If you’re planning a trip to Malta, chances are the Blue Lagoon in Comino is already on your list — those photos of impossibly turquoise, shallow water aren’t exaggerated. But before you get there, you’ll need to make one decision that shapes your whole day: do you take the public ferry, or book a private boat?
Both get you to the same stunning water. How you spend the hours around it is where they’re completely different experiences.
The Ferry: Cheap, Simple, and Shared With Everyone Else
The ferry is the most straightforward way to reach Comino, and it’s worth understanding honestly, not dismissing.
- Price: Round-trip tickets run roughly €13–20 per adult depending on the departure point and operator, with lower rates for children.
- Crossing time: About 20–35 minutes each way, depending on whether you leave from Cirkewwa/Marfa in the north or from Sliema.
- Frequency: Ferries run regularly through the day in peak season, often every 30 minutes or so.
That low price comes with real trade-offs. You’re on a fixed schedule, sharing the boat with everyone else who booked that departure, and once you land, you’re sharing the Blue Lagoon itself with every other ferry that arrived that morning — which, by mid-morning in summer, is a lot of people packed into a fairly small stretch of shoreline. If you want a spot on the sand, the advice from almost every guide is the same: get there as early as physically possible.
There’s also a newer detail worth knowing if you’re planning a trip: Comino now runs an access management system for the Blue Lagoon’s shore area. If you plan to actually step onto the beach rather than just swim from the boat, you’re expected to reserve a free timed landing slot and show a QR code — separate from your ferry or boat ticket. It’s worth checking the current requirements before you go, since this kind of system tends to get refined season to season.
The Private Boat: Your Whole Group, Your Own Schedule
A private charter starts from a different premise entirely: instead of buying a seat on someone else’s boat, you rent the entire boat for your group, for the day. There’s no ticket, no shared trip, and no fixed departure everyone else is also boarding.
What that actually changes for your day:
- You set the pace. Leave earlier than the ferry crowds, stay out past when the last ferry heads back, or linger somewhere quiet a little longer because nobody else on board needs to be back by a certain time.
- You’re not limited to one stop. A ferry takes you to Comino and back. A private boat can string together the Blue Lagoon, the Crystal Lagoon, and quieter spots around the island — or further out toward Gozo — in a single day, built around what your group actually wants to see.
- You avoid the shoreline crush. Because you’re not tied to a public landing schedule, you can spend your time anchored in open water away from the busiest patch of beach, and choose when (or whether) to go ashore at all.
- The whole group travels together, privately. This matters most for families, couples celebrating something, or groups of friends — nobody’s day is shared with strangers they didn’t choose to travel with.
The trade-off, honestly, is price: a private boat costs more than a ferry ticket. But it’s priced as one flat rate for the entire boat, not per person — so once you’re splitting it across a group, the gap narrows fast. Across our fleet, a full-day private charter runs from around €700 for a smaller sailing yacht up to €1,900 for Playtime, our largest catamaran, which takes up to 55 guests. For a group of ten or more, that can land close to, or even under, what everyone would have paid individually for a “premium” organized boat tour — with a very different day to show for it.
So Which One Is Right for You?
If you’re traveling solo or as a couple on a tight budget, and you’re happy to move on the ferry’s schedule and share the beach with everyone else who’s there that morning, the ferry does the job.
If you’re traveling as a family, a group of friends, or with people who want a slower, more flexible day on the water — without needing to plan around someone else’s timetable — a private boat rental is built for exactly that. This is the entire idea behind how we operate: every trip is a private charter for your group only, never a shared, per-ticket booking. Whether that’s ten of you or fifty, it’s one boat and one flat price, and the route is built around what you actually want to see. Browse our boat trips in Malta to see where a private day can take you.
Thinking about which fits your Malta trip? Get in touch and we’ll help you plan a private day on the water — Blue Lagoon included, on your own schedule, not the ferry’s.
