Positano boat tours: all six, and the day each one is for
What a boat actually adds
I worked six summers on my uncle’s gozzo out of the Spiaggia Grande, so I will give you the list without decoration. You go round the Faraglioni and, sea allowing, through the arch of the middle stack. You see the White Grotto and the Green Grotto from the water, which is the only way anyone sees them. You stop somewhere with no path down to it and get in. There is gear aboard, there are drinks aboard, and there is somebody driving who checked the forecast at seven that morning. Emily, an American reviewer on one of the Capri boats, put the case more briskly than I can: “You definitely can’t see all of these things without a boat tour.”
Against that, the honest counterweight. The ferry is quick, cheap and frequent in season, it runs to a timetable you can plan around, and if what you want from Capri is the town, the chairlift and lunch, a tour is a slow and expensive way to get there. I have told friends to take the ferry more often than I have told them to book anything — how the crossing works.
The one I would book
The Amalfi Coast & Positano Boat Tour with Snorkeling & Drinks, from $95, rated 4.9 from 2,261 reviews. That review count is not a rounding of the others; it is roughly four times the next-busiest listing on this site, and a 4.9 held across that many days on the water is the closest thing to a guarantee this market offers. It runs four to eight hours depending on the option you pick, with English and Italian crew, and it carries snorkel gear, floats, prosecco, limoncello, beer, soft drinks and fruit, plus a toilet, a shower and shade. Lunch is not included; there is a free-time stop where you buy your own.
One booking detail that catches people: it boards at four ports — Amalfi, Positano, Sorrento or Salerno — so confirm the Positano departure when you book rather than assuming it. Helena, from the United Kingdom, wrote: “Our captain and hostess were amazing, very attentive and knowledgeable.” Keaton, from the United States: “He was a great captain and kept all 10 guests comfortable and relaxed.” Ten guests is the shape of the thing. This is not a party boat.
All six, with their live prices and ratings
Two of these are young listings and I flag them every time they appear: the shared sunset boat has 32 reviews and the private boat has 28. The cards below pull the current numbers.
Most lovedAmalfi Coast & Positano Boat Tour with Snorkeling & Drinks
Capri full dayCapri Full-Day Boat Tour from Positano, Praiano or Amalfi
Grotto includedCapri & Blue Grotto Shared Boat Tour with Drinks
With hotel pickupCapri Day Trip by Boat with Grotto Stops
Sunset · 2 hShared Sunset Boat Tour along the Amalfi Coast
Private groupPrivate Sunset Boat Experience
Three genuinely different days
The coast run, the full Capri day with somebody collecting you from your hotel, and two hours at dusk. Same water, three different purchases.
| Most bookedAmalfi Coast & Positano Boat Tour with Snorkeling & Drinks | Capri Day Trip by Boat with Grotto Stops | Shared Sunset Boat Tour along the Amalfi Coast | |
|---|---|---|---|
| From | $95 | $206 | $79 |
| Hours on the water | 4–8 | 6–8 | 2 |
| Where it goes | The coast, with a swim stop | Round Capri, with time ashore | West along the coast and back at dusk |
| Included | Snorkel gear, floats, drinks, fruit, shower and shade | Skipper, drinks, towels, life jackets, Marina Grande landing tax, hotel pickup and drop-off in Positano, a Capri guide | Limoncello, prosecco, beer, dry snacks, restroom aboard |
| Rating | 4.9 from 2,261 | 4.8 from 302 | 4.8 from 32 |
| Meets at | Confirm the Positano slot when booking — it also boards at Amalfi, Sorrento and Salerno | Spiaggia Grande, under the blue-and-white gazebo | Via Regina Giovanna 3, by the brasserie at the east end of the beach |
| Who it suits | Almost everyone, and anyone who wants to swim | First-timers, families, anyone tired of stairs | One free evening and no appetite for a whole day |
| Book this → | View → | View → |
If Capri is the whole point
Three of the six go there, and they differ less in what you see than in what you pay on the day. The full-day budget boat carries the lower sticker and leaves the on-site cash to you. The Blue Grotto boat has the grotto entrance and the Capri landing tax inside its price already. The day trip with hotel pickup covers the landing tax and sends a car for you, and treats the grotto as an optional extra. Nobody can promise you the grotto in any case; it closes whenever the swell is up. I have itemised all of it, in euro and in order, on the Capri page.
If you only want an evening
The shared sunset boat is two hours, from $79, and it is the cheapest way to be on the water at all without buying a whole day. Thirty-two reviews so far, rated 4.8, so treat the score as promising rather than proven. The private boat is $520 per group of up to twelve, which at capacity is under $45 a head and at four people is not. Both leave from the beach and both give you the view of the town that every photograph you have seen was taken from — the two evening boats compared, and when hiring the whole boat pays.
Take the short evening boat on your first night and decide about Capri afterwards. Two hours on the water tells you soon enough if you are the sort of person who wants eight, and it costs a fraction of finding out the expensive way. It is what I tell every friend who visits, and it has never once been the wrong advice.
How I would actually choose
Answer the ferry question first; if the ferry is your answer, close the tab and enjoy Capri. If you want a day rather than a destination, book the coast tour, because best-rated and most-reviewed and mid-priced is not a hard call. Book a Capri boat if the island itself is the reason you came, and read the on-site fees before you compare stickers. Book the evening boat if you have one free night. Book the private boat if you are a group and the whole-boat arithmetic works. The full spread of numbers, ferry included, is at what a day on the water costs.
Can’t make these dates?
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Frequently asked questions
Which Positano boat tour should I book?
For most people, the Amalfi Coast and Positano boat tour with snorkelling and drinks: rated 4.9 from 2,261 reviews, four to eight hours depending on the option, with gear, drinks and fruit aboard and a swim stop. It is the best-rated listing here and by far the most reviewed. Book a Capri boat instead if the island is the reason you came, or the two-hour evening boat if you only have one free night. Longer write-ups, complaints left in, are at the reviews.
Do I need a boat tour, or is the ferry enough?
If you want to be on Capri, the scheduled ferry is enough and it is much cheaper. If you want to be on the water — the Faraglioni, the grottoes from the sea, a swim somewhere with no path down to it — the ferry cannot give you that at any price, because it is transport and it goes in a straight line. Answer that before you compare tours: the sort, in full.
When is the best time to take a boat tour from Positano?
May, June and September. The sea is warm, the schedules are full and the crowds are thinner than July and August. April and October are quieter and cheaper with more weather risk, and from November to March most boats are ashore and the honest answer is to come another time. Mornings are usually calmer than afternoons whatever the month — the months, weighed up.
Do all six tours leave from the same place?
They all leave from the Spiaggia Grande, but not from the same spot on it, and the meeting points differ enough to matter when you are late. The evening boat meets at Via Regina Giovanna 3 by the brasserie at the east end of the beach; the day trip with hotel pickup meets on the beach under a blue-and-white gazebo; the coast tour also boards at three other towns, so confirm the Positano slot. Positano is vertical, so allow for the stairs down.