Walking the St Julian's waterfront from Spinola to Balluta

Spinola Bay and the Love Monument

Spinola Bay (Triq Spinola) is a horseshoe inlet of deep turquoise water ringed by honey-limestone townhouses, their green and red enclosed Maltese balconies stacked above the awnings. Brightly painted luzzu fishing boats sit bow-to-quay along the parapet. The waterfront is public and open at all hours, with no ticket and no door. Time the first pass for the hour before sunset, when the light reaches the west side of the bay. That is the stretch people photograph, and the quayside path narrows where the restaurant terraces begin, so a large walking party has to file through in ones and twos.

Love Monument (Il-Monument tal-Imħabba) stands free on the same quay, a chunky white-rendered sculpture spelling LOVE in mirror-reversed letters on a low plinth over the harbour water. Richard England designed it and it was inaugurated in 2003. The word reads correctly only in its reflection, so keep the water in the frame, with the luzzus and the townhouses behind it. Couples queue at the plinth through most of the evening, and the sculpture has no barrier around it.

The Spinola palace and its chapel

Spinola Palace (Palazzo Spinola) sits back behind a walled garden above the bay, three storeys of baroque limestone with a Latin inscription over the main door and a rare secular Baroque clock set into the rear elevation. Fra Paolo Raffaele Spinola built the palace in 1688 and had it enlarged to designs by Romano Carapecchia. The bay, the bay's name and half the street names around it come from the family. The building is now the seat of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean and the interior is not open to visitors, so the exterior and the garden wall are a free walk-past.

Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, Spinola stands on the bay-front a few metres above the moored luzzus, with a plain 1914 façade, a single bell niche and a heavy wooden door. It was consecrated in 1688 as the private church of the palace and is listed on the National Inventory. Most people walk straight past it. Opening follows service times and the door is often locked outside them. The interior is tiny, so go in handfuls.

Balluta Bay, its church and the Art Nouveau terrace

Balluta Bay is the northern bookend of the promenade, a shallow scalloped bay with a thin strip of sand and flat rock shelves at the water's edge. A wide paved piazza with palm trees separates the sand from the church, and entry is free. The sand strip is modest, so swimmers spread onto the rocks and the piazza benches. Most people stop here for the setting under the church towers.

Carmelite Church, Balluta (Our Lady of Mount Carmel) stands square-on to the beach in pale limestone, two tall pinnacled towers above a pointed arched portal and a rose window. Emanuele Luigi Galizia rebuilt it in 1877, Gustavo Vincenti rebuilt it again in 1900 and the building was enlarged in 1958. The twin spires make the Balluta skyline. Entry is free outside Mass. English Mass is Sunday at 11:00, with Maltese services in the morning and at 18:30 every day, so visit in the gaps between them.

Balluta Buildings faces the bay head-on, a long Art Nouveau terrace carrying sinuous floral stone carving, curved wrought-iron balconies and a repeating rhythm of tall shuttered windows across a pale limestone frontage. Giuseppe Psaila completed it in 1928 for Marquis John Scicluna, and it holds a Grade 1 scheduling. Few Art Nouveau buildings survive in Malta. The block is private housing, so look at it from the pavement and the square.

Independence Gardens at the turn

Independence Gardens (Ġnien l-Indipendenza) is the natural turnaround, a terraced seafront park with wide paths, toilets, a playground and an open-air gym. The benches face open sea, and steps drop straight to flat rock shelves for a second swim. A bright blue cat sculpture stands among the palms and the resident stray cats, which is why locals call the place the Cat Park. The park is free.

Portomaso Marina and the Dragonara headland

Portomaso Marina sits sunk a level below street height and is reached by lift. You have to go down to find it, which keeps it quiet while Spinola Bay fills. Ranks of white motor yachts lie on still water, cafe tables run along the quay and the 23-floor Portomaso Business Tower stands over the whole thing in glass. The marina is privately managed and freely walkable, with no restriction on the walkway and no charge. Quayside restaurants take bookings at €€€.

Dragonara Palace (Dragonara Casino) occupies its own rocky headland, a neoclassical white villa wrapped in a colonnaded veranda whose balustrade drops straight to the sea. Floodlights pick it out at night with the Mediterranean on three sides. It was completed in 1870 as the Scicluna family's summer palace and converted in 1964 into Malta's first casino. The detour off the promenade takes 10 minutes and is worth the walk without placing a bet. Gaming floors run 24 hours a day. The door checks photo ID and sets a minimum age of 18, dress is smart-casual, and stag-type parties get vetted on the way in. Playing is €€€.

Diving from the house reef

Divewise Malta works out of converted stone workshops dating from the Knights of St John, inside the Westin Dragonara grounds. Kit racks and rinse tanks stand outside, a hard boat is tied up alongside and a short ramp leads to a house reef you can swim to from the shop door. The centre opens daily 08:30 to 18:00 and runs courses, try-dives and boat excursions at €€€. Book ahead and bring your certification cards.

Eating on the water

Gululu (133 Spinola Bay) cooks Maltese food: rabbit stew, spaghetti biz-zalza tal-fenek and bigilla dips. The dining room carries village bric-a-brac, painted luzzu motifs and local pottery, and the tables look straight down onto the fishing boats. The cooking is what people come for. Service runs 12:00 to 16:00 and 18:00 to 23:00 every day, at €€. Group menus are available and tour parties use them. Book ahead in summer.

Raffael (Triq Spinola) sets a compact terrace directly above the moored luzzus, wooden chairs tight to a stone parapet and the full curve of the bay with its lit townhouses straight ahead. You are paying for the seat. Book the terrace in advance for a sunset table. Expect €€€.

Piccolo Padre Pizzeria & Trattoria (Balluta Bay) cuts its terrace into the rock below street level, almost at sea level, with the wood-fired oven glowing inside and the Carmelite spires framed above the bay from the outside tables. It opens 08:30 to 23:00 daily and bakes vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free bases. At €€ it is the cheaper end of the waterfront. The small terrace tables take no bookings, so arrive early. The kitchen has roots in the 1970s and Carlo Stivala took it over in 2021.

Barracuda Restaurant (194 Main Street, Balluta) stands out over the water in an 18th-century limestone villa reached by a short causeway, arched windows and white table linen with sea on three sides of the dining room. It has worked this edge of Balluta Bay for close to three decades. Dinner is the €€€€ end of the promenade. Hours are 11:00 to 23:00. Bookings go to [email protected], and the waterside tables are best secured by phone.

Sleeping on Spinola Bay

Hotel Juliani (Spinola bay-front) is a four-storey converted townhouse in the middle of the bay, a four-star boutique with a small rooftop pool and a decked lounge of low cocktail tables along a glass parapet. Zest, its Asian and Nikkei kitchen, is Michelin-recommended. Rooms and the roof sit at €€€. The rooftop Summer Lounge runs daily 20:00 to 23:30 and serves non-residents, with the whole arc of the bay below. There is not much room up there, so reserve through the hotel.

Hours, bookings and doors

The chapel is the one door likely to be shut when you arrive, since its opening follows services, and Mass times are the hours to avoid at the Carmelite church. Book Gululu and Raffael, email Barracuda, carry photo ID for the Dragonara and take your certification cards to Divewise.

See the St Julian's guide and the St Julian's hotel search.