Walking the Qaliet waterfront in St Julian's

Spinola Bay and the quayside

Spinola Bay (behind Triq il-Qaliet) is open public waterfront with no door policy and nothing to pay. The arched boathouses on the far side were cut in the Knights' era and sit low against the stone, and restaurant awnings and apartment blocks stack up the slope behind you. Walk the horseshoe in the late afternoon. The promenade is narrow once the quay-side tables fill at dinner time, and those tables take walk-up custom, so the pinch point moves along the water instead of staying in one place.

Love Monument (the promenade, Spinola Bay) is a set of chunky red block letters on the quayside spelling LOVE. Richard England set the letters backwards and inverted, so the word reads the right way up in the water's reflection. The trick only works if you keep the bay and the moored boats in frame. It was inaugurated in 2003 and divisive at the time, and it is now the postcard image of the bay. Come early or late in the day; it is a single photo spot and it jams up at sunset. Entry is €0.

Palazzo Spinola (above Spinola Bay) was built in 1688 by Fra Paolo Raffaele Spinola, and the bay is named after the building. Three storeys of honey limestone carry a large sculpted stone clock set under a carved crown on the façade, floodlit after dark. The small walled garden in front reopened to the public in 2019, free and unticketed, with clipped hedges and roses, two stone fountains and wooden benches, hemmed in by modern apartment blocks. Sit on a bench for as long as you like. The palace rooms are government offices and closed to visitors, and the vaulted cellar restaurant is the only interior you can walk into.

Dinner over the water

San Giuliano (Spinola Bay) has a tiered terrace of white-clothed tables cantilevered out over the inlet, facing the lit stone arches across the water with luzzus moored below the railing. The kitchen works fresh fish, antipasti and handmade pasta. Lunch runs Tuesday to Sunday, dinner is every night, and prices are €€€. Book well ahead for a front-row terrace table and say that is the table you want, because the rest of the terrace looks at the same water from further back.

MÉZ (Triq Spinola) cooks coastal food from India, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Indonesia, with a guest entrance off the bay waterfront. The terrace is split-level and candlelit, the interior is spice-toned, and a winding stone staircase climbs to a private upstairs room used for events. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free dishes are properly covered here, which is worth knowing before you book for a mixed table. Prices are €€€ and booking is advised.

Gululu (the quay edge, Spinola Bay) is the Maltese kitchen locals send visitors to, with rabbit, bragioli and fish plated plainly in a contemporary room. Full-height glazing faces Spinola Bay and a line of pavement tables sits at the quay edge, which is where to eat if you want the boats at eye level. It opens 12:00 to 16:00 and 18:00 to 23:00, at €€. Reserve in summer.

The promenade to Balluta

Parish Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Balluta Bay seafront) is 600 m along the promenade from Spinola Bay, and it is the building that breaks the skyline on this stretch. Twin neo-gothic towers rise in banded red and cream stone above pointed arches and a rose window, straight off the seafront. The church was rebuilt three times, in 1859, 1877 and 1900. Entry is free and modest dress is expected. Keep visits to the hours outside Mass. Giuseppe Psaila's 1928 Balluta Buildings stand immediately beside it, Art Nouveau, with tall arched openings and carved putti keystones.

Barracuda (Balluta) is in an 18th-century limestone villa standing in the sea, with a dining balcony and a summer verandah projecting out over the water and dark rooms inside the old house. It reopened under new owners after a full refit. The kitchen serves Mediterranean fish and shellfish, grilled octopus and Maltese fish soup. It serves dinner only, from 18:00, at €€€. The over-water balcony has limited covers, and a booking that does not name it will seat you indoors.

Portomaso Marina and Zeri's

Portomaso Marina (immediately north of Triq il-Qaliet) is a 1.6 km loop of car-free water frontage, three linked basins with 110 berths of white motor yachts, and a tree-lined pedestrian promenade with no traffic on it. Pale modern apartment terraces step down to the water, and the glass Portomaso Business Tower spikes up behind them. Walking it costs €0 and takes as long as you let it. Save it for the hour after dinner.

