Capri in a day: hydrofoil, the Blue Grotto and Anacapri

Capri can be done in a day if you split the island into two moves: Anacapri and the Blue Grotto first, then Capri and the Faraglioni, with the hydrofoil from Naples taking about 50 min. The island is small, about ten square kilometres, but it climbs steeply, so the day is counted in buses, a chairlift and a funicular.

GuideCapri with all its pages, from the funicular to the lighthouse:Capri →

The hydrofoil and Marina Grande

The island lies about five kilometres from the Sorrento Peninsula, at the western entrance to the Bay of Naples, and the hydrofoil from Molo Beverello reaches it for €27–31 one way. The boat docks at Marina Grande, on the north coast, where the island first shows itself: steep, pale slopes and two towns, Capri and Anacapri, the second on average about a hundred and fifty metres higher. That splits the day at once: Anacapri is up the hairpins of Via Giuseppe Orlandi, by bus or taxi, and Capri is up the funicular.

Day tripsCapri is one of the day trips from Naples, alongside Pompeii and Vesuvius:Day trips from Naples →

The Blue Grotto

The first stop is the Blue Grotto, on the north-west coast, and it sets the rest of the day, because the queue can be long. Outside the season the wait is around half an hour, in summer an hour to an hour and a half, and it is shortest before half past nine, while the light is strongest between noon and two. From Anacapri a public bus runs to it, and from Marina Grande a boat leaves the docks. Entrance and boat together: €19 entrance + €12 rowing boat inside (+ €25 motorboat transfer from Marina Grande if not reached by land). Opening hours: 1 Apr–30 Sep: 8.30–18; 1–15 Oct: 8.30–16; 16 Oct–31 Mar: 9–14.

You do not walk into the cave: it is about sixty metres long and twenty-five wide, and the entrance is roughly a metre high. Visitors transfer to a rowing boat for four, lie flat on the bottom, and the boatman pulls them in along a chain fixed to the wall. Sunlight passes through an underwater opening and is reflected back up through the water, so the whole cave glows blue. Time inside is 5 min inside the cave, and swimming is forbidden. Tiberius used the cave for private bathing and as a sanctuary, with statues of Neptune and Triton, and it was made famous again in 1826 by the German writer August Kopisch and the painter Ernst Fries. The cave depends on the sea: in strong wind or swell it closes, and the boatmen decide that same morning, so it cannot be known the day before.

Getting aroundBuses, the funicular and boats around the island:Getting around Capri →

Monte Solaro and Villa San Michele

From there Anacapri climbs to the top of the island: the chairlift from Piazza Vittoria rises to Monte Solaro, 589 metres, the highest point on Capri, from which both the Gulf of Naples and the Gulf of Salerno can be seen. The ride is 13–14 min ride, the ticket €15 return, €12 one-way. Lower down, on a ledge at 327 metres, stands Villa San Michele, built at the end of the 19th century by the Swedish physician Axel Munthe. There is a sphinx in the garden, the pergolas are hung with Roman statuary, and from here you see Capri's harbour, the Sorrentine Peninsula and Vesuvius. Entry is €8. Munthe wrote his memoir The Story of San Michele in 1929, and beside the house begin the Phoenician Steps, probably of Greek origin, which before the road was built were the only way up to Anacapri.

The Piazzetta and the Gardens of Augustus

The bus back leads to Capri town and Piazza Umberto I, called the Piazzetta, the island's social centre. From there you walk to the Gardens of Augustus, laid out in the early 20th century by the German industrialist Friedrich Alfred Krupp and renamed in 1918. Terraces of geraniums and dahlias give a 180-degree panorama: the Faraglioni, Monte Solaro and Marina Piccola bay. Entry is €2.50 (free the first Sunday of the month).

The Faraglioni are three stone pillars: Stella, 109 metres high and joined to the island, Mezzo at 82 and Scopolo at 106. On Scopolo lives the blue lizard Podarcis siculus coeruleus, found nowhere else.

BeachesBeaches on Capri, where to swim and what a sunbed costs:Beaches in Capri →

Down by funicular

The day ends with the funicular, opened in 1907 and 670 metres long, which runs from Piazza Umberto I down to Marina Grande, where the return hydrofoil leaves. A single ride on local transport is €2.40 (bus or funicular), and the 24-hour ticket is €8.20 (€7.20 + €1 refundable deposit).

1 dayThe same route, hour by hour:Capri in 1 day →

FoodInsalata caprese, ravioli capresi and limoncello, and where to eat them:What to eat in Capri →

Hidden gemsPunta Carena lighthouse and places off the main route:Capri off the usual plan: Tiberius' villa, the Natural Arch and the lighthouse →

BudgetWhat a day on the island costs:What Capri costs →

When to goWhen the island is at its best, and when the boats flood it:The best time to visit Capri →