Marina di Cala Galera (Porto Ercole, Tuscany)

Where it sits and who runs it

The marina sits at about 42 24 N 011 12 E on the southern side of the Argentario, the rocky headland that was an island until two sandbars joined it to the mainland. Its own site gives the operator as Circolo Nautica SPA, share capital EUR 1,548,000, and the Tuscan regional entry describes it as private. Argentario's tourism site calls it one of the first private ports built in Italy and dates it to the seventies, when Susanna Agnelli was mayor of Monte Argentario. Before the breakwaters went in, the bay was a small man-made beach shaded by eucalyptus, shallow enough for families with young children, and the silting that followed formed the Cala Galera dune.

It's a different animal from Porto Ercole, which is the old fishing harbour and fortress town three kilometres away. Cala Galera is a purpose-built basin of pontoons and a 300 metre commercial street, not a town quay, and most of what lies on it is owned privately. That matters to a visitor because the marina itself only manages a minority of the berths. The rest are let by agencies in the commercial area, so who you phone depends on whether you want a night or a season. Coordinates differ slightly between sources: the regional entry gives 42 24.22 N 11 12.79 E, the Westralia crew logged 42 24.154 N 11 12.739 E on arrival in 2014, and the Yachtdigest listing 42 24 05 N 11 12 30 E. They're all within the same basin, so none of it changes the approach.

How many berths, how big and how deep

The marina's own port page gives 670 berths for pleasure craft from 6 to 50 m, about 60 reserved for transit, on 635 m of quay and 12 pontoons, one of them floating. Argentario's tourism site and the Mediaship brokerage page agree on 670 and 60, and Noonsite lists 60 visitor berths and a 50 m maximum. Two older numbers disagree: the Tuscan regional entry, dated 2012 and built on a 2005 census, says 750 places, and Sail-the-net says 700. Yachtbooker says 70 transit berths. Take 670 and 60 from the operator and treat the rest as legacy figures.

Depth is stated as 3.5 to 6 m alongside by the marina, 3 to 6 m by the regional entry and 3.5 to 6.5 m by Argentario's tourism site. The seabed is sand at the entrance and mud inside. The marina names one hazard: a 2 m dry shoal extending toward the coast within a 100 m radius of the green light on the sub-breakwater. CruisersWiki, whose data is from 2010, describes a shallow patch of 2.0 m just north of the starboard entrance mark and gives 6.0 m as maximum draught, which is that site's number, not the operator's. Mooring is by chains to dead weights and guide cables, with rings or bollards on the quays. If you draw more than 3.5 m, ask the control tower before you commit, because the published minimum sits right there.

Cala Galera publishes a transit rate for a 22 metre boat and a size table to 50 metres, but never the rate for anything in between and above.

Arriving by sea: lights, VHF and the tower

The tower works on channel 9 day and night, coordinates traffic and assigns the berth, and in summer posts weather and storm warnings twice a day. The regional entry says to call before you enter, and CruisersWiki adds boat name, length and draught. The marina's own boater information asks you not to use the channel for boat-to-boat chat. There's a camera at the harbour entrance showing the weather, and wind data comes from the LaMMa consortium. The lights are a red and white isophase 2-second light on the breakwater head (10 M in the white sector, 7 M in the red) and a green isophase 2-second light on the sub-breakwater head, range 6 M. Yachtbooker describes both heads as red and white; the operator's description, with green on the sub-breakwater, is the one to trust.

Inside, the speed limit is 3 knots, sailing under sail and anchoring are prohibited, vessels coming in give way to vessels going out, and you should keep well clear of the head of the outer breakwater. The fuel quay is at the entrance under the control tower and sells super petrol and diesel from 08:30 to 12:30 and 15:30 to 18:30, so the fuel quay is shut at lunchtime. As for weather, the marina's exposure is east to southeast. The basin is sheltered from the first, second and fourth quadrants and the breakwater is built to shield it from Scirocco, which the marina calls its main difficulty. Yachtbooker puts it more bluntly: entry is hard only when the wind blows from the east toward the shore. Alternatives if you can't get in are the Santa Caterina roadstead at 0.5 M and the Avvoltore roadstead at 2 M, both open to second and third quadrant weather.

