Is Comino overrated? An honest take after 4 visits

My first visit convinced me it was overrated. My fourth changed my mind.

The first time I went to Comino, it was a Saturday in late July. The boat from Sliema held about 60 people, most of them armed with inflatable flamingos and small blue cool-boxes. Blue Lagoon came into view after 90 minutes at sea, and it was indeed exactly the colour of the photographs — a turquoise that feels almost aggressive in its insistence on being beautiful. We anchored, we swam (briefly, in water turbid with other people’s sunscreen), we ate overpriced sandwiches from the boat’s galley. We went back to Sliema at 5pm.

I thought: fine. Nice water. Not worth the fuss.

By the fourth visit — October 2018, off-season, on a small private boat with five friends — I had reversed my position completely. Here’s why.

What Comino actually is (stripped of the Instagram version)

Comino is the smallest of Malta’s three inhabited islands: 3.5 square kilometres, roughly rectangular, mostly scrubland with a blue tower (the 17th-century Santa Marija Tower) and a handful of buildings including a hotel that closed for renovation years ago and hasn’t reopened. There are no cars, no roads in the conventional sense, and no permanent residents — the “inhabitants” figure of around four people usually refers to a police officer stationed there seasonally and perhaps a hotel caretaker.

The island has one thing that everyone comes for: Blue Lagoon, the channel between Comino and the tiny islet of Cominotto, where the colour of the water is determined by the shallow sandy bottom and the clarity of the Mediterranean. It is genuinely one of the most beautiful colours of water I’ve seen in any sea.

And then it has the rest of the island, which most people never see because they spend their time in Blue Lagoon and go home.

The case for “overrated”: July and August

There is no gentle way to say this: Blue Lagoon in high summer is not a pleasant experience. Three thousand people a day is the commonly cited figure for peak July-August. The boats anchor side by side and their engines churn the water. The water clarity — the entire point — is significantly reduced. Sun loungers cover every flat surface. The noise level is nightclub-adjacent.

The food and drink situation: a small concession selling bottled water at €3 and hot dogs at €8. There are people who queue for these things. There are other people who’ve brought coolers from Malta, which is the correct approach but adds to the luggage on the crossing.

The crossing itself, from Sliema or Bugibba, is 60-90 minutes on a boat that is typically full. Returning involves timing your exit against the afternoon departure rush, which can mean another hour on the water.

For this experience, the typical tour price is €25-40 per person. This is objectively good value for a day on the Mediterranean, but it doesn’t feel that way when you’re sharing the lagoon with 2,000 other people.

My honest assessment of July-August Comino: overrated, yes. The reality does not match the image.

The case for “not overrated”: shoulder season and winter

My fourth visit was in October 2018, which is when everything changed.

The island in October is a different proposition. The tour boat season has thinned dramatically — fewer operators, smaller boats, different clientele. The people who come in October are not the inflatable-flamingo crowd; they’re people who either live locally and know what October offers, or they’ve done some research and found out.

Blue Lagoon in October: 20-30 people. The water at its most transparent — you can see every detail of the sandy bottom at 4 metres depth. The temperature: around 23°C in the water, perfect swimming. The boats that are there are moored quietly, no engine churning. The light comes in at a lower angle and turns the water from turquoise to something between green and gold in the late afternoon.

We spent four hours in the water, on the rocks around the lagoon, eating food we’d brought from Malta. Nobody was trying to sell us anything. A hawk (I think a kestrel) hunted along the cliff edge. The Santa Marija Tower stood dark blue against the sky.

The rest of the island in October: we walked the coastal path toward the south, which involves scrambling over rocky terrain with no marked trail. Crystal Lagoon — the smaller bay on the east side of the island, calmer than Blue Lagoon — was entirely empty. The scrubland has the smell of wild thyme and sea salt. There are sections of the island where the view is only sea and rock and sky in every direction.

My honest assessment of October Comino: not overrated at all. Worth several trips.

The verdict: timing is everything

When	Verdict	Crowds	Water clarity	Price
July-August	Overrated	2,000-3,000/day	Low	High
Late September	Borderline	500-800/day	Good	Moderate
October	Worth it	Under 200/day	Excellent	Low
November-March	Very worth it	Under 50/day	Excellent	Lowest
But	Note:	ferries run	less frequently	in winter

In November through March, the regular ferry services from Cirkewwa and Mellieha are reduced or stop entirely. Getting to Comino in winter means a private charter or a boat tour from Sliema, which costs more but provides a radically better experience.

Malta: Blue Lagoon Evening Catamaran Cruise (Bugibba departure)

If you’re going in summer, the evening catamaran option — arriving at Blue Lagoon around 5-6pm when the day boats are leaving — provides a version of the experience that’s much closer to what October looks like.

The crystal lagoon alternative

One thing worth saying explicitly: Crystal Lagoon, which sits around the eastern headland from Blue Lagoon, is almost always significantly quieter than its famous neighbour. The water is equally clear, the colour similar, the swimming just as good. The sun lounger concession doesn’t operate there, so you’re on the rocks, but that’s not a disadvantage if you’ve brought something to sit on.

The reason Crystal Lagoon remains less visited is simple: the tour boats go to Blue Lagoon because that’s what the booking says. If you’re on a private boat or a kayak, Crystal Lagoon is accessible and usually significantly less crowded.

The Santa Marija Tower and the island interior

Almost nobody who visits Comino on a day trip explores beyond Blue Lagoon. This means the rest of the island — the tower, the coastal paths, the high ground with its 360-degree view — is consistently quiet regardless of season.

The Santa Marija Tower is one of several coastal towers built by the Knights of Malta in the 17th century to watch for Ottoman raids. It’s locked (the interior is only accessible on occasional Heritage Malta events), but the exterior and the promontory it stands on are worth the 20-minute walk from Blue Lagoon. The view from the top of the island takes in Malta, Gozo, and on clear days the mountains of Sicily.

The conclusion, after four visits: Comino is exactly as good as the images suggest — but not in July, not at midday, and not when 3,000 other people are there to prove you right.