Sandy Beaches

There is a school of thought followed by some people, myself included, that you have to be vaguely masochistic (or mad) if you are willing to entertain the thought of going to a sandy beach for fun! For we all know that no matter how hard you wash and scrub, those abrasive, grating grains of hell will be coming out of every part of your body for days afterwards!

It’s a bit like saying that taking a sheet of sandpaper to your bum crack is fun, or rubbing a rasp between your toes is a riot! All it takes is one day at the beach and you’ll be extracting the stuff from every orifice for weeks.

But it’s not just your poor body parts that suffer the brunt of this sandy assault. Think of your clothes, your shoes, your suitcase and your poor car, all of which will be serving as mobile sandpits for the rest of the summer.

Still, some of you deeply disturbed people do enjoy the cushioning effect the sandy beach gives you while you top up your tans and, let's face it, even a 'sandophobe' like me concedes that there are few better ways to keep the kids occupied than hours of endless sandcastle building.

Malta's coast, mercifully, is mainly rocky and chafe-free but there are a few sandy beaches to be found. These are mainly in the north of the island and are often small and hidden away in sheltered little bays that are difficult to reach. But there are also some big ones, where the holidaying crowds gather in their multitudes to spend their days amongst the ice-cream vendors, the forest of umbrellas and the fast-food outlets.

Ghadira Bay, Ghajn Tuffieha Bay, Golden Sands, Paradise Bay, Pretty Bay and Armier Bay provide the main sandy beaches on Malta, while Xlendi Bay, Marsalforn and the splendid Ramla l-Hamra beckon on Gozo. There are also two sandy beaches on Comino - Santa Marija Bay and San Niklaw Bay.

When it comes to public opinion on sandy beaches it seems that I am in the minority and you freaky sand-lovers are many and quite vociferous in your passion for a good grating in the groin region.

As a result, the Maltese authorities have quite successfully - at St George's Bay and Bugibba - embarked on projects intended to enlarge some of the smaller sandy beaches and to convert rocky shores into artificial sandy beaches in a concentrated effort to fulfil demand from the deluded.

As I said, picking sand out of you privates for weeks on end might not be our tube of Savlon but for those who love 'em, Malta has just about enough sandy beaches to make your holiday perfect.

Given the compact nature of Malta, getting to a sandy beach is not that outrageous a suggestion even if you are staying in the southernmost reaches.  Just check which one on the list above is nearest to you and off you go.

For those of you who are staying ‘down south’, St George’s Bay is more centrally located than most so save time and head for that one. Public bus routes serve the vast majority, if not all of the beaches mentioned above too.