How to get a berth for a night

The marina's own tariff page says it manages only those transit berths and that everything else is privately owned and let through agencies in the commercial area. Its contact is [email protected] or +39 0564 833010, and the tower on channel 9 is where the berth is actually assigned. The published pages don't describe an online booking system, a deposit or a cancellation rule, and nothing on the pages the desk could read says how far ahead to ask in July and August. Anyone planning a peak weekend should email first and treat the tower call as the confirmation, not the request.

For longer stays the marina points you to the agencies, which the site lists by box number: Covemar, Immobiliare Nautica, I.M.S., Scott Marine, Claudio Mare and Argentario Yacht Services. Their terms aren't published, and the only sale-side number the desk found is a Mediaship listing quoting yearly marina fees of EUR 7,000 including VAT for a 20 m by 5.5 m berth, with water, electricity and bathrooms included. That's one listing for one berth, not a price list. A traveller needs one more piece of paperwork: vehicles can only enter with a pass from the Port Authority, which non-member berth holders can request after paying for the berth, and the barrier closes automatically behind each car.

What a berth costs

The tariff splits the year into four bands. Peak is 1 July to 31 August plus the Easter weekend, 25 April and 1 May; shoulder one is 16 to 30 June and 1 to 15 September; shoulder two is 2 May to 15 June and 16 September to 31 October; low season is 1 November to 30 April. For a 12.5 m by 3.6 m boat (category IV) the four bands read EUR 99, 67, 48 and 24. A 15 m by 4.05 m boat (V) pays EUR 130, 105, 65 and 30. A 20 m by 4.95 m boat (VII) pays EUR 206, 166, 108 and 51. At the small end a 6.5 m boat (I) pays EUR 41, 30, 17 and 8, and a 10.75 m boat (III) pays EUR 79, 51, 38 and 17.

At the top, category VIII (22 m by 5.40 m) is EUR 310, 260, 130 and 65, VIIIA (22 m by 6.00 m) is EUR 344, 306, 171 and 87, and VIIIB (22 m and over 6.00 m beam) is EUR 375, 337, 203 and 121. Two things the page doesn't say: whether the figures are per night, and whether VAT is included. The marina's nautical-services tariff states that all its prices include VAT, so that's likely, but the public-berth page doesn't repeat it. There's also a heading on the public-berth page reading 'Sosta gratuita dalle ore 12.00 alle ore 16.00', citing art. 49 nonies of D.Lgs. 171/2005, but the page gives no conditions, so don't plan a free lunch stop without confirming. Power connections carry a refundable deposit: EUR 50 for 16 A or 32 A, EUR 200 for 63 A, EUR 600 for 150 A, and EUR 700 for the combined 150 A plus 125 A connections.

What the size categories mean for a big boat

The size-categories table lists from Id (5.00 m by 2.00 m) through VII (20.00 m by 5.50 m), VIII (25.00 m by 6.00 m), IX (30.00 m by 7.00 m) and XII (50.00 m by 10.00 m). The only rule stated is that the boat's overall dimensions, fenders included, must not exceed the berth's. Beam matters: category V is 15 m by 4.50 m but Vd is 15 m by 6 m, so a wide 15 m boat lands in a different bracket from a narrow one. The two tables don't line up either: the nightly tariff's category VII is 20.00 m by 4.95 m while the size table's is 20 m by 5.50 m, and the tariff's VIII is 22 m while the size table's is 25 m. The table doesn't explain how length and beam combine when a boat exceeds one but not the other, so state both when you ask.

The 22 m ceiling on the published nightly rates doesn't match the 50 m ceiling on the berth count. Noonsite and CruisersWiki both say 50 m, and so does the operator, but none of them describes a superyacht pier, an alongside berth or a dredged depth for a 40 m yacht. With quay depths of 3.5 to 6 m and 60 transit berths in total, big boats are a guest at the end of a pontoon here, not the reason the place exists. If you're 30 m or more, call and ask about depth and berth before you plan the weekend around it.

Fuel, haul-out and the yard

The marina's own port page gives two travelifts to 80 tonnes, a haul-out slipway to 300 tonnes and mobile cranes to 40 tonnes, with repair and maintenance buildings and more space in the innermost area. Noonsite repeats the 80 tonne lifts and 300 tonne slipway. Yachtbooker says a 350 tonne lift, which no other source supports, and the desk didn't use it. Services listed on the marina's pages are engine workshop, technical and electronic assistance, hull and sail repair, indoor and outdoor storage, divers, pilots and mooring crews, plus guard service, a fire network and waste collection. Storage warehouses sit along the breakwater mole.

