The Blue Grotto: five minutes

What the fee buys, and who pays less

Two things bundled into one payment: most of it for the rower who takes you in, and the rest admission. Under-6s go free. EU citizens under 18 pay the rowing fee only. Between 18 and 25 you pay a token admission plus the rowing fee. You hand this over at a floating booth outside the cave, not to your skipper, and it is separate from whatever you paid for the boat — the whole bill for a Capri day is broken down on what a boat tour costs.

The 09:00 call

The cave mouth is low. Rough seas or high winds mean the rowing boats cannot pass under it safely, so the operators look at the water each morning at 09:00 and decide. That decision is not final in any useful sense: the same day can open, close and open again as the wind turns. I have stood on the quay at Marina Piccola watching a flat blue morning and been told at eleven that the grotto had shut. This is the part that no booking page communicates well, and it is the reason every tour that mentions the grotto calls it optional.

Julie and Rebecca, same boat, different mornings

Two reviews of the most-reviewed boat on this route tell the whole story. Julie wrote that her guide made great suggestions for touring other caves besides the Blue Grotto, and that there was a two-hour wait. Rebecca, on a day when the tides allowed it, saw many sea caves including the blue grotto and wrote that the tour was timed well enough that they waited only fifteen minutes. Neither of them is wrong and neither had a bad operator. They had different water. The rest of that boat’s record is on the flagship review.

The hours, which change four times a year

Closed on 25 December and 1 January. Note that the summer window is the longest and also the one with the two-hour queues, which is the trade the season makes for you.

What it is actually like

You leave your boat and get into a small wooden rowing boat with a handful of other people. At the entrance you lie back, because the gap between the water and the rock is not generous, and the rower pulls you through on a chain. Inside is about five minutes of blue light coming up through the water from below. Rowers often sing, and they are often tipped. Five minutes is not long and the light is genuinely unlike anything else on this coast; both of those things are true, which is why the two-hour queue splits people so cleanly.

Deciding before you go, not in the queue

My rule is simple. If the grotto is the reason you booked, you have made the day fragile, because a fee, a queue and the wind all have to agree. If it is a bonus you will take if the morning offers it, you will have a good day either way. The boats that name the grotto in their itinerary are gathered on Blue Grotto tours, and how the queue fits into a single day on the island is on Capri in one day.

The boat that names the grotto in its title

The most-booked tour on this route lists the grotto as an option, with its own queue and its own fee, which is the only honest way to sell it.

Frequently asked questions