Malta has a big shortcoming when it comes to sandy beaches and the same goes for the best place for swimming in the group of islands. Blue Lagoon is situated on Comino, the small island between Malta and Gozo. It is definately the most beautiful place you can find on your Malta-trip and is a must to visit. The lagoon has a crystal clear water surrounded by several tiny islands and is the perfect place to go on your time off.
There are several ways of getting to the Blue Lagoon. You can chose to go on one of the cruises from Sliema waterfront. There are several boats taking off in the mornings an the biggest is probably the Captian Morgan cruise called ”Comino and the Blue Lagoon”. You can get a ticket for the cruise (which actually takes a while as it does a little touristy stuff on the way to the blue lagoon, trip there aprox 3h and 1h back) in any of the travelagents in Sliema or buy it directly by the ship. You can chose between a trip with included lunch or the ”Super value” cruise. With lunch included it's 32 euros and the super value is 18. The lunch isn't the best but once in the Blue Lagoon your only choices are fish and chips or burgers. The trick is to bring your own lunch as the lunch on the cruise is on the crowded cruiseship and is not served until you're actually at the Blue Lagoon.
The cheapest way to get to the Blue Lagoon is going by bus to the Gozo ferries and get the comino ferry from there. It's also a lot faster than the cruise.
The third option is renting a boat from one of the charter companies, if it's a boat that you can stay on for tanning it's definately the best way of going to the Blue Lagoon as the place tends to be packed with people, especially in the weekends. Having a boat where you can stay saves you a lot of troubles finding a spot to stay, they are not to common on the ”beach” and most are quite uncomfortable as it's very rocky. This if you don't want to pay a couple of euros to get packed in among the hundreds of pinkish tourists crowding the deck chair areas. You can charter a boat for about 300 euros a day and up.