After doing a bunch of research and watching some YouTube videos about The Blue Lagoon, I was completely turned off by going there via big tour expedition or trying to take a smaller boat to the place from a nearby beach. The place is beautiful, but extremely small and crowded, so I started to look for other options to see the Lagoon, and came across Sailing Charters Malta on Viator in order to book a private sail to the Blue Lagoon and other areas around the island. From the day I reached out to them several weeks before our trip, all the way through the moment we got off the boat, our experience with Sailing Charters Malta was superb.

I decided to reach out to them directly, rather than booking through Viator, as I typically want to make sure the folks doing the work get most of the money, and I don’t love paying intermediaries. That said, there was not much of a price difference between what was quoted on Viator and what the company quoted me. I got an extremely detailed email response from Sailing Charters within 24 hours of my inquiry, sending me videos, maps, and links to the sailboat that they suggested we charter as well as pricing for the trip itself as well as several food/lunch options. Once I confirmed, they required a deposit. The rest of the balance was to be paid in cash to the Skipper on the day of the excursion.

We received good directions to the docks, and we were greeted by Captain Steve, an American ex pat living in Malta. His family is Maltese, so he was able to get his citizenship to live there. He has an interesting background, and kept us entertained throughout our excursion. We left the Grand Harbor of Malta, and made our way very slowly on the 30-ish foot sailboat towards the Blue Lagoon and Crystal Lagoon, taking in the entire north-eastern coast of Malta along the way. It was chill and lovely having our own private boat, and the fact that the weather was completely perfect didn’t hurt either.

Once we got to Comino Island, we went into the Crystal Lagoon to see if we could swim, but unfortunately the water was too choppy, so we were able to take in some of the cool views and check out the amazingly turquoise water, and we made our way towards the Blue Lagoon. Honestly, we didn’t really see much of it because there were so many boats in the way, and Steve told us that it wasn’t even that crowded.

We made our way around and settled to go into another more secluded cove, complete with turquoise blue water to try and swim. When we arrived, we jumped right in, even though we noticed that though there were several other boats around, no one else was in the water. Well, after about 10 minutes in the water, we figured out why. Brian got stung on his arm by a small jellyfish! Agh! Anna bolted for the boat, never to go in the water again the rest of our trip that day. I made my way out more slowly, and as I did, I also got stung on my foot. It wasn’t too bad, and Captain Steve had a baking soda mixture ready for us to soothe the sting. Usually, the jellyfish are done by July, but there were some high winds recently, and Steve thought that because the cooler water was turned up and we were in a cove, that the jellies all just got blown in there. Well, now we know why there was no one else in the water.

At that point, we had a snack of fresh cucumbers, olives, peppers, goat cheese, crackers, and two different kind of dips – one being a cheese dip and the other was the traditional Maltese bean tapenade. It was a nice snack to keep us going. We then headed over towards St. Paul’s Bay, where there is this massive statue of St. Paul on the point of the bay. It is said that this is where St. Paul was shipwrecked. There, we were able to jump in the water as there were no jellies around and float around in the beautiful bay with cliffs all around. Anna chose to stay on the boat and work on her tan. Meanwhile, Steve grilled up some chicken. When that was done, it was served with a bottle of white wine, along with some potato salad. There was also some delicious cake for dessert as well.

After we were done eating, we started heading back for the 1.5 hour trip back to the harbor. The wind was solid, but not crazy, so we were actually able to sail for about 45 minutes of that time as well, which was pretty cool to get the sails up. We returned to the harbor around 6pm, completely exhausted from our day of sun and sailing.

All in all, I think the trip was a great value, although I think I would’ve liked to spend more time closer to the more famous lagoons. Sometimes the weather just doesn’t work in your favor though, and we were told that the sails had to be cancelled for the two days prior, so at least we were able to go! I think the cost of the full day of sailing (from 9am-6pm) was 100% fair, and even comparatively inexpensive considering it was a private charter just for the three of us. The cost was 475 Euro which included non alcoholic drinks all day. I think the food was slightly overpriced, but considering it was all homemade, it wasn’t ridiculous. It was 35 Euro per person, which included all the snacks and dips, the chicken with potato salad and the cake, as well as a bottle of wine. There were other options including fish and beef for the same price (probably should’ve gone for the fish), and there was also the option of a cold lunch which was basically a pasta salad instead of the protein. You cold also opt for no included lunch, and they would have pulled up to a restaurant somewhere with a dock in order to get food and drinks. There are a ton of options available with this outfit.

If you do find yourself in Malta, and wondering if there was a different way to see the islands, I would highly recommend reaching out to Sailing Charters Malta for a private sail.