Marsalforn is Gozo's largest seaside resort — modest by international standards, but the busiest place on the island outside Victoria. A long stone promenade curves around the bay, lined with restaurants, gelaterias, and dive schools. The swimming areas are split between the small sandy beach in the centre, the rocky slabs at either end, and the saltpans cut into the rocks west of the village.
Those salt pans — a chequerboard of shallow rectangular basins carved straight into the limestone, in use for more than three centuries — are one of the most photographed sights on Gozo, especially at sunrise and sunset. A coastal walk west from the village along the saltpans to Wied il-Ghasri (a narrow cleft in the cliffs, good for a quiet swim) is one of the great short walks on the island.