Capri boat tours from Sorrento, reviewed and ranked
Six boats leave Sorrento for the same island and sail more or less the same circuit, and the difference between them is not the coastline. It is how long the day runs, how many people are on deck, how many hours you get ashore, and whether anybody on board explains what you are looking at. I have ranked all six below with one line of verdict each, then written a full page on every one. Before you read any of it, the honest baseline: the hydrofoil to Capri is roughly €20–€30 one-way and takes 20 to 25 minutes, so if you only want to get there, none of these boats is your answer — see ferry or boat tour.
The six, in the order I would book them
From Sorrento: Capri Island Boat Day Trip With Transfer
Cheapest of the busy boats and the best rated of them. The one I book for friends who ask once and do not want a second opinion.
from $126Read the full review ›
Sorrento: Exclusive Capri Boat Tour and Optional Blue Grotto
The most-reviewed boat on this route by a distance, and the only one that puts the word optional next to the Blue Grotto. Read what that word hides.
from $141Read the full review ›
From Sorrento: Capri Boat Tour with Snorkeling & Drinks
The swimming boat. Highest rated of the small-base listings, an hour less ashore than the rest, and one accessibility warning I will not bury.
from $148Read the full review ›
From Sorrento: Capri Guided Boat Tour
A guide and a skipper, not just a skipper. Joint-cheapest here, and the reviewers keep crediting the person doing the talking.
from $126Read the full review ›
Capri: Full-Day Small Group Boat Tour
Eight hours, the longest day sold from Sorrento, and the dearest seat. Buy it for the hours, not for the polish.
from $153Read the full review ›
Capri Private Full-Day Boat Tour from Sorrento
A boat for up to five, priced per group. A perfect score on sixteen reviews, which I flag rather than sell.
from $1,178Read the full review ›How I rank them
Rating first, then what the rating is built on, then what the day actually contains. A 4.9 across 1,882 reviews tells me something a 5.0 across sixteen cannot, so the private charter sits at the bottom of the order despite carrying the highest score on the site. Ratings and review counts here are GetYourGuide’s own numbers, copied across without rounding or smoothing. Where I quote a traveller I use the first name the platform shows, and I quote the four-star reviews as willingly as the five-star ones, because Anne being cold on a bad-weather day in an open boat is more useful to you than five people saying the sea was lovely. I never name the operator. I do name the crew, because that is what reviewers themselves do.
What I will not do is pretend all six are separated by fine margins. Two of them rate 4.6. One of them gives you three hours ashore instead of four. One of them is priced for the whole boat — about $1,200 — and only makes sense divided by five. Those are the facts that decide your day, and they are set out in full on the comparison page and priced against the ferry on what a boat tour costs.
The thing every one of these reviews comes back to
The Blue Grotto. It is sold as optional, it costs about €20 at a floating booth, it buys about five minutes lying flat in a wooden rowing boat, and the operators reassess the sea at 09:00 each morning, after which the same day can open and close more than once. In August the queue reaches two hours. Julie waited that two hours on the flagship boat and gave up; Rebecca, same product, different tide, waited fifteen minutes and called it the best part of the trip. Neither of them is wrong. If you book any of these six expecting a guaranteed grotto, you are the person who writes the one-star review, so read the Blue Grotto, honestly first.
Frequently asked questions
Which Capri boat tour from Sorrento is the best one?
For most people the day trip with transfer — 4.9 from 1,882 reviews, the cheapest of the high-volume boats and the best rated of them at the same time. If you want the biggest review base behind you instead, the exclusive tour holds 4.8 across 4,997.
Are these reviews independent?
Yes. I am an independent guide, not an operator, not a ferry line and not GetYourGuide. Booking links earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, and the clearest proof it buys nothing is that the honest answer to most ferry questions is on the ferry page, where I make nothing at all.
Why do two of the six only rate 4.6?
Because a long day in an open boat has more ways to go slightly wrong. Roisin was held up at the docking on the eight-hour tour and said plainly that nothing could be done about it; Taylor on the same boat wanted more swimming time. Those are the complaints behind the score, and they are not the same as a bad day out.
Do any of these tours guarantee the Blue Grotto?
None of them, and any page telling you otherwise is selling something. Entry is about €20 paid separately, the cave shuts in wind or swell, and the call is made fresh at 09:00 each morning. The tours that name it in their listing are gathered at Blue Grotto boat tours.