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The Blue Cave on Bisevo lit from below, the water glowing blue inside the chamber

Island guide · 43°10′N · 16°26′E

The Blue Cave from Hvar, and whether it is worth it

It is a sea cave on Biševo, ninety minutes out, and you will be inside it for five to fifteen minutes. That is the honest shape of the day. Here is what you actually see, when the light works, what it costs in 2026, and who should skip it.

By the hvar.com team · Updated August 2026

No. 01

The cave at a glance

before you book

WhereBalun cove, Biševo island · off Vis

From Hvarabout 90 minutes by speedboat

Time inside5 to 15 minutes, on a numbered ticket

Best lightroughly 11:00 to 13:00, calm and sunny

Ticket 2026€24 adult in high season · €18 outside it

Whole day8 to 10 hours, and it only runs on a calm sea

The day from Hvar€100 to €120 per person · cave ticket paid separately

Two numbers decide whether this trip is for you. The cave itself gives you five to fifteen minutes; the day gives up eight to ten hours. Everything in between is the crossing, the queue at the tender boats, and the other islands you see on the way. If that trade sounds fine, it is one of the best days on the Adriatic. If it does not, our guide to things to do on Hvar has fifteen alternatives that never leave the island.

Book the Blue Cave day →What the day looks like

Vis town and its harbour from the air at dusk, boats anchored in the bay and the hills of Vis behind

No. 02

What you actually see

24 metres of it

The chamber is about 24 metres long and up to 15 metres high, and you enter it through an opening roughly 1.5 metres high and 2.5 metres wide. That is the reason for the small tender boats: nothing bigger fits. Your skipper drops you at Mezuporat, the little harbour on Biševo, and a local boat takes you the last few hundred metres.

The blue does not come from the entrance you swim under. It comes from a second, submerged opening below the surface. Sunlight enters there, passes through several metres of clear water, loses its reds along the way, and comes up through the floor of the cave. Everything inside is lit from underneath — the rock, the water, and your own hands over the side of the boat.

You stay seated. Swimming inside the Blue Cave is not permitted, and the guides are strict about it. If you want to swim in a cave that day, the Green Cave on Ravnik allows it, and most itineraries stop there.

See our Blue Cave day →All boat tours

The Green Cave on Ravnik islet, where swimming is allowed, on the way back from the Blue Cave

No. 03

When the light is at its best

11:00 to 13:00

The cave is only worth photographing when the sun is high enough to reach that underwater opening, which in practice means roughly 11:00 to 13:00, on a clear day, with a calm sea. Earlier and later the chamber is still blue, but it is a dimmer, greyer blue, and it does not survive a phone camera.

This is why the day is long. Boats leave Hvar in the morning, cross to Biševo, and time their arrival at the entrance for the middle of the day — which also means every other boat in Dalmatia is doing the same thing. In July and August expect to wait at the tender boats, sometimes over an hour, floating in the sun.

The second variable is the sea. The entrance is low and open to the swell, so the cave closes whenever the water is not calm, sometimes at an hour’s notice. Trips are cancelled and rescheduled all season, and that is not the operator being difficult — it is the harbourmaster.

One more thing about the light: it does not photograph the way you see it. The chamber is dim, the tender is moving and automatic exposure turns that blue into grey. Turn the flash off — it kills the effect entirely — brace the phone against the side of the boat and shoot the water rather than the walls. Most people take twenty pictures and keep one. Look at it with your eyes first; fifteen minutes is not long.

A speedboat crossing open sea between Hvar and Bisevo on a calm summer morning

No. 04

What it costs in 2026

tickets and the boat

There are two separate costs, and people are caught out by the second one. The boat is what you book with us. The cave ticket is bought on the spot at Mezuporat, in cash, and it is not included in any tour price on this island.

Blue Cave, high season€24 adult · 20 Jun to 10 Sep

Blue Cave, shoulder€18 adult · 1 Apr to 19 Jun and 11 Sep to 31 Oct

Children 6 to 12€12 high season · €9 shoulder

Under 6free

Green Cave, Ravnikabout €6 to €12 by season

Paymentcash, on the spot at Mezuporat

Our Blue Cave day from Hvar€100 to €120 per person · 8 to 10 hours

Private boat, up to 12priced per boat · ask us for the day rate

So a family of four is looking at roughly €400 to €480 for the boat and another €72 in cash at Mezuporat for two adult tickets and two children, in high season. The maths flips somewhere around four people: below that a seat on a shared boat is cheaper, and at four or more a private boat costs about the same per head and lets you choose your own departure hour. On this particular trip that is worth more than it sounds — it decides whether you queue at the cave or not.

