Villafranche-Is a private tour necessary?

[martyap]

We have read all of the pros and cons and studied the wonderful reviews.

We have retained private tours in Rome, Florence, Naples and Kusadasi.

 

Now for Villafranche.......It seems getting around is fairly easy. We will be in port from 10am to 11pm. Would we be missing very much if we took the train to Nice and/or Monte Carlo.

 

I'm getting mixed signals.....some say it is easy to do on your own.

Others claim this was the BEST tour of the entire trip. If it really is a wonderful tour I'd hate to pass it up simply to save a few $$$.

 

Please!!!!! ADVICE!!!!

 

Thanks,

Marty

[cberge]

You know..I think sometimes people can get what I called toured out,and this IMHO would be a great place to just do your own thing at your own pace and enjoy the people,the place and the surroundings just yourselves.You can always go back to the SOF to stay and see more if you find you really like the area.You can get around this area very easy,and if you find there is a place you really want to see not on the train line or bus line then hop in a cab and go.The old city of Nice is fun to wander around,and you may or may not wish to spend more or less time in M?M.Just my thoughts....enjoy your cruise.

[harrodsfan]

You know..I think sometimes people can get what I called toured out,and this IMHO would be a great place to just do your own thing at your own pace and enjoy the people,the place and the surroundings just yourselves.You can always go back to the SOF to stay and see more if you find you really like the area.You can get around this area very easy,and if you find there is a place you really want to see not on the train line or bus line then hop in a cab and go.The old city of Nice is fun to wander around,and you may or may not wish to spend more or less time in M?M.Just my thoughts....enjoy your cruise.

Totally agree..ville franche is a very easy train or bus ride to Nice, Monaco or Eze. It is also a pretty little town...if you have been or are going to florence and Rome...have a more relaxing day..you won't regret it.:)

[dbh62ark]

I have a different opinion than the posts above--although both of these board members give great advice, so I have high regard for their opinions--because my absolute favorite is St. Paul de Vence, and it's just easier to go there via private tour and to see some other villages in the area. One lady from my group last year said that if she never went anywhere else, she would die happy after seeing St. Paul de Vence. It's just fabulous. I would say that the private tour from this area and our private tour in Livorno were the highlights of our trip last year. But if you just want to see Monte Carlo and Nice, it is very easy to do that on your own. There are many other lovely villages in this area, but if I had to pick one to plan my day around, St. Paul de Vence was the "crown jewel" for me and my group.

 

I don't understand the comments about doing Monte Carlo and Nice to have a more relaxing day. I've done that from the port of Villefranche but found using a private driver on a return trip last year to be very relaxing, so I suppose it depends on how you set up your itinerary for the day. By the way, like Harrodsfan, I think Villefranche is also a very lovely village, and I enjoyed spending time there. I also like Eze, and we went there and to St. Paul as part of our private tour last year.

 

So that's just another viewpoint (like you said, opinions vary on this subject for this port), but the goods news is that there are no bad choices for this port, and I'm sure you'll have a great time no matter what you decide.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

[nativetexan]

We did Villefranche on our own and really enjoyed it. We took the train to Monaco and enjoyed walking around the city. It is lovely. We took the train back to Eze - which requires a taxi into the village. That's about 25 euros! We loved Eze village - we went all the way to the top of the hill and had a terrific lunch. Just beautiful. I'm guessing St Paul was pretty as well - we just had a pretty full day with Monaco/Eze. We had busy days scheduled for the next ports so we really wanted to be back on the ship by about 5pm.

 

The nice part is - I think this is a port where there's lots of right answers! Anything you do will be marvelous - it was just a picturesque village. Enjoy! It seems like a dream!!

[gsb]

going into Cannes.

How far is the St. Paul Vence?

[alcpa1]

We were there May 16th - a Monday. It just so happened that it was a holdiay in Nice so we could not get a car rental in the city. We had tried to get a car from Hertz delivered to the ship and there was a snafu about a week before we left and a van for 8 was no longer available. We hired a limo to Monte Carlo because we missed the train to Nice [the hubbies were standing in line at the station and the line was so long we missed both trains - Nice and Monte Carlo.] The train was packed when we decided to head back to Nice and it was because there was an impromptu bus strike and everyone was forced onto the trains. The trains do not run that often and we spent more time waiting than sightseeing. Lesson learned!!! We got so frustrated that we got off in Villefrance and after a delightful afternoon in the town returned to the ship. It was the only bad day on the cruise.

