The Tremiti Islands

What the Tremiti are

The park's 2026 provisional rules say they apply to the Area Marina Protetta Isole Tremiti, established by the interministerial decree of 14 July 1989, pending approval of a full implementing regulation, and that they are subject to approval by the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security. The park divides the water into zones A, B and C. Zone A is the strictest: no navigation of any vessel apart from surveillance, rescue and authorised research, no anchoring, no mooring and no bathing. Zones B and C carry the moorings and the limited anchoring described below. For a yacht it matters less what each zone is called than which one you are inside, because the speed limits, the buoy fields and the fines all change at the line.

Distances are modest. Parks.it puts the islands roughly 12 miles off the Gargano promontory and 22 miles from Termoli, while two sailing operators describe the crossing as 20 to 21 miles and under 4 to 5 hours depending on weather. The figures differ because they start from different mainland points, so measure from the port you are leaving. This page is about the buoys and the rules, because they are the part that has changed; it is not a full pilot of the islands, and a current pilot book should be on board.

Getting a buoy

The rules say buoys for pleasure craft, sail or motor, are assigned in order of booking within the places available, by the operator that holds the mooring and assistance service, via the park's website and its app. Buoys not taken by commercial users after the park's public call go to pleasure craft in transit. The buoys are usable from 1 May 2026 to 30 September 2026. Payment is through the national PagoPA system on the park's website, under the service called payments for mooring buoys in the AMP Isole Tremiti, and paying comes before using the buoy; the rules add that cash is never accepted and that staff can take a card on the spot if the online system fails.

A buoy day runs from 10:00 to 10:00 the next day and any fraction is charged as a full day. The rules say there is no refund in any case, though where bad weather is certified the booking is moved to another date subject to availability. The assignment is personal: the holder may not let another person use the buoy even with permission, may not swap with other holders without authorisation, and may moor only the boat named in the application. A buoy may hold only one vessel.

A buoy field with 160 numbered places, two of them for anything over 15 metres, and a price list that doubles between May and August.

What it costs

The park's tariff for pleasure craft, Annex 2 of the 2026 rules, sets three size bands: up to 8, up to 15 and up to 24 metres. In May, the daily rate Monday to Thursday and Friday to Sunday is EUR 20 and 30 up to 8 m, EUR 35 and 50 up to 15 m and EUR 50 and 80 up to 24 m, with weekly rates of EUR 150, 250 and 350. June and September are EUR 30 and 40, EUR 45 and 60, and EUR 60 and 90 daily with weekly rates of EUR 200, 300 and 450. July is EUR 40 and 50, EUR 55 and 70, and EUR 80 and 100 daily, and EUR 250, 370 and 530 weekly.

August has no weekend split: EUR 60 a day up to 8 m, EUR 80 up to 15 m and EUR 120 up to 24 m, with weekly rates of EUR 350, 450 and 700. Residents of the municipality pay less and may take one buoy a day for one boat they own, which does not apply to a visiting owner. Compare this with Alberto's account below: before the park took over the buoys, a reader of Barche a Motore said the informal buoy owner charged EUR 30 a day including garbage pickup and a possible shuttle, so the official top-month rate for a 15 metre boat is now more than double that figure.

Which boats fit

The rules list 160 mooring points in the fields: 102 are for pleasure craft, of which 16 are for sailing boats (8 up to 8 m and 8 up to 15 m) and 86 for motor boats. The two up-to-24-metre buoys are at Cala Spido. The others are up to 15 or 8 metres, at Punta Pigno and Scoglio dell'Elefante, Pagliai and Caprara Fronte Est, the last of which is split between zone B and zone C. The remaining buoys in the San Nicola-Cretaccio channel and at Cala Arena go to commercial users: diving centres, fishermen, passenger boats, charter and inflatable hire, plus two for park and enforcement boats.

One honest caveat: the document's own list of motor buoys by location adds up to 102 rather than the 86 it states, so the totals above come from the text and the per-location numbers come from the list; the annexed chart is the authority. The practical conclusion for an owner is the same either way. Above 15 metres the choice is Cala Spido or none, and above 24 metres the park provides no buoy at all, so a larger yacht should treat the islands as a day visit and anchor only where the rules allow.

Anchoring, speed and what is banned

Article 13 of the rules allows motor and sailing craft entering the park to anchor only on the sandy or pebbly bottoms of zone C, subject to later prohibitions, and bans anchoring in zone A. In zone B, anchoring is reserved for diving-support and guided-tour vessels until mooring sites are ready. Inside a buoy field, the rules prohibit anchoring, free navigation, staying unmoored, bathing, diving, fishing, refuelling, running an engine except to moor and unmoor (generators included, barring safety), using soap or detergents, using sound equipment and using onboard toilets unless they have holding tanks. You must carry valid third-party insurance, show an all-round white anchor light at night and approach the buoy at no more than 3 knots.

Speed limits are 5 knots in zone B, and in zone C 5 knots within 300 metres of the coast and 10 knots between 300 and 600 metres. Jet skis, water scooters and similar craft are banned across the whole marine area. Sea caves are closed to motor pleasure craft in zones B and C. The weather limit is stated in the rules: mooring is allowed only up to Beaufort 4 (a maximum 16 knots of wind) and Douglas sea state 4 (waves up to 2.5 metres), and in worse conditions you are obliged to leave the buoy field.

The fines

The rules' penalty table lists anchoring in zone A at EUR 300 to 1,032 with a reduced payment of EUR 344, navigation in zone A at the same amounts, mooring to a buoy without authorisation at EUR 300 to 1,032 (EUR 344 reduced), mooring in zone A at the same, and speeding in zone B or the near-coast band of zone C at EUR 250 to 1,032 (EUR 344 reduced). Where the offender holds a park authorisation, the table adds accessory penalties such as revocation or a 15-day suspension. Administrative fines are payable through PagoPA, and the table says they are in addition to any sanctions in other law.

These are written into the 2026 text and the park reserves the right to vary the rules for environmental reasons by reasoned decision, so a figure from this page should be checked against the park notice for the season you are sailing. The rules are provisional until the full regulation is approved; if you plan for 2027, expect the numbers and possibly the dates to be reissued.

San Nicola harbour and the mainland shelter

CruisersWiki's Tremiti page describes the small Porto di San Nicola at the south-west end of the island, with the best approach from the south, a channel between Cretaccio and San Nicola with depths under 2.5 metres, and yachts up to 15 metres allowed on the pier only overnight when ferries are not running. Yacht Digest says availability at the harbour is limited to a few berths for small boats. CruisersWiki also says anchoring west of the harbour is supposedly forbidden but local boats often moor there in summer; the park rules' own bans on anchoring in zone A and inside buoy fields are the rule to follow.

If the weather turns, CruisersWiki suggests Termoli or Rodi Garganico on the mainland as shelter. A boat that cannot get a buoy has a plan B on the mainland, but not a plan B at the islands themselves.

Für wen: An owner of a yacht up to 15 metres who books ahead and treats the Tremiti as a short protected-area stop, not an owner of a larger yacht who expects to anchor where they like or to find a berth on arrival.