Cinque Terre excursion

[m4rcla]

Hi,

 

I am planning to book a private excursion from the Livorno port to Cinque Terre.

Will the car drive us from town to town? Or would they typically drop you at the first town, and then you'll have to walk from town to town?

The reason I'm asking is my dad is 72 years old (he's healthy), but I don't want to burden him too much if the walk is going to be too much.

 

Thanks!

[Hlitner]

Hi,

 

I am planning to book a private excursion from the Livorno port to Cinque Terre.

Will the car drive us from town to town? Or would they typically drop you at the first town, and then you'll have to walk from town to town?

The reason I'm asking is my dad is 72 years old (he's healthy), but I don't want to burden him too much if the walk is going to be too much.

 

Thanks!

They cannot drive you from town to town because several of the 5 villages are very difficult to impossible to access by car. From Livorno they will normally drive you to the nearest of the villages (Riomaggiore) from where you use a combination of walking (most like to walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola which is an easy walk) and use either the train and/or ferries to visit other villages. Assuming your Dad is capable of doing some walking and getting onto trains or boats he will be fine. If you are going to book a private excursion it would be best if you simply e-mail the excursion operator with your concerns. They can devise a good plan for folks with limited mobility such as only going to 3 villages. I should mention that the walk between those first two villages (often called the Lovers Walk) is normally about a twenty minute stroll (most of it is paved) and there are benches scattered along the route.... The villages all have cafes and other places where you can rest and relax.

 

Hank

[Awelon]

We visited Cinque Terre which I have to say are some of the most beautiful villages I have ever seen. It is quite a long journey from Livorno, we took the trip organized by the ship which was excellent. We had a terrific Italian guide who was with us all the time. We stopped at the first village after a beautiful ride through the mountains full of grapevines, we had to walk down into the village (not too strenuous).We then walked along a clifftop walk quite safe and not steep to the next village then by train ( or boat but the sea was too rough unfortunately) to the next village, they where all so beautiful and unspoilt we loved the trip. The coach picked us up at the last village and drove back to the ship. One of the most lovely days we have had highly recommended. We think its much better to do the organized excursion as it would be difficult to do on your own. Have a lovely time.

[euro cruiser]

The issue I would have with a ship's tour to Cinque Terre is that you can only move as fast as the slowest person on the tour. We had one very obese man in our group and we could only go as fast as he could, which wasn't very fast at all. We actually wound up missing one of the villages because of the time lost while he made his way up and down the hills. (Even his own wife was annoyed that he didn't simply admit defeat and sit and wait rather than keep going.)

 

I haven't done many organized tours (maybe 20 or so over the past 20 years), but I've never seen a tour company (or ship excursion group) enforce any kind of rules regarding ability. They give you a rating as to the strenuousness of a particular tour, but leave it up to the passenger to determine their own fitness level.

 

I understand that from a business standpoint, they don't want to get into it with a passenger. As a paying customer, however, I don't like being subjected to other people's inability to recognize their own limitations.

[phillygirl63]

Although we used a private tour company in the other ports, we did the Cinque Terre tour through the ship, because I thought the price was pretty reasonable. We had my parents with us who are in their mid-70's. They are in good heath too, and they were fine with the walking, which wasn't as much as I had anticipated. There are many opportunities to rest, especially if the tour takes the ferry boats from one town to the next. It was a great day for us and the scenery is breathtaking, especially if you do get to take the ferry. However, as was said by previous posters, your tour group will only move as fast as the slowest person, so if you think your father will not be able to handle it, then maybe you should have a private guide so that you can move along at a pace that is comfortable for him. The most important thing is that you have a wonderful day and enjoy the scenery, because that is what Cinque Terre is all about.

[Marian Paroo]

All I can say, if there is any place you can do a tour of Cinque Terre do it it.

 

I spent a week in Tuscany a few years ago, and the day took the tour there was one of the best!

[phillygirl63]

Hi, Tigopac. I don't remember the names of each town, but the bus dropped us off at the top of the 2nd village, we walked down to the Lover's Path and walked it a little while (backtracking) to the 1st village, then we got on the ferry boat going past the 2nd village that we had just walked down from and past the 3rd village, stopped at the 4th village (there are some shops and little restaurants there and a very old church), got back on the ferry boat to the 5th and last village (I think Manarola but not completely sure). It is the most "touristy" of the 5, but really none of the villages were crowded. That is where we had plenty of time to walk around on our own and then eventually met back up with the bus to take us back to the ship. We had been to Florence before and this was a very nice way to spend the day and see a different part of Italy.

