 70 EUR single / 85 double, and the St Julian's operators sit around 50 to 65.

The better product, if you are going to spend jet ski money at all, is the guided safari: about 90 minutes in a convoy with a lead rider, typically up the coast to St Paul's Islands or across to Comino. Expect 135 to 195 EUR (135 single / 160 for two riders on the cheapest Mellieha operator; the platform norm is 139 to 195). Per minute it beats the short blast, and you cover coastline you would otherwise never see.

You ride inside the operator's designated area, after a briefing, and that supervision is what stands in for the licence. In St Julian's the established names are Rush Watersports at Portomaso Marina and Oki-Ko-Ki Banis on Spinola Bay, which has been running watersports since 1973, longer than most of the hotels behind it. On the southeast coast, Sensi Watersports covers St Thomas Bay.

Parasailing, banana boats and the towed stuff

Parasailing is the best effort-to-spectacle ratio in Malta: 45 to 60 EUR buys a 10 to 15 minute flight, and takeoff and landing happen from the boat deck winch, so you can do it in your sunglasses. The volume operation is Sun & Fun at the Corinthia Beach Resort on St George's Bay (running since 1999, 45 EUR, free shuttle pickup from Sliema and Balluta Bay). Mellieha's operators charge around 60. I watch these boats loop past the point most summer evenings, and the queue at the kiosk tells you it works.

Banana boats, crazy sofas and towed tubes run 20 to 25 EUR for a ten minute ride, and they are exactly as advertised: you will be launched into the sea, that is the product. Great with kids at Mellieha Bay, where the shallow water takes the sting out of falling off.

Kayak and SUP: the underrated one

At 10 to 15 EUR an hour, paddle hire is the cheapest way onto the water and, out of season or at dawn, the best one. Two picks:

• Paradise Bay, next to Cirkewwa: Paradise Watersports hires kayaks at 12 EUR and SUPs at 15, and it is the closest launch point to Comino. Their guided paddles head towards the Crystal Lagoon, the quieter cousin of the Blue Lagoon.
• Gozo: Kayak Gozo runs guided sea-kayak days out of Marsalforn along cliffs and into caves you cannot reach any other way. Calmer, clearer water than the main island. If you are doing a Gozo day anyway (it slots neatly into a 3-day itinerary), this is the upgrade.

An early morning paddle in summer, before the boat traffic wakes up, is the version of Malta that made me stay. The sea at 7 AM in July needs no marketing.

Wakeboarding, wakesurf and flyboard

Niche, but both exist at a serious level. Santa Maria Watersports runs private wakeboard, wakesurf and wakefoil charters on a dedicated Nautique G25 wake boat out of Laguna Marina in Ta' Xbiex, with shared sessions from 100 EUR: proper equipment, not a rental RIB with a rope. And Flyboard Malta in the Sliema area is the official Zapata flyboard centre for the island, instruction included, for anyone who wants to hover over the Mediterranean on water jets and generate the holiday photo nobody else has.

Skippered charters: when you'd rather not drive

If nobody in the group wants responsibility for a boat, you hire the driver with it. Skippered motorboats start at about 180 EUR for a short private charter (the floor is, again, St Thomas Bay), day charters from around 204 EUR on Click&Boat, and sailing yachts from roughly 330 EUR a day, with catamarans well beyond that. Per person, a full boat split six ways often undercuts six ferry-plus-extras tickets to Comino, and you set the route.

This is also the honest answer for anyone tempted by the licence question above: for one or two outings a year, a skipper costs less than the course.

What about diving and snorkeling?

Deliberately not covered here, because they deserve their own treatment and they work differently: no kiosk, no hourly rate, but dive centres, courses and certification cards. The one-paragraph version: Malta and Gozo rank among the best diving destinations in the Mediterranean, with wrecks, caves and 30-metre visibility, and the legendary sites (the Blue Hole, the Inland Sea) cluster on Gozo; I cover them in the living in Gozo guide. Snorkeling needs nothing but a mask and the right rocky bay, and the best spots are marked in my beaches ranking. If your holiday is mainly underwater, plan around Gozo, not the St Julian's kiosk strip.

Reading the wind (the skill that saves your day)

Every disappointing watersports day I have witnessed here came down to booking the wrong bay for the day's wind, not to the operator. Malta's prevailing wind is the northwesterly, which means the popular northern bays (Mellieha, Golden Bay, St Paul's) take the brunt of it while the southeast coast can be flat calm on the same afternoon. A rough playbook:

• Calm morning, any bay: the default summer pattern. Book morning slots and you rarely think about wind at all.
• Northwesterly blowing: the north coast gets chop and jet ski sessions there stop being fun. St Thomas Bay in Marsaskala or Xlendi on Gozo's south coast will be in a different mood entirely.
• Rare southerly: flip the logic; the northern bays go glassy.

Operators cancel or reschedule when conditions turn, and a good one will tell you at booking what the afternoon looks like. If a kiosk is happy to send you out into whitecaps, that tells you something about the kiosk. Check the sea state with your own eyes from shore before paying: two minutes of watching the horizon beats any forecast app.

Which bay for what

Malta watersports map