Għadira is the beach almost everyone staying near Anchor Bay ends up on, and if you have come to Malta for Popeye Village and want somewhere to put the rest of the day, this is the default answer. It is the biggest stretch of sand on the island, it is in the north, and it is a short drive from the film set. The two go together so naturally that a lot of families never look any further.
It is also the beach that splits opinion hardest of any on this site, and the split is completely predictable once you know one thing about the shape of the water.
What Mellieħa Bay actually is
The bay shelves very gently. The bottom falls away so slowly that the shallow water reaches a long way out, and you can walk and walk and still be standing up with your shoulders dry. Everything people love about this beach and everything they complain about comes from that one fact, so it is worth deciding in advance which camp you are in.
If there are small children in the party, that shelf is the entire point. A child can be properly in the sea, moving around, rather than paddling at an edge while an adult hovers. There is room to do it too, because the beach is large, so a busy day here spreads out in a way it cannot on a pocket of sand. That combination, space and a slow drop, is why this is the beach Maltese families and visiting ones both default to.
If you swim properly, the same shelf is the problem. You will wade for an age before the water is deep enough to be worth putting your face in, and once you are out there the reward is more shallow water. Strong swimmers tend to find Għadira dull, and there is no way to write around that. It is not a bad beach. It is a beach built for a particular use, and if that is not your use you will be happier elsewhere.
Għadira and Mellieħa Bay are the same place, by the way. Both names are in normal use, so do not go hunting for two beaches.
Getting to the sand
By car
From Anchor Bay it is a short hop, and that is the version of this journey most readers of this site are making. Any map will hand you the road, so there is little point in us describing turns. What is worth planning is the order of the day rather than the route: the set in the morning while a child still has legs, the beach afterwards when they are past listening to anything.
By bus
Buses serve this stretch of the north, and we are deliberately not printing a route number for it. We have not sourced one we would be willing to stand behind for the beach itself, and a wrong number on a page like this costs somebody an hour of their holiday standing at the wrong stop. Look the current routes and times up with Malta Public Transport on the morning you travel. That is the only version that will be correct, and it takes a minute.
Parking
We hold no sourced figure for how many cars fit near the beach, or for what leaving one there costs, so this page does not print either. What we will say, because it costs nothing to assume it, is that a large beach in the north of Malta in high season is not a place to arrive late and expect to park at the front. Go early, or accept a walk at the end of it.
When to go
This is a summer beach in a country whose summer is busy, and it fills up once the season is properly under way. Early in the day is calmer, cheaper on the nerves and easier on the parking, and it is also when the light is kindest if you care about photographs. Late afternoon works too, once the middle of the day has thinned out.
Out of season the bay is a different and much quieter thing, and worth a walk even if nobody is getting in the water. A shallow bay in a wind is not the same proposition as a shallow bay in flat calm, so look at the forecast before you commit a whole afternoon to it.
What it costs
Nothing on this page is a price for the beach, and that is on purpose. We have not sourced what anything at Għadira charges, and a figure we cannot stand behind is worse than no figure at all. The only prices you will see here are the ones underneath, which come straight from the booking partners and belong to them rather than to us.
- 2 bookable options through our booking partners
- about €25 per person at the time of checking
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead on 1 of the 2
Taken from the operators' own listings, checked 15 September 2026. Ratings are theirs, not ours, and we do not host reviews.
What else is close
The obvious pairing is the one the domain is named after. Popeye Village sits round the coast at Anchor Bay, close enough that doing both in a day takes no real planning, and the write-up of the set, who enjoys it and who does not, is on the front page of this site.
If the shallow water has already bored you, the answer is over the next headland. Golden Bay and Għajn Tuffieħa are a pair of sand bays on the north west coast with a busy one and a quiet one, and the difference between them is a staircase. North of here, Paradise Bay tucks in beside the Ċirkewwa terminal at the very top of the island, behind a descent of its own. And boats to the Blue Lagoon on Comino leave from both Ċirkewwa and Mellieħa, which makes the water everybody has seen a photograph of reachable from the same base you are already using.
The honest downside
You are going to share it. This is the largest sand beach on an island that is not large, and once the season is under way that arithmetic does what you would expect. The bay absorbs a crowd better than a small cove does, but absorbing a crowd is not the same as being empty.
And the water will not challenge you. If your idea of a beach day involves swimming out until the shore looks small, Għadira will disappoint you, and it will do it slowly, one wade at a time. Bring the children, or go somewhere else.
Common questions
Is Mellieħa Bay the same place as Għadira?
Yes. The two names belong to the same beach in the north of Malta, and you will see both used on signs, on maps and in conversation. Nobody is sending you somewhere different.
Is Mellieħa Bay good for small children?
It is the reason most families end up here. The bay shelves very gently, so the shallow water reaches a long way out and a child can be in the sea rather than at the edge of it. Watch them anyway, because shallow is not the same as safe.
Is it a good beach for a proper swim?
Less so, and we would rather say it plainly. The same gentle shelf that makes the bay kind to toddlers means a strong swimmer wades a long way before the water is deep enough to be worth anything, and a lot of them find it dull.
How far is it from Popeye Village?
A short drive. Both sit in the same corner of northern Malta, which is why pairing the film set with this beach is the most common shape a day here takes.
Can you get to Mellieħa Bay by bus?
Yes, but we are not going to print a route number we cannot stand behind. Check the current routes and times with Malta Public Transport on the morning you travel, because that is the only version that will be right.
How long should I allow for a visit?
Half a day is the honest answer with children, because the drive, the settling in and the drying off eat more of the clock than the swimming does. Without children you may be finished a good deal sooner.
Last checked: 14 September 2026. No beach charge, parking cost or bus route number is printed here, since we hold no figure for any of the three that we would defend in print. Anything time-sensitive is worth confirming locally on the day.
