Capri from Naples: Hydrofoil on Your Own or Organised Tour?

Capri from Naples: the short answer

Capri is the most expensive day trip in the gulf, but also the one with the most room for choice. By hydrofoil from Molo Beverello you’re at Marina Grande in 50 minutes, spending €50 return plus the €5 landing fee; by Caremar ferry from Porta di Massa it takes 80 minutes and you save €20 a head. The rest depends on the Blue Grotto: if you want it, the DIY bill rises to about €125 and the day becomes a sequence of queues. Organised tours from Naples start at €105 with a boat trip around the island and go up to €161.50 with the Blue Grotto and an escort; prices verified regularly.

The rule no booking site tells you plainly: the Grotto only opens when the sea is calm, and you find out at 9 in the morning. Plan your day so that it works even without it.

Hydrofoil from Beverello or ferry from Porta di Massa?

Naples has two ports and they are not the same place. Molo Beverello is in front of the Maschio Angioino, metro Line 1 exit Municipio: this is where the SNAV, NLG (Navigazione Libera del Golfo) and Gescab hydrofoils leave from. Calata Porta di Massa is 800 metres further east, beyond the Stazione Marittima: this is where the Caremar ferries and fast ferries leave from, the only ones that take cars and motorbikes (which you can’t land on Capri from March to October anyway). The Alibus from the airport stops at both; details are on the transport page.

To every fare add the landing fee: €5 per person from 1 April to 31 October, €2.50 from 1 November to 31 March. Caremar applies a 12% advance-sale fee (minimum €1) on tickets bought up to the day before and a €1 surcharge for online purchases; NLG and Gescab list a €1 advance-sale fee. Regional-fare departures (6:00–9:30 am, 1:00–3:00 pm and 6:00–8:30 pm) cost €23 instead of €25 with NLG and Gescab: the 8:35 am departure is therefore also the cheapest.

Useful times from the timetable in force, checked regularly: SNAV leaves Beverello at 7:00, 8:05, 9:10, 10:15, 11:10, 14:00, 16:00, 18:10 and 20:00, with the last return from Capri at 19:12. NLG, from April to 3 November, leaves at 8:35, 9:30, 10:40, 11:35, 11:55, 12:40, 14:40, 15:35, 16:30 and 17:40, with returns until 18:45 (19:55 from 16 June). The Caremar ferry from Porta di Massa takes 80 minutes: the 14:30 departure from Capri reaches Naples at 15:50. With the 7 am ferry you save €20 a head and still arrive before 9.

A practical tip: in August and on weekends in May and June, buy your return ticket as soon as you land at Marina Grande, choosing a departure between 5 and 6:30 pm. The last crossings fill up, and queuing at the Capri ticket office at 6 pm is no way to end the day.

How to get there on your own, step by step

1. Naples, 8:00 am. Metro Line 1 to Municipio or the Alibus to Beverello. Ticket office and boarding: turn up 20–30 minutes early in high season.
2. Hydrofoil at 8:35 or 9:10. 50 minutes, arriving at Marina Grande by 10. If you want to try for the Blue Grotto, this is the moment to check the “traffic light” the boatmen update from 9 onwards.
3. Funicular Marina Grande–Capri. €2.40 per ride, ticket office opposite the hydrofoil ticket booths, turnstiles also accept contactless cards. In 4 minutes you’re in the Piazzetta.
4. Capri town. Via Camerelle, the Gardens of Augustus (view of the Faraglioni and Via Krupp), the Certosa di San Giacomo. An hour and a half at an easy pace.
5. Bus Capri–Anacapri. €2.50 per ride (€3 if you buy several tickets from the driver; no cash on board, card payment only). A taxi costs about €20.
6. Monte Solaro chairlift. From Piazza Vittoria in Anacapri, 12 minutes suspended in the air up to 589 metres: €15 return, €12 one way. From April to October it runs from 9:15 am to 5:00 pm, last descent at 5:30 pm.
7. Return. Bus Anacapri–Marina Grande direct or via Capri; hydrofoil between 5 pm and 6:45 pm. Back in Naples by 7:30 pm.

Total without the Grotto: €50 hydrofoil + €5 landing fee + €4.80 funicular + €5 bus + €15 chairlift = €79.80. With the Caremar ferry on the way out you drop below €70.

Blue Grotto: sea, tide and rowing boats

The Blue Grotto is a cavern about 60 metres long with an entrance one metre high: you go in lying down in four-person rowing boats, the boatman pulls the boat through on a chain, and you stay inside for five minutes. It really is beautiful, but there are three conditions you need to know about before you pay.

It only opens when the sea is calm. With winds from the north (tramontana, maestrale) the entrance is impossible; from November to March it’s rarely open, and even in summer it can close and reopen within the same day, often after 3 pm when the sea gets up. Nobody can confirm it for you the day before: the word comes from the Marina Grande boatmen from 9 in the morning.

