Getting on the water at Positano, explained

Positano has one working beach and one pier, both at the bottom of the town on the Spiaggia Grande, and everything that floats out of here leaves from it: the scheduled boats that cross to Capri in about 40 minutes, the shared tours that circle the island instead of landing on it, and the private charters that take a whole family for an evening — all of them running roughly from the start of April to the end of October.

I am Marco Ferrara. I grew up in Montepertuso, the hamlet on the shelf above the town, and I spent six summers working deck on my uncle’s charter gozzo out of the Spiaggia Grande before I gave in and took an ordinary job in Salerno. I still crew the odd September weekend. So I know what the fuel costs, what the landing taxes are, and why every skipper looks at the wind before he promises anybody a grotto.

The pier is under the beach, and it is all stairs

People arrive expecting a port. There is no port. The jetty is a wooden run off the right-hand end of the Spiaggia Grande as you face the sea, on Via del Brigantino, and you reach it the way you reach everything here, which is downwards. Positano is vertical. Walkable, yes, if walkable is allowed to mean climbing — and the descent you enjoy at nine in the morning is the same staircase at seven in the evening with sunburn and wet hair. Bring a soft bag. Dragging a wheeled case down to that jetty is one of the more miserable things I watch tourists do.

Half of you want the ferry, and I would rather say so

The single most common question I hear is what the crossing to Capri costs and how long it takes, and the people asking it do not want a tour at all. They want transport. If that is you, buy the scheduled boat: several operators run the route, the crossing is about forty minutes, and it costs a small fraction of what a tour does. It puts you on the quay at Marina Grande and leaves you there, which is exactly what you asked for. I would rather tell you that on my own homepage than let you buy a whole day by accident.

The trap is not the price. It is the return. In July and August the afternoon boats back from Capri fill up before the morning ones out, so if you only pre-book one leg, book the one that brings you home. Being stranded on the island at six in the evening with a hotel in Positano is an expensive kind of romantic.

What the tours actually do differently

A tour is a different product, not an inflated ferry ticket. The scheduled boat runs a straight line at speed. A tour goes round: the Faraglioni and the arch through the middle stack, the White Grotto and the Green Grotto looked into from the water, the coves along the coast that have no path down to them at all. Then the engine goes off somewhere quiet and everybody swims, and that swim is the thing you cannot buy from a timetable. There are masks and floats aboard, there is something cold to drink, and on the bigger boats there is shade and a shower, which matters more in August than it sounds in a list.

The Blue Grotto sits slightly outside all of this. It has its own rowing boats that take four people at a time, its own ticket, and its own veto: when the swell is up the cave shuts, and no operator anywhere can promise you otherwise. Whether it is worth the queue is a genuine argument and I have been on both sides of it. What I will say is that people who miss it usually remember the swim stop instead, and are fine.

The sea decides, and that is not a scam

On a north-westerly the skipper runs the sheltered side of the island and the order of the day changes. Sometimes a stop is dropped. This is seamanship, not bait and switch, and any operator who promises you a fixed itinerary in writing is either new or lying. Ask instead whether they reroute or cancel, and how the cancellation works — free cancellation up to the day before is worth real money on a coast where the wind gets a vote.

Which months, and what I tell friends

May, June and September. Warm sea, full timetables, and enough space on the beach to put a towel down. July and August work too, but you are sharing everything, and the queues at the grotto are at their worst. April and October are quieter and cheaper, with more chance of a blown-out day. From November to March most of the boats are ashore and the direct crossing thins to the occasional weekday sailing, so go round by Sorrento and do not plan a boat day at all.

Here is the advice I actually give. Take the short evening boat on your first night, before you have committed to anything. Two hours, the coast in the good light, a drink in your hand, and the town from the water on the way back in. It is the cheapest way to be out there, and by the time you step back onto the jetty you will know whether you want a whole day on the water or whether the scheduled crossing to Capri and a walk round the island is all you were ever after. Both answers are correct, and one saves you a great deal of money. I have never regretted saying so.

So which do I book?

If Capri itself is the point — the town, the chairlift, lunch ashore — take the ferry and keep the difference; the ferry page tells you everything including the one trick that matters, which is booking the afternoon return. If the water is the point, the tours are compared honestly on one page, and the worth-it question gets a straight conditional answer rather than a sales pitch.

Frequently asked questions