[Mazzie]

Hi, I wondered how long it takes to get to Nice from Villefranche and can you get to Cannes from there as well?

[SheilaNC]

Donna,

Which driver did you use in Livorno? We're trying to decide on one and since you said it was the best of your cruise, I would love to know the name. Thanks

[24butterfly]

Hi, I wondered how long it takes to get to Nice from Villefranche and can you get to Cannes from there as well?

 

It takes under an hour to get to Nice, but it's a bit of a walk to Nice proper from the train station. It's doable. You can also get to Cannes from here, we took the train from Vfranche into Cannes--about an hour or so, maybe a little longer...The train station in Cannes is a couple of short blocks (maybe 10 mins) from the train station. Have a good time. Vf. is very cute, though...

[dbh62ark]

We used Dream Tours (http://www.dream-tours.com/). It was a wonderful day. We had one in our group that wanted to go to Cannes, and I didn't want to because there's not much there, but I was glad we did because we rode on some beautiful coastal roads. We also went to Eze and St. Paul de Vence, the perfume factory because we wanted to shop there for about 20 minutes (we didn't do the full tour and I suggest that you skip that if your group is not interested in shopping ), and stopped several times for panoramic overviews of Nice and Monaco. We didn't sail until 11:00 p.m., so there was also time to see Monaco by foot at the end of the tour. Jean Marc was our driver, and I highly recommend this company and driver. Jean Marc is French, and his wife is Italian; he is a very interesting guy and gave great commentary on the culture and history. You'll have lots of options if you want to stop at some more small villages and spend less time at St. Paul de Vence, and you can change your mind en route, which is one of the things that I love about a private tour.

 

Hope you have a great trip,

Donna

[gsb]

Your opinion of St.Paul de Vence??

Thanks, Gary

[Mazzie]

Thanks 24butterfly, I think we might stay in Villefranche as one or two other people have also said it was nice there.

[dbh62ark]

We all thought St. Paul de Vence was very charming. It’s very similar in architecture to Eze, and Eze is smaller. It’s just a very scenic place to walk the streets and wander around. The views from the cemetery are very nice too. I’ve listed some links below so that you can preview to see if it is of interest to you.

 

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/France/South/Provence-Alpes-Cote-dAzur/Saint_Paul-de-Vence/photo170617.htm

 

 

http://www.smackfu.com/photos/france/stpaul/

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

[SheilaNC]

Donna,

Thanks for the Villefranche info. I was also interested in which tour guide you used in Livorno. The day that we're there is my birthday and I'd like it to be a good one (obviously).

 

Sheila

[gsb]

Very nice pictures--

How far is it inland from the main road.

Where do you park?

Thx/Gary;)

[dbh62ark]

Sheila, we used Max at Papillon (http://www.papillonservice.com/) for our Livorno port stop and are also pleased to highly recommend that company. You probably read that we could not have had a better day seeing San Gimignano and Siena, and there are many tour options for day tour itineraries in the Tuscany area too. Oh, you are celebrating your birthday in a wonderful place, so my (early) best wishes for you to have a fabulous birthday.

 

Gary, I don't have an answer to your ? about St. Paul. Since we were with a private driver, it seemed that we were just looking at lovely scenery and then arrived at St. Paul de Vence. I do remember a parking lot outside the city, but you may need to do some more checking on that. I remember our guide telling us that they had special permits to drive into some areas of the Riviera, and they even pay rent at an office in Monte Carlo just to have a permit to drive in that area. But I don't remember him saying anything about a special permit for St. Paul de Vence, so it may just be first come first serve. He left the vehicle in the parking lot and walked around St. Paul de Vence with us to give commentary, so the parking must be secure.

 

Donna

[FamilyFive]

Marty

We loved our stay in Villefranche.

We used it as our relaxing day.

We too the tender to the city & strolled, sat at the cafes & shopped. We returned to the boat at 3pm & spent the afternoon day relaxing on the balcony. It is one of the best days of our cruise.

 

Our friends took a morning trip to Nice/Eze & spent the afternoon in Villefranche.

They said it was Nice/Eze was nice but they enjoyed their afternoon in Villefranche better.

