Eleven of the trips here put the Blue Grotto on the route and two put the ticket in the fare. This page is about which is which, what the €18 actually buys, and what happens on the mornings the sea shuts the cave. When it does, the guided Capri island tours are the fallback: Anacapri, Monte Solaro and the towns run whatever the sea is doing.
One of only two fares here that already covers the €18 admission, rowboat transfer inside the cave included, and it adds Anacapri, Monte Solaro and the Gardens of Augustus to a seven-hour guided day.
From $142 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The other one. Blue Grotto entry and the Gardens of Augustus both in the price, a live guide from Marina Grande, and a shared boat tour of the island as the written substitute if the cave is shut.
From $136 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Eight catered hours from Positano, Sorrento or Capri with the grotto early in the route. Brunch, an aperitif and a steward aboard; the €18 ticket is paid at the floating office.
From $473 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Passes the cave rather than entering it, and sets the rest of the route by the hour to your instructions. One of the few boats here its operator describes as wheelchair accessible.
From $398 per group, up to 4
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Three private hours with a skipper and a hostess, brunch of local specialities and a restroom on board. Stops at the cave; the ticket is yours to buy.
From $2,603 per group, up to 12
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
An hour at the Blue Grotto inside a charter that already covers snorkelling gear, towels, bottled water, alcohol, snacks, fuel and every fee and tax. Only the cave ticket itself is left for you to pay at the floating office.
From $278 per group, up to 6
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Two hours or seven, your choice, with an hour set aside at the cave. Six aboard, a Bluetooth speaker and a meeting point 200 metres from the ferry arrivals.
From $402 per group, up to 6
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Four private hours from Pier 21, with an hour at the Blue Grotto for whoever wants to pay the entry and half an hour each at Marina Piccola, the Faraglioni and the Grotta Rossa.
From $639 per group, up to 7
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
A varnished wooden gozzo with an awning and a ladder, five passengers, and a fifteen-minute call at the cave inside a three-hour circuit built round swimming and the smaller grottoes.
From $348 per group, up to 5
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Forty minutes at the Blue Grotto inside an eight-hour day that boards on the mainland, then the Gardens of Augustus, Villa San Michele, the Piazzetta and Villa Jovis.
From $419 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The same eight-hour route on a 35 to 40-foot yacht rather than a gozzo, with forty-five minutes at the cave, an hour at Marina Piccola and three hours ashore on the island afterwards.
From $774 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
On the rest you pay €18 in cash at the floating office. Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead on all of them.
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Not what most people picture. Your boat does not go into the cave. It ties up outside, you transfer into a small rowboat holding four, and the boatman pulls on a chain to get you through an opening about two metres wide and a metre high — which is why everybody lies flat. Inside is roughly five minutes of water lit from below, because the daylight enters under the surface and comes back up through it.
The cave sits on the north-west shore. You can reach it by boat from Marina Grande or by bus from Anacapri in about twenty minutes and then down the steps to the same floating ticket office. Either way the last stretch is the rowboat and either way the ticket is bought at the cave.
Only two trips in this list put the €18 admission inside the fare. On the other nine it is a cash payment at the floating office on the day, and several listings say so in their own exclusions. If you would rather it were handled, the choice narrows to two.
Travellers on five separate trips describe waits of up to two and a half hours in season. A guided day absorbs that; a two-hour boat trip cannot, which is why two of the operators here decline to go at all and say so plainly.
The grotto shuts whenever the sea is up, and it is decided on the morning. A trip with nine other stops on it loses a quarter of an hour. A trip built entirely round the cave loses the day.
Lying flat while somebody hauls you through a metre-high gap is the part people remember, more than the five minutes on the other side of it.
| A tour that includes the ticket | A tour that stops outside | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay at the cave | Nothing | €18 per person, in cash |
| What is in the fare | Entry and the rowboat transfer | The boat, not the cave |
| How many trips here | Two | Nine |
| Typical length | 7 hours, guided, with land transport | 2 to 8 hours, on the water |
| If the cave is closed | One has a written substitute in its terms | The tour runs without the stop; four say no refund is issued |
| Queue | Handled by the guide, and early in the day | Yours to join |
| From | From $136 per person | From $65 per person |
The arithmetic is worth doing properly. Arriving independently from Marina Grande costs about €42, because you also buy the €24 public motorboat that takes you there. Arriving on any of the boats above costs €18, and on two of them nothing at all.
Reduced entry is worth knowing about: €2 for EU citizens aged 18 to 25 and free under 18, so the rowboat is all a family with teenagers pays.
Go early. It opens at 9am and the day boats land between ten and eleven. The first hour is the whole trick.
Watch the season. Closing is 2pm from November to March, 4pm in April, May and October, and 6pm from June to September, with last entry half an hour before. The weather page covers which months lose the most days to the sea.
Bring cash. The floating office does not take cards.
Book a few days ahead in summer and further out for the two guided days, which cap at twenty-three and twenty-five.
Anyone whose day is really about swimming. The grotto is five minutes and a queue, and the two-hour shared boats that skip it spend that time in the water off the Faraglioni or in the coves below Marina Piccola instead. Both are honest about not going in.
Anyone travelling with small children or with reduced mobility. The rowboat transfer is a metre-high squeeze with no way out halfway, and it is not for everyone. The private boat tours page lists the three boats their operators describe as wheelchair accessible; none of them can change what the cave entrance is.
And anyone visiting between November and March who only has one day. The cave closes at 2pm and loses more mornings to swell, so a trip built round it is a gamble; the towns and the chairlift up Monte Solaro are the safer purchase. A guided day tour that includes the towns is the better bet in winter.
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start, so a rough forecast costs you nothing.
See Top ToursEvery trip named here is set against the rest on price, hours and what the fare covers at Capri Italy Tours.