Six things on Elba that are open, priced and worth the trip
This list is six items long, not seven or ten. Every entry below has a current price or opening time attached, and one well-known attraction has been left off because it is shut. That is the whole editorial policy here: an island guide is only useful if you can act on it this week.
Elba is bigger than most day-trippers expect — you cannot see the east and west coasts properly on the same day without spending the day in the car. The order below runs roughly east to west, which is also the order the island presents itself in if you arrive by ferry at Portoferraio.
1. Napoleon's two houses in Portoferraio
Napoleon was on Elba from 4 May 1814 to 26 February 1815 — nine months that the island has been trading on ever since. Two of his residences are open as the National Museum of Napoleonic Residences: the Palazzina dei Mulini in Portoferraio itself, and Villa San Martino, his summer house a few kilometres inland.
Opening hours are the thing to get right, because they are unusual: Monday and Thursday from 2pm to 6.30pm, and Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 1.30pm. Closed Tuesdays. Entry is €5.00 per villa, cash only, and there is a combined ticket for both houses valid for three days — worth taking, since the two are best seen on separate half-days rather than rushed together.
The practical trap is arriving on a Tuesday, or on a Monday morning, and finding the doors shut. The second trap is the cash: there is no card terminal at the ticket desk.
2. The Volterraio fortress, on foot
The twelfth-century fortress on the ridge between Portoferraio and Rio nell'Elba was abandoned for generations and reopened to the public in 2016 after restoration. It is the most dramatic thing to look at on the island and the least crowded, for one reason: you have to walk up.
The route is the marked red trail 255_01, clearly signposted, about 30 minutes from the parking place on the SP32 on the Rio nell'Elba side. Although the fortress belongs to the municipality of Portoferraio, it is quicker to reach from Rio nell'Elba. The Tuscan Archipelago National Park runs guided tours periodically, booked through InfoPark; outside those, the walk and the exterior are the visit.
Shoes with grip, water, and not the middle of the afternoon in July. Thirty minutes uphill on an exposed ridge is a different proposition at 11am and at 4pm.
3. Monte Capanne by cable car
The island's summit, a little over 1,000 metres and the highest point on Elba, is reached from Marciana by a cable car with a short season and an unusual design. It opens in spring, generally around Easter, and runs to the end of September or the beginning of October. In April, May and October the last ascent is at 5pm and the last descent at 5.30pm; from June to September that becomes 5.30pm and 6pm. The ride is about 20 minutes each way, and the number to check before driving over is +39 0565 901020.
One detail decides whether this is for you: the cabins are open yellow baskets that carry two people standing, with no door and no seat. In good weather it is the best twenty minutes on the island. If you are uneasy about heights, travelling with a small child, or carrying a large pack, this is not a queue to join — and the pack should stay in the car regardless.
4. The mines at Rio Marina
Elba's iron is why the island was worth fighting over for three thousand years, and the workings on the east coast are open as the Parco Minerario dell'Isola d'Elba. This is the one activity here that has no equivalent elsewhere in Tuscany, and the one that works on a windy or overcast day.
Visits start at the mining museum inside the Palazzo del Burò in the centre of Rio Marina. From there a small open train runs out to the oldest workings, stopping at the Valle Giove site where you can hunt for pyrite and hematite samples yourself. Train tickets are €12.00 for adults and €7.50 for children aged 4 to 12, museum entry included.
Two conditions: the park runs from April to October, with winter visits by arrangement only, and a telephone reservation is always required to go into the mines — 0565 962088. There is also an off-road tour in an eight-seat VM90 vehicle that reaches sites the train does not, walking tours with a nature guide along the old mine railway, and children's workshops every Thursday in July and August at the museum.
5. The beaches around Capoliveri, and where to park
The south-east corner has the best swimming and the worst parking, so the two have to be planned together.
Innamorata is the last beach on the southern side of Monte Calamita with bathing establishments; half the sand is taken by them and half is free. The car park nearby costs €12.00 for the day and accepts EasyPark. Zuccale has one beach club and two free areas, both reasonably large, with two car parks: the smaller one on the left towards Barabarca is free, and the one on the right above the beach runs on a meter at €1.00 an hour or €6.00 for the day. Morcone has a small paid car park behind the beach, a bar, a bathing establishment and rental of boats, pedal boats, sunbeds and umbrellas.
In August the free car park at Zuccale fills by mid-morning. The alternative is the summer minibus that connects Capoliveri with several of these beaches — it removes both circling for a space and driving a narrow coast road after a lunch with wine.
6. A boat to Giannutri — and the truth about Montecristo
Giannutri is the achievable island trip: licensed operators run day sailings, landings are permitted at designated points, and there are Roman-era remains and sheltered coves to snorkel. Book a small-group tour a few weeks ahead from Portoferraio or Piombino and choose an operator with the park permissions in order.
Montecristo is a different matter, and any itinerary that offers you a casual landing there is misdescribing it. For 2026 the Tuscan Archipelago National Park published a calendar of 23 visit days with 75 places each — 1,725 people for the entire year — booked and paid for online, with applications opening in January for the summer season. Prices run from €60.00 for residents of the archipelago municipalities to €140.00 at the base rate, and €150.00 to €180.00 on special dates. Private vessels are limited to one boat a day carrying a maximum of 15 people, no more than three times a week, and only between 15 March and 15 April and again from 15 May to 31 October.
In other words a Montecristo landing is a permit you win months in advance, not an excursion you buy on the quay. Most boat trips sold on Elba circle the island for photographs, which is a perfectly good half-day as long as you know that is what you booked.
What is closed: the aquarium
The Acquario dell'Elba at Marina di Campo appears in most guides to the island as a rainy-day option for families. Its own website currently carries a single line: the aquarium is temporarily closed. No reopening date has been published.
Do not build a wet afternoon around it, and treat any listing that gives you its opening hours and ticket prices as out of date. If you want a fallback for bad weather, the mining museum at Rio Marina is indoors and open.
Getting there, and how much time the crossing really takes
Elba is reached by ferry from Piombino to Portoferraio. Three operators run the route — Toremar, Blu Navy and Moby — with close to 300 sailings a week between them: Toremar around 129, Blu Navy 84 and Moby 83. That works out at up to 14 Toremar departures a day, up to eight with Moby and up to seven with Blu Navy. The first sailing is around 5.30am and the last around 10.30pm.
The crossing itself takes about an hour, with the fastest Toremar sailings closer to 40 minutes. All three carry cars, at a fare above the foot-passenger price. Prices swing widely by date and departure time, so a figure quoted in any article is worthless — check the operators directly for your dates.
The planning consequence: with a crossing of an hour and sailings from early morning to late evening, a car makes sense for a week on the island and is an expensive nuisance for two nights. If you are staying near Portoferraio and plan to do the mines, the fortress and the beaches by minibus and on foot, you may not need one at all.