Livorno port

Anyone been to Cinque Terre from Livorno port. Is day trip too short? Too crowded and hot in summer? Any experience and info would be great.

When are you going - ?? We are doing this in a couple of weeks! I will post our experience when we get back.

Our ship is in port from 8:00 to 8:00 so it's a bit of a longer day. We are renting a car from Hertz (Sifra) car rentals, they apparently bring the vehicle right to the port. My DH is very comfortable driving in Italy. I heard that parking can be a challenge once there so we I have reserved a parking spot at the La Spezia train station (1 day parking = 18.00 Euros)... I hope I booked it OK... most of the instructions were in Italian. We are going to take the train from there and visit a few of the towns either by train, hike, and/or ferry... this will depend on weather of course.

I did do a search on this forum and there were a lot of good posts with recommendations when I was planning.

We did a ship sponsored excursion to Cinque Terre from Livorno last September. We left at 7:30 AM and the ship waited for us to arrive slightly late after 5 PM.

We were able to spend time in Manarola, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare where we had time for a nice lunch at Belvedere. We travelled by train between the villages rather than ferry because of the sea conditions.

The trip was definitely worthwhile. Given the distance from the port and the need for either ferry or train connections we felt that this was one time that we were better off with a ship sponsored excursion rather than arranging a tour ourselves.

We wish we had more time but were grateful we got to visit these beautiful villages. If the ship had docked in La Spezia we would have arranged our own tour.

Enjoy your trip!

I will be in Livorno last week of August. Thinking of doing https://italytoursharing.com/livorno-port/cinque-terre-pisa. I am not very fit so a little afraid of the hiking with the extreme hot weather and afraid to miss the ship.

I will be in Livorno last week of August. Thinking of doing https://italytoursharing.com/livorno-port/cinque-terre-pisa. I am not very fit so a little afraid of the hiking with the extreme hot weather and afraid to miss the ship.

You do not have to hike... the trains run frequently between towns and there is the ferry (weather permitting). But I do understand going with a tour company for a peace of mind and probably a more relaxing day.

We are using the above company for an excursion in Sorrento.

Another 'share excursions' company is this one:

http://www.shareashoreexcursioninitaly.com/login

We are using them for the Civitavecchia port with some fellow cruisers and I know some people are using this company for a trip to Cinque Terre from Livorno. If you can get a full van it's pretty reasonable.

Although no one here has mentioned it, I do want to point out that it only makes sense to go to Cinque Terre from Livorno by car (rental car, car service) or an excursion. You cannot realistically do this by train ... you can get there and back but you'd have almost no time actually there, it's just not worth it.

We were 6 adults that did this excursion back in 2008. Papillon Service picked us up in Livorno in a very comfortable vehicle, dropped us off at the first village, Portovenere, and helped us buy the ferry tickets. If the weather conditions are good, I strongly recommend doing it by ferry....the views of the villages hugging the cliffs as you approach each one are simply magical! My camera had a very good workout that day...I was so happy I had extra batteries and a high capacity memory card. When we reached the final village, the Papillon driver was there waiting for us to take us back to our ship. As we had some extra time to spare, our driver agreed to stop in Pisa on the way back for one more look at the famous tower. All in all it was a fabulous day!

i used italytoursharing.com to Cinque terre the first time I went. They were excellent. I actually stayed in Monterosso for 3 nights in July. Definitely, one of my favourite places to see while on a cruise. I highly recommend going there.