Blue Grotto tickets: what you pay, and who takes it
The three charges
Nobody publishes these together, which is why so many people arrive believing they have already paid. Here they are in one place.
| Charge | Price | What it buys | Who takes it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entrance ticket | €6.00 full €2.00 reduced | Admission to the state archaeological site | Ministero della Cultura |
| Rowboat | €12.00 | The row in and out through the cave mouth | Cooperativa Battellieri Grotta Azzurra |
| Motorboat, Marina Grande return | €23–25 | Port to the cave mouth and back. Never included in the two above | The motorboat companies at the port |
The figures come from the Campania Turismo tariff schedule updated 29 August 2025, and the entrance fee is confirmed separately by the Ministry of Culture page, updated 6 July 2026, and by CoopCulture for 2026. The motorboat is listed at €24 in the regional tariff and €25 on the island sites, so I write the range rather than pick a side.
The two totals
By land from Anacapri: €18. Twelve for the rowboat, six for the entry. You come down by bus or on foot, you walk down the flight of stairs to the landing, you queue on the steps and you pay at the bottom. The bus itself is €2.40 in advance, €2.90 on board, and a day pass is €7.50. The route and the walk are on how to get there, and the whole land route, step by step, is on going without a tour.
By boat from Marina Grande: €41 to €42. The motorboat, then the rowboat, then the entry. This is how most visitors actually arrive and it is more than double the number they have usually read. The motorboat is a transfer; it is not part of the cave, it is not refunded by the cave, and no ticket exists that covers both.
Whenever you see the Blue Grotto priced at €18 with no route attached, that is the land figure standing in for the whole thing. It is the single correction this site exists to make.
The €19 disagreement, which I am not resolving
One well-known island site prints a total of €19, and its own reduced-fare arithmetic implies a €13 rowboat rather than a €12 one. No official source I can find confirms €13. So I write €18 for the land route and I tell people to carry €19, because being a euro short in front of a boatman is a worse outcome than being a euro over.
Reduced and free entry
Only the €6 component moves. The €12 rowboat is never waived for anybody, at any age, on any day.
- EU citizens under 18: entry free. The €12 rowboat is still paid.
- EU citizens aged 18 to 25: entry €2. The €12 rowboat is still paid.
- First Sunday of the month, Domenica al Museo: entry free for everyone.
The first-Sunday trap
A free first Sunday still costs you €12 from land and €36 from Marina Grande, because the rowboat and the motorboat are not state charges and are not part of the scheme. What the free Sunday reliably does is fill the steps. You are saving six euro on the one day in the month when every other person who read the same article is also coming, in front of a cave that takes four passengers per rowboat. I steer my own visitors away from it.
What can be booked ahead, and what cannot
Can be arranged ahead
- The motorboat transfer from Marina Grande, online from the operator — which shortens the ticket-office line at the port and nothing else
- The €6 state entrance, through CoopCulture’s free timed booking; the Ministry says payment happens on site
- A tour, which buys the boat and the day around the cave
Cannot be, at any price
- The €12 rowboat. Cash, at the cave, on the day
- A place in the rowboat queue. Nothing sold anywhere buys one
- An open cave. The sea decides, and it decides at nine in the morning
Access is capacity-capped — contingentato is the word on the paperwork — and walk-ups are admitted only if booked visitors leave room. So booking the entrance is not pointless. It simply is not a queue skip, and anything selling itself as one is selling you something it does not have.
What the queue actually costs
June to September the wait runs sixty to ninety minutes and sometimes past two hours. Low season it is about thirty. Before half past nine, about thirty. Midday, the full sixty to ninety. After three in the afternoon it drops back to thirty or forty, though conditions often worsen after three as well, so that window cuts both ways. Inside the cave you get under five minutes. That ratio is the thing to make peace with before you pay anything.
One practical point that costs nothing: from the sea you wait bobbing in a small boat off the cliff, and from land you wait on the steps. If you are prone to seasickness, queue on land. That is the island’s own advice, not mine.
If you want the water as well as the cave, the cheapest listing that puts you on a boat is €25 per person for the island circuit — with the caveat that a circuit often passes the grotto rather than stopping at it. All seven listings, cheapest first, are on the tours hub.
What a closure costs you
Nothing at the cave, because the €6 and the €12 are paid there and you never get to pay them. The exposure is anything you pre-paid to get there: the motorboat transfer, or a tour. I could not find a published refund policy from any of the boat operators and I am not going to invent one, so ask at the ticket office before you pay rather than after. Checking the Motoscafisti open/closed banner first costs you nothing at all.
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Frequently asked questions
How much is a ticket to the Blue Grotto?
There is no single ticket. Coming down by land from Anacapri you pay €18 at the cave: €12 to the rowboat cooperative and €6 to the state. Coming round by motorboat from Marina Grande you pay €41 to €42, because the €23 to €25 transfer sits on top and is included in nothing. Carry €19 for the land route, since one source prints that total and I cannot confirm which is right.
Is the entrance fee included in a boat tour?
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding I deal with. None of the seven tours we list includes grotto entry. Whatever you paid an operator, the €12 and the €6 are still collected at the cave mouth on the day. The boat tours page explains what a tour does buy, which is the crossing and the day, not the cave.
Can I buy a ticket that skips the queue?
No. You can reserve the €6 entrance through CoopCulture for free and you can buy the motorboat transfer online, which shortens the ticket-office line at the port. Neither touches the rowboat queue at the cave, which is capacity-capped and worked in order. In summer that queue is sixty to ninety minutes for under five minutes inside.
Is it really free on the first Sunday of the month?
The €6 state entrance is free that day. The €12 rowboat is not, and neither is the motorboat, so a free Sunday costs €12 from land and €36 from Marina Grande — with a longer queue than usual for the privilege. How long the visit lasts puts that wait in proportion.
Do I need cash?
Bring it. The €12 rowboat fare is handed to a boatman at the landing, and guidebooks widely describe the floating ticket office as cash-only. No official source says so outright, so I advise cash rather than state a rule. Any tip on top of the fare is entirely yours to decide; there is no tariff for it and no obligation.