Stop 12 of 12
Wied iż-Żurrieq
The inlet, the boats and the bus
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Stop one of Ħaġar Qim & Mnajdra plays straight away. The other 11 are one payment:
- Every stop from here to Wied iż-Żurrieq, narrated
- The map following you from stop to stop, hands free
- The whole tour saved to your phone — no signal, no roaming
Not sure yet? Start with The Visitor Centre & the Ridge.
The written guide below is open either way.
Guide to Wied iż-Żurrieq
The walk ends in Wied iż-Żurrieq, a fishing hamlet at the bottom of a gorge, with a slipway, a few boats and a row of restaurants. The Blue Grotto boats leave from here when the sea allows, for a trip of about twenty-five minutes through the arch and the caves. The Xutu Tower of 1638 stands on the headland above the inlet, and the buses stop at the top of the village.
The boats
Small open boats run by local boatmen go out from the slipway on most summer days and fewer winter ones; if the sea is up there is no trip. The run through the arch and into the caves takes about twenty-five minutes and is best in the morning, when the water is blue.
The tower and the village
The Xutu Tower on the headland dates from 1638, twenty years before the Ħamrija tower and part of an earlier chain. The inlet it guards was the obvious landing for a raiding boat, which is why the village sits at the back of the gorge rather than at its mouth.
Buses stop at the top of the village, and the coast road runs east towards Marsaxlokk and the airport. The view back along the coast to the temples, with the shelters on the ridge and Filfla beyond, is the one to finish on.
What to look at
- The slipway and the boats, and the sea state that decides whether they go
- The Xutu Tower on the headland above
- The gorge behind the village, the wied that gives it its name
Practical
- Onward
- Buses from the top of the village towards Valletta; the airport is about fifteen minutes by road.
- Rest
- Restaurants and toilets around the inlet.