Golden Bay, the easiest
Wide, golden, with parasols to rent, a bar and a hotel above it. It is the beach you reach most easily from Sliema or Paceville, with a direct bus, and that is exactly why it is the busiest. The sand is fine, the slope gentle, and there are lifeguards in high season. If you are only doing one and want no complications, it is this one.
Ghajn Tuffieha, the reward
It sits right beside Golden Bay, separated by a rocky point, and you have to walk down a hundred and eighty steps to reach it. Those steps are the whole point: they filter the crowd, and you end up on a far wilder beach ringed by red clay hills, with half the people a hundred metres from the last one. The climb back at the end of the day in thirty-five degrees has to be earned.
Mellieha Bay, the biggest
Malta's largest sandy beach, where the water stays shallow for tens of metres, which makes it the one for families and big groups. You walk a long way before it reaches your waist. Bus access from the north is easy and everything is on site: kit hire, food, watersports. In exchange, it is the most commercial of the four.
Paradise Bay, the quiet one
Right up north, near the Gozo ferry terminal. Smaller than the others, partly terraced, and often less crowded because it is less obvious to find. It is the right call when you combine a beach day with a trip over to Gozo, since the ferry leaves minutes away.
The currents, worth taking seriously
The northern beaches are exposed and currents can run strong, particularly at Ghajn Tuffieha and Golden Bay when the wind comes from the north-west. The flag system is in place and observed: red means red, and there are drownings every year among people who decided it did not apply to them. When in doubt, look at where the locals are.
Getting there without losing the day
From Sliema or St Julian's, allow an hour by bus to Golden Bay and a bit more for Mellieha, on buses that are packed in July and August. Leaving early changes everything: at nine the buses are empty and so is the beach. By Bolt the trip costs twenty to thirty euros and takes thirty-five minutes, which works out with four of you. At weekends the Maltese themselves fill these beaches: weekdays are noticeably calmer.