Favignana & Levanzo RIB & Dinghy Tours

A RIB — rigid inflatable boat, gommone in Italian — is the format that dominates the good end of this route. Most of the twelve-guest operators run one, and the reason is structural rather than fashionable: a shallow-draught inflatable can anchor where a keeled hull cannot.

What it does better

Access. Bue Marino is a cliff face over deep water. The Grotta degli Innamorati has no land approach. The shelves at Scalo Cavallo are shallow. A RIB gets into all three; a two-hundred-passenger cruise vessel gets into none of them. That is the entire argument, and it is a good one.

Getting in and out of the water. You roll over the tube. On a hulled boat you queue for a ladder. With twelve people and a twenty-five-minute anchorage, that difference is minutes of actual swimming.

Speed. Thirty minutes to Favignana rather than forty-five, which on an eight-hour day is another cove.

What it does worse

Shade. This is the real issue, not the waves. Eight hours on open water in a Sicilian July with no roof is punishing if you are not prepared. Some RIBs carry a sun canopy — MeM boat’s does, along with a freshwater rinse shower — but most do not.

Motion. In flat water a RIB is simply fast. In chop it slams, and you feel every wave through the tubes. Anyone with a bad back, a pregnancy, or a tendency to seasickness will have a better day on a hull. Several RIB operators list pregnant women as unsuitable for exactly this reason.

Somewhere to sit properly. You perch. There is no deck to lie on, no cabin, and generally no toilet — though Egadi Discovery’s boat from Favignana does carry one, which on a six-hour trip is worth knowing.

The operator who lets you choose

Noleggio Gommone Trapani sell the same itinerary on either a conventional boat or a 10-metre dinghy, at $70 either way. If your group is split on the question, that solves it: book the hull that suits you and see the same coves.

They also run a later day than most — 10:00 to 18:00 rather than the usual 09:15 — hold permits to anchor inside the marine protected areas rather than merely transit them, and hand out a preventive anti-jellyfish cream at the swim stops. That last one sounds like a gimmick until you hit an August bloom.

The best RIBs on the route

Egadi Charter’s full-day RIB from Trapani at $58 is the value pick — twelve guests, 4.9 rated, wine, fruit, snorkelling gear, a floating mat, and no fee collected on the day.

Tourist Lines Egadi’s maxi-RIB at $64 is the most-reviewed small boat here at 830 guests and 4.8, on a hull built for comfort rather than speed.

From Marsala, Navigare le Egadi run a dinghy day with the operating family’s own wine on board and a sunset stop at the Stagnone.

And if you want the format taken to its logical end, the private dinghy and gozzo charters put a small hull entirely at your disposal.

So, RIB or not?

Book a RIB if the swimming is the point, if nobody in the group has a back or a stomach that will object, and if you will actually wear the hat. Book a hull — a mini-yacht, a sailboat, or the large shared cruise — if shade, seating and a steady deck matter more than reaching the cave.

The full decision page works through this alongside price, lunch and departure port. Or check availability for your dates.