Adventurous Kate contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I will earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks!
In a country as tiny as Malta, there aren’t many new places to discover. Every geographic nook and cranny is well-documented — and if any two Maltese meet, I guarantee they will have at least have a few friends in common!
But if there is such thing as a secret beach in Malta, it’s San Blas Bay on the island of Gozo. It’s hidden, tough to access, sparsely visited, and breathtakingly beautiful — everything that you want a secret beach to be.
“San Blas!” I yelped out while perusing Google Maps as I drove up a steep hill. “One of my readers said that’s a nice beach! Let’s go there!”
Last time I was in Malta, I had borrowed a friend’s falling-apart car, aptly named The Beast. Having zero confidence in how The Beast could perform on Gozo’s steep, rough roads, I had stuck to the smooth roads on the beaten path for our first day on Malta’s second island.
But by the time I returned nearly a year later, my friend had sold The Beast, and so I rented a little yellow Peugeot I nicknamed The Daffodil. She could take the rough roads — and so I drove north from the town of Nadur, following the signs for San Blas Bay, bouncing down a hill until I found a tiny parking lot.
There it was — San Blas Bay.
It wasn’t just one steep, rough road in order to get to that point. Beyond the parking lot was an even steeper, rougher, narrower road leading all the way down to the beach. Few vehicles would be up to the task. I elected to walk down.
From the first few steps, I knew that my calves would be hurting for days.
After 10 minutes of walking downhill, during which I passed trees swollen with lemons the size of footballs, I arrived on the tiny beach — small, clean, and nearly deserted, save a few couples and a family with a young kid.
Oh, and two naked dudes sunbathing behind a rock. (Which wasn’t good. Malta is a surprisingly conservative country and topless sunbathing is forbidden, let alone PEENS OUT sunbathing!)
That said…this beach was just as lovely in person as it appeared from afar.
Have you ever seen water that clear in your life?
It was just a short visit and a small part of our day trip, but San Blas Bay has earned a spot on my list of favorite beaches in the world.
Gozo feels like a world away from Malta — though the architectural style is the same and the natural environment is similar, Gozo is one of the quietest, most chilled out, most relaxing places I’ve ever visited.
Next time I want to spend several days here and relax on beautiful beaches like these — even if it means climbing up that steep hill at the end of the day.
Essential Info: To reach San Blas Bay, you’ll need to have a vehicle of your own, or else you’ll be facing a long walk from Nadur. You can rent cars on both Gozo and Malta, and the ferry costs €15.70 for a car and all passengers (and is only charged on the way back to Malta).
This post was brought to you as a result of the Blog Island Malta campaign, created and managed by iambassador in partnership with the Malta Tourism Authority and the support of Air Malta. Adventurous Kate maintains full editorial control of the content published on this site.
Beautiful place Kate! I have never been to Malta but what you wrote about this island being so tiny made my morning 🙂
I was just wondering. If I want to have a good overview of Malta, how long should I plan to stay there? Is it possible over a long weekend?
Thanks for your tips
Cheers from Sweden!
Hi, Myriam —
You could do it over a long weekend if you wanted to, but you would only get to see a bit of it. Ideally, plan for a week or two to get a nice overview of Malta and Gozo.
Gorgeous beach! Now I have to add Malta and San Blas Beach to my list… Wish there was some shade on the beach, but it’s gorgeous none the less!
Beautiful! Reminds me of Formentera — very chill and some of the most incredible beaches, except nudity is very much welcome there. (Including peens — ha!) You know… Spain. 😉
Looks like such a lovely little spot!
What’s great about beaches like this is the lack of rubbish – no plastic bottles or empty Coke cans – Pukka as we say in South London!!!!
Wow very beautiful! Malta is definitely on my list of places that I want to travel to.
It looks gorgeous from above and finally down at the beach even more inviting, I would love to visit Malta some day.
Aside from the nudists, sounds like a perfect afternoon! Absolutely stunning pictures. Thanks for sharing.
Happy travels 🙂
Stunning Beach! Thanks for sharing.
I almost got shot by a bird hunter hiking to that beach. It was seven years ago though, hopefully that problem is sorted?
Bird hunting is a big issue in Malta at the moment. There’s a vote coming up soon.
Looks like an awesome find! I love finding little off-the-beaten-path places like that to relax on vacation – a nice change of pace from beaches crawling with people!
what a perfect little beach! could almost be Australia 😉
Australian beaches are in a whole different category! :-O
The beach is gorgeous, no doubt, but the best part is that it’s lesser known. It’s my dream to just spend endless hours at a secluded beach like this. Thanks for such beautiful photos!
Those beaches look so beautiful. I miss living near the coast, Sichuan is lovely but its definitely landlocked
I’d love to be there right now :). Have heard many nice things about Malta, so now knowing of this place is a nice bonus!
Malta looks awesome.. Plenty of sand and sea, must see the place, beautiful!
The beach looks beautiful, and that view from up top looks pretty amazing as well.
What a beautiful beach! I Love how clear and blue the water is 🙂
I love discovering secret little places like this! The kind of place you agonize over writing a blog post about, because you don’t want too many people to discover the secret and spoil it. lol
nice place..so unique and my favourite place…have a good fun
I love little hidden places like this. Tayrona NPin Colombia has also a beach, where there is no tourists.YOu just have to hike a bit through the forest and you come to this secluded place with no tourism at all!
Tayrona beach!
Was there many years ago. Amazing beach (though I spent 4 days and nights in the more touristy area). Colombia is such an amazing country. Too bad it gets mostly bad press.
Oh – and Malta – visiting in 17 of September for 4 days (then on to Sicily).
This beach looks lovely. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful photos of San Blas beach and the very steep walk down! I’ve recently returned from Malta and Gozo and one of my favourite less known beaches on Gozo was in front of Halfa Rock, about a 20 minute walk/scramble following the coast (and the red dots/arrows) from Hondoq Bay. There were no other people there and the white pebbles and gorgeous turquoise sea made it feel like I’d landed on a desert island. Gorgeous.
San Blas Bay looks perfect! I really need to check out Malta. I’ve heard good things about the lifestyle, fast Internet and the open economy there for digital nomads. Also, it’s nice to live in an exotic place and do business where most people speak English.
I’d love to know this wonderful place. Simply breathtaking scenery.