Capri Is Expensive and Crowded—but Here’s Why I Still Love It

Here are moments when Capria small, rocky island in the Gulf of Naples, seems deranged. When you first experience the clamor of the port, say, or sit in a pink convertible taxi as it tries to pass another pink convertible taxi on a road that is 8.5 inches wide. There are many more moments—eating the namesake caprese salad amid the scent of pines while overlooking a turquoise bay, for example—when it’s all so gorgeous you can’t quite believe it exists.

The best Capri moments, however, are when the insane and the beautiful, the poetic and the bratty all coincide in a total eclipse of reason. This happened to me a couple of days into my family’s stay, one sweltering mid-afternoon at La Palma Beach Club, on Marina Piccola beach. I was just toweling off after chasing some fish around the Tyrrhenian Sea with my children when the in-house DJ dropped “Tu Vuò Fà l’Americano,” by the Neapolitan singer Renato Carosone. You might know it as the song Jude Law and Matt Damon sing in the jazz club in “The Talented Mr. Ripley”: “You wanted American bridge … ‘Mericano …’ Mericano …”

It may have been the sun. It may have been the aperitifs. It may have been the hallucinogenic effect of the striped sunshades. But I swear, everyone in that place started singing along. The demure Italian gent and his tiny-waisted mistress. The hip young waitress, her tray laden with drinks. Even the lobsters and clams on their beds of spaghetti.

Carosone wrote the song in 1956 to mock the Italian boys who drank whiskey sodas and danced to rock and roll, pretending to be American. It’s now entirely the other way around. The world goes to Capri to play at being Italian: to sink Aperol Spritzes, dress in pastel linens, and enjoy the dessert do nothing, the sweetness of doing nothing.

Capri has been casting its spell on visitors since the days of the Trojan War, when Odysseus supposedly encountered the Sirens in these waters on his voyage home. After World War II, the island became one of the first parts of Italy to develop what we today think of as tourism: Jackie Kennedy bought sandals there; Slim Aarons took images of bronzed, oily bodies and ravishing clifftop meals. And to bring things bang up to date, Charli xcx name-checks Capri on the song “Everything Is Romantic” from her all-conquering album, “Brat” : “Lemons on the trees and on the ground / Sandals on the stirrups of the scooters / Neon orange drinks on the beach.” Which is pretty much the vibe.

The unbeatable thing about La Palma is its location, right in the central square on the site of the island’s first hotel (the building dates back to 1822). There’s something delicious about sipping lemonade after a dip in the pool, looking down from the balcony at the day-trippers all hot and bothered below. You’re also next to the best ice cream place on the island, Gelateria Buonocore, so when you’ve been out wandering, you’ll know you’re nearly home when you can smell the waffle cones caramelizing. (The best flavor is hazelnut, or hazelnut, by the way, and it’s definitely worth the wait—and the calories.)

In practical terms, you will arrive by boat. If chartering a Riva is not for you (Capri is a magnet for the have-yachts, and is priced accordingly), there are regular public ferries from Naples, Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, and Ischia. Taxis and buses will deposit you on Via Roma, on the edge of Capri Townand you’ll have to walk the rest of the way, as most of Capri is accessible only to pedestrians. Make sure to arrange in advance for your luggage to be carried up ahead of you (and back again when you leave).

Yes, there are downsides to being as stunning as Capri. The island receives as many as 16,000 visitors per day in high summer, and every single one of them seems to immediately buy a lemon sorbet and eat it while bumping into things. Still, as with other heavily touristed Italian destinations (Venice, Siena, Bellagio, etc.), all you need to do is wander a couple of streets away from the main drag to find space to breathe. We had a wonderful time exploring the labyrinthine alleyways, marveling at churches nuzzled among houses, emerging from the shady lanes to find breathtaking views between the pines, cypresses, and prickly pears.