Zeri's (Portomaso Marina) is chef Dario Sidoti's Mediterranean seafood room, five minutes from Qaliet, with the daily catch displayed on ice and more than 150 wines racked indoors. Linen-set tables on the marina promenade look at superyacht moorings with the tower glass behind. Handmade pasta runs alongside the fish. It is €€€€ and takes reservations, and the room is quiet and grown-up.

Drinks on Ball Street and up the tower

The Thirsty Barber (Ball Street) is entered through a British red telephone box set into a mock barber-shop frontage, two minutes' walk up from the Qaliet waterfront. Inside is a low-lit 1920s prohibition room with leather, brass, barber chairs and a long back-bar of bottles. Malta's first prohibition-style bar makes classics properly and prices them fairly, often with live jazz playing. Hours are 18:00 to 01:00 Sunday to Thursday and 18:00 to 02:00 on Friday and Saturday, at €€. The room is small and takes little groups only, and a stag-sized party will not get through the door.

TwentyTwo (22nd floor, Portomaso Business Tower) is a glass-walled lounge with a 360-degree night view over the island and the marina lights, a compact dance floor, a DJ booth and a cocktail bar along the window line. The door is run strictly and the room is capped at 400 people, so a group needs a table booking rather than a queue. Main season is May to September and events run 23:00 to 04:00. Dress smartly. Some nights carry a strict theme code, and the place works to an event listing instead of opening daily, so check what is on before you travel up. Prices are €€€.

Millennium Chapel and Divewise

Millennium Chapel (Paceville) is Richard England's 2000 chapel, a low modernist limestone building with curved blank walls and slot windows. The meditation garden added in 2018 is enclosed, and laid out in gravel, stone and planting, with the neon bars of Paceville starting at the wall. It opens 08:00 to 23:00 year-round, free, with no booking, and it is a working prayer space. The walk from the Qaliet restaurants takes five minutes, and no dinner table in St Julian's sits closer to somewhere quiet.

Divewise (Dragonara point) sits 600 m from the Qaliet seafront, in vaulted underground stone workshops cut in the time of the Knights beneath the Westin Dragonara headland. Tanks and wetsuits are racked in the vaults, two training pools sit on site, and the house reef is entered straight off the rocks with no boat transfer. It takes complete beginners on try-dives, and runs courses and guided dives, at €€. Hours are 08:00 to 18:00 daily and 08:00 to 16:00 on Sundays. Book ahead in summer.

Sleeping on Triq il-Qaliet

Mercure St. Julian's Malta (Triq il-Qaliet) has the address this quarter is named for, 200 to 250 m and four minutes' walk from Spinola Bay. It has 106 rooms, some of them as large as 64 m², and a Green Key certification. The 11th-floor rooftop deck carries a pool, loungers and a seasonal bar, wrapped by a view across St Julian's rooftops to the sea, and the rooftop restaurant serves both lunch and dinner. Rates are €€.

Hotel Juliani (St George's Road, above the bay) is the one to take if you want to sleep on the waterfront itself, a small design-led townhouse conversion at €€€. The ninth-floor terrace has sunbeds and beanbags and looks straight down the length of Spinola Bay, turning into a cocktail bar at dusk. The water up there is a dip pool and the terrace is guest-facing. Balluta Bay's rocky and sandy bathing is 10 minutes' walk away. The property is small, and it suits a booking of a few rooms.

Practical notes

Palazzo Spinola's rooms stay shut to visitors, San Giuliano serves no lunch on a Monday, and the free sights on this route need no ticket and no booking. Reserve the San Giuliano terrace, the Barracuda balcony, a table at Zeri's and a Divewise dive ahead in summer, and check what TwentyTwo has listed before you plan a night in the tower. See the St Julian's guide and the St Julian's hotel search.