Starfish Diving Malta

Starfish Diving Malta is a dive school and guiding centre on the shore of St George's Bay in St Julian's, set directly below the Marina Hotel Corinthia Beach Resort. It suits a UK visitor who wants to try scuba for the first time, finish a certification in a week, join guided dives to wrecks and reefs, or train in technical diving. Because the base sits beside the main hotel area, you can walk to your session from many of the big resorts in St Julian's, Paceville and Sliema.

The centre has been operating since 2002 and describes itself as the sister centre of Dive Systems Malta. New management took over in 2021, and the focus now is on small groups and personal attention. On VisitMalta.co.uk it is listed under diving equipment suppliers in Malta and dive centres in Malta, reflecting both its school and its on-site shop.

Who they are and how they work

Starfish is a PADI Instructor Development Centre at the highest centre level and a TDI centre, which means it can teach everything from entry-level courses to instructor development. It is also a Cressi dive centre, so it teaches with Cressi gear, is licensed by the Malta Tourism Authority, belongs to the Professional Diving School Association and carries insurance through Divers Alert Network. The base has two Bauer compressors for filling cylinders.

The team is international. Marco Marzio is the centre manager and a PADI Staff Instructor who speaks English, Spanish and Italian. Tiit Krutob is a PADI Course Director with more than a decade in Malta, and the instructor list also includes Anton, Ana Penavic, Michael Horry and Lie Chai. Between them the instructors teach in English, Estonian, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Finnish, Maltese, Croatian and Chinese, so non-English speakers in your party can usually be catered for.

Four principles run through how the centre describes its work: safety first, experienced instructors, good-quality kit and packages priced to suit a range of budgets. In practice that means briefings before every dive, equipment that is serviced and well maintained, and groups matched by experience so that a newly certified diver is not paired with a technical diver.

Courses for beginners and certified divers

The easiest first step is a PADI Discover Scuba session. The shallow version takes around two hours, reaches a maximum of about five or six metres and costs €85.00 including VAT. A fuller version dives to 12 metres, and a full-day experience adds two open-water dives, one of which may be in a marine reserve or on a wreck. A couple offer for two people is priced at €220.

To qualify, the PADI Open Water Diver course is priced from €510 to €620 depending on options, with eLearning sold separately at €110. Most people finish in three to four days, depending on weather and progress. You must be 15 or over, and ages 10 to 14 take the Junior course. You also need to swim 200 metres without a time limit and float or tread water for ten minutes. Price inclusions cover equipment hire, instructor fees, land transport to sites when needed, certification processing and DAN insurance.

If you have only a week, a six-day combination merges Open Water and Advanced Open Water at a discount. Beyond that come Rescue Diver, Emergency First Response and more than a dozen specialities such as Deep, Wreck, Enriched Air, Night, Boat, Sidemount and underwater photography. Professional courses run up to the instructor development programme, and there are freediving courses for those who prefer to dive on one breath.

A practical point from the centre: Maltese rules require the Advanced Open Water level to dive independently without a dive centre, and the instructors explain how that works locally during your course. Leave at least 12 hours between your last dive and any flight, so do not book your dive for the final day of the trip.

Guided dives around Malta, Gozo and Comino

Certified divers can buy accompanied dive packages. A single dive is priced from €65 to €75, depending on whether you want full kit, and a ten-dive pack runs from €540 to €610. Base prices cover shore dives and include road transport, a dive guide, cylinders and weights. Full kit rental covers mask, snorkel, suit, hood, fins, buoyancy jacket, regulator and weight belt.

Supplements are paid at the centre according to your dive plan. They include €25 for a night dive with torch and batteries, €30 for a day trip to Gozo with road and ferry, €30 for a single boat dive and €5 per dive for nitrox up to 36%. Packages are bought per person, and group sizes are kept small, with guides who look for marine life rather than simply leading a line of divers.

Typical sites span wrecks such as the Um El Faroud, the P29 patrol boat and the Tug Boat Rozi, the caves and cliffs at the Cirkewwa Marine Park, and the Blue Hole and Inland Sea in Gozo. If you plan to combine diving with sightseeing, our guide to Gozo and the Blue Lagoon on Comino cover the islands above the waterline.

Gozo day trips run by road and ferry and visit shore sites, while boat dives are priced as singles or doubles, with a higher supplement for long-distance double boat dives. If you want to dive with a twinset or in sidemount configuration, ask when you enquire, since a surcharge applies. Everyone dives to a plan agreed with the guide before entering the water, and the guides help with getting in and out at each site.

Technical diving, boats and the dive shop

Technical divers are well served. The centre teaches PADI and TDI technical programmes, including sidemount, Advanced Wreck and Tec 40, 45 and 50 courses, and it provides trimix, scooter (DPV) rental and support for rebreather divers, including try dives. Instructor-level tec courses are also on the list.

St Julian's itself began as a small fishing village around a bay and is now one of Malta's liveliest resort areas, with restaurants, bars, shops and a cinema within reach of the dive centre. That makes it simple to fit a morning session around the rest of your holiday, and the beach beside the centre is used for sea sessions on the beginner courses.

On the water, the centre arranges regular boat dives to sites around all three islands and can organise private dive or leisure charters. Its boat Simo is 38 feet long with a cruising speed of 14 knots. The charter includes a skipper who is also a diving and first aid instructor, fuel, first aid and oxygen kits, a fish finder, GPS, VHF radio, toilet, fridge, shower, tea and coffee and a dry area.

The on-site shop sells computers, wetsuits, masks, fins and other equipment, with an online store for scuba, technical, freediving and snorkelling gear from brands including Beuchat, Santi, Cressi and Dolphin Tec.

Weather, seasons and planning your trip

The sea can be dived all year. Water rarely falls below 15 °C and can reach 28 °C, while summer air temperatures average about 32 °C and winter around 14 °C. Our Malta weather guide sets out each month, which helps you choose between the busy summer season and the quieter shoulder months.

Divers who need kit can ask for rental at the same time as booking. The centre also offers a refresher programme for people who have not dived for a while, so if your last dive was years ago, mention it in your message and the team can suggest a suitable first outing.

The centre can tailor a dive holiday for individuals or large mixed groups, including airport transfers and a programme of guided dives or courses. For wider planning, see our guides to things to do in Malta, flights from the UK to Malta and where to stay in Malta.

How to book

Before you enquire, it helps to know your highest certification, roughly how many dives you have logged, when you last dived and whether you hold any tec rating or specialities. Beginners need to complete a medical questionnaire, and a doctor's note is needed if any answer is yes.

To book a discovery dive, a course, guided dives or a charter, use the VisitMalta.co.uk enquiry form on this page and we will pass your message to Starfish Diving Malta.