If Um El Faroud is my favourite wreck in Malta, the Blue Hole is my favourite reef dive. Anywhere. And calling it simply “the Blue Hole” almost does the dive an injustice, because the Hole itself is only the beginning.
Site at a glance
A dive that keeps changing
You start inside one of Gozo's most recognisable natural formations. Descend and the rock opens towards the sea through the arch. There is a cave below, the blue of the open Mediterranean ahead, and then an entire Dwejra landscape waiting outside. Every few minutes the scenery can change completely.
For me the magic is in connecting those features: the Blue Hole, its cave and arch, the enormous remains of the Azure Window, the caverns and cuts in the reef, then the narrow crack commonly called the Chimney leading towards Coral Garden. It feels less like one dive site and more like several sites stitched together by geology.
The Azure Window is gone — underwater it became something new
The famous Azure Window collapsed during a storm in March 2017. Above water, an icon disappeared. Underwater, hundreds of tonnes of limestone created a new landscape of massive blocks, passages, shadows and bright blue openings. It is still changing as the sea works on it.
That is one of the reasons I never describe this dive as a monument to something that is gone. The old Azure Window is now part of the dive. The collapse changed Dwejra rather than ending it.
Getting to the water
The car park at Dwejra is easy to reach; the last part is not. The approach to the Blue Hole crosses rough, uneven limestone and the return feels longer when you are carrying cylinders after the dive. Steps cut into the rock help near the entry, but good footwear and patience are part of the plan.
When the sea is moving, the Blue Hole can look protected while the outside conditions tell a very different story. The route outside and the exit deserve the same attention as the beautiful entry.
My favourite route
I like a route that lets the site unfold rather than rushing immediately to depth. The Hole itself deserves a look. So does the cave. Then the arch frames the open sea in a way that never gets old. Outside, the remains of the Azure Window give the dive scale; the rock seems almost architectural.
Depending on conditions, gas, the team and the objective of the dive, the route can continue towards the cracks and caves of Dwejra and through the Chimney towards Coral Garden. The Chimney is narrow enough to make buoyancy, trim and spacing matter. It is not a place to discover that your equipment configuration is wider than you thought.
Why it is my number one reef
It is not marine life alone. It is not depth. It is not one photogenic arch. It is the combination of light, geology, overheads, open wall, huge fallen blocks, narrow passages and the feeling of moving through a landscape rather than simply following a reef.
There are dives that are technically more demanding and dives with more fish. Very few have this much visual variety in one area. WOW is, in this case, a perfectly acceptable technical description.
BusaBoy note
If I bring a diver to Dwejra for the first time, this is the dive I most want to watch through their eyes. The moment the arch opens into the blue still works on me, even after many dives.
Where it is
GPS reference: 36.05300, 14.18870. Coordinates identify the site area; they do not replace underwater navigation, a current local briefing or an assessment of access on the day.