Boat Trip to Tabarca from Alicante — Spain's First Marine Reserve

No, and we would rather tell you before you book than surprise you at sea. Anchoring anywhere at Tabarca is prohibited by the reserve's regulations — Orden APA/102/2019, Article 6.1, allows it only in an emergency — and the island's port has just 25 berths with a 10-metre maximum length, so a charter boat carrying a group has nowhere legal to tie up. The mooring buoys that do exist are reserved for authorised diving. What a private charter does instead is the thing the ferry passengers cannot: hours of swimming and snorkelling straight off the boat in the reserve's protected water. If walking the village matters to you, take the public ferry another day — it is the one vessel type the island is set up to receive.

The opposite of what you would guess: the famous 6 knots at Tabarca is a minimum, not a limit. Article 7(a) of the reserve's regulations requires boats in transit through the reserve to sail at more than 6 knots and less than 10 — the point being that vessels should pass through purposefully rather than loiter over the protected seabed. You will read "6-knot speed limit" on other websites; it is simply wrong, and it inverts what the rule is for. Your skipper holds the legal band on the way in and out, and stops only where stopping is permitted.

Yes — swimming is one of the few things the reserve rules expressly permit visitors to do. Article 3.3.b of the regulations allows swimming up to 200 metres from shore off the island's beaches and up to 50 metres off the rest of the coastline. That is exactly the zone this excursion is built around: the boat holds position legally outside, you swim and snorkel within it. Nearly forty years of protection since 1986 is why the visibility is what it is.

About 10.35 nautical miles in a straight line from Alicante's marina, and nearer 11.9 nautical miles by the route a boat actually sails. You will see "8 miles" quoted around the internet; measure it on a chart and it does not hold up. We mention this not to be pedantic but because the distance is why this is a full-day trip — anyone selling you Tabarca as a quick hop is selling you the wrong number.

Because the arithmetic does not work, and we would rather lose the booking than pretend. Call it 11.9 nautical miles each way, add the stretch inside the reserve where the law caps transit at 10 knots, and the passages alone consume a serious slice of any 4-hour window — leaving almost nothing for the swimming that is the entire point. A full day gives you the passage, hours in the water, lunch, and the run home without anyone watching the clock. If you only have half a day, we will happily suggest a coastal trip that fits it honestly.

The best on this stretch of coast, which is not our opinion so much as the reason the reserve exists. Tabarca was declared Spain's first marine reserve in 1986 to protect the seabed and the life on it, and decades of restricted fishing and banned anchoring have left water with the kind of clarity and fish life the mainland beaches lost long ago. We provide masks, snorkels and fins; the reserve provides the rest.

No — and no one else can take you there either. The reserve contains an integral zone, the Bajo de La Llosa, where entry is restricted to authorised scientific work under Article 2.1 of the regulations. It is closed to tourism entirely, ours included. The rest of the reserve's permitted zones offer more than enough water for a day, and the existence of a zone humans mostly leave alone is part of why the rest is so alive.

We reschedule or refund, your choice. The passage to Tabarca is open water, and if the skipper judges the sea state wrong for the day, the trip does not go — no crossed fingers, no miserable-but-technically-completed excursion. In summer, cancellations are the exception; we mention the policy because promising perfect weather year-round would be a lie, and this page tries not to contain any.

Swimwear worn under your clothes, towels, serious sun protection — a full day on the water doubles the sun you think you are getting — and any food and drink your package does not already cover; we supply coolers and ice. Soft-soled shoes are kind to the deck. Cameras are worth the risk of salt. Leave anything you would mourn overboard at home, and bring a jumper for the run back: even in July the evening breeze at ten knots has opinions.

No. Every Tabarca excursion runs with a professional skipper — you and your group are guests, not crew. The skipper handles the passage, the reserve's transit rules, the legal swimming zones and the weather calls; your responsibilities end at the playlist and the sunscreen. First-timers are completely normal on this trip, and the morning departure means the sea is usually at its gentlest exactly when the least salty member of your group is finding their legs.