Kotor: Blue Cave, Submarine Base & Lady of the Rocks Boat Tour

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/19

Duration3h

GroupUp to 57

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

The Blue Cave Glows Turquoise When You Swim Inside It

You ride a speedboat for three hours visiting four distinct stops: the turquoise-blue swimming cave, a 17th-century church on an artificial island, a hidden submarine base, and a 19th-century fort with panoramic views. You swim for 30 minutes in the Blue Cave, walk through Our Lady of the Rocks church for 20 minutes, and spend 10 minutes inside the submarine base. The tour includes a skipper, audio guide in multiple languages, life jackets, and all safety equipment, returning you to Kotor by mid-afternoon.

Step-by-step itinerary

Boat tour of Boka Bay highlights

Enjoy 20-minute Kotor Bay cruise
Pass by Old Town of Perast
Visit Our Lady of the Rocks island
Enter hidden Submarine Base by speedboat
Pass by Mamula Island fort
Swim and relax in Blue Cave

The Experience

The water inside the Blue Cave doesn't look real at first. Sunlight bounces off the white seabed below and reflects back through the cave opening, turning everything around you turquoise — not the color of any water you've seen before. You can only get there by swimming now, which means you're actually inside it, not watching from a boat, and that changes everything. The 3-hour speedboat tour from Kotor stops here for 30 minutes, long enough to float around and let your eyes adjust to the color.

Before you reach the cave, the boat takes you past villages that have been fishing the same waters for centuries. Muo, Prcanj, Stoliv — the names blur together, but what sticks is how small the stone houses are, how close they sit to the water, how little has changed. Your skipper points out the old churches and the forests climbing the hills behind them. Then you pull up to Perast, a UNESCO-protected town that used to belong to sea captains and merchant sailors. It's narrow, elegant, and crowded now, but the view across the bay to the two islands — Our Lady of the Rocks and St. George — is the reason people still come here after eight centuries.

Our Lady of the Rocks is an artificial island, built stone by stone by sailors from Perast and Kotor who brought rocks on their ships. The church on it dates to 1630, built after fishermen found an icon of the Holy Mother in the water following a shipwreck. You get 20 minutes to walk inside the church and see the museums — but you have to wear proper clothes, no swimwear, so bring a cover-up. After that, the boat takes you to the Submarine Base carved into the Lustica Peninsula, a hidden Yugoslavian military installation you enter by speedboat. It's strange and quiet in there, a reminder that this bay has seen more than tourism. Mamula Island comes next, a fort built in 1853 by an Austro-Hungarian admiral to guard the bay entrance, later used as a concentration camp. The views from the water are sharp and clear.

The whole tour runs 3 hours and includes a skipper, life jackets, safety equipment, and an audio guide available in six languages if you have phone connection. The speedboats are new and comfortable, which matters because the Adriatic can get choppy. You'll swim at the Blue Cave, so bring a swimsuit under your clothes and a towel. If you're prone to motion sickness or have back problems, this might not be the right fit — the boat moves and the sea doesn't always cooperate.

What’s included

Your tour includes pickup by speedboat from Kotor, a professional skipper, life jackets and safety equipment, an audio guide in six languages, a 20-minute visit to Our Lady of the Rocks church (entry included), a 10-minute visit to the Yugoslavian Submarine Base, panoramic views of Mamula Island's 19th-century fort and Perast's Old Town, and 30 minutes of swimming time in the Blue Cave.

Good to know

Easy physical levelStroller friendlyPets welcomePublic transport nearbyNot for pregnant travelersNot for heart conditionsNot for back problemsInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Aquaholic Speedboat Tours

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to see the Adriatic's most photographed natural and historical sites in one morning without arranging your own boat or navigating between islands — the fixed 3-hour schedule and included skipper handle all the logistics and timing.