Hello Blue Cave - Boat Tours — Local services in Grad Split

(This review will be a long and thorough review of my boat tour excursion.) However, if anyone wants a first- hand real experience description, here you are. I am writing this review with the hopes of others choosing this boat tour and having as great an experience as my husband and I had. We took a trip to Split, Croatia in July for my birthday. We had such a great time and wanted to plan an excursion, so we spoke with our hotel and planned this boat trip with @hellobluecave. The weather was great the first days of our 9-day trip but the last few days, there were thunderstorms and rain. We booked this boat excursion for the last day of our vacation in Split with the hope that the weather would improve. On the day of the trip, the rain and lightening/ thunder had stopped so we were excited for the boat trip. We arrived at the boat launch stall located at City Center in the morning. Our boat captain arrived and checked in the group who would be in the boat. The group included my husband and I and another family, and three others. The captain was courteous with the check-in process for all of us. After boarding the boat and leaving the dock, we were informed that due to the weather from the previous days, the captain was awaiting word whether it would be safe to go to the blue cave which was one of the highlights of the tour. After travelling by boat to the first destination of the trip, the captain was advised that we would not be able to include the blue cave destination due to the high waves from the previous days’ storms. Understanding our possible disappointment, the captain insured us that he didn’t want us to feel that our experience was lacking. As a result of the itinerary having to change, the captain made up for it by including two additional stops at beautiful swimming locations where we were able to get off the boat and swim and enjoy the scenery. We visited the major islands as well as the two additional hidden gem locations for swimming. The captain also extended the length of the boat excursion to make up for the unavoidable itinerary change. Due to the weather, we did experience some pretty choppy waves at times, but I personally found that fun. Also, the captain’s first mate, Sara, was such an excellent host. She was so kind and personable and explained everything to us. While travelling between locations, she played excellent music on the boat that perfectly fit the mood of the experience. So much so that I had to ask for the playlist. This is a long review but I’m sharing my experience because I want others to have a great experience as well. Both my husband and I agree that this boat tour was the highlight of our trip to Split and are so happy that we included it in our trip. There are many excursions from Split, however I can personally recommend this one from the great time that we had. You can find this particular boat tour from their Instagram which is @hellobluecave. That’s where I contacted them to thank them after the trip. I hope this helps anyone looking for an excursion that has proven to be...

We booked with Hello Blue Cave and had a terrible experience.

They told us to meet at 7:30am, but by the time we arrived, all the other boats had already departed. Our boat didn’t leave until 8am because they claimed they needed to “refuel.” To make matters worse, we then had to detour to pick someone up from another island (Milna), which caused further delays.

By 9:45am, instead of taking us to the Blue Cave as planned, they said the queue was too long (about 400 people) and decided — without asking us — to stop at Komiža for an hour. We didn’t actually reach the Blue Cave until around 11:30am, where we queued for another hour.

At the Blue Lagoon, we were only given about 20 minutes to swim before being rushed off to Hvar. Stiniva and the Pakleni Islands, which were advertised in the itinerary, were skipped entirely. When we asked about this, they told us Pakleni was skipped because the beach bar had “been closed for a year” — but when we checked later, it was in fact open.

On top of that, they advertised that the “luxury boat” option had a toilet and shower, but in reality we were not allowed to use them.

Communication was virtually nonexistent. The crew didn’t explain the delays or give us any real choice in the itinerary — they simply decided for us, and even gave misleading information.

Overall, the trip was disorganized, dishonest, and a huge disappointment. Save yourself the frustration and book with...

We enjoyed looking through the islands but didn’t enjoy the trip or organisation of the trip. We booked for the luxury boat tour- granted we booked too late but on the website it looked available. On the day they said the boat was full so they put us on a speedboat. Due to my propensity for sea-sickness I was trying to avoid this which is why I booked this tour. They did not contact us to say this would happen and we still paid the price for the luxury boat tour rather than the speedboat tour. Then on two occasions the staff would go around and tell the next meeting time to passengers in person and avoid us. Also granted we forgot to ask but once on the next island we realised we didn’t know the time or place of the meet up. And, when we couldn’t find the guides we would forfeit exploring to stay central and then still get told off for not being prompt enough (didn’t know the exact location and didn’t see the tour meeting up). (I understand there are booked parking items for the boats but I genuinely didn’t mean to miss the timings). I found the day quite stressful. Despite this, the places we saw were lovely I just didn’t feel the best on the tour and found a lot of it wasn’t communicated very well. I felt unwell and felt like I was burdening the rest of the group by getting things wrong so the experience wasn’t enjoyable or what we thought it would be when...