Compare the boat tours →Rent a boat Taxi boat

No. 05

The queue, and how you get in

45 to 90 minutes

You do not go into the cave on the boat you arrive on. Everything stops at Mezuporat, the cove on Biševo where the ticket hut is, and everybody transfers into small wooden tenders that take six to eight people at a time. You pay there, in cash, and then you wait your turn.

Where you payMezuporat · cash in euros · there is no cash machine on Biševo

What takes you inwooden tenders, six to eight people, one boat at a time through the entrance

Typical wait45 to 60 minutes · up to 90 in the last fortnight of August

Time insidefive to fifteen minutes, and you stay in the boat

Two things follow from that. Bring small notes for the whole party — there is no card machine and change runs short by mid-morning. And the queue is why the 11:00 to 13:00 light window is harder to hit than it looks: a skipper who leaves Hvar at eight is not aiming to arrive at eleven, he is aiming to be in the queue by then.

No. 06

The rest of the day

five more stops

Nobody crosses forty kilometres for fifteen minutes in a cave. What makes the day is everything around it, and a good skipper builds the route around the light rather than around a fixed timetable.

Green Cave, Ravnikswimming allowed · best around midday

Stiniva, Visprotected since 1967 · entrance about 5 m wide

Budikovacthe Blue Lagoon · shallow, sheltered, sandy bottom

Komižalunch on the far side of Vis

PalmižanaPakleni islands, on the way home

Stiniva is the one people remember. It is a cove closed in by cliffs with a gap of about five metres at sea level, and it has been voted the best beach in Europe — which is why it now has a queue of its own. Budikovac is the opposite: shallow turquoise water, almost nobody, and the best swim of the day.

If you would rather have that kind of swimming without the crossing, the 38 beaches on Hvar include several that nobody reaches by road.

	Blue Cave, Biševo	Green Cave, Ravnik
The colour comes from	a submerged opening below the surface	a hole in the roof, straight down
Best light	11:00 to 13:00	around midday, but far less fussy
Can you swim	no	yes, and most boats do
How you go in	transfer to a small wooden tender	your own boat goes in
Ticket	yes, cash at Mezuporat	a small fee, usually settled by the skipper
Queue	45 to 90 minutes in season	rarely more than a few minutes

Stiniva cove on Vis, closed in by cliffs with a narrow gap at sea level

No. 07

Biševo itself, beyond the cave

no shop, no ATM

Almost nobody who visits the Blue Cave sets foot on Biševo. The tender takes you from your boat to the cave and back, and the island stays a shape on the horizon. It is worth knowing what you are not seeing.

Medvidina, the Monk Seal Caveabout 160 m long · reached by boat · no ticket and no queue

Porata sandy bay · the island’s two restaurants are here

Salbunarashallow and sheltered · the nearest beach to Mezuporat

The high point239 m · about an hour up on a stony track

There is no shop, no pharmacy and no cash machine anywhere on Biševo, and the permanent population is counted in dozens. If you want the island rather than the cave, the local boat from Komiža puts you at Mezuporat in about 45 minutes, Salbunara in an hour and Porat in an hour and a quarter — and that is a night away, not an afternoon.

No. 08

Getting there from Hvar

16.6 nautical miles

From Hvar town riva to Vis town is 16.6 nautical miles, and Biševo lies beyond it on the far side. In a speedboat that is about ninety minutes each way in good conditions, longer if there is any sea running.

There is no scheduled service to the cave. You go on an organised day, either as a seat on a shared boat or as a private boat with a skipper that leaves when you decide. Our own day runs April to October, takes about eight hours, carries up to 12 guests, and departs from the Hvar town riva at an hour you choose. If the weather cancels it, you reschedule free or take a full refund.

Coming from the mainland first? How to get to Hvar covers the ferries, the catamarans and the airport transfers, and it matters here: the catamaran docks in Hvar town, where the boats leave from, while the car ferry docks in Stari Grad, twenty kilometres away.

