Blue Cave and 7 Sea Caves Speedboat Tour with Snorkelling Dubrovnik

From the Lapad marina to Grebeni and the Bezdanj Lighthouse

The tour leaves from the marina on the Lapad side of Dubrovnik, at Lapadska obala 21a, where the staff walk you to the speedboat ten minutes before departure. The first stretch is pure sightseeing: the boat runs out of the Rijeka Dubrovačka inlet under the long cable-stayed bridge that carries the coastal road, then turns past the islet of Grebeni with its small lighthouse standing guard off the Lapad peninsula. The skipper slows for photos before opening the throttle for the crossing to Koločep.

Across the channel the second lighthouse of the day, the Bezdanj light on the Koločep shore, marks the beginning of the cave coast. This approach is part of why a half-day speedboat tour from Dubrovnik is such good value: in twenty minutes you have seen the city skyline, the bridge, two lighthouses and the open Adriatic, and the swimming has not even started.

The Blue Cave on Koločep Island

Koločep is the smallest inhabited island of the Elaphiti group, car-free and covered in pines, and its southern cliffs hide the Blue Cave, the main attraction of any Dubrovnik sea caves tour. The cave is entered from the sea through a low opening; inside, sunlight passing through the water below the entrance lights the chamber from underneath and turns everything an intense, luminous blue. It is one of the few places on this coast where you can swim inside such a cave rather than only look at it from a boat.

You spend about forty-five minutes at this stop. The skipper anchors outside, hands out masks and floating noodles, and you swim in a small group into the glow; with only ten guests on board nobody has to queue or rush. The effect is strongest around midday when the sun is highest, and the cave is only entered in calm seas, which is why the skipper reads the conditions before deciding the order of the stops.

The three Green Caves of Koločep

A few minutes along the cliffs lie the Green Caves, three separate openings where a pale, shallow seabed throws emerald reflections on to the rock ceilings. Each cave has its own character: a tall narrow slit, a wide shallow dome and a half-collapsed arch you can swim beneath. The Green Caves Dubrovnik stop is the longest of the day at about fifty minutes, because the water here is calm and clear and the snorkelling is excellent, with shoals of small fish over the rocks and sea urchins in the crevices.

This is the photo stop of the tour: the green light, the white rock and the blue sea beyond make a striking combination, so a waterproof camera is worth bringing. Life jackets and noodles are available for anyone who wants to float rather than swim, and the skipper keeps the boat close to the cave mouths so you can climb back aboard whenever you like.

The Bat Cave and the two Bezdanj Caves

What makes this circuit a seven-cave tour rather than the usual two or three is the final group of caves on the far side of Koločep. The Bat Cave is a dark, dry-floored cavern you step into from the boat, named for the colony that roosts in its ceiling, with a cool, quiet atmosphere very different from the bright swim caves. Beyond it lie the two Bezdanj Caves, hidden grottoes under the Bezdanj point whose crystal-clear water and narrow entrances keep the bigger excursion boats away.

The skipper noses the speedboat into each one so you can see the rock formations and, where the sea allows, slip into the water for a last swim. These stops are short but memorable, and they are the part of the Dubrovnik cave swimming tour that most guests talk about afterwards, simply because so few people get to see them. From here the boat rounds the island towards the village.

Koločep village and the Spilja cave

The circuit ends with about forty-five minutes of free time at Donje Čelo, the main village of Koločep, a quiet harbour of stone houses, a church and a small sandy beach in a sheltered cove. There are no cars on the island, so the only sounds are the sea and the cicadas. Walk along the waterfront, swim off the beach, or sit in the shade and look back at the mainland; a few simple cafés serve drinks and snacks in season (food is not included on the tour).

On the way back towards Dubrovnik the skipper makes a final photo stop at Spilja, a sea cave visible from the water, before the fast run back past Grebeni and under the bridge to the Lapad marina. Having a village stop at the end turns the trip from a pure cave tour into a proper Elaphiti caves boat tour, with a taste of island life before you return to the city.