What it costs and how long it really takes
Procida is the cheapest trip in the gulf: a Caremar ferry at €12.70 each way, €3.50 of landing tax, €3.60 for a day bus ticket. That is €32.50 per person and eight hours door to door, plus an ANM ticket if you are not starting in the centre. Ischia costs twice as much, because the crossing is dearer and because the reason to go — a thermal park — is €45–50 on its own: a realistic day lands around €85.
If you want both, scheduled ferries will not help you. The two islands are connected, but the timetables leave you two hours per island and a lot of time on the quay. The boat day at €93 per person sold as Procida & Ischia: Full-Day Experience with Cruises from Naples solves the problem, at the cost of much walking ashore.
Three numbers to hold on to: 40 minutes to Procida, about an hour to Ischia, and a last sailing back that in autumn falls between 18:00 and 19:00. Everything else about the day is built around that last sailing.
The day, hour by hour
Borgo Marinari, via Luculliana: boarding the gozzo, the exact meeting point is on your voucher
Off towards the south side of Ischia, a wide course across the gulf
Sorgeto: a swim in the pools where thermal water surfaces in the sea
Sant’Angelo and Baia di San Pancrazio: snorkelling stop and drinks on board
Grotta del Mago and the Castello Aragonese seen from the water
Vivara islet and the Grotte Segrete: you cross to Procida
Ashore at the Corricella: two hours for lunch and the climb to Terra Murata
Last swim in the bay below Terra Murata, a toast on board
Back at Borgo Marinari, at the foot of Castel dell’Ovo
Getting there: two ports, three companies
Naples has two quays and they are not the same place. Hydrofoils and fast craft leave from Molo Beverello, below piazza Municipio. Ferries leave from Calata Porta di Massa, about a kilometre further east. Caremar boards from both: check the quay printed on your ticket before you set off, because it is a fifteen-minute walk between them.
From the Stazione Centrale take metro Line 1 to Municipio (€1.50) and walk four hundred metres. With luggage, the €1.80 integrated 80-minute ticket covers metro plus bus. The €4.50 ANM day ticket only pays off if you want the funicular up to the Vomero in the evening.
| Route | Company | Craft | Fare each way | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naples–Procida | Caremar | Ferry | €12.70 | ~1 h |
| Naples–Procida | Caremar | Hydrofoil | €17.40 | 40 min |
| Naples–Procida | SNAV | Hydrofoil | from €20.90 | 40 min |
| Naples–Ischia | Caremar | Ferry | €14.80 | ~1 h 20 |
| Naples–Ischia | Caremar | Hydrofoil | €21.60 | ~55 min |
| Naples–Casamicciola | SNAV | Hydrofoil | from €23.80 | 55 min |
| Naples–Ischia | Alilauro | Hydrofoil | €23.30 / €24.10 | ~1 h |
The two Alilauro fares are not a mistake: €23.30 is the regional band (6:00–9:30, 13:00–15:00, 18:00–20:30) and €24.10 the tourist band in the middle of the day. A return costs €41.30 and children aged 2 to 12 pay €15.90. On the autumn timetable the useful departures from Beverello for Ischia are at 7:35, 9:40, 10:50 and 12:10; the sailings back that count are 16:15, 16:55 and 19:10.
For Procida the €3.50 landing tax is paid once, on arrival. Download the company app first — My Caremar, SNAV, Alilauro — because at weekends the ticket-office queue is real and fast sailings do sell out.
What the day costs
By public transport
- Metro Line 1 or ANM bus to the port (if you are not starting in the centre)unicocampania.it
- €1.50 metro · €1.30 bus · €1.80 integrated 80 min
- Caremar Naples–Procida, ferry returnshop.caremar.it
- €25.40 · €12.70 each way
- Landing tax on Procidashop.caremar.it
- €3.50 once
- EAV bus on Procida, day ticketunicocampania.it
- €3.60 · single ride €1.20
- Procida total per person
- €32.50 · 8 hours door to door
- Caremar Naples–Ischia, ferry returnshop.caremar.it
- €29.60 · hydrofoil €21.60 each way
- EAV bus on Ischia, day ticketunicocampania.it
- €5.10 · single ride €1.70
- Giardini Poseidon, full daygiardiniposeidonterme.com
- €50 · afternoon entry €45
- Ischia with a thermal park, total per person
- €84.70 · 10 hours door to door
With a tour
The boat tour from €93 buys two islands, a skipper and swim stops in a single day: it pays off if you would rather not slot two ferry timetables together and you are not bothered about walking on land.
Procida in four hours
Procida is small and you walk it. From the port at Marina Grande to the Corricella is ten minutes along via Roma; from there it is twenty minutes of ramps up to Terra Murata, with the view over the tiered houses that everyone photographs from the wrong quay. Allow three hours for Corricella, Terra Murata and a slow walk back, four if you have lunch on the waterfront.
