I WANT BOAT TOURS · THE WORLD BY WATER
The best days are the ones spent on the water.
Reviews of the best boat tours on earth, coast by coast. Capri grottoes and Amalfi swims, Dalmatian blue caves and Algarve sea arches, the Turquoise Coast of Turkey and the islands off Mallorca. We sort through the listings so you book the right boat.
Worth the airfare
Three boat days that belong to one stretch of water.
You can rent a boat almost anywhere now. But the light inside the Benagil caves, the blue chamber off Dubrovnik, and the run past the Faraglioni from Sorrento happen on these coastlines and nowhere else on earth.
The Algarve
Into the Benagil Sea Caves
Portugal’s southern cliffs are riddled with sea caves, and the most famous has a hole in its roof that drops a column of sunlight onto a hidden beach. A small boat noses in under the arch, the water glows that impossible green, and you swim where you cannot arrive any other way. Speedboat from Portimao or a slow kayak from Carvoeiro, this stretch of coast is unlike anywhere else in Europe.
- 1 Portimão: Benagil Caves Speed Boat Tour with Sunset Option
- 2 Albufeira: Benagil Caves & Dolphin Watching Speed Boat Tour
- 3 Portimão: Benagil Cave and Praia de Marinha Boat Tour
Dalmatia
The Blue Cave off Dubrovnik
An hour out of Dubrovnik the limestone islands hide a cave where the midday sun comes up through the seabed and turns the whole chamber electric blue. You snorkel inside it, then island-hop the Elaphiti chain: empty coves, a fishing-village lunch, the Adriatic so clear you can count the stones below the hull. The five-islands days run all summer and barely change.
- 1 Blue Cave Small-Group Boat Tour from Dubrovnik
- 2 Montenegro Full-Day Trip from Dubrovnik with Optional Boat Trip
- 3 From Dubrovnik: Montenegro Boat Tour from Perast to Kotor
The Bay of Naples
Capri and the Amalfi Coast by Boat
From the Sorrento quay the whole bay opens up: the Faraglioni stacks off Capri, the Blue Grotto if the swell allows, then the Amalfi cliffs falling straight into the sea past Positano. You anchor to swim where the water is deepest blue, pass under the arches, and see the coast the way it was always meant to be seen, from the deck with a glass of something cold.
- 1 Sorrento: Exclusive Capri Boat Tour and Optional Blue Grotto
- 2 From Sorrento/Nerano: Amalfi and Positano Boat Tour
- 3 From Sorrento: Capri Boat Tour with Blue Grotto Visit
The boat everyone books
If you only get on one boat.
More travellers reach for this one than any other on the site. A safe first booking on a coast you are still getting to know.
The classics
The World’s Most Popular Boat Tours
Capri, the Algarve, Dubrovnik, Venice, Mallorca. The cruises and island days travellers reach for first, on the coastlines they most want to sail.
Where to set sail
Pick your coastline.
The Italian coast for Capri and Amalfi. The Dalmatian islands for blue caves. The Algarve for sea grottoes, Turkey for gulet days, the Balearics for hidden calas, the Greek isles for swim stops. Each coast, with the boat days it does best.
Which kind of day
How to spend a day on the water.
The kind of boat matters as much as the coast. Three ways to spend a day at sea, depending on the time you have and what you want from the water.
The Bay of Naples & beyond
Italy is best seen from the water.
The whole coast was built to be arrived at by boat. The Faraglioni stacks and the Blue Grotto off Capri, Positano stacked up its cliff, the Amalfi villages you can only really see from the sea, and the lagoon islands of Venice scattered across the water. You swim where it is deepest blue, anchor for lunch, and watch the most photographed coastline in Europe slide past the rail.
See the best boat tours in Italy →Croatia & Montenegro
The clearest water in the Adriatic.
Out of Split, Dubrovnik and Zadar the islands come thick and fast: the Blue Cave lit from below, the green lagoon at Vis, the empty coves of the Elaphiti chain, the walled bay of Kotor just over the border. Five islands in a day, the water so clear you can count the stones on the seabed, and a long lunch in a fishing harbour between swims.
See the best boat tours in Croatia →The best part
Everyone ends up in the same boat.
A good boat day is never just the scenery. It is the dozen strangers who boarded as strangers, the skipper who knows which cove has the clearest water and exactly when to drop anchor, and the moment someone jumps off the bow and the whole deck follows. You come back sun-warm and salt-dried, knowing the coast a little, and a few people on it.
Browse every boat tour →Rivers & bays of Asia
In Southeast Asia, the water is the road.
A round basket boat spinning through the Hoi An coconut palms, a junk gliding between the limestone towers of a Vietnamese bay, a longtail threading the Andaman islands off Phuket. These are boat days with a different rhythm: slower, greener, framed by jungle and karst instead of cliffs. A local at the tiller knows the channels and the quiet corners.
- 1 Hoi An: Basket Boat Ride in the Coconut Forest
- 2 Hoi An : Hoai River Boat Trip by Night and Floating Lantern
- 3 Hoi An: River Lantern Boat Experience with Free 5G eSIM
By time on the water
How long do you want to be at sea?
Some days you want an hour on the harbour and a glass at sunset. Some days you want the caves, the coves and a swim stop. And some days you want to be out from breakfast to dusk, hopping islands. Pick the day, we will point you at the boat.
An hour or two
Just get out on the water.A short harbour or lagoon cruise: the city or coastline from the angle it was meant to be seen, a glass in hand, back on dry land before lunch.
Half a day
Caves, cliffs and a swim stop.A coastal run to the sea caves and a quiet cove: snorkel gear, a swim off the back of the boat, and the skipper who knows where the water turns that colour.
A full day at sea
Hop the islands until sundown.Three or four islands, blue caves and lunch in a fishing harbour: the long days on deck you plan a whole trip around and talk about for years.
Why they call it turquoise
Turkey’s south coast is one long blue bay.
From Antalya down through Side, Alanya, Kemer and Fethiye, the water runs an unreal shade of blue-green over a pale seabed. A wooden gulet noses into hidden coves, drops anchor at a deserted island like Suluada for lunch and a swim, then drifts on under pine-covered cliffs. Half-day hop or a full day on deck, this is the classic Mediterranean boat day at its most relaxed.
See all 28 boat tours in Turkey →By harbour
Pick a harbour and cast off.
Sorrento for Capri and the Amalfi Coast. Dubrovnik for the blue caves and the Elaphiti islands. The Algarve for the Benagil grottoes. Mallorca for the hidden calas. Antalya for the Turquoise Coast. Hoi An for the basket boats among the palms.
By coastline
Every coast worth a day at sea.
From the Italian Riviera to the Adriatic, the Algarve to the Aegean, the Balearics to the bays of Vietnam. Browse by the country whose water you want under the hull.
Cast off to sundown
A perfect day on the water.
First time on this coast and want a full day at sea? Here is how it flows, from the glassy morning sea caves to a last swim as the sun goes down.
Just added