You can rent a boat in Malta and drive it yourself with no licence and no previous experience, from around €120–150 for a few hours on the water. Operators based at Ċirkewwa in the north put you roughly 15 minutes from the Blue Lagoon on a boat you are steering, which is the part most guides to this get wrong.
The real question is not which boat but whether you want a skipper aboard. This is the self-drive guide: you take the wheel, you choose the route, and the weather call is yours. Prices are quoted per boat rather than per person, so a full boat of six splits the cost six ways.
Do you need a licence to hire a boat in Malta?
No – not for the small motorboats that rental firms hand to visitors, whatever your nationality and whatever your experience. It is worth understanding the mechanism, though, because this is not a clean statutory exemption written for tourists.
What sets the ceiling is the rental operator's own insurance, not a law. The boats they rent out sit inside that cover, which is why you can step aboard with no qualification at all. Published engine limits vary between sources, so treat any single horsepower figure you read online with caution.
Transport Malta's nautical licence is a separate thing. That is what a resident or boat owner needs to operate their own craft of 30HP or more, and what allows independent range rather than movement inside an operator's permitted area.
At the dock, expect to show a valid passport or photo ID and to sit through a safety and familiarisation briefing covering the controls, anchoring, local rules and the no-go zones. The minimum age is commonly 21, though it varies by operator, and licence-free operation applies within Malta's territorial waters.
What you can rent, and what it costs
Every price below is for the boat, not per person, and the season runs roughly April to October. Where you collect the boat matters far more to the price than the boat itself.
| Where | Boat | Duration | From (per boat) | Max people |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marsaskala, southeast | Motorboat | 2–7 hrs | ~€120 | 6 |
| Mellieħa, north | Speedboat | 2–8 hrs | ~€150 | ~6 |
| Ċirkewwa, north | 19ft, 80–100HP | 3 hrs / 6 hrs | ~€199 / ~€299 | 7 |
| St Julian's | Self-drive motorboat | 3.5–7 hrs | ~€250 | – |
| Saint Thomas Bay, southeast | Hydra 530, 17ft, 60HP | 4 hrs | ~€400 | 6 |
The Saint Thomas Bay boat is the priciest on that list, and the one the booking link points to: it is the self-drive rental listed on GetYourGuide, with verified reviews and free cancellation. Its permitted area is also the narrowest of the five, which the next section covers.
The northern half-day and full-day rates typically bundle an ice box, snorkelling gear, a canopy for shade and a map of the permitted area, so you rarely need to hire anything else. No operator sends boats out in strong wind either – trips get moved or refunded, so leave a spare day if the boat is the whole point of the trip.
Where you can take it
Here is the correction most articles need: a self-drive rental from the north can legally reach Comino. Operators at Ċirkewwa and Mellieħa rent licence-free boats specifically for that run, and from Ċirkewwa the Blue Lagoon is about 15 minutes away.
The Crystal Lagoon on the same stretch of Comino coastline is the quieter half of the pair and sits within easy reach of the same boat. Anchoring rules and the busy hours apply to you exactly as they do to the day boats.
The southeast is a different proposition. The Saint Thomas Bay rental is genuinely licence-free but its permitted range covers the Grand Harbour to Marsaxlokk stretch only, with no island crossing. What it buys instead is St Peter's Pool, the Delimara headland and the Marsaskala coves, on a coast the north-based tour boats never reach.
Go in the morning wherever you collect the boat. The water is calmest before midday, and at Comino an early start puts you in the lagoon before the scheduled boats fill it.
Self-drive or a skippered charter?
Self-drive is cheaper and the day is entirely yours, but so is the responsibility: the boat, the weather judgement and the navigation are all on you. A charter costs more, hands all three to someone qualified and can range beyond any rental operator's zone.
If you would rather someone else drove, a skippered private charter covers the same water without the workload. And if you simply want to see Comino cheaply, a scheduled catamaran or group cruise does it for a fraction per head.
Featured image: Renata Apan / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0