[samavarcruiser]

We did this excursion some years ago and we used a private Tour. They picked us up at Livorno port and it was quite a long drive to Riomaggiore (the first of the 5). They dropped us off there and from there we drove to Manarola, instead of walking and then we took a train to the third city where they picked us up to drive back to Livorno. From the point where they left us there was a local electric bus to downtown which in 2 mnts took us to the centre. We had such a good day. The best thing to move from one town to the next is by boat or train but anyway by car even if they have to stop at the top of the town in certain places and down to the city centre in some other towns, I guess if you have a hard walking person the car will be helpful to leave him, in case he will be tired to walk.

We made our reservation through www.drivearounditaly.com and they did a great tour. :)

 

+

 

I agree with the other last ones...take a private tour as we did and on cruise critic you can look for other people to share the cost with...

We did Florence from Livorno port using a private company called

www.shoreexcursionsinitaly.net . They are specialized in shore excursions and we found their service very reliable. Once we got the information from them about our tour, we posted on another cruise website to find other 4 people to share the tour and we did it...very good about price (50% reduced) and service (we did as we wanted being on a private tour) going back on time to the ship.

 

Can you please tell us when you did this tours?

You opened your account only last month and you are talking about tours with this two tour companies, two or three years ago!

 

After this, I am DIY person, use this link, is very helpful :)

http://www.ftroute.com/LIV_CinqueTerre.htm

[Hlitner]

The main problem with Cinque Terre on a port day is simply getting to Riomaggiore from Livorno. The train connections are not great and the drive takes about 1:20 each way. Once you are at Riomaggiore, most folks will do fine on their own. On the other hand, if you want to pay more money for somebody to lead you buy the hand you can get that service from almost any local tour company or guide. Personally, we simple prefer to rent a car and drive ourselves to Riomaggiore where we park and then use walking, trains and ferries between whichever villages we feel like visiting that day. Although we normally dislike cruise excursions, some lines offer very reasonable bus excursions from ship to Riomaggiore which can actually be a better deal then a rental car. Our problem with guided tours is that you go at the pace of the tour guide (which may or may not be our desired pace). For example, we might decide to have a nice long lunch in a cafe in Riomaggiore or Manarola (or another village) and if we are with a group this is not alway possible...or you may be forced to eat as a group (in a restaurant that caters to groups). But, it's just a matter of personal preference. Some folks want to be led by the hand everywhere (kind of like cattle) and others perfer to do what they want, when they want, with who they want.

 

 

Hank

[klauer]

Yikes, maybe some people enjoy seeing the sights with a group! My husband and I do a lot of excursions on our own, but we have meet some really nice people on ship's excursions.

[Hlitner]

Yikes, maybe some people enjoy seeing the sights with a group! My husband and I do a lot of excursions on our own, but we have meet some really nice people on ship's excursions.

 

Very true. Many folks love being in a large group just like cattle seem to like being in a large group (called a herd). And we have also met nice folks on excursions and also met many nice folks when we were not on excursions. But when you see a group of forty to fifty folks walking in a large group and following the leader (often holding a sign above their head) they sure look like cattle (perhaps more like sheep following the lead Ewe with a bell around his neck) . My goodness, they sometimes even get led to the stream for water (a restaurant or rest stop) and are often fed a pre-planned meal (kind of like feeding cattle). If they happen to wonder away from the herd they are quickly rounded up and driven back to the rest of the herd. We are not saying this is a bad thing, but the comparison does seem to have some validity.

 

Hank

[esc]

Hi

We did a 30 day Med cruise last year and used both ship and private tours.

The private gets our vote-always.

Had no problems using Port Promotions. They are available on line and most helpful with all arrangements. My guy is celiac and they took great care of him and normal old me.

Wonderful guides in Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, and 5 Terre, Florence.

[phillygirl63]

This was the only tour we booked through the ship, because it seemed to me that it was the better way to do it. We just followed along and enjoyed the scenery. One word of advice -- put one of those Charmin travel packs in your bag. Some of the bathrooms are not very well equipped.