Small boats moored along the Hvar Town riva, where the Blue Cave days depart

No. 09

Getting there without a tour

two boats, two days

You can reach the Blue Cave on public boats and pay a fraction of the tour price. From Hvar it is not a day trip, though. The timetables do not line up, so it becomes an overnight.

Hvar → Splitcatamaran, about an hour

Split → Visferry a little over two hours · catamaran roughly half that

Sleep in Komižathe boat to Biševo leaves from there, not from Vis town

Komiža → Mezuporatabout 45 minutes · roughly €4 to €5 one way

From Mezuporat you pay the same cave ticket and stand in the same queue as everyone else. What you save is the tour price. What you spend is a night on Vis and most of two travelling days, and you see the cave and nothing else. If you are already staying on Vis, this is the obvious way to go. From Hvar, the boat that leaves the riva at eight and is back by six is almost always the better trade — it gives you Stiniva, Budikovac and the Green Cave on the same day.

Ferries & catamarans →Our Blue Cave day

No. 10

From Hvar, or from Split

two hours of difference

Most Blue Cave traffic leaves from Split, and most of it is the five-islands day: Biševo, Stiniva, Budikovac, Hvar town, the Pakleni islands. It is a reasonable way to see a lot at speed. It is the wrong choice if you are already on Hvar.

From Hvarabout 40 km each way · 8 to 10 hours · Hvar town is where the day ends, not a stop

From Splitabout 60 km each way · 11 to 12 hours · part of it spent queuing in Hvar town

Identical either waythe ticket, the wait at Mezuporat, the minutes inside

The only real differencehow much of your day is a boat seat

If you are staying in Hvar town, going back to Split to join a five-islands tour costs you two hours of transit in each direction and buys you nothing you cannot get from here. If you are staying in Split with one day to spend, take it from Split — just do not expect long anywhere.

No. 11

When it is cancelled

the sea decides

The entrance is about a metre and a half high and two and a half wide, at sea level. It does not take much swell to make it unsafe, and a southerly wind builds that swell quickly even on a morning when Hvar looks flat calm.

What closes itswell at the entrance, usually with a southerly wind

Who decidesthe concession at Mezuporat · not your skipper, and not the day before

When you find outthe morning of · sometimes only once the boats are there

How oftenrare in July · common enough in May and October to plan around

This is why we ask for a flexible day when you book rather than a fixed one. If the cave is shut, moving you to another morning is usually easy in June or September and harder in August — and the same boat without the cave is still a full day: Stiniva, Budikovac, the Green Cave and lunch in Komiža. Tell us your dates and we will tell you which morning has the best chance.

Ask us about your dates →The tour

No. 12

Month by month

May to October

The cave is the same all season. What changes is how long you queue, how likely the day is to be called off, and what the ticket costs.

May and early Junethe lightest queues and the lower ticket band · the sea is still cold for swimming

Late June and Julythe light is at its best · queues build through the month

Augustthe busiest fortnight of the year is the last one · expect 90 minutes at Mezuporat

Septemberthe best compromise: warmest sea, sun still high, half the crowd

Octoberquieter and cheaper, but the first southerly systems arrive and cancellations rise

November to Aprilno scheduled boats · treat the cave as closed

If you can come once and you want this particular day to work, come in September. If you are here in August, take the earliest departure you can get and accept the queue as part of the price.

No. 13

So is it worth it

honestly

Do it if you have five days or more, you like being on a boat, and the sea is forecast flat. On the right day it is the best single day trip from the island, and the light inside the cave really is unlike anything else on this coast.

Skip it if you have three days. It costs you a third of your holiday for about five minutes inside a cave you will not photograph well, and Hvar itself has more to show you in that time. Skip it too if anyone in the party gets seasick, or if the children are under ten — eight hours at sea is a long time for small people, and a north-coast beach or a short hop to Palmižana buys you the same day at a tenth of the effort.

And skip it if the forecast is doubtful. A trip that sets out in a swell is a bad trip: the cave may not open at all, and you will still have spent the day in the boat. The forecast the evening before is the one to trust, not the one on the morning.

