kate3

Thank you!

You will have a wonderful time in Taormina. It's about a 10 minute walk from the ship to the train station in Messina. The train to Taormina takes about 45 to an hour.

 

When you walk out of the relatively small Taormina-Giardinai train station, you'll have 4 options to get up to town. When we were there, we found many of the cruise passengers already waiting for the local bus. They all said the bus is late and they have been waiting for an hour.

 

There are taxis but very limited. A few decided to share the taxi..4 per cab, $20. When the local bus finally arrived, everyone rushed in and unfortunately, (sounds like Amazing Race now that I think about it), the bus driver waved us off...meaning the bus is full. We missed the bus.

 

Another option was to walk up. Standing there by ourselves, we were thinking if we should just walk up..........when, all of a sudden, an elderly lady waved us over....it was another local shuttle. The "orange" shuttle that locals take up to town. Cost: about 75 cents. The shuttle dropped us off the gate...the ride took about 5 minutes.

 

Now to answer your question....we took the local bus back down the train station after our day in Taormina. The bus station is outside the "walls" of Taormina, about 400 meters from the gate....just ask and they'll point you towards the bus station. We waited only about 20 minutes for the bus to leave and again it didn't take long to get down to the train station.

 

On the bus, we met an British couple who told us they walked UP from the train station. I asked how long it took them and they said about an hour...it was all uphill and they were in their 60's. I asked them how long would it take to walk down............they said a leisurely walk would only take 30 minutes...all downhill. (Brings back fond memories :) )

 

Happy sailing!

hi Gene,

Thanks for the information. My husband and I are going to Taormina soon and we are thinking to do a one day tour on our own. Do you remember how long it takes to go down from the down to the train station? Thank you!

Hi Bobbie:

 

We did the above on our own, for far less than Princess was offering. We took the train to Taormina (very inexpensive) and a taxi up the hill from the Taormina train station to the town itself. It's a beautiful little town. Then we walked down a zigzag walking trail from the town back to the train station. Enjoy!! Gene

Nice pictures! Looks all great!