Popeye Village: The Price Changes by Ten Euros Depending on the Month
Updated September 30, 2026 · 6 min read
A film set from 1980 that nobody demolished. The village built at Anchor Bay near Mellieħa for Robert Altman’s Popeye is one of the most photographed places on Malta that is not a fortification, and the reviews reflect that: two entry-ticket listings in our stock carry 2,662 and 2,598 reviews at 4.7 and 4.6 stars.
The thing worth knowing before you book is that there is no such thing as “the price”.
Three seasons, three prices
Straight from the operator’s own packages page:
| Season | Dates | Hours | Adults & teens | Children 3–12 | Pensioners |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | 1 Jun – 30 Sep | 09:30–18:00 | €25.00 | €16.00 | €16.00 |
| Mid | 1–31 May, 1 Oct – 5 Nov | 09:30–17:30 | €18.00 | €14.00 | €14.00 |
| Low | 6 Nov – 30 Apr | 09:30–17:00 | €15.00 | €12.50 | €12.50 |
The same ticket, ten euros apart. Most of the “Popeye Village from €15” you will see quoted is the low-season figure, and in our own stock the entry ticket also starts at €15. If you are going in July, budget €25 a head and be pleasantly surprised if your operator has a deal.
Two details from the same source that cost people the end of their visit: all areas close ten minutes before the stated closing time, and, according to the operator, visitors aged 16 and under must be accompanied by an adult aged 18 or over.
What the cheap months cost you
The low-season price is not a bargain, it is a different product. The entry covers both the Lower and Upper Complexes – the original film set, a water inflatables assault course, a floating sun deck, mini-golf, children’s pools, a cinema screening and live animation shows.
Read that list again with the calendar in mind. The inflatable obstacle course and the bathing platform in Anchor Bay belong to the high-season package only, 1 June to 30 September: the operator’s mid-season page lists neither of them. Come in January and you pay €15 for the houses, the Comic Museum, the documentary, the live shows and a scavenger hunt, on a day when the sea is too cold to want the water anyway. Note what else drops out: the mini-golf is on the operator’s mid-season list, not the low-season one.
That is the honest trade: high season costs €25 and the water is open; low season costs €15 and it is a film set with a view.
Getting there
Anchor Bay is a dead end down a steep road, and there is exactly one bus.
Route 101 runs between Ċirkewwa and Gnejna, roughly hourly, and stops at “Popeye” – the stop at the gate. It is the only route that serves it. Mellieħa is on the same line, so from anywhere else on the island you travel to Mellieħa first and change there. A single journey on a day route is €2.50 in summer and €2.00 in winter, valid for two hours, paid in cash or by contactless card on the bus.
Roughly hourly is the number that decides your day, and road works in the north of Malta divert this route often enough that it is worth opening Malta Public Transport’s own page for route 101 the morning you go, rather than standing at a stop that is not being served.
If the 101’s timetable does not fit your day – and with a park that closes at 17:00 in winter, it often will not – the alternatives are a taxi, an entry ticket sold with optional private transfers at €19 in our stock, or driving yourself. Anchor Bay is a short drive from Mellieħa and a long one from the south of the island, and this is one of the few attractions on Malta where a car genuinely changes the day: it lets you arrive at opening, leave when the children have had enough, and stop at Għadira Bay on the way back. If that is how you plan to do it, it is worth comparing hire cars for Malta rather than paying for transfers twice.
Who it is actually for
Children up to about ten. This is the honest answer. The scale of the buildings, the boat rides, the pools and the costumed shows are pitched at exactly that age, and they work.
Photographers, early or late. The village is a cluster of crooked pastel houses on a rock shelf above a small bay, and it photographs better than it walks. The car park above the bay has the view you have seen in every picture, and standing there costs nothing.
Not teenagers, in high season at least. A fifteen-year-old pays the adult €25 to look at a film set from a film they have not seen. If the water course is open they will use it; if it is not, this is an expensive hour.
Not a full day. Two to three hours is the honest span, which is why it pairs well with Għadira Bay or the Mellieħa ridge rather than standing alone.
If you are building a week around the north of the island, the Comino boats leave from the same corner of Malta – see the Blue Lagoon landing pass before you book one, because since the timed-slot system came in, the order you do things in matters. And for the rest of what the islands sell, our things to do on Malta category is the widest net.
