'Trail running the coast from Xemxija to Għajn Tuffieħa and Golden Bay: a first-person

[IMAGE — Tier 1 original hero: IMG_5013 (the start of the Xemxija Hill Heritage trail, above St Paul’s Bay). Embed from ~/malta-content-pics/web/ into public/images/explore/ at publish. Alt: the start of the Xemxija Hill Heritage trail above St Paul’s Bay, where this coastal trail run begins.]

Yes, there is a proper coastal trail run linking Xemxija to Golden Bay, and it is one of the best in the north of Malta. I ran it as an out-and-back along the low coastal high ground: west from the old Roman road above Xemxija, over the exposed Selmun ridge, into Malta’s only national park, and down towards Għajn Tuffieħa and the Golden Bay ridge before turning for home. My watch read 15.72km with 340m of climbing, and there is not a single water tap the whole way. Here is the route, and what it actually asks of you.

Route at a glance

• Distance: 15.72km, out-and-back (turn round earlier for a shorter run)
• Ascent: 340m total
• My time: 2 hours 22 minutes at an easy 9:03 per kilometre
• Underfoot: ancient stone paving to start, then open coastal path and national-park trail
• Water: none on the route — carry all of it
• Best time: October to May, early morning or the golden hour before sunset

The route in brief

On my watch the run came out at 15.72km, taking 2 hours 22 minutes at an easy 9:03 per kilometre, with 340m of total ascent and about 1,125 calories burned — recorded on my Garmin as “San Pawl il-Baħar Trail Running.” I have left my name on the file: a real, logged run is worth more to you than a tidy estimate, and you can plan against numbers a device actually recorded. It is an out-and-back rather than a loop, which is part of why it works so well — you can turn round the moment you have had enough and still come away with a complete run. For reference, the documented loop that shares the first half of this ground is listed at around 11.5km with 193m of climbing; my version is longer and hillier because it carries on past that loop’s turn, through the national park to Għajn Tuffieħa and the Golden Bay ridge, then back the same way. If you want the wider picture of running on the island first, our general guide to trail running in Malta covers the heat, the races and the other headline routes.

[IMAGE — Tier 1 original: IMG_1811 (the Garmin activity record for this run — the map and stats). Embed from ~/malta-content-pics/web/ at publish. Alt: the Garmin activity record for the run, showing 15.72km and 340m of ascent in 2 hours 22 minutes along the north Malta coast.]

Starting at Xemxija: the Roman road climb

The run starts at the top of Xemxija Hill, on the St Paul’s Bay side, right behind the Porto Azzurro Apart Hotel, where the Xemxija Hill Heritage Trail begins. The opening stretch is unlike anything you will run on at home: large stone slabs, reported to be over 2,000 years old, part of what is known locally as the Roman road, or the Pilgrims’ Way. It climbs steadily from the very first step, so this is not a route you ease into — you are working within a minute. Take it gently here; the surface is uneven old stone, and you want your ankles fresh for the exposed ground ahead. The reward for the early climb is height, and with height comes the view back over St Paul’s Bay that makes the first kilometre worth it.

The Selmun ridge: open, exposed, and the best of the views

Above the old road the trail keeps pushing west onto open high ground through Miżieb and Selmun, and this is the character of the run: treeless, rocky and completely exposed. Around the 3.5km mark there is a marked Mellieħa Viewpoint, and near 5.4km a lookout known as the Rock Cut opens out over the sea. There is almost no shade along any of it. That is the whole point in the cool of the morning, when the light is long and the coast falls away on your right — and it is exactly the problem in the heat, when there is nowhere to hide from the sun. Independent route notes for this ground carry the same blunt warning I would: very open and exposed, so be careful in hot weather. On a cool day it is glorious running; in July it would be dangerous.

Into Majjistral: the stretch to Għajn Tuffieħa

The western half of the run drops into Il-Majjistral Nature and History Park, Malta’s first and only national park, declared in 2007 — so a real part of this route crosses protected ground, not just open country. The trail feeds in on paths that run south of the Radisson Blu, the hotel that sits directly on Golden Bay, which is how the Xemxija ridge and the Golden Bay coast actually join up on foot. This is the golden-hour stretch, the one to time for the last hour of light, with the park’s headlands and the sea ahead of you. The walking-pace version of this exact ground — the crossing between Golden Bay and Għajn Tuffieħa — is covered step by step in our guide to the Majjistral coastal walk, which is worth reading for the park detail even if you are running it.

[IMAGE — Tier 1 original: IMG_5017 (the Golden Bay ridge, north Malta). Embed from ~/malta-content-pics/web/ at publish. Alt: the Golden Bay ridge on the return leg of the Xemxija coastal trail run, with the sea beyond.]

The turnaround: the Golden Bay ridge and back

Għajn Tuffieħa and Golden Bay sit right next to each other — about 30 minutes apart on foot at an easy pace — so the far end of the run gives you a choice of turnarounds. I turned on the Golden Bay ridge and ran back the way I had come. That is the honest shape of this route: there is no neat loop back, so you retrace the ridge, which means a second pass at the Rock Cut and the Mellieħa Viewpoint, this time with the light and the sea on the other side. An out-and-back is sometimes treated as second best, but here it is a feature — the return leg looks like a different run, and you always know exactly how far you have left.

Water, heat and timing: what this route demands

The single most important thing to know is that there is no water on this route. Not a fountain, not a tap — not on the Xemxija ridge, not through Miżieb and Selmun, not in the national park. This matches what we say in our main trail-running guide: Malta’s trails carry no water, so you carry all of yours. On a run of this length in Maltese conditions that means 2.5 to 3 litres, and more if it is warm. The second thing is timing. This is a route for the cooler half of the year, roughly October to May, and even then for the early morning or the golden hour, never the middle of a hot day — the exposure that makes the views so good is the same exposure that makes midday heat genuinely risky. If you are coming from a humid climate, Malta’s dry heat can fool you: you sweat less obviously and dehydrate faster than you expect. Fit it into a morning in the north — the run, a swim at Golden Bay or Għajn Tuffieħa to finish, and you are back for lunch. For getting there, Xemxija is well served by bus from Valletta and St Paul’s Bay (routes 41 and 49 both run the corridor, among others); check the current number on the Tallinja app before you travel, as the route numbers were reshuffled recently. If you enjoy this one, Malta’s other big coastal routes — the Dingli Cliffs and the Victoria Lines — are the natural next outings.