luvtotravel

We are two women taking a Mediterranean cruise. For our stop in Livorno I am wondering how easy it is to take a train to Lucca, spend several hours, train to Pisa, spend a couple of hours and then train back to our ship in Livorno. The ship's excursion will most likely be sold out by the time we are able to book (we are in a low cabin category and cannot book excursions until we're on the ship). I don't want to pay the cruise line a lot of money and then be herded around in a large group anyway. One option would be to take a taxi one way from the port to Lucca and train back. Not sure how difficult it would be to get a taxi from Lucca to Pisa, and then Pisa to the port. We are scheduled to be in port 11 hours. Of course, I'll have to pay attention to scheduled strikes. Also, if not locked into a group excursion we can alter our plans if it's a rainy day. Thoughts?

doug_stallings

I think a taxi would be cost-prohibitive, but since trains to Lucca have to pass through Pisa this seems a workable thing to do. If you're interested in a private tour, I'd look into that, hiring a car for the full day, but that might be quite expensive for just 2 people.

ira

Hi luv,

It would be cheaper to rent a limo for the day instead of a taxi.

Train schedules are at www.trenitalia.com

It's about 1 hr from Livorno to Lucca, with a train change in Pisa. 12E RT.

Enjoy your visit.

china_cat

Hi luv,
I did not actually do this, but I did do a ton of research before a recent cruise, and this is what I learned.

From the port, where the ship docks, you need to get to the train station in Livorno. You cannot walk out of the port. Your choices are to take a cruise-owned shuttle bus, which may cost around $10/pp or may be free (depends on the cruise line). You can try to take a taxi to the train station, but many will not want to take you that short a distance, and will probably charge you $25.

If you take the shuttle bus, it drops you in town, which is a 20 minute walk to the train station, or you can take a local bus which is relatively cheap.

Once at the train station, it is pretty easy and inexpensive to get a train to Lucca, which does go through Pisa. So that part is pretty easy. All in all, it seems doable, but a little bit of a pain because of the transport from the port. After all my research I had decided to just use the ship's excursion to Pisa (and then, well, I missed the whole cruise because of an illness, but that's another story...)

there are plenty of taxi companies and limo companies that will do pre-booked trips to both. I think Ira is incorrect that a limo will cost less than a taxi. the taxis are unlikely to charge you by the mile, they will make a deal with you for the whole trip and time involved. its probably on the order of 300 euro, though you should definitely check around to get a price.

I highly recommend checking cruise critic, you will find recommendations for specific taxi/limo/day tour companies there.

Another thing to consider is try to share the trip with others. You can do this on cruise critic by signing up for the rollcall and seeing if you can get some more folks to go. Or I believe there is a company which allows you to set up a tour as a shared tour and let others sign on...I can't remember which company it is though. Cruise critic is the place to go to figure this out. If you can get about 6-8 people i think it becomes more reasonably priced for the day.

doug_stallings

@china_cat makes a good point about the excursion to Pisa and Lucca. You can often get someone to team up with you to do an expensive private excursion. Most cruise lines also offer private excursions themselves, and it's usually not a problem if you sign up at the beginning of your cruise. They may be a tad more expensive than what you can do on your own, but it's worth it to have the private experience if you can afford it.

luvtotravel

Thank you for your replies. I'm not sure what we're going to do. I've been checking Cruise Critic to find others taking my sailing and up until now there were very few. I think there are others I can approach to see if they are up for a private tour. The train could be a bit of an adventure, but I don't know how my friend would feel about the uncertainty. I like a little adventure ;-)

China_Cat, I'm sorry that you missed out on your cruise.

Thanks again.
Diane

jan47ete

Wed were on a cruise in Nov with a stop in Livorno.

You must either take the cruise shuttle ($12@) to train station or a cab $25.

I have never heard about booking criteria based on cabin accommodations, so check on that again to be sure.

Check out the trenitalia site to figure out the connections. Our problem was we were going to Cinque Terre and absolutely positively had to catch, I believe, the 845 train. Ship's buses only left when full, so by the time we docked, got off the ship, a cab for us was the only way to go.

On the return the ship's buses met the train and no one asked for our bus ticket. We had one as we had also bought the shuttle tics not knowing the time constraints we would be under to wait for the bus to be full.