The Gozo Channel car ferry crosses from Ċirkewwa to Mġarr in about 25 minutes, sails around the clock all year, and costs €4.65 return for a foot passenger or €15.70 for a car and driver. You pay none of it on the way out. The entire return fare is collected at Mġarr as you leave Gozo, which is the detail that confuses almost every first crossing.
One question decides which boat you want: are you bringing a car? Gozo Channel is the crossing with a vehicle deck; the Gozo Highspeed catamarans from Valletta, Sliema and Buġibba are quicker and leave from where visitors actually stay, but they carry foot passengers only. Below: the fares as published today, how often the boats really run, and the car queue.
Which crossing should you take?
| Crossing | Route | Time | Fare | Vehicles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gozo Channel car ferry | Ċirkewwa – Mġarr | ~25 min | €4.65 return on foot | Yes |
| Gozo Highspeed | Valletta – Mġarr | ~45 min | ~€7.50 one way | No |
| Gozo Highspeed | Buġibba – Mġarr | ~30 min | ~€6.50 one way | No |
| Gozo Highspeed | Sliema – Mġarr via Buġibba | ~75 min | ~€8.50 one way | No |
If you are driving, or staying anywhere north of Mellieħa, the answer is Ċirkewwa – it is the cheapest crossing, the most frequent by a wide margin, and the only one that will take your car.
Based in the Sliema, St Julian's or Buġibba strip and travelling on foot, the catamaran is usually worth the higher fare. It removes an hour of cross-island road journey in each direction, which is the real cost of Ċirkewwa from that side of the island.
Coming straight from the airport is a different problem with its own answer – our Malta Airport to Gozo guide covers the road leg, the TD1 bus and door-to-door transfers.
How much is the Gozo ferry, and where do you pay?
These are the fares published by Gozo Channel, checked on 7 September 2026. The fare is a return, and it is charged once.
| Ticket | Standard return | Night fare, November to March |
|---|---|---|
| Foot passenger | €4.65 | €4.05 |
| Car and driver, up to 5.3 m | €15.70 | €12.80 |
| Motorcycle and rider | €8.15 | €6.95 |
| Child, 3–12 years | €1.15 | €1.15 |
| Infant, 0–2 years | Free, ticket still required | Free |
The night fare applies only to sailings leaving Mġarr after 20:00, and only between November and March. Because the fare is collected on the way back, that discount is real money for anyone returning from Gozo on a winter evening, and it appears in almost no guide to this crossing.
Two details are worth stating plainly because they catch people out. Free travel for senior citizens applies to Maltese permanent residents presenting a valid identity card, not to visiting over-60s, who pay the standard €4.65. And child tickets can only be bought at the Gozo Channel booths in Mġarr, then validated before boarding.
Nothing is sold at Ċirkewwa. Foot passengers walk on, and the ticket is issued and scanned at the Mġarr terminal on the return. Non-subsidised vehicle tickets are sold online or at the Mġarr vehicle booths only, by cash or card.
How often does the ferry run, and when is the last sailing?
There is no last sailing, and that is the most useful thing to know about this crossing. On the current timetable there were 44 departures from Ċirkewwa and 44 from Mġarr in a single day – we counted them on the operator's own schedule for Monday 7 September 2026.
- Through the day: an unbroken half-hourly run, 09:45 to 18:15 out of Ċirkewwa and 09:00 to 17:30 out of Mġarr, with extra sailings slotted in around the evening peak
- Late evening: back to 30 to 45 minutes – the last three from Ċirkewwa were 21:45, 22:30 and 23:15
- Overnight: every 45 minutes to an hour – Ċirkewwa departures at 00:00, 00:45, 01:30 and on through the night
- Earliest morning boats: 05:45 and 06:10 from Ċirkewwa, 05:00 and 05:30 from Mġarr
- Timetable validity: the current schedule runs 19 May 2025 to 8 November 2026
The practical consequence is that missing a boat costs you half an hour in the daytime, not an evening. Gozo Channel publishes the timetable by date rather than as a fixed grid, and sailings are added in summer and trimmed for weather, so check your own date before you build a tight day around a specific departure.
