When I did my research, the information was
quite confusing, so I thought I’d make this to help y’all out. Blue Grotto is
definitely worth going to but as it’s located on the west side of Capri, it
does take some research to figure out a way to get there.
Getting on the island.
Now this is the easy part. You can take a
ferry from a lot of places: Sorrento, Naples, Amalfi, Positano etc. We took the
ferry from Sorrento and it was 20 euros, round trip. Once you get to the porto
at Sorrento, you will see a mob of people queuing for tickets (so don’t worry).
The people will put you on the latest ferry to Capri and they would also give
you the return ticket with a return time printed on it. I didn’t take that
exact ferry back and saw some other people take earlier ones back, so I don’t
think it really matters. As long as you make it before the last one.
Check the ferry schedule here to plan you trip ahead of time.
Getting to the grotto.
There are a few ways you can do this. A,
take a tour boat straight to the grotto (well just outside of it), you board
the boat straight after you get off the ferry and it brings you straight there.
Or B, take the bus across the island to the entrance of the grotto (which was
what I did). Now, A is definitely a fuss-free choice: you pay the money and
save the hassle, but prices for that tour could range from 14euros to 160 euros
(according to TripAdvisor). You wouldn’t need to book in advanced as tour
companies would come to you while you’re on the ferry anyway. I didn’t go for
this option as it costs more and I wouldn’t have the chance to look at other
parts of Capri (it was only a day trip, I was on a time crunch).
Lo and behold! This is how we went to the
grotto spending less AND saw most of Capri:
We started off at Marina Grande (ferry
port), then took the tram up the mountain to Capri. Then took the bus to
Anacapri (another major area on the island) and took another bus to Grotta
Azzurra (the entrance of the grotto).
You can purchase all the tickets (except
for bus tickets to Grotta Azzurra) at the ferry port. Once you get off your
ferry, turn right and walk along shore. Keep walking until you see ticketing
booths on your right (that’s the entrance of the ferry terminal, but also where
you can get tickets). You will need 1 tram ticket and 1 bus ticket to get you
to Anacapri (both 2euros each). Reminder here: you cannot buy bus tickets on
the bus, you can only buy them at the tickets office or at a Tabacchi (aka
corner shop/news agent).
Once you’ve done that turn around and look
for a sign that says ‘Funicular’ (aka the tram station, or just follow the
crowd). The trams come every 5-10 minutes. Make sure to look back and enjoy the
view as you go up to Capri.
Once you get to Capri, take some time walk
around, have a coffee if you want. I personally think that Capri is extremely
touristy, all stores are rented out to luxury brands, but it’s good to have a
look around. Once you’ve done that, you can walk along the main street (the
only street with cars) until you reach the bus terminal (more like bus stop).
Follow the signs and queue for the bus that goes to Anacapri. After around 10
minutes of zigzagging higher up into the mountains, you’ll get to Anacapri
(more about these cute buses in a later post).
Get off at Anacapri (again feel free to
have a look around, this place is less touristy), and keep walking in the
direction your bus came in until you get to another bus terminal (a 5 minute
walk). Here you will see buses to different places, find the bus to Grotta
Azzurra (they should be blue). You will then need to buy your ticket on the bus
(2 euros), this bus operates separately to the other bus company.
You will arrive at Grotta Azzurra in around
15 minutes (wipes sweat,). After all that travelling, you’re finally here! Go
down the stair on the far right of the ‘station’, you will walk through a store
and Voila! You have arrived!
You will be taken into the grotto on a rowing
boat and you get on literally right next to the cave. There will most likely be
a line of people along the stairs so just join the line. The rowing boats are
operated by a single company and they have around 20 rowing boats going in and
out of the cave. Here’s another reason why taking plan B would be better, the
company designates around 3-4 rowing boats for our line, while usually only one
is designated to one tour boat (given that there are around 10 tour boats
queuing for row boats). So the line at shore would be faster than those on tour
boats.
Your rowing boat comes along, you get on
and will be rowed over to pay. It costs 14 euros (as of July 2018) to get into
the blue grotto. After you come out of the cave, you can choose to tip the
man/rower (around 2.5euros per person?).
After appreciating the beauty of nature, you
can take the same route back Marina Grande OR change at Capri and head to
Marina Piccolo (a great beach). Just remember you will have to buy tickets at
Tabacchis. Other bus routes are here.
Deep Breathes. This was an extremely
long-winded post, but I hope this gives you some information on how to get to
the Blue Grotto. It really is worth the trip! I personally really liked this
route because I got to see other parts of the island without having to spend
too much, although it was a bit of an arm and a leg to get there.
There really is a lot I still want to say
about Capri, but I think I might save for another post later on. Stay tuned for
that!!
I hope this made your planning a wee bit
easier.
Hope you are well.
Love,
Vivien
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