What it is
Around twenty wooden houses built in 1979 at Anchor Bay for the shoot, then kept rather than dismantled. The set is authentic in the sense that these are the real film buildings, not a reconstruction. The site was later fitted out as a family park: shows, entertainment, a small museum, and access to the bay below.
Price and how long to allow
Entry runs around twenty euros in high season, less out of season when the entertainment stops. Allow an hour to an hour and a half to see it without rushing. That is short for the money if you come only for the houses, and fair if you also use the bay.
The bay, which may be worth more than the village
Below the village is a small sheltered cove with very clear water, included in the ticket. You can swim there, there are sunbeds, and in summer there are watersports. Plenty of visitors spend longer there than in the set itself. That is what makes the entry fee reasonable: you go for half a day, not for a visit.
Getting there
Anchor Bay is in the north-west, near Mellieha. There is a bus from the main areas, but the journey is long: allow an hour and a quarter from Sliema with a change. By Bolt, thirty-five to forty-five minutes for twenty-five to thirty-five euros. The site is often combined with Golden Bay or Mellieha Bay on the same day, which is the best use of the trip out.
The honest verdict
If you are a group of twenty-somethings here for the nights out, this is not your priority, and the photo from the viewpoint above, free and reachable from the road, gives you ninety per cent of the result. If you have an empty day, the weather is good and you want a swim somewhere that looks like nowhere else, it holds up. It is rarely the best use of a day in Malta, but it is never a bad memory.
The free viewpoint
From the road overlooking the bay there is a lookout with the whole village in view. That is where most of the photos in circulation come from, and it costs nothing. A ten-minute stop by car or scooter is enough if the set interests you but the park does not.