Is it worth do it your self in Italy

[AudBee]

Does anyone know the costing of train tickets, bus/taxi transfers etc when in Rome and Florence. On previous cruise we have booked the ships on your own tours.

 

What kind of savings would we be looking at, if doing it ourselves. 2 adults and 1 child. Thanks in advance for any help. Princess prices are $60 per person for their on your own coaches, so we will be looking at $180 dollars a day, I think this is around 125 euros. Will it be a whole lot cheaper if we take the train and taxis ourselves.

 

Thanks x

[texancruzer]

Realize you are new to Cruise Critic so you may not know about the Search feature. There must be about a million threads :D on using the trains/buses etc. to get around on your own including how to, the cost, the bad parts etc etc.

 

Please try a search for the information you are looking for........ then if you have a specific question it will be easier to answer :)

[cruisemom42]

In a word: yes. It is much cheaper to do it on your own. For example, in Civitavecchia, you can get off the ship, take the free port shuttle to the port entrance, walk to the train station, and purchase a BIRG ticket. This ticket costs 9 euro per person and includes your ROUND TRIP train ticket as well as FREE use of Rome's metro and bus system for the day. It is a wonderful bargain. If you are not physically handicapped, willing to do a little research, and are somewhat used to navigating your way around a city, then I certainly recommend DIY.

 

As the previous poster said, there are many discussions on this board that tell exactly how to do this for both Rome and Florence (Livorno).

[GSPLover]

Does anyone know the costing of train tickets, bus/taxi transfers etc when in Rome and Florence. On previous cruise we have booked the ships on your own tours.

 

What kind of savings would we be looking at, if doing it ourselves. 2 adults and 1 child. Thanks in advance for any help. Princess prices are $60 per person for their on your own coaches, so we will be looking at $180 dollars a day, I think this is around 125 euros. Will it be a whole lot cheaper if we take the train and taxis ourselves.

 

Thanks x

 

As previous posts have said, you can DIY and save many $$$ by doing so. I am a big advocate of DIY, especially when it comes to trains (see sig line). Do some research and you'll find that it is not that difficult.

[Hlitner]

Let me try to give you an idea of the savings we get by seldom taking any tours. A party of 3 would spend over $200 to just take the transfer bus from a ship to Rome). The same party of 3 could take the free shuttle bus from the ship to the port entrance (we are talking about Civitavecchia), walk the 4 blocks to the train station, and than they could buy 3 BIRG tickets (this covers round trip train to Rome and a full days use of the Metro and bus system in Rome) for about $40. If you only wanted regular train tickets to Rome the cost would be under $30. It is a similar situation getting from Livorno to Florence except that you would have to pay about 40 -50 Euros (total cost for up to 4) for round trip taxis between the pier and the Livorno train station. We have met families on Med cruises who told us they spent more money on excursions than on the cruise! For us, Med cruises are pretty reasonable since we avoid tours and use trains, buses, and rental cars...not to mention a lot of walking.

 

Hank

[AudBee]

Thanks Hank, most helpful, will bite the bullet and do it ourselves this year. Just hope I dont miss the boat!!!!!!!!!!! LOL :eek:

[baljaffray]

Just back from Med yesterday,will post review asap.Did everything DIY,family of 4.Trains no probs,except on the day we docked at Livorno,we heard the night before there was a train strike,so RCCL put on more buses for the 'on your own trips', We had to pay $334 for this, I was gutted we could not travel by train, as the day before Rome was EASY, but you must always have a plan B.

[alexant]

Yes, we will be cruising in Oct and I think we will do more things on our own....a little apprehensive but would really like to save that money!