Malta – Pretty Bay, is it really that beautiful?

Pretty Bay or Pretty Bay is located in the southeastern part of Malta. Considered one of the nicest beaches in Malta, we were tempted to visit and combined beachcombing with a visit to nearby Marsaxlokk. Does the beach actually deserve to be called “Pretty”? Let’s find out.

Pretty Bay is located in the village of Birżebbuġa – it is a small town with a population of less than 10,000. It is about 4 kilometers from Marsaxlokk, so you can even cover this section on foot :)

The locality is just famous for its sandy beach and…. Malta FreePort. You can read about how turbulent this connection is below.

In general, Malta does not abound in sandy, beautiful and wide beaches. The island is rather dominated by a rocky coastline although a few sandy beaches will also be found. Nevertheless, these are not large beaches, in season the most popular ones are quite crowded, and getting to them (especially by public transportation) can be cumbersome. However, we are not surprised by the popularity of sandy beaches, after all, a great number of people come to Malta to relax, take a dip in the water and sun.

We also missed it, so we decided to see if Pretty Bay is as beautiful as they say it is and if there is even a place to spread out with a towel.

Pretty Bay in Birżebbuġa

Thinking of Pretty Bay, we had in our eyes the image of a wide, sandy beach, with crystal clear water, and couldn’t wait to finally, under favorable conditions, enjoy the sun and water.

And you have to admit that for Maltese beaches it is quite large, the sand is pleasant and the water is clear. There are playgrounds by the beach, there is a playground. We also had no problem finding a piece of beach to ourselves, without squeezing in between the screens ;) And yet, the beach so highly recommended by the guidebook did not win our hearts.

Why? After all, it’s not so bad, right?

Or is it?

Just widen the perspective and it turns out that what on the postcards is a beautiful paradise beach is in fact a beach right next to a large port where huge container ships call.

For us, such a view and the close proximity of the port with container ships are very discouraging for lying down…. We don’t see the pleasure in lying on the beach while listening and watching the unloading, and on top of that the slight smell of oil. The water, although rather clean, also had some trash floating in it

It is worth adding that there is no ban on bathing here, so if someone feels like it, of course, he can splash to his heart’s content, and there is no shortage of such people either.

We realize that for someone this may be an additional attraction, but we were totally unconvinced by this place and fled Birżebbuġi at the earliest opportunity.

How to get to Pretty Bay?

As with many other destinations, Birżebbuġi can be reached by Maltese public transportation. For example, it will take less than 40 minutes to get there from Valletta (bus line 82), and about 30 minutes from the airport (bus line X4). The exact plan and schedule can be found at this link.

If you are traveling by car there are parking spaces along the streets near the beach.

Where to stay overnight in the town of Birżebbuġa?

Despite being a well-known tourist destination, booking.com lists only 13 accommodations in Birżebbuġa. The choice is not large, but if one decides to stay here it is worth booking in advance.

Below we have selected a few facilities that have at least a few dozen reviews, and these are at least very good reviews:

• 189 Chezli Court
  Address: Triq San Filippu, BBG 1509 Birżebbuġa
  Prices: from 700 PLN for a triple room or from 800 PLN for a six-bed room
  Link:
  https://r4b.link/booking-chezli-court
  
• Water’s Edge Hotel
  Address: Summit Square, bbg 2310 Birżebbuġa
  Prices: from 400 PLN for a double room
  Link:
  https://r4b.link/booking-water-s-edge
  
• Landmark Apartment
  Address: Triq Tal-Gebel 5 Landmark Apartments, BBG 2779 Birżebbuġa
  Prices: from £2,500 for a double room for 4 nights (4 nights is the minimum stay)
  Link:
  https://r4b.link/booking-landmark-apartment
  

Our opinion about Pretty Bay

Although we can’t call this day a lost day, we feel a great deal of insufficiency and disappointment after both Marsaxlokk and Pretty Bay. The beach described by the guidebook as one of the most beautiful in Malta did not convince us at all.

Walking to the beach and seeing these molls, we realized how easy it is to manipulate and create beautiful, catalog showcases of places through proper perspective and framing. Unfortunately, the result is that a person who specifically comes here will feel disappointed and disillusioned and will probably not recommend this place to anyone again.

Nevertheless, Malta is a beautiful island, and it also has beautiful beaches, as we have written about in other posts. It’s just that if you only have a few days to visit Malta, you can safely let these areas go :)

Zobacz galerię zdjęć z Marsaxlokk i Pretty Bay >>>

We recommend our post, with practical tips for Malta.