Glass-Bottom Catamaran from Santa Pola to Tabarca

If you want to see the Tabarca seabed without getting wet, this is the boat. Viajes Isla Tabarca crosses from Santa Pola to the island in glass-hulled catamarans and, on the outward trip, stops for about ten minutes in the marine reserve so you can look down through the four viewing windows. The crossing is about 25 minutes; with the stop, 35 to 40 from port to port.

What you see through the glass

The boat stops over the reserve, the first in Spain, with posidonia meadows and rock. You go down to the viewing windows in the hull and see the seabed and the fish without equipment or goggles. What you see depends on the state of the sea that day. If you then want to see it up close, on the island there is the guided snorkelling.

Tickets and times

The ticket is return and open: no fixed time to come back and valid all season. Bought online it costs €15 for over-8s and €12 for ages 4 to 8; with the QR you board through the priority queue. Under-4s do not pay, and neither do dogs, with no ticket needed. In July and August it leaves Santa Pola at 10:00, 11:30, 13:00, 15:30 and 17:00, and returns from Tabarca at 10:45, 12:15, 13:45, 16:15 and 17:45. The company gives 17:00 as the last return somewhere on its website, so confirm it. It operates every day, public holidays included, from 2 March to 31 October; in winter there is no regular service.

How to get to the port

It leaves from the Santa Pola Fishing Port, at avenida de los Baños, 1, where the ticket office is, open from 9:00 to 20:30 in season. In summer, leave plenty of time to park. If the sea does not allow sailing, the company notifies anyone who bought online and changes the date or refunds the money; for the day, call or write to 623 526 591.