Which isn’t to dismiss the shopping opportunities. “I would be lying if I said that being in the middle of all these boutiques wasn’t hugely exciting to me,” drawled one of our fellow guests as we compared notes over breakfast one morning. The international brands all have their outposts, of course, mostly on the Via Camerelle, while Jackie Kennedy’s favorite, La Parisienne Capri, is still on Piazza Umberto.

But there’s more intrigue among the artisanal outlets around Via Le Botteghe. Bottega Capri is the place for sandals; 100% Capri for crisp high-end linens; Capri People for fabulous sunglasses. You might notice, as you browse, a not-so-subtle celebrity-counting competition under way among the restaurateurs. The proprietor of the family-run Aurora Capri restaurant, Mia D’Alessio, beams out of shots with Beyoncé, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mariah Carey, Roger Federer, and so on.

I realize that the crowds, celebrities, and luxury brands may all sound a little off-putting. This is before we come to the fact that the lemon taglioni at Aurora is $50 and also that Capri doesn’t really have any proper beaches. Marina Piccola is not much larger than a sandbox; Marina Grande, by the port, is only marginally grande-er, and it’s pebbly. The water may be divine but most of the swimming around Capri is done off boats or concrete slabs, even in the upmarket factories (beach clubs) like La Canzone del Mar. If you want your fix of family beach vacation, consider nearby Ischia.

But the funny thing about all of this is that the usual rules don’t quite apply. “Capri,” an Italian friend had warned, “is a whole other dimension.”

I’m going to give you two pieces of advice to make the most of it. The first is to try to stay at a hotel on the island. What you will find is that come 6 p.m. or so—aperitif time, handily—the temperature drops, the crowds thin out, and Capri breathes again. There are stellar sunsets to be had at Le Grottelle, a restaurant carved into the rocks near the geological marvel that is the Arco Naturale. The rooftop bar at Il Capri Hotel, a sexy pink-and-crimson boutique property on the Via Roma, is a delicious spot for a sundowner. If you’re really in the party mood, you might head to Taverna Anema e Core, a nightspot straight from a Paolo Sorrentino movie.

A decent hotel will give you access to water, which is necessary for cooling off. La Palma has a free shuttle to its beach club. If you’re after a more sedate destination, J.K. Place offers boutique comforts in a grand palazzo by the shoreline. It has easy access to Marina Grande, as well as one of the island’s largest pools, and it books up accordingly fast.

You might not like my second piece of advice. Bring your running shoes. Don’t make that face! Set your alarm for 7 a.m. and hit the road while you have the island to yourself. On our first morning, my son and I followed a handy jogging map provided by La Palma on a circuit of the Via Pizzolungo. The path snakes around the southeastern coast, taking in the Arco Naturale, the Faraglioni rocks, the Modernist villa where Jean-Luc Godard filmed Contempt, the bucolic Giardini d’Augusto, and a machine that dispenses lemons filled with sorbet.

The following day I made the slightly more arduous climb to Anacapri and was rewarded with views of the sea and pink-dawn reflections in the old town. Beautiful. Your photo reel will thank you for it, I promise. Also, you know what’s better than a breakfast buffet at a high-end Italian hotel? A breakfast buffet you have truly earned. That way you needn’t feel bad about eating two pistachio croissants.

If running seems a little much, you can always hike. The gorgeous Villa Lysis—built by the early-20th-century Parisian aristocrat Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen to flee a sex scandal—is a not-too-taxing walk from Capri Town. There are easy-to-follow signs, a pleasing lack of cars, and a great deli en route called Columbus if you want to stop for a picnic.

Carry on a little farther and you’ll reach the majestic ruins of the Villa Jovis, from which Tiberius ruled the Roman Empire. Capri is an island of spectacular views, and this one is the emperor of them all. From the pinnacle you can see Naples, Vesuvius, Sorrento, and Positano, all lined up like stars. And that, really, is the greatest thing about this place: for an island where you can spend as much as it is possible to spend, Capri is extremely free with its charms.

A version of this story first appeared in the August 2025 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline “Ciao, Bella.”