jmq21

Would love to get recommendations for hotels or an agriturismo near Lucca.
Only staying one night on a second round. We would be leaving early in the morning (around 6am) to catch a 9:30am flight out of Pisa Airport.

Is it worth it to stay at an agriturismo near Lucca or Pisa?
Again, need to get to the Pisa airport early in the morning.

Thanks

Jean

"Only staying one night on a second round."

Does that mean you've been to Lucca before?

Where will you be coming from? By car or train?

MmePerdu

You don't say how you plan to get to Pisa, car or train. In either case, I suggest, for just one night and a relatively early flight, you stay in Pisa with an easy connection to the airport.

jmq21

Sorry, here's more information:

Jean, we are only staying one night on a second round. We have already visited Pisa (in a different trip) and we are planning on visiting Lucca when we are in Tuscany.

Here's our plan so far.

Aug 25 AM: land in Pisa, travel to Cinque Terre

Aug 25 - 27: Cinque Terre

Aug 27 - Sep 3 - visit various Tuscany towns. Base is Borgo Alla Vigne (Hilton Timeshare) Towns are still TBD. Wish list (which is too long) includes: Florence, Lucca, Siena, Cortona, San Gimignano, Assisi, Montelpuciano, Cortona. We obviously need to narrow down the list but it's so hard!

Sep 3: Travel to Venice

Sep 3- 6: Venice

Sep 6: Travel to Lucca

Sep 6 -7: Lucca or Pisa --- THIS IS THE NIGHT I AM LOOKING TO BOOK

Sep 7: 9:35 AM flight from Pisa to USA

mmePerdu: We are not sure how we are going to get to the PSA airport from Lucca. We could rent a car in Venice and travel to Lucca that way, then keep it so we can drive ourselves to the PSA airport. This only makes sense if we can easily park in Lucca. Or we could take the train from Venice to Lucca and then take the train from Lucca to PSA airport?
What do you all think? Is it easy to find a hotel with parking in Lucca?

MmePerdu

There is no parking inside the wall in Lucca. There are, however, paid parking lots outside around it. The train is so good for Lucca, I've never had a car there so can give you no specifics but I remember the owner of our apartment telling us they were available. And as you likely know, Lucca is small and flat so it wouldn't be a hardship to stay within and park not far outside. You would have to move your luggage on foot though. I have no doubt there are hotels outside the wall with parking but why go to Lucca and stay outside? Finish in Pisa is still my suggestion.

I think it's always nice to stay not far from the airport for a morning flight. Car or train, you could go to a Pisa hotel in the evening and loose virtually no time elsewhere. If you have a car, paying attention to closing time of car agencies, you could return your car the day before, have a nice dinner in Pisa and not have to scramble. Always my first choice.

Jean

Maybe this will make your Tuscany exploring decisions easier... The drives from your base to Montepulciano, Cortona and Assisi are all over 2 hours each way using main roads (not charming meanders through the countryside). Since you have to park outside of the towns and walk in/out, you should add another 30+ minutes to your overall travel times. That means your day trip to Assisi will involve about 6 hours of travel overall. Cortona and Montepulciano about 5.5 hours each. If I were you, I'd think about different places that are closer to where you're staying. Volterra, Certaldo combined with San Gimignano, a couple of towns in Chianti, Vinci combined with Montecatini Terme. MT is actually two towns; a lower Art Nouveau/Belle Epoque spa town and an upper medieval town, connected by a funicular.

Reading54

Hotel Rex in Lucca, http://www.hotelrexlucca.com/, is located at Lucca's train station square just outside the old town walls. It is a very convenient location for arrival/departure by trains.

PISA airport is very small, so arriving two hours before flight may be good enough? To look up train schedule from Lucca to "PISA FERMATA AEROPORTO", go to http://www.trenitalia.com/ and type (auto-fill) your starting and ending points. It seems you'll take a 40~50 minute regional train to PISA CENTRALE and then change to a bus for an 8-minute ride (or take a taxi) to the airport.

Regional trains are not always on time. I would not want to cut it very short when a plane ride is dependent on it.

Reading54

I meant "cut it very close" when a plane ride is dependent on it.

jmq21

Thank you all for all your recommendations. Still unsure whether we are going to stay in Lucca or Pisa the night before. I think for now I will make reservations in both cities until I decide. having to take a train and then a bus was not my idea of what I wanted to be doing so early in the morning the day we are leaving. If we go the car rental route and rent a car to drive from Venice to Lucca, it might be easier since we can just drive to the airport and drop off the car there the morning of our flight. But then, we have to worry about parking in Lucca. So there are tradeoffs with either one.

On another topic, I'm looking for recommendations of interesting and/or exciting activities to do while in Tuscany. I am talking about activities other than sightseeing. More active or outdoor activities. For example:

Bike or Scooter tours
Tuscan Cooking Class
Winery tour and tasking
Olive Grove Tour
Farm Visit and Lunch or Dinner
Horseback riding

We are two couples in the 50s and are very active.

kybourbon

I would arrive Pisa and take the train to Venice first. After Venice, pick up a car for the Tuscany/CT portion (you can park it for the day or two of CT or skip CT if it rains), drop car at airport for flight.