No hoist, crane or storage prices are published: the nautical-services tariff page lists only the electricity deposits, and the desk found no per-metre haul-out figure or fuel price anywhere. Water and electricity are provided at each berth through columns fitted with differential switches, and the whole port has Wi-Fi, an electric vehicle charging station (notice dated 12 August 2020) and timed parking in the port areas. The marina's environmental credentials are listed as Blue Flag, ASSO.N.A.T., EMAS, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and Porto Sostenibile. For an owner that means no washing boats with drinking water, no showering or changing on the piers, and hoses fitted with spray guns, all in the rules.

Eating, shopping and what's within walking distance

The marina's port page describes the sub-breakwater mole as a commercial area about 300 m long with roughly 50 businesses: shops, bars, restaurants, pizzerias, gelaterie, a supermarket, ATMs, technical services and travel agencies. Ice is sold at the bar and there are showers and toilets. The desk couldn't confirm any specific restaurant on the quay by name from the pages it could read, so it won't invent one. That's the honest position, and it's a gap a reader would otherwise fill with a guess.

Porto Ercole is the evening alternative. Argentario's tourism site says it's about 3 km away; CruisersWiki says 15 to 20 minutes on foot to its shops, and a Noonsite user says two kilometres, so allow a taxi on the way back. The Westralia crew, in May 2014, couldn't raise the mooring hands at Porto Ercole, motored round to Cala Galera, berthed at 7:30 pm and walked into town for a meal they called excellent. Il Pellicano, at Localita Lo Sbarcatello, holds one Michelin star in the current guide listing, with a 4-euro-sign price tier, and the hotel also has a more casual grill; reservations go through the restaurant. Caravaggio died in Porto Ercole in 1610, and Forte Filippo on the hill above the town and Forte Stella are the main fortifications. The Consorzio Maremmare beach beside the marina has an unpaved car park for 100 cars, and its shallow sandy bottom lets you walk in the water as far as Feniglia.

Getting there and getting around

The marina's own directions say that from the south you take the A12 from Rome to Civitavecchia, then the SS1 Aurelia to km 142, where you turn for Orbetello and Porto Ercole. From the north you reach the Aurelia by motorway and follow it to the junction for Porto Santo Stefano and Lido di Giannella. By train you get off at Orbetello-Monte Argentario and take a bus toward Porto Ercole; the marina lists Tiemme (Grosseto) at 0564 475111 and two local taxi firms. Its distance page also gives road distances of Milan 472 km, Turin 553 km and Naples 353 km. It lists Genoa at 188 km, the same as Florence, which looks like a typing error, so the desk left it out.

Sea distances from the same page are useful for planning: Isola del Giglio 13 M, Giannutri 10 M, Montecristo 40 M, Elba 48 M, Porto Cervo 110 M, Ischia 147 M, Portofino 152 M, Capri 173 M, Nice 190 M, Cannes 200 M and Port Mahon 330 M. Per Wikipedia, Orbetello is 7 km from Porto Ercole and Grosseto about 40 km. For help, the marina lists the Guardia Costiera on 1530, the Carabinieri at Porto Ercole on 0564 833088, Orbetello hospital on 0564 869111 and the Delemare office on 0564 833923.

Racing, clubs and the calendar

Argentario's tourism site says the Circolo Nautico is based in the port and that Vela Argentario organises the Argentario Winter Championship, which it describes as the oldest offshore sailing championship in Italy. The desk found no independent record of that event under that name and can only report the claim. The big fixture is Argentario Sailing Week, whose 2026 notice of race gives 24 to 28 June as part of the CIM Classic Yacht Trophy, but it's organised by the Yacht Club Santo Stefano in Porto Santo Stefano on the other side of the peninsula, not at Cala Galera.

For an owner, the calendar point is simple: nothing found ties a big regatta to this basin, so you can't count on a race-week buzz here. Charter operators do run from the marina. A Noonsite user comment says the marina is popular with owners from Rome and can get very crowded, and the peak-season bracket in the tariff starts on 1 July but also covers the Easter weekend, 25 April and 1 May, so spring holidays are priced like August.

Who it is for: An owner of a 10 to 20 m motor or sailing yacht who wants a clean, well-serviced base with a real yard on the Tuscan coast, a price he can read before he arrives, and a night that isn't dependent on Porto Ercole's old quay. Not for someone with a 30 m yacht who needs a published rate, a published depth and a known pier for her, or for someone who wants to walk to dinner in a fishing town.