Book the Blue Cave day →Fifteen alternatives on Hvar

No. 14

What to bring

short list

Cashthe cave tickets are not payable by card

Water shoesStiniva and Ravnik are pebble and rock

Sun covera hat and a shirt · there is no shade on the water

A towel eachyou will swim three or four times

Something warmthe run home at speed is cool, even in August

Motion sickness tabletstaken before you leave, not when you feel it

Lunch is usually in Komiža and paid separately. If you would rather eat back on the island that evening, the restaurants on Hvar are noticeably cheaper two streets behind the waterfront — and after eight hours at sea, a table in Jelsa is a better idea than the riva.

No. 15

The Blue Cave, common questions

Is the Blue Cave worth it from Hvar?

On a calm day with five or more days on the island, yes. It is eight to ten hours for five to fifteen minutes inside the cave, so it is a day you give up rather than an excursion you slot in. On a three-day stay it costs you a third of the holiday and Hvar itself has more to show you.

How long does the Blue Cave trip from Hvar take?

About eight hours on a private boat and up to ten on a shared one. Hvar town to Vis town alone is 16.6 nautical miles, roughly ninety minutes each way, and the rest of the day is Stiniva, the Green Cave, a swim at Budikovac and lunch in Komiža.

What time is the light best in the Blue Cave?

Roughly 11:00 to 13:00, on a clear day with a calm sea. The blue comes from a submerged opening below the surface, so the sun has to be high enough to reach it. Outside that window the chamber is still blue but much dimmer.

How much does the Blue Cave cost in 2026?

The cave ticket is €24 for adults in high season, 20 June to 10 September, and €18 outside it. Children 6 to 12 pay €12 and €9, and under sixes are free. It is cash only, bought at Mezuporat on Biševo, and it is never included in the boat price.

Can you swim in the Blue Cave?

No. Swimming inside the Blue Cave is not permitted and you stay in the tender boat throughout. If you want to swim in a cave that day, the Green Cave on Ravnik allows it and nearly every itinerary stops there.

Why is the Blue Cave cancelled so often?

The entrance is about 1.5 metres high and open to the swell, so the cave closes whenever the sea is not calm — sometimes at an hour’s notice. It is the harbourmaster’s call, not the operator’s. Book a day you can move, and check the forecast the evening before.

Is the Blue Cave good for small children?

Under about ten, no. It is a long day at sea with a wait at the tender boats and no swimming at the main stop. A short taxi boat to Palmižana or a shallow north-coast beach gives small children a far better day.

Do I need to book the Blue Cave in advance?

In July and August, yes, and the earlier the better — the boats fill and cancelled days push everyone forward. Outside those months a few days is usually enough. Booking a private boat also lets you pick the departure hour, which decides whether you queue at the cave.

Can you visit the Blue Cave without a tour?

Yes, but not as a day trip from Hvar. You would take the catamaran to Split, the ferry or catamaran on to Vis, sleep in Komiža, and take the local boat to Mezuporat the next morning — about 45 minutes and roughly €4 to €5 each way. You still pay the same cave ticket and stand in the same queue. From Vis it is the obvious way to go. From Hvar it costs you two travelling days to save the price of one.

Do you need cash for the Blue Cave?

Yes. Tickets are sold at a hut in Mezuporat cove on Biševo, there is no card machine, and there is no cash machine anywhere on the island. Bring small euro notes for everyone in the party — change runs short by mid-morning in August.

Is it better to do the Blue Cave from Hvar or from Split?

From Hvar, if you are staying on Hvar. It is about 40 km each way against roughly 60 from Split, which is eight to ten hours instead of eleven to twelve — and the five-islands boats from Split spend part of their day queuing in Hvar town anyway. The cave, the ticket and the wait at Mezuporat are identical either way.

How much does the Blue Cave tour from Hvar cost?

Our Blue Cave and Vis day from Hvar runs €100 to €120 per person for eight to ten hours on the water, depending on the boat and the date. A private boat for up to twelve is priced per boat rather than per head, so from about four people it works out close to the same. The cave ticket is on top of that and is paid in cash at Mezuporat — €24 per adult in high season, €12 for children 6 to 12.

Book the Blue Cave day →Ask us about your dates

Plan the day properly

Tell us your dates and how many of you there are. We will tell you honestly whether the Blue Cave fits your stay, put you on the right boat, and build the rest of the week around it — where to stay, the transfers and a table at the right restaurant. One local team, no platform commission, same-day answer.

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