Taking a car across, and the summer queue
The procedure is simpler than most people expect. You drive to Ċirkewwa, follow the vehicle lanes, board when directed and pay nothing. On the way back you buy the vehicle ticket at the Mġarr booths, or online, before you join the boarding lane.
The cost of a car is time rather than money. In July and August the Ċirkewwa vehicle lane can back up by one or two sailings, worst on Sunday afternoons as day trippers come home. Foot passengers are not affected – they board separately and walk straight on.
If you want wheels on Gozo for a longer stay, taking a hire car across is straightforward and the €15.70 covers the round trip – check the ferry is permitted on your rental agreement first, which our Malta car hire guide covers. Gozo's own buses fan out from Mġarr for about €2 if you would rather not.
How do you get to Ċirkewwa?
Ċirkewwa sits at the northern tip of Malta, past Mellieħa, and getting there is the longest part of the trip from most resorts. Driving from Sliema takes about 45 minutes in clear traffic; from Buġibba or Mellieħa it is much shorter.
By bus, the terminal is the northern end of the network rather than an awkward connection. Routes from the central corridor and the Airport Direct TD1 service all terminate there, and the run from the Sliema and St Julian's side takes roughly 45 to 75 minutes depending on the route and the hour. Our getting around Malta guide has the fares and the Tallinja card options.
The fast ferry from Valletta, Sliema and Buġibba
Gozo Highspeed runs the high-speed catamarans, and its published crossing times are 45 minutes from Valletta, 30 minutes from Buġibba, and 75 minutes from Sliema via Buġibba. There is also a Sliema to Buġibba leg at about 30 minutes, which makes the boat a way of moving along the Malta coast as well as reaching Gozo.
These boats run late. On the evening we checked, departures from Valletta were still leaving at 22:45 and 23:45, with the first morning boat at 06:45 – so a fast-ferry day is not automatically the short day people assume.
- Tickets: online or at the terminal ticket booths, cash or card
- Online cut-off: bookings close 20 minutes before departure
- Boarding: the ticket booth and boarding close 2 minutes before departure
- Vehicles: none, on any route – bicycles, e-scooters and pets are carried, cars are not
- Works in progress: the operator has flagged works at the Mġarr fast ferry terminal until 31 October 2026, with temporary pedestrian routes, so allow extra time
One honest caveat on the fares. The one-way prices carried across booking channels sit at roughly €7.50 from Valletta, €6.50 from Buġibba and €8.50 from Sliema, but we could not re-confirm them against the operator's own fares page this pass – it does not render to an automated check. Treat the figures above as the ballpark and gozohighspeed.com as the authority, particularly for return and child fares.
Does a Tallinja card work on the Gozo ferry?
No. The Tallinja bus card is not valid on the Gozo Channel ferry or the high-speed catamarans – the ferries are a separate ticketing system, and Gozo Channel runs its own travel card scheme for regular users. Nor is the Explore card a ferry pass.
In practice this matters less than it sounds, because the fare is small and payment at the terminal is by cash or card either way. Budget the €4.65 separately from your bus spending and there is nothing to arrange.
So which boat, and what will the day cost?
For a day trip from anywhere north of Sliema, park at Ċirkewwa, walk on, and you are looking at €4.65 a head plus about €2 in Gozo buses. From the Valletta, Sliema or Buġibba strip on foot, the catamaran costs more per head and gives you back the best part of two hours.
If you are planning what to do once you land, our Gozo day trip guide has the route that wastes the least time and what the Cittadella and Ġgantija cost, things to do in Gozo covers the wider list, and where to stay in Gozo is the one to read if the ferry is a one-way trip.
Featured image: HH58 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0