Fastest Way from Cruise Port to Florence

[Evangaline]

We need to Get to Florence for a tour that starts there at 10am. It's a special tour and we would like to do it, but I'm really not a morning person, so does anyone know what is the fastest way to get there from the port and how long does it take? I gather one option is the train, but how do you get to the train station and does that take time. Can you get a taxi to take you to Florence or do you need to take out a mortgage to cover the cost of doing it that way?

[euro cruiser]

A cab would be wickedly expensive, I would guess in the 300-400 Euro range for the day.

 

The train station in Livorno is at Piazza Dante, which is about two miles from the cruise port. By far the fastest way there is a taxi, which will change you 20 - 25 Euro for the trip (but you can share the cab with up to six people).

 

The train from Livorno Centrale to Florence takes 1:20 - 1:40, depending on the train.

 

What time are you expected to arrive in Livorno? Also, where is the tour you want to join meeting?

 

The 8:12 train arrives in Florence at 9:32, which should give you plenty of time to meet your tour.

[Keith1010]

Are you on a group tour or a private tour.

 

Be sure you have away of reaching the tour operator if you run late.

 

Even with the best plans things can go wrong (ship arriving late, train breaks down and so forth).

 

Keith

[Evangaline]

A cab would be wickedly expensive, I would guess in the 300-400 Euro range for the day.

 

The train station in Livorno is at Piazza Dante, which is about two miles from the cruise port. By far the fastest way there is a taxi, which will change you 20 - 25 Euro for the trip (but you can share the cab with up to six people).

 

The train from Livorno Centrale to Florence takes 1:20 - 1:40, depending on the train.

 

What time are you expected to arrive in Livorno? Also, where is the tour you want to join meeting?

 

The 8:12 train arrives in Florence at 9:32, which should give you plenty of time to meet your tour.

 

I will be on the Epic, so it is supposed to arrive at 7am. This means I should probably be off the ship and looking for a taxi by 730-745, right? This is crazy early. This company will put together a later tour, I think, if I can gather up one other person. Do you know when the next train leaves and arrives?

[nparmelee]

Trains are roughly hourly, 8:12, 9:10, 10:06. Most places people go to from Livorno do require at least an hour in each direction travel time so the earlier you can get going the better off you'll be. When you say you aren't a morning person what time is reasonable to you? What tour are you looking at taking in Florence? You'll also need to make sure it finishes early enough to get the train back to Livorno with time to get back to the ship at the end of the day.

[euro cruiser]

The distance from the port to Florence makes getting up early a necessity. Even if the tour operator would delay the start, you have to worry about leaving with enough time to get back to the ship (with some pad, just in case).

[Evangaline]

The ship doesn't leave until 7pm, so that is not a problem. It looks like I will have to get on the 8:10 am train to do this, but another thing is that the meeting point is 1.5 kilomters from the train station in Florence. We could try to hoof it by foot, but that would really vut things fine. Does anyone know if there are always taxis outside the train stations. There would be no time to phone for one.

[euro cruiser]

There will be dozens of taxis right outside the train station in Florence.

 

As for the return, if your ship departs at 7 the "on board" time will be 6:30. You need to allow 30 minutes to get from the train station in Livorno back to the port, in case there aren't any (or enough) taxis at the station when you arrive (keep in mind that there will be dozens of cruisers getting off the same train vying for the available cabs).

 

Therefore, the very last train you can be on needs to arrive in Livorno by 6 PM and, for safety's sake, I always take the next to the last train that will work.

 

The last two trains that will get you back on time are:

 

3:28 (arrives 4:48)

4:28 (arrives 5:50)

[KirkNC]

We have found the bigger challenge is not getting to the train station but getting back from the station to the ship. Be sure to allow plenty of time as getting a taxi back can take a while.

[RocketCity]

A cab would be wickedly expensive, I would guess in the 300-400 Euro range for the day.

 

The train station in Livorno is at Piazza Dante, which is about two miles from the cruise port. By far the fastest way there is a taxi, which will change you 20 - 25 Euro for the trip (but you can share the cab with up to six people).

 

The train from Livorno Centrale to Florence takes 1:20 - 1:40, depending on the train.

 

What time are you expected to arrive in Livorno? Also, where is the tour you want to join meeting?

 

The 8:12 train arrives in Florence at 9:32, which should give you plenty of time to meet your tour.

 

We did the train route several years ago after reading the "how to" advice. We disembarked from the ship at the first call. Our only hitch was the port shuttles were not running for another hour, and the taxis would not take anyone to the train station they only wanted to do tours. We did what the boards suggested-got a full mini taxi of folks, negotiated a price to the train station and went. We, too, had people with reservations and they were just frantic. That was a Princess cruise and perhaps Carnival will offer a more timely shuttle. FYI. The shuttle then was about the same price as it was to share a taxi.

 

Returning to the port, we took a cab to the shuttle stop and then the shuttle the rest of the way.

 

Plan on doing the same again in February. It was easy to take the train and we were sure we had enough funds to get back to the ship if we had to take a taxi for worst case scenario (train trouble or a strike). Be sure you take the info for the port contact in case of emergency.