Malta capped visitor numbers at the Blue Lagoon and introduced a booking system. The pass is free, the ferry is not, and the time slot you choose decides what kind of day you get.
The Blue Lagoon changed. Since May 2025 you need a visitor pass to land on Comino, booked in advance through bluelagooncomino.mt. The pass is free. Numbers are capped at 4,000 per time slot across three slots a day, giving a ceiling of around 12,000 people.
Every guide written before that describes a place you can turn up to. You can still turn up, in the sense that official ferry and excursion tickets include the pass automatically, but the slot you are travelling in now determines what kind of day you get, and that is the planning decision.
Three time slots, each capped:
| Slot | Hours | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Morning | 8am to 1pm | Best light and water, fills from 10am as excursion boats arrive |
| Afternoon | 1.30pm to 5.30pm | Busiest, hottest, least shade |
| Evening | 6pm to 10pm | Quietest by a distance, and the one nobody books |
Booking generates a QR code, which you exchange for a wristband at one of the official entry points on the island. If you buy an official ferry or excursion ticket, the pass is bundled in and you do not book separately.
Enforcement has been reported as inconsistent since the system launched, with QR codes not always scanned and time limits not always enforced. Treat that as a reason to book properly rather than as permission to skip it: a system that is loosely enforced this season may not be next.
The mandatory booking applies to the Blue Lagoon specifically, not to the rest of Comino. The island's other bays, the towers and the walking routes sit outside it. If your slot is full, or you want a quieter version of the same island, that distinction is the workaround.
The cheapest and fastest route. Around €15 return, 10 to 15 minutes each way, from the terminal at Cirkewwa on Malta's northern tip. Departures run from roughly 8.40am to 5pm with returns until about 6pm.
Cirkewwa is where the Gozo ferry goes from, so it is well served by bus from anywhere on Malta. This is the option to take if you are travelling independently.
Full-day trips run from Sliema, Bugibba and Mgarr on Gozo. They cost several times the ferry, take much longer, and usually bundle in Crystal Lagoon, the caves and sometimes a Gozo stop. Whether that is worth it depends on whether you want a boat day or a beach day.
The boats are also the reason the lagoon gets busy at a predictable hour. They arrive mid-morning.
Seasonal kiosks, food trucks and beach bars operate roughly May to October near the landing. Deckchair and umbrella hire exists but numbers are capped and they go early in the day.
There are no ATMs on Comino and card acceptance at the kiosks is unreliable. Bring cash. This is the single most common practical mistake visitors make.
The Blue Lagoon is a shallow channel between Comino and the islet of Cominotto, floored with white sand. That sand under a few metres of clear water is what produces the colour, and it is genuinely as vivid as the photographs when the light is right.
It is not a beach in the conventional sense. The shoreline is rock, and most people swim from the rocks or from a boat rather than walking in off sand.
Snorkelling is good and easy: shallow, clear, sheltered. Bring your own mask, because rental on the island is limited and expensive.
Beyond the lagoon, Comino has:
The island is small, dry, rocky and almost entirely without shade. That last point matters more than it sounds in July.
Turning up in the afternoon slot in August. The lagoon becomes a mass of boats and people, the water gets churned, and the shade has been claimed since nine in the morning.
Bringing no cash. No ATM, unreliable card machines, and a long wait for a ferry with nothing to eat.
Underestimating the sun. Comino has no trees to speak of. Sun exposure here is relentless and reflected off pale rock and water on all sides.
Expecting sand. People arrive expecting a beach and find rock and a crowd. The water is the attraction, not the shoreline.
Assuming the last ferry will wait. Returns stop around 6pm from the lagoon. Miss it in the afternoon slot and your options narrow quickly.
May and October are the answer if you can choose. The water is warm enough, the light is good, the crowds are a fraction of summer, and the kiosks are still running at the edges of the season.
June to September is peak in every sense: hottest, busiest, and the season the caps were introduced to manage.
November to April the water is cold, most kiosks close and ferry frequency drops, but Comino is quiet and beautiful and the walking is at its best. Treat it as an island walk rather than a swim.
Within any season, the evening slot is the least-used and the light on the water in the hour before sunset is the best of the day.
Comparing Mediterranean island beaches? Kefalonia in the Ionian offers the same clear water with a completely different access problem: no ferry cap, but steep roads and beaches at the bottom of long descents. Our Kefalonia beaches guide covers which ones are worth the drive, and the Akchour waterfalls in northern Morocco are the freshwater version of the same short-flight trip.
Book the pass at bluelagooncomino.mt before anything else, and pick the evening slot if the season allows it. Then buy a Cirkewwa ferry ticket rather than an excursion unless you specifically want a boat day.
Draw cash before you leave Malta, take a mask, take more water than you think, and plan to be on a return ferry with an hour of margin rather than the last one.
Yes. Since May 2025 a visitor pass is required to land on Comino. It is free and booked online at bluelagooncomino.mt, and it is automatically included in official ferry and excursion tickets. Booking generates a QR code that is exchanged for a wristband at the entry points.
Nothing. The pass itself is free. What you pay for is the boat: a round-trip ferry from Cirkewwa is around €15 per person, and organised excursions from Sliema or Bugibba cost considerably more.
Three per day: 8am to 1pm, 1.30pm to 5.30pm, and 6pm to 10pm. Each is capped at 4,000 visitors, giving a maximum of about 12,000 people a day on the site.
The ferry from Cirkewwa on Malta's northern tip takes 10 to 15 minutes and is the cheapest and fastest route, running roughly 8.40am to 5pm with returns until about 6pm. Excursion boats also run from Sliema, Bugibba and Mgarr on Gozo, taking longer and costing more.
Seasonal kiosks, food trucks and beach bars operate roughly May to October near the ferry landing. There are no ATMs on the island and card acceptance is unreliable, so bring cash.
The evening slot from 6pm, and the shoulder months of May and October. The morning slot fills with the excursion boats from about 10am. Between June and September the middle of the day is the busiest the site gets.
Barely. Comino has a very small permanent population and limited accommodation, and camping is restricted. Almost everyone visits as a day trip from Malta or Gozo.
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