Malta · South-east Malta
Marsaxlokk
A working fishing harbour full of painted luzzus, with strong holding and the best fish lunch in the country at the end of it.
Marsaxlokk is the fishing port, and it is still an actual one — the harbour is full of luzzus, the painted boats with the eye of Osiris on the bow, and the fleet works. The Sunday market on the quay is a genuine institution rather than a staged one.
For a boat it is a large bay with strong holding, sheltered from the west, and it is a normal place to sit out weather that has made the north coast unpleasant. It is also somewhere you can land and eat properly, which is not true of most anchorages on this page.
It is a harbour with industry in it — the freeport and the power station are along the same stretch of coast — so it is chosen for what it is rather than for the view.
Getting it right
- Getting there
- A town, with everything a town has.
- When
- Sunday morning for the market. Sheltered in westerlies.
- How busy
- A working harbour, so busy in a different way.
- Shape of the day
- A south-east coast run, often paired with St Peter's Pool.
Where it is
- Departure marina
- Destination
Sailing here
Boats we list that are berthed within reach of Marsaxlokk:
Also on Malta
- St Paul's BayOne of the largest anchorages in the country, with good holding in sand and two uninhabited islands across the mouth of it.
- Coral LagoonA collapsed sea cave off the north coast — a circular pool of turquoise inside the rock, open to the sky, entered through an arch.
- Slugs BayA tiny pocket of sand between two rock arms below Selmun — too small to be busy and too awkward to reach on foot.
- Fomm ir-RiħThe wildest bay on the island — blue clay cliffs, a pebble shore, no development at all, and a land route that has been closed off.