Gozo, Malta's slow island.

What is Gozo like?

The second island of the Maltese archipelago, north-west of Malta: about 14 km from end to end, flat hills with terraced fields, villages with enormous churches and a coast of cliffs. Compared with Malta it has less traffic, fewer big hotels and a more countryside pace. People come to see temples and fortresses, to swim in coves and to walk along the coast, and almost everything is less than twenty minutes by car from Victoria, the capital, which Gozitans still call Rabat.

You can do it in a day from Malta, but it falls short. With two or three nights you see the island without rushing and stay for the sunsets in the west.

What to see

• The Cittadella of Victoria. The fortress on the hill in the centre of the island, visible from almost anywhere. It has been used since prehistory; the southern part was rebuilt by the Knights of St John between 1599 and 1603, after an Ottoman attack in 1551 took almost the entire population away as slaves. Inside are the Baroque Cathedral of St Mary, the old prison, small museums and a paid visitor centre. The best part is the walk round the walls: you see all of Gozo and, in the distance, Malta.
• The Ġgantija temples, in Xagħra. Two megalithic temples built in the late Neolithic, between 3800 and 2000 BC. The visit begins at an interpretation centre with objects found on the island and continues along an open-air path. The ticket, combined with the Ta' Kola windmill in the same village, costs €10.
• Dwejra, on the west coast. This is where the Azure Window was, the rock arch that collapsed in 2017 and is now a dive site. What remains are the Inland Sea, a lagoon joined to the open sea by a tunnel of about 100 metres through which the fishermen's boats go out; the Blue Hole, one of the best-known dive sites on the island; Fungus Rock, the islet the knights guarded for a medicinal plant; and the 1652 tower, open when its flag is flying.
• Ramla Bay, in the north, between Xagħra and Nadur. A beach of reddish sand, Ramla il-Ħamra in Maltese, with little built around it and a few cafés behind.
• The Xwejni salt pans, on the north coast, past Marsalforn. Grids dug into the limestone, about 350 years old, still worked by village families. Salt is harvested from mid-May to September and sold in shops and at stalls beside the road. Do not walk across the pans.
• The Basilica of Ta' Pinu, in the countryside in the west. A Neo-Romanesque shrine built between 1920 and 1932 on the spot where, in 1883, a local woman said she had heard the voice of the Virgin. It is a place of pilgrimage, with a Way of the Cross on the hill opposite.
• Wied il-Għasri, a gorge with high walls that ends in a narrow cove with a pebble beach, which you reach down steps cut into the rock. Good for swimming on calm days; in wind, the waves break against the walls.

If you dive, at Dwejra there are shore dives at the Blue Hole, Crocodile Rock and the remains of the Azure Window.

How do you get there?

From Malta, the Gozo Channel ferry leaves Ċirkewwa, at the northern tip of Malta, for Mġarr, in Gozo, every day and, by day, as often as every half hour. The crossing takes about 25 minutes and carries passengers and cars. The ticket is not paid on the way out: it is validated only on leaving Gozo, on the return journey.

Buses 41, 42 and X300 from Valletta, and the X1 and TD1 from the airport, reach Ċirkewwa, in one or two hours depending on traffic. If you do not want to cross Malta by bus, the fast Gozo Highspeed ferry leaves Valletta's Grand Harbour for Mġarr; it carries passengers only, and you must be at the quay 15 or 20 minutes before.

From Spain you fly to Malta: there are direct flights all year from Madrid and Barcelona, and in summer from more cities. Gozo has no airport.

How do you get around the island?

The most comfortable is the car: you can hire it in Malta and take it across on the ferry, or hire it in Gozo. You drive on the left, on narrow roads. If you hire it in Malta, check that the insurance covers the ferry and your stay in Gozo.

Without a car, Gozo's buses run from Victoria to the villages and beaches, and are cheap. You can also hire scooters, quads and bicycles, and there are tuk-tuks and a tourist train. Walking between villages is easy, with many coastal and country paths.

What to do, where to eat and where to sleep

• What to do: the Ġgantija temples, the Cittadella of Victoria, Dwejra and the Inland Sea, a try-dive in Marsalforn and the boat to Comino's Blue Lagoon.
• Where to eat: Al Sale, on the square in Xagħra; Tmun, fish beside the Mġarr ferry, and Ta' Frenċ, the special dinner in an old farmhouse.
• Where to sleep: the Cornucopia, a farmhouse over 300 years old in Xagħra; Ta' Ċenċ, five stars on the cliffs of Sannat, and the St. Patrick's, on the Xlendi promenade.
• Plans: Gozo in a day from Valletta, the Blue Lagoon and Gozo and the two nights in Gozo getaway.