 

Hope this helps. Pamela

[Desertbelle]

We also used Dream Tours for Villefranche and had a wonderful, relaxing time.

 

We were able to sit back and let the driver do all the work! Our driver was gracious and soft spoken, and loaded with a ton of information about the area.

 

We did Nice, Eze, St. Paul de Vence, Monaco, and we were taken to several remarkable viewing points that awed us. We lunched in St. Paul de Vence.

 

We are very glad we picked Dream Tours and that we did a private tour for this port.

[SheilaNC]

Donna,

Thanks for the birthday wishes! We've booked with Papillon and asked for Max (who may not be available, but Lina is trying to get him). We're going to Pisa for the requisite picture and visiting a winery before heading to Florence to see David, etc.! Lina has been wonderful about arranging to do what we want to do rather than insisting on the typical tour. I appreciate your insights...

 

Since we have planned a trip to Tuscany next year, this will give us a taste of what to expect!

[dbh62ark]

I hope you have a great time.

 

:)

Donna

[uk1]

Marty, you didn't return to the board to say whether the advice people gave you was helpful or not - so for what it's worth from someone who knows the area well.

 

Monaco is well known and has a certain attraction that seems to be on the "must see lists", particularly for Americans who seem to feel uneasy about coming all that way and not seeing it. I genuinely believe it to be a complete waste of time. Many thoughtful people find the place soul-less - like a film stage and go there to gawp at other people gawping at other people gawping.

 

Also - for what it's worth - there is a wonderful relaxing day to be had seeing a little bit of nicer France without tripping other thousands of other tourists, walking from the ship in Villefranche, and visiting nearby Beaulieu-sur-mer, and St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

 

Some threads that explore that option are at:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com./showthread.php?t=151878

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=168477

 

with links to places to eat and visit - all walking from VF.

 

If you want any additional info then post the specifics.

 

Jeff

[Susan-M]

UKI - glad you posted this again. I had read your post a while ago (the one with directions for walking from Villefranche to Cap Ferrat) and had decided that this would be a good alternative to going to Monaco. I copied the directions that you gave into my Word doc. and hope to do the 'hike' to the Rothschild Estate. Eze is also on my list, but wonder if this would be too much to try to pack into one day (in port 10 a.m. till 11 p.m.). Any comments on this? Thanks!

[uk1]

Susan, bonjour.

 

I can't give you unbiaised advice because I feel quite strongly about the topic. You may have gathered from my other posts that I spend a lot of time in the area.

 

My starting point is that there is one long queue of Americans in the South of France all doing the same things because they receive all of their advice from other Americans who have been there once or twice before and who are well meaning and intentioned but know very little more than the advice given to them by previous American visitors. I'm trying to help and break that cycle as I see no advice from the French and so as a Brit who knows the area ........ well I do my best!

 

Experiences are about a combination of things. If you want to see lots of Americans why come to Europe and hire a bus and spend the day doing tourist things with a bunch of other Americans off of the same boat ...... then follow the advice of previous Americans who post. Easy peasy.

 

Eze is a lovely place. It isn't lovelier than the other places I've mentioned, except if you like those places that are purposefully preserved for tourists. If you want a relaxing memorable day and have a partner you like and want to be alone with then I've merely suggested some relaxing alternatives to the well worn trek.

 

I call this the Stonehenge syndrome. Every person feels compelled to go to Stonehenge. It's a few miles from my UK base. Almost everyone that goes, is pleased they have at least gone there. However, at least half are a bit dissapointed. But because its so inaccessible many people spend their whole time going there. So they miss much more.

 

Thats my point.

 

Monanco and Eze are perfectly good places to visit. But who says that they are better than quiter less stressful and more accesiible places. That is all I'm trying to offer as an alternative.

 

Jeff

[Susan-M]

Hi Jeff,

 

Thanks for the feedback and I appreciate your opinion. We like to get "off the beaten track" and enjoy some quiet time away from the crowds, which is why your post on the walk to Cap Ferrat appealed to me. One day in each port is not enough & this is one area that I hope to come back to for a longer stay, so won't worry about seeing all of the major attractions this time.

 

We live very near to Niagara Falls and I can relate to the 'Stonehenge syndrome' - but when you are a tourist, it's so hard to pass up on the 'must see' sights. As a local though, it's hard not to shake your head at the absurdity of it all.