Gozo Quad Tour

"The gozo quad tour ran us along the Xwejni coast where the pans look like a chessboard cut straight into the rock. Heat came off the limestone by eleven and the sea wind was the only relief. Our guide stopped long enough at Wied il-Ghasri to walk to the gorge edge."

"Ramla Bay was the colour of terracotta and far wider than the photos suggest. We came down the winding track from Calypso Cave with the whole bay opening up below us. Dust, engine noise, then complete quiet once we cut the motors."

"We booked the tour tal-quad f'Ghawdex at Mgarr Harbour and were riding twenty minutes after the ferry docked. Dwejra still holds up without the Azure Window, though we had barely ten minutes at the Inland Sea before moving on. The last stretch ran straight into the sun and I wished for darker glasses."

"Riding up toward Victoria you see the Cittadella walls stack above the rooftops long before you get there. Our gozo quad tour tour gave us half an hour on site, enough to walk the ramparts and look across to the Xewkija dome. Coming back down the hill the stone had gone properly orange."

"Halfway through, the gozo quad tour swung inland to Ta' Pinu Basilica, standing on its own in a field with nothing around it but rubble walls and wild fennel. The silence there after two hours of engines was a strange contrast. We ate at Marsalforn afterwards with salt still drying on our arms."

"San Blas is a steep walk down but we parked at the top of the path with no trouble at all. Wind coming off the channel toward Comino was cold in late February and the water below was glass-clear. Riding it beat waiting around for the hourly bus."

"Roads were empty in January and the countryside was green rather than the burnt gold you see in the brochure shots. Our guide routed us past the Ggantija temples and explained they predate the pyramids by centuries. Being able to stop where we liked beat sitting in a coach."

"We finished at Xlendi Bay just as the cliffs turned copper and the small boats were coming back in. Gozo quad tour tickets were simple to arrange the day before through our guesthouse in Victoria. The watchtower on the headland is a short scramble and worth the ten minutes."

"Sanap Cliffs in November had that low light that makes the island look far bigger than it is. Among the gozo quad tour tours we compared, the smaller-group option left more time on the back roads. Gozo landmarks stack up quickly when you can cross the island in a single day."

"The crossing from Cirkewwa takes about twenty-five minutes and the quads were lined up at Mgarr when we stepped off. Riding the ridge road toward Nadur, the terraced fields and dry-stone walls looked like a patchwork. We ended at a bakery in Nadur for ftira, which I still think about."