Six Positano boat tours, ranked — and what I ranked them on
Six GetYourGuide listings leave from Positano and I have put them in the order I would book them myself. Three tests, in this order: how many people stand behind the rating, whether the price on the listing is the price you finish the day having paid, and what kind of day the boat is actually buying you. Before any of that, one sort. If what you want is to reach Capri and come back, the scheduled hydrofoil does that in about forty minutes for roughly €28 one-way, and no tour on this page is a better way to do it — tour or ferry settles which of the two products you are shopping for.
The six, in the order I would book them
Amalfi Coast & Positano Boat Tour with Snorkeling & Drinks
Four to eight hours depending on the option, with snorkel gear, shade, a shower and a free-time stop where you buy your own lunch. The largest review pool on this coast by a distance, and the one I book first.
from $95Read the full review ›
Capri Day Trip by Boat with Grotto Stops
Hotel pickup and drop-off in Positano, the Marina Grande landing tax already inside the price and a guide waiting on the island. In a town made of stairs, the pickup is worth more than it sounds.
from $206Read the full review ›
Capri & Blue Grotto Shared Boat Tour with Drinks
The grotto entrance and the landing tax sit inside the price rather than waiting for you in cash at the cave mouth. One of its reviewers preferred the boat to the island, which is the most useful sentence in my whole pool.
from $238Read the full review ›
Capri Full-Day Boat Tour from Positano, Praiano or Amalfi
The largest Capri review pool here and the lowest rating in the catalogue, on the friendliest sticker of the three island days — until the cash you pay on the water is counted.
from $172Read the full review ›
Shared Sunset Boat Tour along the Amalfi Coast
Two hours, limoncello and the coast in the last of the light. The cheapest way to be on the water without buying a whole day, and the newest listing here by some way.
from $79Read the full review ›
Private Sunset Boat Experience
Priced per group rather than per person, up to twelve aboard, for ninety minutes with the boat to yourselves. A clean five stars from the smallest review pool on the page.
from $520Read the full review ›How I ranked them, and on what
Evidence first, because a score is worth exactly as many people as produced it. The flagship listing carries 2,261 reviews. The next largest pool is 617, then 302, then 219, and the last two hold 32 and 28. Those are not the same kind of statement even when the number of stars in front of them matches, and I say which is which every time one of them appears on this site.
Second, whether the sticker is the price. This is where the three Capri days separate, and it has nothing to do with how good the boats are. Landing on Capri costs roughly €10, some operators collect a disembarkation fee of about €5 in cash on the day, and the Blue Grotto charges roughly €18 at the cave itself unless your tour has already paid it. One of the three Capri listings has the grotto and the landing tax inside the price. One leaves both to the day. The third sits in between. Those choices move the real cost of a day out far more than the numbers on the listing pages suggest, and they are worked through at what it all costs.
Third, what the day is for. A full Capri day and a two-hour run down the coast at dusk are not competing products, and ranking them against each other on price alone would be silly. The order below is what I would book with an ordinary week in Positano and no particular agenda. If your agenda is Capri, start at the Capri day trips instead and ignore my ordering entirely.
The top of the list is the easy part
The flagship coast tour is 4.9 from 2,261 reviews at $95, which is the highest rating, the largest pool and nearly the lowest price in the catalogue at the same time. That combination almost never happens and I spent a while looking for the catch. The catch, such as it is: the listing boards at four different ports along the coast, so the one thing you have to get right is confirming the Positano slot rather than the Amalfi or Sorrento one. Lunch is not included either — there is a free-time stop and you buy your own. Neither is a reason to book something else.
The three Capri days, and the money that is not on the sticker
The day trip with hotel pickup is 4.8 from 302 at $206 and includes the landing tax, a guide on the island and, more usefully than it sounds, a car to your door. Positano is vertical. Every arrival at the beach is a descent and every return is a climb, and being collected rather than walking down at eight in the morning is worth real money to some people and nothing at all to others.
The grotto-inclusive day is 4.8 from 219 at $238, the highest sticker of the three and the only one that has already paid the two fees the others leave to the day. The cheaper full day is 4.6 from 617 at $172. That is the largest Capri pool on the page and also the lowest rating here, and its price moves on the water rather than at the checkout. I have put the whole arithmetic in the open on its own review rather than summarising it into something tidier than it is.
The last two are last on evidence, not on quality
The shared sunset run holds 4.8 from 32 reviews and the private sunset boat holds 5.0 from 28. Both are new listings and both are near the bottom of this page for that reason alone. Thirty-odd reviews describe what has happened; they do not describe what usually happens, and I would rather write that plainly than let a five-star average do work it cannot do.
On merit the sunset boat is the one I recommend most often to people who are in Positano for two nights and are not sure they want to give a whole day to Capri. Two hours, at $79, is under half the cheapest full day here, and the coast at that hour is the thing people actually came for. The private boat is priced per group at $520 for up to twelve people, which is under $45 a head at capacity and a very different number with four aboard. Both are compared properly at the sunset cruises.
What I am doing with the numbers
Ratings, review counts and prices are GetYourGuide’s own figures at the time of writing, copied across unrounded, which is why a live widget sits beside every one of them. Prices are “from” figures and re-price by date, option and party size, so read them as the shape of the market rather than a quote. I never name the operator behind a listing. I name skippers and guides only where a reviewer named them first, because that is their word rather than mine. Where the reviewer material is thin, as it is on the last two, the page says so instead of filling the gap with people who do not exist. All six sit side by side at all tours compared.
Frequently asked questions
Which Positano boat tour should I book?
The flagship coast tour, unless you have a reason not to. It holds the highest rating in the catalogue on far and away the largest review pool, and it is one of the cheapest things here. If your trip is really about the island rather than the coast, the three Capri days are compared at Capri boat tours, and if you want an evening rather than a day, take the sunset boat.
Why is the tour with 621 reviews not near the top?
Because 4.6 is the lowest rating in this catalogue and because its price finishes on the water rather than at the checkout — there is cash to hand over for the disembarkation fee and, if the cave is open and you want it, for the Blue Grotto. None of that makes it a bad day out. It makes the comparison harder than the sticker suggests, and I have set it out in full on the full-day review.
Do I need a tour at all, or is the ferry enough?
For a great many readers the ferry is enough, and I would rather say so. It runs to Capri in about forty minutes and leaves you at the port; a tour circles the island, noses into grottoes the ferry passes at speed and stops to swim where you cannot walk. Which of those you want is the whole of tour or ferry, and the fares and timetable are at the ferry to Capri.
Are these reviews independent?
Yes. I am not a boat operator, not a ferry company and not the commune, and I sell nothing. Booking links go to GetYourGuide and earn me a small commission at no cost to you, which is set out at the affiliate disclosure. The clearest evidence it buys nothing is that the page I send most readers to is the one about the scheduled ferry, which pays me precisely nothing.