How to Scuba Malta

One of the primary reasons for visiting Malta is the excellent diving! From Gozo to onshore dives, the island offers a wide variety of diving experiences for beginners or experts. Other than the cold winter diving, you cannot go wrong!

For more details on planning, read here! Otherwise, for other Malta activities such as walking tour, wine, or our amazing trip in Malta!

Logistics 

Because we had plenty of choices, it can be challenging finding the right plan!

The Shop 

Initially, we were lost as there are so many PADI-certified dive shops! Depending on the area, there are countless shops either online or advertised on the street. For us, we started with the online PADI site because we want to start with 5 star shops rather than find one on the street in hopes they are a 5 star shop. 

Because we stayed in St. Julian, we opted for a dive shop within walking distance especially since we did not have a car. I emailed a few places for quotes to spread the net of potential suitors and landed on Cresta Diving Centre! Not only were they first to respond, the owners were incredibly friendly! More importantly, all costs were included in the final bill. For 90E per person, we would get a diving guide and all of the equipment. It is a sweet deal compared to most shops which have a lot of hidden costs!

The Site

Because we only have the open water certification, we didn’t have too many options, plus we had no idea what was in store in Malta. Despite being detailed planners, we really had no idea on what diving sites we should be going to! For beginners, Cresta took us to Cirkewwa as it is a simple onshore dive with 8 different locations. Our guide decided to do the Mary statue and one other one. 

In hindsight, we probably should have done a little bit more research as we could have requested more exciting diving locations. However, we just were happy that we decided to dive - despite the freezing temperatures! On that note, in December, diving is extremely cold even in a wet suit! It wouldn’t be as bad if the great “winter storm” didn’t decide to come!

The Experience

Once we arrived at the dive shop at 7:30am, we were drive to Cirkewwa on the north end on Malta. Surprisingly, we would be walking from onshore straight to the ocean! We also realized this was going to a very cold water dive and very different from our Key West diving experience! I thought Malta was going to be warm!!

After a few tense moments where I was triple checking my gear, we put on the wet suits, tanks, masks and everything else and walked to the ocean! As Mary Frances and I stumbled around on the stairs, we were in the freezing cold, yet beautiful blue water. 

For our first dive, we went to the famed Statue of Mary underneath a cave. When we weren’t freezing despite our wet suits, we gazed at the abundance of coral fish and ocean sea life! It was so peaceful and tranquil. Because we were there at 8am, there was no one else diving in this very popular dive spot!

Unfortunately, we forgot one important detail - waiting on a very cold land to do our decompression break. We’ve never been so cold! They had one outpost with hot showers, but it was still wasn’t enough warmth! The guide felt so bad for us that he left us go back in the water early. 

The second dive was more relaxing as we simply swam through the beautiful sea. On this day, the sea was actually warmer than land so for once it did feel very nice! By the end, we were really happy that we used our new scuba license, but wish we thought through the cold ocean. However, we will always treasure it! 

The UnChartered Summary

• Cresta Diving Centre is an excellent diving shop! The guides and owners are very friendly and we had a lot of fun! I would highly recommend!
• In December, we forgot the water was going to be cold but were okay with it. We did not expect the land weather to be colder! Thus, we shall return in the summer to properly enjoy the warm diving experience!
• Cirkewwa is a fantastic dive location to get your feet wet and re-introduce ourselves to diving! We were initially a little worried, but our guide told us that we were better divers than he expected!