The bus is only for the south side. Chiaiolella is the island’s second harbour, with the fishing dock and restaurants on the water; from there runs the isthmus to the islet of Vivara, a nature reserve reached by a bridge. Pozzo Vecchio is the beach from the film Il postino and is still the most photographed, dark sand with the cliff behind it; Chiaia, below the Corricella, is reached by a hundred and eighty steps and has fewer people for exactly that reason. A single ride is €1.20 and a day ticket €3.60, bought on land before you board: island buses are minibuses and at peak times they leave full, so if you have a ferry to catch leave twenty minutes of margin. The open-sided microtaxis also run port–Chiaiolella at an agreed price: ask before you get in, because there is no meter. If you use a wheelchair, EAV runs a door-to-door on-demand service on the island with an adapted van: book on 081 7354796 at least an hour ahead, it runs from 8 to 20, you need an ordinary travel ticket and a companion travels free.
Ischia: six hours between hot pools and the Castello
Ischia is six times the size of Procida and cannot be done on foot. The choice is blunt: either a thermal park or the Castello Aragonese. Doing both properly in a day means rushing.
The Castello costs €15 (€6 for ages 10 to 18, €12 over 70), opens at 9 and closes at sunset, and stays shut from 7 January until the start of March. You get there by bus from Ischia Porto in ten minutes: it is the island’s piece of real history, an hour and a half of climbs, churches and terraces.
The thermal parks are the other half. At the Giardini Poseidon in Forio a full day is €50, afternoon entry from 13:00 is €45 (from 12:30 in autumn) and an evening visit €8; the wristband takes a €5 deposit and the park runs from mid-April to 31 October, 9 to 19. At Negombo, in Lacco Ameno, a high-season full day with parasol and sunbed starts at €70 for an adult, a half day from 13:30 costs €50 and afternoon entry from 16:00 costs €35.
The €5.10 EAV day ticket is close to compulsory: lines CS and CD circle the island in both directions and Ischia Porto–Forio takes about 45 minutes. With the day ticket in your pocket the island opens up: Sant’Angelo, on the south side, is a traffic-free village you walk down into from the last stop; Sorgeto, just above it, is the bay where thermal water runs into the sea and costs nothing at all, only two hundred steps down and back up; Lacco Ameno has the Fungo, the rock that is the island’s symbol, fifty metres off the quay.
Strong walkers can swap the hot pools for Monte Epomeo: start from Fontana, an hour and a half of climbing to the 789-metre summit, and the whole gulf below you. That is a long-day, proper-boots choice, not a flip-flops-and-towel one.
Do-it-yourself variant
Metro Line 1 to Municipio, then 400 m on foot towards Molo Beverello
Alilauro hydrofoil to Ischia Porto, weekday sailing in the regional fare band
Ashore at Ischia Porto: EAV ticket office and the €5.10 day bus ticket
Bus CS or CD towards Forio, around 45 minutes along the north coast
Giardini Poseidon: wristband, €5 deposit, pools at different temperatures
Bus to Ischia Ponte and the Castello Aragonese, last entry at sunset
Hydrofoil home from Ischia port, in the tourist fare band
Beverello: metro at Municipio or a walk along the seafront
Who should pick what
Tickets, taxes and queues: the reality
No ticket is named and no crossing has time slots, so planning is freer than for Pompeii or Vesuvius. The traps are three others.
The first is the last sailing. In autumn and winter the services back thin out early, and a late island bus turns into an unplanned night. Check the return time before choosing where to have lunch.
The second is the sea. Fast craft are cancelled long before ferries: with a swell running the hydrofoil stays in port and the ferry sails. If the forecast is uncertain, pay a few euros less and take the ferry.
The third is the thermal-park season, which ends in late October and starts again in spring. Out of season Ischia is still a fine, half-empty island, but the main reason to come for the day is not there.
Same product, platforms compared
Prices refreshed from the GetYourGuide, Tiqets and Headout feeds.
| Platform | Price | Rating | Duration | Cancellation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GetYourGuideProcida & Ischia: Full-Day Experience with Cruises from Naples | €93 Lowest price | ★ 4.2 (173) | 12 h | Free | Book on GetYourGuide |
| GetYourGuideNaples: Boat Excursion to Ischia and Procida with Lunch | €117 | ★ 4.6 (158) | 7 h | Free | Book on GetYourGuide |
Boat tours and excursions with lunch
The best-selling format is the day afloat that touches both islands without much time ashore: swimming at Sorgeto, where the thermal water reaches the sea, a pass under the Castello Aragonese, Vivara and a landing at the Corricella. If you would rather stick to one island, there are excursions with ferry and lunch included, slower and more comfortable.
If all you want is the crossing, ferry tickets are also sold through partners: handy if you would rather not queue on the quay, at the same price or a little above the ticket office. Partner prices are verified regularly.
Combining the two, and what is nearby
Caremar also sails to Procida and Ischia from Pozzuoli: on paper that is the shortest way from the Campi Flegrei side, but the Cumana is currently running a reduced service with replacement buses between Bagnoli and Torregaveta, so from central Naples the Beverello stays more reliable. If you are staying in Bagnoli or Fuorigrotta, metro Line 2 to Pozzuoli is an alternative worth checking on the quay on the day itself.
