Four islands before lunch. Pick the right boat.
Whether the speedboat beats the wooden gulet on a rough morning. What the Blue Cave slot costs out of Split. Which Krabi longtail actually stops long enough to swim. Reviews of the boat trips you can book, wherever the islands are.
Four boat days that talk everyone else into coming.
One from each of the coasts that sell out first, with what the seat costs and what the people on board said afterwards.
01The Adriatic dayFull-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and DrinksThree Elaphiti islands out of Dubrovnik, lunch and drinks on the boat. Leaves early, gets you into Lopud before the afternoon ferries.
02The Andaman dayPremium 4-Island Day Trip by Longtail Boat with LunchFour islands by longtail out of Krabi, which means shallow landings the speedboats cannot make. Slower, wetter, closer to the water.
03The Sardinian dayLa Maddalena Archipelago Full-Day Boat TourLa Maddalena archipelago from the Palau jetty. Granite, sandbars and water that reads turquoise from the deck.
04The Palawan dayEl Nido Island Hopping Tour C: Hidden Beaches & ShrineEl Nido Tour C, the quiet one: hidden beaches, a shrine cave and far fewer bancas than Tour A.
Croatia sells more boat seats than anywhere else on this site. Three ways to take one.
Everything worth seeing on this coast is offshore. The choice is really about hull and hours: a speedboat that outruns the crowds, a full day at the Elaphiti pace, or the permit run into the Blue Cave.
Six coastlines where island hopping is the whole reason to turn up.
Dalmatia and its caves, the Andaman karsts, a granite archipelago off Sardinia, the lagoons of Palawan, the Saronic day boats out of Athens, and the limestone bays of southern Vietnam.
The boat under you decides the day more than the islands do.
A speedboat buys distance, a longtail buys shallow beaches, a catamaran buys shade and a swim ladder, a sailing yacht buys quiet. Same archipelago, four different days.
The island hopping days more travellers book than any other.
Open the whole boat-trip catalogue →Ordered by how many people have actually been on board, with what each one costs and why it keeps selling.
1
Volcanic Islands Cruise with Hot Springs Visit
Cruise Santorini’s caldera, hike an active volcano, swim at sulfur springs, visit Thirassia, and add sunset time in Oia for $29.
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
Blue Cave, Mamma Mia, Hvar and 5 Island Tour
from $109
6
Elaphiti Islands Full-Day Cruise with Lunch
from $78
7
Blue Lagoon & 3 Islands Cruise with Lunch from Split
from $78
8
From the Port of Kos: Full Day Boat Cruise to 3 Islands
from $35
The real price of a day spent between islands.
Every trip on the site grouped by the per-head price. A surprising number of the best boat days sit under the cost of a hotel breakfast.
Shared longtails, public-jetty day boats and the short archipelago loops out of Faro, Istanbul and Langkawi.
The full-day standards: Elaphiti cruises with lunch, Krabi four-island runs, La Maddalena by boat.
Small-group speedboats, chartered sailing days and the private hulls that go where the schedules do not.
What actually cancels an island hopping day.
Boats do not run to your itinerary, they run to the sea state. The bura shuts the Croatian outer islands in a few hours. The Andaman monsoon closes the Phi Phi run from May, and the Gulf of Thailand closes from October. Swell shuts the Blue Cave with no warning at all. Book the boat day early in your trip so a cancellation still leaves you a second chance, and check whether the national park fee is on top.
Three things you can only do from a boat.
Beaches and viewpoints exist everywhere. A cave that lights itself from below, water that sparks when you swim at night, and a hull built for landing on sand do not.
The Blue Cave
The cave on Bisevo has one small mouth and a submerged second opening beneath it. Late morning the sun comes through the underwater arch, hits the white floor and throws the light back up, so the whole chamber reads electric blue for about two hours. Entry runs on timed permits, boats queue outside, and any real swell closes it for the day.
- 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
Swimming in plankton
On a moonless night off the Krabi islands the water carries plankton that flash when they are disturbed, so every stroke leaves a trail of cold light behind your hands. Boats run the swim after the sunset stop and the BBQ. It needs a dark sky, which is why these trips watch the lunar calendar rather than the weather.
- 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 longtail boat
A longtail is a narrow wooden hull with a car engine bolted to a pole over the stern, steered by swinging the whole propeller shaft. It draws almost nothing, so it lands straight onto sand where a speedboat has to anchor off and make you swim. Slower between islands, better once you are there.
- 1Premium 4-Island Day Trip by Longtail Boat with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,812 reviews
- 2Phi Phi: 7 Island Longtail Boat Snorkeling Tour with Sunset★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 1,076 reviews
- 37 Island Tour by Luxury Longtail Boat with Snorkeling★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,063 reviews
Four crossings that run on somebody else’s calendar.
Most boat trips can be arranged at a jetty the night before. These four run on permits, quotas and closed seasons that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Blue cave, Mamma Mia and Hvar, 5 islands speedboat tourEntry to the Bisevo cave is on a timed permit and the boats queue for their slot. Swell closes it outright, so an early booking buys you a second attempt.
- 02Phi Phi Island Sunset Maya Bay and Four Islands TourMaya Bay closes to visitors for part of every year and runs on capped hourly entry the rest of it. Nobody swims off the beach.
- 03Island Hopping Tour A Lagoons and BeachesThe lettered tours are rationed by daily permit at the El Nido tourism office, and the good weather months sell their quota well ahead.
- 04La Maddalena Archipelago Full-Day Boat TourThe archipelago is a national park with a limit on landings, and Budelli’s pink beach is off the boat entirely. Operators hold set permits.
By coast, from Dalmatia to Palawan
By kind of day, from a shared longtail to a chartered deck
Split, the Blue Lagoon, Vis and Dubrovnik: the week most first-timers sail.
Blue Lagoon
Trogir
ZadarThe newest island hopping reviews.
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