Sorrento Boat Excursions: the private boat day, checked

Sorrento Boat Excursions sells one thing: a private boat with a skipper for the day, out of Seiano towards Capri, Positano, Amalfi, Ischia and Procida. It has no group tours, it sells no single seats and it publishes no prices: the quote comes after an enquiry with your date and party size. In return, the listings declare an item almost no competitor includes, and one that weighs on the final bill: the landing taxes.

What it is

It is a limited company set up a few years ago by three brothers, as the site tells it. The privacy policy gives the registered office at Via Petraro 16A in Castellammare di Stabia, while the contact page names Seiano, Marina di Aequa, on the Sorrento coast, as headquarters. It is the same small harbour that MISAL Sorrento Boat Charter leaves from: two different firms, the same quay, and worth knowing so you do not turn up at the wrong boat.

The name needs care. There is another Sorrento operator with an almost identical brand, Excursion Boat Sorrento, with a site and a fleet of its own; on top of that, the Sorrento Boat Excursions privacy policy carries an email address on a domain other than the one the site uses. Before you pay anything, ask for the full registered name — Sorrento Boat Excursions s.r.l. — and check that the message comes from the number or the address published on the site you are reading.

What it publishes and what it costs

There is no price list, and it has to be said plainly: the operator publishes no price, no cancellation policy and no contract terms. All the site carries is a privacy and a cookie policy. What it does publish, and precisely, is the fleet and what the tours contain.

The price, according to the listings, covers the boat and the skipper, Wi-Fi, life jackets, water, soft drinks and prosecco, snacks, a limoncello tasting, masks and towels, and the landing taxes. On a Capri tour that last item makes a difference: landing on the island is taxed, and knowing it is already in there spares you the surprise at the quay. Availability is stated as WhatsApp round the clock, with the office open every day from 8 to 20.

How the day works

The Capri tour is the main product: eight hours, leaving from the peninsula, a full circuit of the island with the caves one after another — Bove Marino, Grotta di Tiberio, Grotta Bianca, Arco Naturale, Faraglioni, Grotta del Corallo, Grotta Verde, Tre Sorelle, Punta Carena, as far as the Blue Grotto — and the option to go ashore for a few hours or stay in the water and swim. The Positano and Amalfi tour runs the other way: Li Galli, Positano, Amalfi, passing Praiano, the Fiordo di Furore, the Grotta dello Smeraldo and Conca dei Marini, coming back via Crapolla and Nerano.

To fit it into your day you have to be on the peninsula already: Seiano is reached on the Circumvesuviana or by car, and the full picture of trains, hydrofoils and journey times is in Sorrento in a day and in getting around. If your aim is the island seen from the land, compare it with Capri in a day; for Ischia and Procida, with Ischia and Procida in a day.

How to check before you pay

Here the work is longer than usual, because the contract is not public. Ask in writing for: the total price per boat and not per person, the name of the boat assigned and its maximum number of passengers, boarding and return times, what is excluded (lunch ashore, entry to the Blue Grotto, any taxi-boat landing) and, above all, the cancellation policy and the rough-sea one, with the deposit percentage and how the balance is paid. Get confirmation that the skipper is properly licensed and that the vessel carries passenger insurance. Keep everything: with no published terms, the confirmation by message is the only document you have.

Against the package on GetYourGuide

The platforms do not sell private boats out of Seiano: they sell shared days from Naples, with the transfer to the harbour included and a per-person price. Prices checked regularly.

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With two or three of you the package wins outright: it costs a few dozen euro a head and needs no negotiating. From six people up, and if you are staying on the peninsula, the private boat becomes comparable and offers what the package cannot: a swim where you like, your own timings, landing taxes already inside. The full range of formats is in boat tours in the Gulf of Naples, and how vouchers and refunds work on the partner side is in the GetYourGuide review.

The verdict

The fleet is well described, the inclusions are generous, the base is convenient for anyone staying between Sorrento and Vico Equense. The problem is commercial transparency: no price, no cancellation terms, a company email on a different domain and a name easily confused with a competitor’s. None of that is disqualifying, but it means everything has to be put in writing first. For an organised group it works well; for a quick booking from a distance, an operator with a published price list and contract is the better bet.