Advice/help/experiences with trying to include a quick side trip to Monaco from Villfrance B4 midday Celebrity tour

[tusconcam]

My DW and I are looking for advice and experience(s) reg us trying to utilize  our time and take the train from Villfrance to  Monaco/Monte Carlo for a quick sightsee and return before our meeting time at the Cruise Terminal? (where the Tender docks) for 12: 45.

 

As we aren't a coveted Suite or other highly esteemed  passenger status and that we have the Celebrity tour at midday; we are worried that we will get off the ship and over to shore with not enough time to take our  little side-trip before we comfortably meet with our tour to  Nice and Eze.

 

Any experience in doing this? the logistics of it? Feasibility? Tips? or worst case : other alternatives within Villefrance?

 

Help with this is greatly appreciated.

Thnx 

Cameron and Linda

[capriccio]

I suggest posting this on 2 other boards:

 

The Celebrity board since where it will be seen by more Celebrity passengers.

 

The France Ports of Call board which you might research to see if others have asked about making that side trip.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by capriccio

[Host Kat]

6 hours ago, tusconcam said:

My DW and I are looking for advice and experience(s) reg us trying to utilize  our time and take the train from Villfrance to  Monaco/Monte Carlo for a quick sightsee and return before our meeting time at the Cruise Terminal? (where the Tender docks) for 12: 45.

 

As we aren't a coveted Suite or other highly esteemed  passenger status and that we have the Celebrity tour at midday; we are worried that we will get off the ship and over to shore with not enough time to take our  little side-trip before we comfortably meet with our tour to  Nice and Eze.

 

Any experience in doing this? the logistics of it? Feasibility? Tips? or worst case : other alternatives within Villefrance?

 

Help with this is greatly appreciated.

Thnx 

Cameron and Linda

 

@tusconcam

 

Thank you for your new thread on the Ask a Cruise Question forum. It is the forum for general questions regarding cruising. However, your thread is off topic there since your topic concerns a specific cruise line tour and a specific port of call.

 

Since you have already posted on the France Ports forum, I have moved your thread to the Celebrity Cruises forum where hopefully you will get more advice concerning the feasibility of the ship's tour & what you want to do.

 

I suggest you use the Follow feature on this thread or any other thread where you are interested in the new replies. That way you will not have to go looking to see if there are new replies because they will come looking for you as notifications! If you need more info on how to do it, please click the following: How to: Follow Topics & Forums (Subscribed Threads/Forums Info)

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat

 

[Jim_Iain]

5 hours ago, tusconcam said:

My DW and I are looking for advice and experience(s) reg us trying to utilize  our time and take the train from Villfrance to  Monaco/Monte Carlo for a quick sightsee and return before our meeting time at the Cruise Terminal? (where the Tender docks) for 12: 45.

 

As we aren't a coveted Suite or other highly esteemed  passenger status and that we have the Celebrity tour at midday; we are worried that we will get off the ship and over to shore with not enough time to take our  little side-trip before we comfortably meet with our tour to  Nice and Eze.

 

Any experience in doing this? the logistics of it? Feasibility? Tips? or worst case : other alternatives within Villefrance?

 

Help with this is greatly appreciated.

Thnx 

Cameron and Linda

 

I think it might be possible but could be difficult to do in the allotted time.   They use local tenders in Villefrance and without priority you may have very little time to actually take the tender - walk or cab to the train station take the 30-50 minute train to Monaco and then have enough time to do anything before having to rush back to the ship.

 

Couple resources

https://www.raileurope.com/en-us/destinations/villefranche-sur-mer-monaco-train

 

Google Maps

 

 

[mahdnc]

I know that this doesn't directly answer your question but it offers a solution to your problem: I would seriously consider taking a private tour that combines Monaco, Eze, and Nice.  If you can get others on your roll call to join you, it will reduce your cost burden.  We did exactly that during our Med cruise when Infinity anchored in Villefranche in 2007.  It was one of the highlights of the cruise.

 

Saint Paul de Vence

Edited April 10, 2023 by mahdnc

[Arizona Wildcat]

With the time limitation you are in the maybe category.  If you are able to get there and back you would have almost zero time in Monaco.  Not sure you could even do that.

Your post is a bit confusing as to when.  Before you cruise, on a port call or?

 

 

[dock]

It’s too tight a timeline imo to see much of anything in Monaco and you’ll probably be stressed about making it back for your other tour in time. 
 

I’d leave it for another trip.

[scrapcreator]

Why not a tour that includes all in one? We did a tour with Italytours.eu when we were on the Beyond last June There were the four of us and another couple in a comfortable van and we had a great day. 

 

Check with your Roll Call and see if anyone is doing a similar.

[Pantheral]

Even with tender priority, I think this would be a stretch, without it, highly unlikely.

 

As others have commented, if you wanted to see all of the areas, I'd recommend booking a private tour. We booked one through Tours By Locals in 2017. We had an excellent tour guide who took us all over the area, including some villages inaccessible by the tour buses. It was 5 of us in a van, tour lasted 5-6 hours and cost per person was competitive with the ship tours.  

 

Good luck and enjoy!

[dezzy]

Hi, we have done a trip into Monaco a couple of times but it very much depends on when you are going. If it is in May when the motor racing is on, do not try as the trains are very busy, on one occasion we nearly didn’t make it back which was very stressful. For about 4 weeks before and two weeks after the F1 the streets are blocked by grandstands and you cannot get around , especially around the Cafe du Paris so not really worth going.