Cefalù Snorkelling Boat Tours

Why you need a boat for this

Cefalù’s town beach is a long shelf of pale sand in shallow water. It is a lovely place to swim and a poor place to snorkel: sand, a bit of seagrass, very little structure and a good deal of stirred-up silt by mid-morning in August.

The snorkelling is a few minutes out in either direction, in bays where the seabed is rock rather than sand and the depth drops away close to shore. That is what a boat trip buys here — not a longer swim, but a different bottom.

The three bays, and what each one is

Nearly every boat on this coast works the same three, and knowing which is which helps you pick a departure time.

Kalura, immediately east of the Rocca, is a small inlet ringed by cliffs. Rock walls, clean water, and the most sheltered of the three from a westerly. It is usually the first stop on a morning sailing, which is also when the water is clearest — before the day’s boat traffic and swimmers have worked it over.

Mazzaforno, west of town, is the broader, gentler of the two ends. Shallower entry, more open, and the stop most boats use for the longest swim because there is room for twenty people in the water without anyone being on top of anyone else.

The cove at Santa Lucia, further west again, is the one worth paying attention to. It sits below a sea cave, the water is noticeably clearer than at either of the other two, and it is out of range of the two-hour trips. Only the better-equipped boats reach it: the mini yacht, the private Almira charter and the fishing boat. It is also the first stop dropped when there is a northerly running, because the approach is exposed.

What you will see is honest-to-goodness Mediterranean coastal life rather than reef: wrasse, sea bream, saddled bream, the occasional octopus in the rocks, sea urchins, and dense patches of Posidonia seagrass where the light comes through. Nobody is going to promise you anything bigger.

Which boats actually include gear

This is the detail that separates the listings, because “snorkelling” appears in almost every title while the equipment does not always come with it.

Masks and fins are included and free on the Dream Excursion boat at $58 — the cheapest three-hour trip here and, at 4.91 across 256 reviews, among the best-rated. Gear is also included on the mini yacht (which adds a paddleboard), on both private charters, on BenBoat and on the catamaran. The busiest boat on the coast carries masks and tells you plainly to bring your own if you have one, which is fair advice anywhere: a borrowed mask that does not seal is the difference between seeing the seabed and swallowing it.

Sea Land Tours’ two-hour trip includes masks and pool noodles, which sounds trivial and is not — they make the open-water stops workable for children and for anyone who would rather not tread water for half an hour.

Getting the timing right

Morning sailings have the clearest water and the emptiest bays. Afternoon sailings have the warmest sea. Evening sailings have the best light and the least swim time, because nobody stays in once the sun is off the water.

If snorkelling is the actual point of the day, book a morning three-hour departure, pick a boat that includes gear, and accept that the sea will be a degree or two cooler. If you want one good swim inside a sightseeing trip, any of the afternoon boats will do it.

One more thing worth knowing on this coast: a northerly flattens visibility fast, and it is the same wind that cancels sailings. Every boat here carries free cancellation up to 24 hours, so book the slot, check the forecast the day before, and keep an alternative morning in reserve.