Grotta Azzurra (Blue Grotto)

Unless your timing is impeccable, Capri’s most-visited tourist attraction can make for a frustrating afternoon as you sit in a bobbing boat in front of the Blue Grotto, sometimes for up to an hour, waiting your turn for a quick tour of this natural wonder. Worse for claustrophobes: if you hit the wrong (i.e., high) tide, you have to lie down in the boat in order to squeeze through the narrow opening to enter. However, if you cannot imagine a trip to Capri without seeing the grotto’s sparkling blues—it’s lit from the sun entering through a tunnel beneath the water, making for an ethereal effect—Andrea Kuba of Tour Italy suggests going in the late afternoon, after the day-trippers have left for the ferries. Adventurers have also been known to swim into the grotto early in the morning or late in the afternoon for the ultimate private viewing (a practice that is, of course, officially banned).