Cinque Terre Oceania excursion

[kreastman]

Does anyone have some feedback on Oceania's Cinque Terre excursion? Is it worth taking vs. seeing the towns on your own (by train)? Also, has anyone used the new ferry service that runs from La Spezia (http://www.navigazionegolfodeipoeti.it/) to four of the five towns (one of them is inaccesible by ferry). A one-day pass is 21 euro (23 on weekends) and you can hop on and off any time.

[mrs. jones]

We did the Cinque Terra with Oceania in November 06 at which point the ferry had ended service. On our own we took the local bus to the train station, got information at the special CT office at the station and boarded the train. It was all quite easy but we had a very brief time in port, not arriving until 1pm so it was quite rushed. Darkness was an issue as well being so late in the year. We had wonderful, warm weather and had a great day. We only got to see 2 towns because sections of the path were under construction and there was no access so we couldn't walk as much as we wanted.

 

It was ridiculously inexpensive to do the whole thing independently and lots of folks from the ship did the same thing. Don't miss Portovenere where we docked! It's a lovely town so leave some time to poke about there.

[Benita]

We took the boat from Portovenere - it stopped right next to where the ship was docked (we were on the Windstar). The ferry sailed to a couple of the towns and then stayed in the second town for a couple of hours, to give everybody a chance for lunch. We hiked from one town to the other along an oceanfront path (easy hike) and took the ferry back after lunch. Great experience and very inexpensive.

[rick7g]

Take the train, easy, on time, and very inexpensive.