Amazonia
Beach Club

Amazonia is a design of water on water. It sits on the low rocky shelf of the Qawra seafront, part of the Dolmen resort that now trades as the DoubleTree by Hilton Malta, and its best trick is the infinity pool whose lip lines up with the open sea so the two blues run together from a sun lounger. Around it the complex terraces upward, a broad main pool ringed with beds, a swim up bar, then a raised deck for dining and events that turns to face the sunset. To a design eye the whole place is arranged to sell that horizon, and it does the job cleanly, even if the setting around it is resort strip rather than wild coast.

Our honest position, the same one we hold on the Malta club directory, is that Amazonia is a lido to enjoy for what it is rather than mistake for what it is not. There is no sweep of golden sand here. The pull is the pool, the sea view and the ease of a day you can walk to from half the hotels on the bay, and judged on that it earns its place among the busiest addresses on the north coast.

The infinity pool is where Amazonia earns its photographs. Set on a terrace above the Qawra rocks, its far edge is drawn level with the sea so the pool appears to spill into the bay, and late in the day the light comes low across that line and softens the whole deck. This is the composed, deliberate part of the place, and it is genuinely handsome. It is also where everyone wants to be, so the front row of beds and the rail along the infinity edge fill first and fastest on a hot afternoon.

What sits below the terrace is the honest catch. The shore here is the Bugibba perched beach, a stretch that was rocky coast until it was built up into a platform with a thin skirt of imported sand, kept clean enough to fly a Blue Flag but a world away from a natural bay. Steps and ladders take you into deep, clear water off the rocks, which many swimmers prefer, but anyone picturing a wide beach to spread out on will find the sand token rather than generous. Treat the sea as a swimming platform, not a lounging shore.

Where Amazonia lands well is the ordinary luxury of an easy day. It is a short walk from a great many hotels on the bay, the pools are large, the bar is a few steps from the water, and a pass buys you a lounger, a swim and a sunset without a drive or a hike. That accessibility is also its ceiling, because in July and August the decks pack tight and the mood is busy rather than serene. If you want calm and natural sand, our directory points you to the west coast bays instead.

Qawra and its neighbour Bugibba form the resort heart of St Paul’s Bay on the north coast, a dense run of hotels, cafes and dive centres wrapped around a rocky shore with no true natural beach of its own. The town made its swimming instead, cutting and filling a perched beach and lining the promenade with ladders into clear, deep water, which is why Amazonia and the lidos beside it lean on pools rather than sand. For a wide sandy bay you drive west to Ghajn Tuffieha or Golden Bay, both covered across our wider Malta guide, while the day beside Amazonia is about the water off the rocks and the pool above it.

Amazonia sits on the Qawra seafront a short walk from Bugibba Square and the National Aquarium, easy to reach on foot from the many hotels ringing St Paul’s Bay. Frequent buses run in from Sliema, St Julian’s and Valletta, and a taxi or car is simple enough, though parking on the bay tightens sharply in high summer, so an early arrival or the bus is the calmer choice. Access works as day passes and pool memberships through the resort, with quieter weeks usually open to a walk up by the pool.

Prefer to have a lounger and a day pass sorted before you fly out? Pop your travel date and group size into the form on this page, and we will raise it with the club on your behalf, then write back about pool space, the current pass price and any entry conditions for that week, with no fee from our side.