Colourful fishing boats moored in a busy harbour with white stone buildings lining the waterfront under a clear blue sky.

Location

Marsaxlokk

Malta

Plan your visit

Buses 81 and 85 run from Valletta in under an hour. On Sundays, arrive before 9am to see the fish market at its best.

About this place

Marsaxlokk is the Malta of postcards: a sheltered bay crowded with luzzus, the traditional wooden fishing boats painted blue, yellow, red and green. Many carry an eye on the bow, said to be a charm from Phoenician times to protect the fishermen at sea.

The village is a working harbour as much as a sight. On Sunday mornings the waterfront becomes a market, with the morning's catch laid out on ice beside stalls of lace, honey, capers and souvenirs. A smaller market runs along the promenade on other days.

Seafood is the reason to stay for lunch. The restaurants along the harbour serve whatever came in that morning, including lampuki, the dolphinfish that is in season in autumn.

Our take
Come for the painted boats and stay for a fish lunch on the harbour. Sunday is the liveliest day, and the busiest.
Two people stand arm in arm on a harbour quayside with colourful boats and limestone buildings behind them.Colourful wooden fishing boats moored on calm turquoise water beneath a clear blue sky.A blue wooden fishing boat named Santu Rokku moored at a sunny harbour with other boats, waterfront cafes and stone buildings beyond.

Location

Find Marsaxlokk

Marsaxlokk sits around a sheltered bay in the south-east of Malta, about half an hour by road from Valletta.

Coordinates: 35.8422° N · 14.5428° E

Nearby places

All of Malta

Other stops in Malta

Recommended

Mdina

Location

Malta's walled former capital on a hilltop in the centre of the island, known as the Silent City for its quiet, almost car-free lanes.

Recommended

The Knights of St John's great church in Valletta, with a gilded Baroque interior, a floor of marble tombstones and Caravaggio's Beheading of Saint John the Baptist in the oratory.

Recommended

Birgu, Senglea and Cospicua, the fortified harbour towns across the Grand Harbour from Valletta: quieter than the capital and a short boat ride away.

Recommended

An arcaded garden on Valletta's highest bastion with the best view of the Grand Harbour and the Three Cities, and the Saluting Battery firing its guns below.

Blue Lagoon

Location

A sheltered bay of clear turquoise water between Comino and Cominotto: Malta's most famous swimming spot, and very busy in summer.

Popeye Village

Attraction

The wooden film set built for the 1980 musical Popeye, now a family attraction on Anchor Bay near Mellieħa.