The islands are linked to each other: Caremar runs Procida–Ischia and Procida–Ischia Casamicciola several times a day, which is what makes a double landing theoretically possible. The arithmetic is brutal, though: with an hour lost between two quaysides and safe margins for the journey home, you end up walking on two islands for two hours in total.
If the islands worked for you, the logical next step is Capri as a day trip, which costs more and delivers more in photographs, or a boat tour in the Gulf of Naples that leaves from Borgo Marinari with no ferries involved. For beaches reachable by metro and bus there is the page on beaches in and around Naples; to make sense of quays, metro and funiculars, see getting around Naples. The full picture, with times and prices for every destination, is in all the day trips.
The operators who work these routes
On the two-island boat day the most solid local name is Seaside Napoli, leaving from via Luculliana at Borgo Marinari with skipper and guide included, shared tours from €159 per person for Ischia and Procida, and whole-boat charter for up to 12 passengers; changes are free up to 14 days ahead and bad weather means a full refund. We have put down how they work in our Seaside Napoli review.
For a private gozzo on your own itinerary, with low capacity and soft drinks on board, our VIVA CHARTER review explains when paying for the whole boat beats buying a seat on a shared tour.
What to put in your bag
Swimsuit and towel even out of season, because Sorgeto is warm all year. Closed shoes: the Corricella, Terra Murata and the descent to Sorgeto are steps, not strolls. Small change for the buses, which do not always have a card reader on board. A sweatshirt for the way home: out on deck after 18:00 the gulf cools down before the city does.
Travelling with children, the ferry beats the hydrofoil hands down: you can stay on deck, the toilets are decent and the crossing becomes the fun part of the day instead of fifty minutes shut inside.
In short
Procida if you have half a day and €33. Ischia if you have a full day and want the hot pools. The boat if you want both and do not mind not walking. The one decision you cannot postpone is the time you come back: choose that before anything else.
Questions people ask
How much does it cost to get to Procida from Naples?
The Caremar ferry costs €12.70 each way and the hydrofoil €17.40. Add €3.50 of landing tax and a €3.60 day bus ticket: a day on your own comes out at around €32.50 per person.
Can you see Ischia and Procida on the same day using scheduled ferries?
In theory yes, because Caremar links Procida and Ischia directly. In practice you are left with two hours per island and spend the day on quaysides: with both islands on the list, the boat tour from €93 makes more sense.
Hydrofoil or ferry?
The hydrofoil saves 20–30 minutes but costs €5–7 more each way and is the first thing cancelled when there is a swell. The ferry is steadier, sails from Calata Porta di Massa and lets you stay out on deck.
How much do island buses cost?
On Ischia an EAV single ride is €1.70, a 100-minute ticket €2.10 and a day ticket €5.10. On Procida the single ride is €1.20 and the day ticket €3.60.
How much do the thermal parks on Ischia cost?
At Giardini Poseidon a full day is €50 and afternoon entry from 13:00 is €45, with a €5 deposit for the wristband. At Negombo, in high season, a full day with parasol and sunbed starts at €70.
Do I need to book the ferry in advance?
From November to March no, buy at the ticket office. On summer weekends and long weekends yes, above all on the last sailing back: if you get stranded, the night on the island is on you.
What happens if the sea is rough?
Fast services are cancelled before the ferries are. Boat-tour operators reschedule or refund: Seaside Napoli, for one, guarantees a full refund or a new date in bad weather.
Can Procida be visited on foot?
Yes. From the port at Marina Grande to the Corricella is ten minutes, up to Terra Murata twenty uphill. The bus only matters for Chiaiolella and the beaches on the south side.
Official sources
- Caremar – passenger fares and landing taxes
- SNAV – gulf timetables and routes
- Alilauro – Napoli Beverello / Ischia, times and fares
- Unico Campania – bus fares on Ischia and Procida
- Castello Aragonese di Ischia – hours and tickets
- Giardini Poseidon – prices and information
- Negombo – practical information and price list
- EAV – on-demand transport on the island of Procida
- Seaside Napoli – Ischia and Procida tour
Read next
- CapriHydrofoil or ferry to Capri, what the day costs, whether the Blue Grotto is on and which tour pays. Verified timetables and prices compared.
- Boat toursGozzo, shared boat, yacht or kayak: capacities, departure quays and verified prices per person or per boat. Pick the right format and book your trip.
- BeachesNaples beaches ranked honestly: how to get there by bus, Cumana and ferry, what you spend, when the sea is good. Pick yours in five minutes.
- Getting aroundMetro, Circumvesuviana, ferries, Alibus and high-speed rail: lines, stations, minutes, fares and last useful services. Check tickets and transfers.
- Day tripsEvery day trip from Naples compared: how long it takes, how you get there, what it costs on your own and with a tour. Pick one in two minutes.