Malta · North Malta, Selmun
Slugs Bay
A tiny pocket of sand between two rock arms below Selmun — too small to be busy and too awkward to reach on foot.
Slugs Bay is barely a bay: a small patch of sand at the bottom of a cleft in the rock below Selmun, with arms of stone on either side and rock pools along them. On land it is a scramble down a steep, unmarked path, which is the entire reason it stays empty.
It is very small. Three or four boats is a crowd, and there is not much water to anchor in. Most people take a tender in or swim the last part.
It is included here because it is the honest version of what a "secret spot" in Malta actually is — not undiscovered, just inconvenient enough that only the people who are prepared to work at it, or who arrive by sea, bother.
Getting it right
- Getting there
- The land approach is a steep, informal path from the Selmun side.
- When
- Calm days. There is no room to lie to a swell.
- How busy
- Almost none, because it does not fit anybody.
- Shape of the day
- A short stop on a north-coast day.
Where it is
- Departure marina
- Destination
- Approximate position
Sailing here
Boats we list that are berthed within reach of Slugs Bay:
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.
- 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.
- Għar LapsiA sheltered rock pool under the Siġġiewi cliffs, with Filfla offshore and cave systems that divers come a long way for.