The Best Beaches
in Capri

Capri sells a fantasy, and the honest read sets you free to enjoy it without overpaying. This is one of the most beautiful islands in the Mediterranean, a vertical limestone rock rising from impossibly clear water, but it is not a beach island in the sandy sense at all. What you actually get is pebble coves, flat rocks and elegant lidos built onto the cliffs, where the swimming is superb and the sand is almost an afterthought. Come expecting drama and deep blue water rather than a wide soft beach and you will love it.

The island also runs on two speeds of spending, and knowing the difference is the whole game. The famous Faraglioni clubs, La Fontelina and Da Luigi, are gorgeous and genuinely expensive, with high published minimums that climb in summer, while a few steps away the public rocks and the free sections of Marina Grande and Marina Piccola let you swim in exactly the same sea for nothing. The value savvy traveller mixes the two, a free swim by day and one considered splurge, rather than paying club prices for every hour in the water.

We rank the beaches below on the setting, the swim, the crowds and above all the honest cost of a day. Where a famous spot is overrated for the money we say so and point you to the free or cheaper move next door, and where a beach genuinely earns its price we say that too. Capri is steep and largely car free, so most beaches mean a walk, a bus or a boat, and conditions change with the day, so we describe what is typical and never promise a safe swim. For the short version, swim free, splurge once.

Two more beaches round out the island. Da Luigi ai Faraglioni is the more relaxed, family run club right beside La Fontelina under the rock arch, with a fine restaurant and a slightly gentler bill. Gradola is the small rocky cove near the Blue Grotto on the northwest coast, a quiet swim with a casual rock lido restaurant above it. The free rocks and platforms around the Faro lighthouse, for swimmers who want the sunset without a lido, are covered in our Punta Carena guide.

Capri runs a long Mediterranean season and the value lives in the shoulders. The clubs and boats run from roughly May to October, with July and August bringing the warmest sea, the heaviest day tripper crowds and the highest prices, while June and September give you almost the same warm water with more room and softer bills. Spring and autumn are quieter and cheaper still, lovely for walking and the Blue Grotto on a calm morning, though some lidos are closed. Our full guide to when to go to Capri walks the year month by month, including the day trip crush and the calm windows.

Capri is a beach club island in the truest sense, because so much of its swimming happens at lidos built onto the rocks rather than on open sand. The names worth knowing are La Fontelina and Da Luigi at the Faraglioni for the glamour, Lido del Faro at Punta Carena for the sunset and a pool, and Bagni di Tiberio for a calmer sandy cove, with historic La Canzone del Mare at Marina Piccola for a pool with the view. Prices run high at the famous spots and we never invent a figure, marking anything we cannot confirm as to be confirmed. Our Capri beach clubs directory reads each one honestly so you know where the splurge is worth it and where the free rocks do just as well.