Santa Marija Caves turn up in almost every photograph set of Comino that is not the Blue Lagoon: a dark arch in pale rock, a small boat in the mouth of it, and water underneath that looks lit from below. They are sea caves on the island's north shore, and you reach them by boat because there is no other way to reach them.
What nobody explains before you book is that this is not somewhere you go. It is somewhere a boat takes you past, into, or alongside, as part of a longer trip, and what you get out of it depends almost entirely on whose boat you are standing on.
What they actually are
Caves cut into the coast at sea level, on a small island that carries no cars and next to no permanent residents. That second detail matters more than it sounds. There is no road to the caves, no path down to them and no ticket booth at the bottom, because nothing on Comino has been laid on to make a day visitor's life easier. Everything about a visit here is decided by the vessel you booked and by the sea it is working in.
We have not sourced how long an operator spends at the caves, how far a boat goes in, or whether any given trip lets you swim there, and we are not going to fill those gaps by guessing. The two hours this page quotes is our own estimate for the outing as a whole, and it says nothing about the stop itself. Those three answers differ by operator and by the state of the water on the day, and they are the questions worth putting to the operator directly before you hand over any money.
Why they are almost never sold on their own
Look at what is actually bookable and the picture is unambiguous. The inventory we can link here is a single listing, and it is a Blue Lagoon trip with the caves attached rather than a caves trip with a swim attached. That is the whole commercial reality of this place, and it explains the shape of every itinerary you will see.
The caves are the scenery on the way to the thing people paid for. That is not a criticism, because they are genuinely worth the detour and a boat that skipped them would be a worse boat. But it does mean you should stop shopping for a Santa Marija Caves tour and start reading Blue Lagoon itineraries for whether the caves are included, and on what terms.
What it costs
One listing, one price, and it is the partner's own rather than ours.
- 1 bookable option through our booking partners
- about €35 per person at the time of checking
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead on 1 of the 1
- 1 listed as wheelchair accessible
- Rated 4.6/5 on average by travellers on the partner sites, across the 1 that carry ratings.
Taken from the operators' own listings, checked 15 September 2026. Ratings are theirs, not ours, and we do not host reviews.
One listing is not a market
The score above deserves a sentence of context, because on its own it flatters the page.
Exactly one listing here carries a traveller rating, so the average is that single listing's own number and nothing wider. It tells you something about one operator's boat. It tells you nothing about the caves, nothing about the other boats that pass them, and nothing that we have independently checked, because this site holds no reviews of any kind. Read it as a data point, take a minute to read that operator's actual reviews on their own page, and do not let a tidy number stand in for a decision.
If more partners stock this stop later, that average will move, and it should be trusted more when it does. Until then it is thin, and it is worth saying so plainly rather than dressing the number up.
How the stop differs from the Blue Lagoon
They are on the same island and they are not the same experience.
The lagoon is a destination. A boat sets you down and you are there for hours, in shallow water, with however many other people chose the same sailing, and the entire quality of it turns on the hour you picked. That argument is set out in full on our Blue Lagoon page. If you read one thing here before you book a boat, read that.
The caves are a passage rather than a place. You see them from the water, under the boat's schedule, and then the boat moves on. You cannot arrive early to beat the crowd, you cannot stay longer because the light is good, and you cannot decide to have lunch there. The upside of that is real: there is nothing to plan, nothing to queue for, and the part of Comino that photographs best asks nothing of you except that you look up at the right moment.
So if the caves are the reason you are booking, the thing to optimise is not the time of day. It is the itinerary and the size of the boat.
When to go
The sea decides this one. A small boat working a rock coastline goes where the water allows it to go, and a swell that a beach would shrug off can change what a skipper is willing to do. We hold no sourced rule for when the caves are or are not reachable, so we print none, and the operator's own judgement on the morning is the only version that counts.
The practical consequence is worth acting on. If the caves specifically are your reason for booking a trip, ask before you pay what happens when the sea is against it, and treat a day with a poor forecast as a day to postpone rather than a day to hope.
What else is close
Everything here starts on the Malta side. Boats for Comino leave from Ċirkewwa and Mellieħa, both a short way from Anchor Bay, and Paradise Bay sits beside the Ċirkewwa terminal for the hour before a sailing. The same crossing point serves the diving at Ċirkewwa and the ferry to Gozo. For a day that needs no boat at all, Mellieħa Bay is the wide shallow beach closest to the film set, and the set itself has the front page of this site.
The honest downside
You are buying a few minutes inside somebody else's schedule, and the marketing does not present it that way. A photograph of a boat in a cave mouth implies a private moment in a quiet place, and in high season on a popular route it is nothing of the kind. Go in expecting a highlight of a trip rather than a trip in itself.
The second thing is choice, or the lack of it. With one bookable listing there is no comparison shopping to do here, no cheaper alternative to weigh and no second opinion to read. That is a thin market, and a thin market is worth naming rather than dressing up. The wider set of Comino boats, with real competition and real prices, sits on the Blue Lagoon page, and for most readers that is the better place to start.
Common questions
Where are the Santa Marija Caves?
On the north shore of Comino, at sea level, and reached by boat. There is no road to them and no path down, so every visit arrives from the water.
Can you visit the caves without a boat trip?
No. Comino carries no cars and next to no permanent residents, and the caves sit on the coast rather than inland. A boat is the only way in, which is why they are sold inside a trip rather than as a ticket.
Are the caves the same thing as the Blue Lagoon?
No, although they are on the same small island and usually on the same boat. The lagoon is somewhere you are set down for hours, and the caves are somewhere a boat takes you past on its way. One is decided by the hour you pick, the other by the itinerary you pick.
Can you swim at the caves?
That depends on the operator and on the sea that day, and we have not sourced an answer we would be willing to print. Ask the operator directly before booking if swimming there is the reason you are going.
Why is there only one thing to book on this page?
Because that is all our booking partners stock for this stop today. One listing is not a market, so there is no comparison to make here, and the wider choice of Comino boats sits on our Blue Lagoon page instead.
Is the rating on this page reliable?
Treat it carefully. A single listing carries a score, so the average is that one operator's number rather than a view of the caves, and we host no reviews of our own. Read the operator's own reviews before you let it decide anything.
Last checked: 14 September 2026. Nothing above gives a departure schedule, a measurement of the caves, or a figure for how long a boat lingers at them, since all three are unsourced. The two hours quoted is our own planning estimate for the outing as a whole, not a claim about the stop. The one price here is the booking partner's own, and their listing is where to confirm it.