It costs more than the ticket. According to capri.it, entry costs €19 per person, paid at the floating ticket booth in front of the grotto: €12 for the rowing-boat service and the rest as the entry ticket. Children under 6 don’t pay, EU citizens under 18 pay only for the rowing boat. If you arrive by sea, add the boat from Marina Grande, about €25 whether for the transfer alone or for the trip around the island: about €44 in total. The boatman often asks for a tip; it’s at your discretion.

You queue. In high season the wait in the boat in front of the entrance is over an hour. Two strategies: take one of the first boats from Marina Grande (by 9:30 am), or arrive by land on the bus from Anacapri, walk down the steps and queue on the platform: you pay only the €19, and if you get seasick you avoid waiting on a stationary boat. The hours with the most intense reflections are between noon and 2 pm, but they’re also the ones with the longest queue.

What to see and how much time you need

Capri is divided into two municipalities and two rhythms. Capri (the Piazzetta, the Gardens of Augustus, the Faraglioni, the Arco Naturale, Villa Jovis 45 minutes away on foot) is shop windows, stairways and viewpoints: in three hours you see it well. Anacapri is higher, quieter and cheaper: Villa San Michele, the chairlift to Monte Solaro and, at the bottom of the descent, the Blue Grotto. With one day, do Capri in the morning and Anacapri in the early afternoon, or the other way round if you want to try for the Grotto early.

The boat trip around the island (about an hour, from Marina Grande, €25 with the local boatmen or with the products further down) passes under the Faraglioni and in front of the White Grotto and Green Grotto: it’s the simplest way to see the coastline, and it doesn’t depend on the Blue Grotto. For a swim, Marina Piccola and the Bagni di Tiberio are the options you can reach on foot or by bus; for sandy beaches look instead at Ischia and Procida.

When to go and how crowded it is

From June to September the island runs at full capacity: packed hydrofoils, a queue for the funicular, an hour’s wait at the Blue Grotto. April, May, late September and October are the right months: often calm seas, walking temperatures, and tickets available even on the day. In winter Capri is open but the Grotto effectively isn’t, many places close and crossings are reduced; in return the chairlift is empty. If you can choose your day, avoid Sundays in July and August, when Neapolitans join the tourists. The month-by-month picture is on the when to visit Naples page.

Tickets: companies, tours and what a tour really includes

A hydrofoil-only ticket can be bought on the companies’ websites or at Beverello; the “Naples–Capri ferry” product on GetYourGuide (€26.67) is handy if you want a single voucher alongside your other purchases, but it doesn’t skip the boarding queue and the landing fee is still extra. There are no “skip-the-line” tickets for the Blue Grotto: the rowing boats take everyone in order of arrival, tours included.

A tour from Naples changes three things. First: the crossing is organised, with an escort who handles boarding and the return. Second: the boat trip around the island is included and the stop at the Blue Grotto is attempted if the sea allows it (the rowing-boat ticket is almost always excluded: read the description). Third: you get 3–4 hours of free time in Capri town, less than you’d have on your own. Prices run from €105 with the boat trip to €161.50 with an escort and Anacapri; the Headout product at €208 adds a guide for the whole day.

The most useful variations if you don’t want the full package:

The “VIP hydrofoil” tour at €108 is essentially the hydrofoil plus the boat trip around the island and Anacapri, with no claims about the Grotto; the panoramic boat tour of the gulf at €84 leaves Naples on a motor vessel, passes Posillipo and the Faraglioni and leaves 4 free hours on the island; the “coast to coast” excursion at €25 is the boat trip to buy on the spot or in advance if you’re doing everything else yourself.

Combinations: Capri with Sorrento, or Capri over two days

From Capri there are hydrofoils to Sorrento (30 minutes, Caremar €17.40) and in summer to Positano and Amalfi: if you’re sleeping in Naples you can do Naples–Capri–Sorrento–Naples with the return on the Circumvesuviana, as on the Amalfi Coast and Sorrento page. The “ferry to Sorrento and Capri” product at €76 does exactly this loop on a single ticket. With two days available, sleep on the island and try for the Blue Grotto at 9 on the second morning: it’s the approach with the best odds of success.

If you prefer the sea to walking, the boat tours in the gulf page has the outings from Naples with swimming and snorkelling; if you want a cheaper, quieter island, Procida is 40 minutes from the same pier. To compare all the day trips, journey times and costs in a single table, go to day trips from Naples.

In short: how to make Capri from Naples work

Leave early, buy your return on arrival, decide on the Blue Grotto at 9 by looking at the sea and not before. If you want someone else to handle the crossing, the boat and the timings, a tour from Naples to Capri with the Blue Grotto costs from €105 to €161.50 and makes most sense in high season and with children. If you’d rather have the island your own way, €80 buys you the hydrofoil, the funicular and Monte Solaro.