Boat Tours from Favignana

Most people book an Egadi boat tour from Trapani because that is where the boats are. If you are already sleeping on Favignana, you should not — the island’s own departures are a straightforwardly better day, and the reason is simple arithmetic.

A Trapani tour spends roughly an hour of its eight crossing to the islands and back. A Favignana tour spends none of it. So a six-hour day from the harbour fits more anchorages, more swimming and a longer stop on Levanzo than an eight-hour day from the mainland. The ratings reflect it: the four island departures here average 4.9, against a spread of 4.2 to 4.9 from Trapani.

The four island departures

Zeus Charter — lunch cooked on board, $151. A straight 5.0 across 63 guests, the highest-rated tour on this whole site. Jonathan owns the boat and skippers it himself, and the reviews are unusually consistent about what that does to the day. Food, water, wine, a digestif, fruit and dessert are all cooked and served on board, on a motorboat with two sun decks and a shaded section that extends with awnings for lunch.

Egadi Discovery — five swim stops in six hours, $70. The most water per hour of any tour on this route. Cala Rossa, Bue Marino and Cala Azzurra, then Levanzo — Cala Fredda, an hour ashore in the village, Cala Minnola under the Faraglione — and a stop at the Blue Grotto on Favignana’s northern coast on the way home. Tastings of local products, wine, fruit and snorkelling gear included, with a toilet on board. Rated 4.8 across 179 guests.

EgadisLife — lunch on board at the lowest price, $70. A local cooperative running a 10:30 departure with a rustic appetiser, a pane cunzato, fruit, water and wine served on the boat. At $70 with a real meal included, it is the cheapest fed day anywhere in this catalogue. Rated 4.9 across 60 guests, with the skippers named individually in most of them.

Timeless Favignana — private wooden gozzo, $813 for up to eight. A traditional Sicilian wooden fishing boat, chartered for your group alone, with a flexible route and a light lunch on board. It is a new listing without reviews yet — worth knowing before you commit — but it is the only wooden hull on the route, and $102 a head for a full boat is close to shared-tour pricing.

What you see that mainland tours skip

Levanzo village, on foot. The island tours reach Levanzo earlier and most of them dock at Cala Dogana for around an hour. Plenty of Trapani boats only sail past it. Levanzo has one village, one road and around two hundred residents; an hour there is one of the better hours of an Egadi day.

The northern coast. Coming home from Levanzo, several island boats call at the Blue Grotto or the northern coves. Mainland tours are usually running for the port by then.

Getting to Favignana in the first place

If you are staying on the mainland and want an island departure, you would need to take the hydrofoil from Trapani first and be at the harbour before 10:00 or 10:30. That is possible but tight, and it means paying for the crossing twice over. For a mainland base, book from Trapani or Marsala instead — the day is slightly longer and slightly less good, and it is much simpler.

The one thing mainland tours do better

Choice. Favignana has four listings; Trapani has thirty-eight. If your dates are tight in August, the island fleet fills and there is no depth behind it.

Check availability for your dates as early as you can — or see the full comparison if you are still deciding which port to sail from.