Blue Grotto opening hours, and why the cave closes

Roughly 9:00 to 18:00 in summer and 9:00 to 14:00 in winter, with the shoulder season closing somewhere between 16:00 and 16:30 — and all of it subject to the sea. I give you the shape rather than a time because five sources publish five different closing times for this cave, and anybody quoting you one exact last admission has picked a side without telling you. There is no weekly closing day. The only fixed closures are 25 December and 1 January. Everything else is decided by the skippers at the cave mouth at nine in the morning, and it can change again by lunchtime.

Summer, roughly9:00–18:00

Winter, roughly9:00–14:00

Shoulder close16:00–16:30

Weekly closing dayNone

Fixed closures25 Dec, 1 Jan

Decision made9am, at the mouth

Which boat, and from where?Every option below still leaves the €18 at the cave to pay on the spot. What changes is where you sail from and how long the day is.

Compare all seven

Why I will not print a closing time

Because I would have to choose one. The Ministry of Culture, CoopCulture, the regional tariff schedule, capri.com and the motorboat operator do not agree. Closing times of 17:00, 16:00, 16:30, 18:00 and 18:30 are all in circulation on sources that are each, in their own way, official. CoopCulture alone gives an 8:30 opening in summer where everybody else says 9:00. These are not rumours being corrected by a better source; they are five live pages that have never been reconciled.

So the useful thing I can do is tell you the range and tell you why it is a range. Turn up in the morning. Do not plan to arrive at four in the afternoon on the strength of a number you read somewhere, including any number you read here. And understand that the published hour is the less important of the two constraints, because the sea is the other one.

The real gate is the sea, not the clock

The mouth of the cave stands about one metre above the waterline. That is the whole explanation. Any swell, a high tide or an onshore wind takes that metre away, and a rowboat with four people lying flat in it cannot go through. The Ministry puts it plainly on the Ministry of Culture page for the site: in adverse sea and weather conditions the site stays closed.

Northerly winds, the Maestrale and the Tramontana, almost always mean closed. Conditions often deteriorate after three in the afternoon, which is worth knowing because that is also when the queue thins out. The cave frequently opens and closes within the same day, so an open morning is not a promise about the afternoon. Winter is worse: capri.net writes that it is often closed from November to March, and capri.com that it is mostly closed during the winter. I have quoted both of those rather than paraphrasing them into a percentage, and here is why.

No statisticThere is no closure-frequency statistic on this site, and there is none anywhere else either. No official body publishes one. The figure that circulates online comes from one visitor counting days, and it was disputed on the same thread it appeared in. Anybody telling you the cave is shut a specific fraction of the year is repeating a stranger.

How to find out whether it is open today

This is the single most useful thing on this website, and it costs nothing.

the operator’s dated status banner — a dated open or closed line, updated daily by the operator and syndicated by capri.com and capri.net. It runs from March to late October.
The phone, +39 081 8375646, after 9am, once the skippers have been out to look.
The proxy, if you are already at the port: if the ticket desks at Molo 0 and Molo 21 in Marina Grande are shut, the grotto is shut. Nobody sells a transfer to a closed cave.

None of these works the night before, because the information does not exist the night before. The skippers take a boat out to the mouth at nine in the morning and look at it. That is the system. It is not a bad system, but it is incompatible with a tightly planned day.

What a closed day costs you

At the cave, nothing. The €6 entrance and the €12 rowboat are both paid on the spot, so if it is shut you never pay them. What is exposed is anything bought in advance: a motorboat transfer from Marina Grande, or a tour from the mainland. I could not find a published refund policy from any of the three boat companies, and I am not going to guess at one. Ask at the ticket desk what happens if the grotto is closed, before you pay, and get the answer from the person selling it to you.

That asymmetry is an argument for the land route, and it is the main one. Going down by bus from Anacapri, your exposure on a closed day is a €2.40 bus ticket. The whole route is on going without a tour, and the full cost comparison is on what it costs in total.

Timing, when it is open

The queue runs about thirty minutes in low season and 60 to 90 minutes between June and September, occasionally over two hours. Before 9:30 in the morning it is around thirty minutes; in the middle of the day 60 to 90; after three in the afternoon 30 to 40, with the caveat above about the sea getting up. Inside the cave you have under five minutes. The month-by-month and hour-by-hour version is on the best time to visit.

Insider tip

Book nothing on your first morning. Look at the status banner, and if it says open, go then — an open morning is a better bet than an open forecast, because there is no such thing as an open forecast for this cave.

If you are coming over for the day

Then you are buying a crossing, an island and a schedule, and the grotto is a stop inside it that may not happen. That is not a reason to avoid the day trips; it is a reason to pick one you would still enjoy with the cave shut. The four departure points are compared on boat tours to the grotto.

Check dates for a Capri day

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start, on all seven tours listed here. That covers a change of plan, not the grotto closing on the day.

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Frequently asked questions

What are the Blue Grotto opening hours?

Roughly 9:00 to 18:00 in summer and 9:00 to 14:00 in winter, with shoulder-season closing between 16:00 and 16:30, and always subject to the sea. I give a range rather than a time because the Ministry, CoopCulture, the regional tariff, capri.com and the boat operator publish five different closing times. Go in the morning.

Why is the Blue Grotto closed?

Because the cave mouth is only about a metre above the waterline, so any swell, high tide or onshore wind makes it impossible to row through. Northerly winds almost always mean closed, and conditions often worsen after three in the afternoon. The skippers decide at the cave mouth at nine each morning.

How do I know if the Blue Grotto is open today?

Check the Motoscafisti status banner, which carries a dated open or closed line updated daily and is syndicated by capri.com and capri.net from March to late October, or phone +39 081 8375646 after 9am. If the ticket desks at Molo 0 and Molo 21 are shut, so is the cave. Whether to go at all is a separate question.

Is the Blue Grotto open in winter?

Sometimes. There is no weekly closing day and the only fixed closures are 25 December and 1 January, but capri.net writes that it is often closed from November to March and capri.com that it is mostly closed in winter. No official closure statistic exists, so I will not give you one. Plan a winter visit with an alternative in your pocket — the land route at least keeps your exposure to a bus fare.