Malta - Unterwegs in Mellieha

We drove to the other end of the island today. But this time not to take the ferry to Gozo, but to spend the day in Mellieha and the surrounding beaches and sights.

First, we drove to a beach called 'Paradise Bay'. It is hidden between the rocks and cannot be seen from the outside. Small but beautiful is the motto here, the water here is naturally beautiful again and the whole beach is very pretty. There is a restaurant where you can refresh yourself, toilets and also a sunbed rental. Today the weather is beautiful and really warm, just like yesterday. This gave us a severe sunburn but that's alright. If you want to relax, you can easily spend the whole day here. So far, this is probably the most beautiful sandy beach we have visited in Malta, but there are not too many sandy beaches here either. But when the beach gets too crowded after a while, we continue driving. Or at least we try.

Actually, we wanted to visit Mellieha Beach, the longest sandy beach in Malta. However, we are already standing in a really long line of cars after a short time. The reason for this is that this is the only road that leads away from the beach and crosses the road to the ferry below. It seems to be heavily frequented today, which is why there is no way forward or backward for us now. A total catastrophe, because it looks as if we have to spend the rest of the day in the line for the ferry. But some drivers apparently found it too annoying to stand here forever, so a few people simply continued driving on the other side of the road (against the traffic!). After a while, some others joined in and people simply drove past the line on the other lane. It got funny when oncoming traffic came. But apparently nobody was interested in that and so we eventually did the same as the others, as we also didn't feel like spending the rest of our vacation day here. It was pure chaos! At the intersection, a policeman tried to regulate the traffic, but he was visibly overwhelmed. We were afraid of getting into trouble because of our action, but the policeman didn't care. He just waved us on and seemed rather glad that the problem solved itself.

The journey finally continued towards Mellieha Beach. We looked for a parking space there and walked to the beach. However, it is directly located on the main road and was covered with seaweed. Not exactly what I imagine a beautiful beach to be like. We sat down in one of the beach huts and watched the hustle and bustle for a while, but then we left shortly afterwards. The beach was really not very nice, so we didn't want to stay there any longer.

Then we drove for a short photo stop to 'Popeye Village'. The entrance fee of 20 euros per person was too expensive for us, so we just took a few photos from the outside and continued driving.

Actually, we wanted to spend the rest of the day relaxing at Golden Bay. Unfortunately, today was a public holiday and it felt like all of Malta had the same idea. When we arrived there, there was not a single parking space available anywhere. With all the hustle and bustle, the beach would probably have been too crowded anyway, but it was still annoying. Because now we had no other choice but to turn around. The problem now was: where to? We could have driven back to Paradise Bay, but it was probably already completely crowded by now too. But would it be any different at any other beach today? We shouldn't have chosen the public holidays for this. Eventually, we followed the signs to Armier Beach, not knowing what to expect there.

When we arrived there, it wasn't as crowded as in other places, so we were able to easily park our car, but the beach was far from beautiful. Quite small and quite dirty. So we preferred to sit in the beach restaurant there and enjoyed the view over the beautiful, clear sea. After eating, we found a nice, quiet spot on the cliffs. It was nice to stay there, there was nobody else except us. We enjoyed the sound of the sea for a while, until we slowly made our way back to Marsaskala. We didn't want to drive back in the dark without navigation again :D

If there is a place in Malta where you can spend a nice beach vacation, it is Mellieha with its many small sandy beaches and bays. But if you want to see more, you have to be mobile, because there is not much else to do here besides the beach.