Maltaqua

Maltaqua is a dive centre and dive holiday operator on Mosta Road in St Paul's Bay, in the north of Malta. It was founded in 1970, teaches PADI, BSAC and TDI courses, runs daily boat and shore dives around Malta, Gozo and Comino, and offers its own apartments for divers a short walk from the centre. In September 2026 it was named Best Diving Centre by the Malta Tourism Authority.

For UK visitors the attraction is that everything can be arranged in one place: tuition, kit, transport to the dive sites, accommodation and even gas fills for technical divers. On VisitMalta.co.uk the centre sits in our directory of dive centres in Malta, next to specialists such as Apnea Total, a freediving school on Gozo.

Over fifty years of diving from St Paul's Bay

Maltaqua was started by Mike and Agnes Upton, both teachers by profession and both holding CMAS national instructor, PADI staff instructor and BSAC advanced instructor qualifications. They began diving in 1968, and their background in education explains why training has always been the heart of the business. Over the decades the centre has looked after tens of thousands of visitors, trained thousands of divers and developed hundreds of instructors.

Safety comes first. The centre's equipment, compressors, vehicles and boats are modern and well maintained, and its courses and excursions are led by fully qualified instructors rather than trainees working towards their Divemaster ratings. Instructors are matched to students by language, age and outlook wherever possible, on the basis that people learn best with someone they are comfortable with.

Because the team handles whole holidays, it can also help with airport transfers, car or van hire and boats, and it caters for groups of any size, from a couple to a large party.

Learning to dive and first experiences

Complete beginners have several ways in. A snorkelling course, open to anyone over 8, teaches the equipment and takes you down to about 5 metres without a cylinder, at €130 per person. The PADI Discover Scuba Diving session is for anyone aged 10 and over: you meet at the dive centre at 13:00 on any day except Sunday and spend roughly two hours learning and diving. A fuller day version adds a second dive, starting in two metres of water before you move into the sea.

The PADI Open Water Diver course is the main entry qualification, for ages 10 and above with no previous experience. It runs for three full days, starting at 08:00 and finishing about 14:30, with theory completed online beforehand so that your Malta days are spent in the water, ending with a certificate to dive to 18 metres. The PADI Scuba Diver course is a two day alternative to 12 metres, and counts towards Open Water if you upgrade later, at €315 per person.

Divers who have already done their theory and pool work at home can finish the four sea dives in Malta on a referral package from €300, and a PADI eLearning code is sold to students at €155. Those on a tight schedule can take the Open Water and Advanced deal, which turns a beginner into a diver certified to 30 metres in five days for €1,000. A PADI ReActivate refresher costs €120 for people returning after a break.

Advanced, specialty and BSAC courses

After Open Water, the PADI Advanced Open Water course gives five dives over two and a half days and runs every day except Sunday. A junior version for 12 to 15 year olds is limited to 21 metres until the child turns 15, when the limit rises to 30 metres. The Deep Diver specialty is four dives over two days for €250, and is recommended for the wrecks off Malta, many of which lie between 26 and 36 metres. The Wreck Diver specialty, also four dives over two days at €250, covers surveying and navigating a wreck such as HMS Maori, the Second World War destroyer.

Shorter options include Peak Performance Buoyancy, two dives in a day for €135, and the Night Diver specialty at €275, three dives over three days, where cuttlefish and sleeping fish come into view. The Rescue Diver course takes two and a half days at €400, Sidemount takes two days at €575, and the Divemaster course costs €640, for divers aged 18 or over with a Rescue Diver qualification, first aid training, a medical and 40 logged dives to begin.

British divers who learned with BSAC in a club or quarry will find a full BSAC programme. The Ocean Diver course lasts three days, reaches 20 metres, needs a minimum age of 12 and includes five confined water sessions and four sea dives. BSAC Advanced Ocean Diver reaches 30 metres in two days for €320, Sports Diver goes to 40 metres in three days, and the Advanced Ocean Diver to Sports Diver course costs €450. A Dive Leader course follows for those heading towards instructor level.

Technical diving, gas and equipment

Technical divers are well served. The centre offers TDI and PADI DSAT technical programmes, with the TDI Intro to Tec course at €370, Decompression Procedures at €660 and Advanced Nitrox at €600, which qualifies divers to use enriched air to 40 metres. Advanced Wreck is €700. The DSAT ladder runs from Tec 40 at €375, Tec 45 at €425 and Tec 50 at €500 to a seven day Full Tec Deep course at €1,100, which includes tuition, road transport, technical equipment and fills of air and oxygen. Trimix to 65 metres is €890, and the step to full trimix is €1,450. Sidemount, BSAC accelerated decompression and rebreather courses are also offered, with CCR training at €1,200.

A full gas blending station on site produces air, nitrox and trimix, pumping to 300 bar, and cylinders range from 3 litre aluminium to 18 litre steel, as well as twinsets. Rebreather divers are welcome to bring their own units. The large, air conditioned dive shop stocks well known equipment brands, and you can order ahead so that your kit is ready on arrival.

For underwater photographers there is a PADI digital photography course, with camera hire at €25 a day, equipment hire at €25 a day and a dive computer at €5 a day. A Start Up kit of strap fins, boots and a mask and snorkel has been put together for course students.

Dive and stay packages with apartments

Maltaqua owns its own accommodation. The Sands apartments are air conditioned studios built for divers, with an area for rinsing and hanging kit, about 100 metres from the dive centre and just off the main road through St Paul's Bay. They sit on the edge of the village, so shops and restaurants are close without the noise of the centre. Larger apartments and a villa are available too, including family apartments, a penthouse and one and two bedroom flats.

Package holidays combine diving and accommodation. A Learn to Dive week costs €665 per person and includes seven nights in an apartment, the three day PADI Open Water course, equipment hire and road transport to the dive sites. A seven night guided Dive & Stay package starts from €455 per person, and a four night Short Dive Break is also offered. A €100 gift voucher can be bought for any diver on your list, and guided, unguided and flexible packages are all available.

Group business is part of the picture: school trips, learn to dive weeks for students and military expeditions. The centre is an accredited Commercial MoD Approved Centre, authorised to provide support and training, and runs UK military diving expeditions for 2027.

Getting there, timing your trip and contacting Maltaqua

The dive centre is at Maltaqua Limited, Mosta Road, St Paul's Bay SPB 3114. From May to October it is open Monday to Saturday from 08:00 to 16:30, and from November to April on weekdays from 08:00 to 15:00 and on Saturdays from 08:00 to 14:30. It is closed on Sundays. If you plan to stay elsewhere, see our guide to hotels in Qawra and Bugibba or the wider where to stay in Malta overview.

Most UK divers arrive by air; see our guide to flights to Malta from London. The best weather and warmest water are covered in our Malta weather guide, while days off the boat can be filled with things to do in Malta, a trip to the Blue Lagoon at Comino or a ferry ride over to Gozo (read our Gozo guide).

Tell the team what you would like to do, your current certification, your dates and the number of people in your group. Use the VisitMalta.co.uk enquiry form on this page and we will pass your message to Maltaqua.