Three islands before lunch. The boat is the decision.
Which Split speedboat actually goes inside the Blue Cave. What a four-island Krabi day costs by longtail against a speedboat. Whether the Elaphiti cruise earns a whole day. Reviews of the island-hopping trips you can book, whichever archipelago you are standing on.
Dubrovnik, Krabi, Sardinia, El Nido: four archipelagos, four completely different days.
The trips that fill first in the four places this corner of the world hops hardest. What each costs a head, and what actually happens between the islands.
01The Adriatic classicFull-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and DrinksThree Elaphiti islands in one slow day out of Dubrovnik, lunch and drinks aboard. Nothing else on the site is reviewed this heavily.
02The Andaman dayPremium 4-Island Day Trip by Longtail Boat with LunchFour islands from Ao Nang by longtail, lunch eaten on the sand. The cheapest of the big Krabi days and the first to go.
03The Sardinian oneLa Maddalena Archipelago Full-Day Boat TourLa Maddalena in a full day: granite, shallow water the colour of a pool, and a boat that anchors rather than lands.
04The Palawan lagoonsIsland Hopping Tour A Lagoons and BeachesTour A is the lagoon route out of El Nido: Big Lagoon, Small Lagoon, Seven Commandos. Twenty-odd dollars for the day that sells Palawan.
The island-hopping days more people book than anything else.
Every island-hopping review →Eight boats, on four different seas, that carry more travellers than anything else on the water, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Volcanic Islands Cruise with Hot Springs Visit
Sail from Athinios Port on a traditional wooden boat with multilingual commentary. Hike Nea Kameni, swim from the boat to Palea Kameni’s sulfur springs, stop at Thirassia, and admire Santorini from the water. Choose the Oia extension for free time and sunset views, with bus transfers included.
From · $29
Read our review →
2
City Archipelago Sightseeing Cruise with Guide
from $41
3
Full-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and Drinks
from $78
4
Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tour
from $111
5
Elaphiti Islands Full-Day Cruise with Lunch
from $78
6
Blue Lagoon & 3 Islands Cruise with Lunch from Split
from $78
7
Full Day Boat Cruise to 3 Islands
from $35
8
La Maddalena Archipelago Full-Day Boat Tour
from $59
Elaphiti cruise, Blue Cave speedboat, or the Blue Lagoon run out of Split.
Dalmatia sells three different days and they are not interchangeable. One is slow and includes lunch. One is a fast five-island sprint to Biševo and Hvar. One is a swim stop with a bar attached. What each costs a head, and which port it leaves from.
Six coastlines where the day starts on a pontoon.
Dalmatian karst, Andaman limestone, Sardinian granite, the lagoons of Palawan, the Aegean ferry runs and thirty thousand Swedish skerries. Six coasts, and the boat day worth building the week around in each.
Speedboat, longtail, catamaran or sail: what each one actually buys you.
Speed costs money and comfort costs time. A speedboat fits more islands into a day and beats you up doing it. A catamaran hands you shade and a swim ladder and gets nowhere quickly. A longtail is cheap, slow, and the only thing that slides into a shallow lagoon.
In Thailand the hull decides the day.
A longtail carries eight people and takes forty minutes to Hong Island; a speedboat takes fifteen and gets there before the queue. Krabi, Phuket and Ko Lanta all sell four, five and seven-island days, and the whole difference is hull, lunch and how early the anchor drops.
Day rates, from a ferry seat to a boat of your own.
Every trip on the site sorted by what it costs a head. A good number of the best island days come in under the price of the airport transfer that got you there.
Longtail four-island days, Aegean three-island cruises and the Ria Formosa hop out of Faro.
The full-day standards: Elaphiti cruises with lunch, Blue Cave speedboats, La Maddalena by boat.
Small-group charters, sailing days and the private boats that skip the queue at every stop.
Three island days that happen nowhere else.
Turquoise water and a swim ladder are on every coast in this list. A cave that lights itself, four lettered routes argued over in one small town, and a swim that glows are not.
The Blue Cave at opening time
The cave on Biševo has no lamp in it. Sun comes through a second, submerged opening and bounces off the pale floor until the whole chamber reads electric blue, and it only does that for a few hours around the middle of the morning. Boats wait outside for a short run through in a small tender, which is why every Split speedboat day leaves before seven.
- 1Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 7,150 reviews
- 2Blue Cave, Mamma Mia, Hvar and 5 Island Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 6,320 reviews
- 3Blue Cave and Hvar Tour – 5 Islands Tour from Split and Trogir★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,815 reviews
Tour A, B, C and D
El Nido sells its boat days as four lettered routes and the town will argue about them all evening. A is the lagoons, C is the beaches and the shrine, B and D fill in the caves and the closer islands. The boats are outriggers, the crew cooks lunch on the sand, and the environmental fee is collected separately at the pier.
- 1Island Hopping Tour A Lagoons and Beaches★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 1,572 reviews
- 2El Nido to Coron: 3-Day 2-Night Island-Hopping Expedition★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 343 reviews
- 3Island Hopping Adventure by Haqqy Life★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 340 reviews
The swim after dark
The seven-island sunset trips out of Ao Nang finish with the lights off. Plankton in the water sparks when you move through it, so the last swim of the day happens in the dark with blue flecks coming off your arms. It needs a night without much moon to be worth it, and the crews will say so if you ask them.
- 1Krabi 4 Island Sunset Snorkeling Cruise + Bioluminescent Swim★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,861 reviews
- 27 Islands Sunset Tour with Plankton Swim and BBQ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 808 reviews
- 34-Island Sunset Snorkeling Tour & Bioluminescent Swim★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 308 reviews
The boat that does not sail, and what to do with the day instead.
Island hopping runs on wind and season. The bura closes Dalmatian speedboat days at a few hours notice, Similan shuts for the monsoon, and an Andaman swell can put the longtail routes off while the Gulf side stays flat. Book the exposed crossings early in the trip so there is room to move them, and keep one sheltered day in reserve.
Four island days that will not wait for your arrival.
Most of the boats here can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four run on park seasons, capped landings and a single departure a day, and they are the ones people find gone.
- 01Similan Islands Day TripThe Similan marine park shuts from the middle of May to the middle of October. Inside the season the day boats run to a fixed cap and fill weeks out.
- 02Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tourOnly so many tenders enter the cave each morning and the slots are taken the day before. A late booking gets an afternoon arrival, when the blue has gone.
- 03Full-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and DrinksOne full-day sailing per operator per day out of Dubrovnik, and the ships that include a cooked lunch go first through July and August.
- 04Phi Phi & 4 Islands Sunset Tour by SpeedboatThe early-bird departures exist because Maya Bay caps its arrivals. Later boats reach it after the cap has been met.
Zadar down to Dubrovnik, one port and one archipelago at a time.
Zadar
Trogir
Makarska
KorčulaThe island-hopping trips written up most recently.
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