Last minute plans for a Mediterrenean cruise with Celebrity - getting to town(s)
 

Greetings fellow fodorites!!<BR><BR>My Mom and I were to travel to China next month, but as of this morning, our plans have changed. The tour company postponed our trip - we'll go next year.<BR><BR>I'm working VERY quickly to make new travel arrangements for a Med. cruise with Celebrity Cruises (12-night Eastern Europe, on the Millennium) in early May. <BR><BR>I don't care to pay those expensive prices for shore excursions and would like your help on a few places as far as getting to them from the ports. <BR><BR>I know how to get to town for Rome (train), Athens (metro), and Santorini (walk or cable car), but can anyone tell me how to get to the center of town for villefranche, France, Florence, and the Amalfi coast (arriving in Naples). I plan to do as much research with in the next 3 weeks, but would appreciate any feedback.<BR><BR>Thanks so much!<BR><BR>Monica<BR>[email protected]

For the Amalfi coast - walk down the pier from the ship in Naples - at the street you will see several kiosks for ferries to the coast. Just buy your ticket and watch your time to make sure you get back. ALWAYS figure out which bus, train, boat, etc. will get you back in time for ship's departure, and then take the one BEFORE that. Just in case.

For Florence, get a group of four together and then hire a cab at the pier to drive you from the port (Livorno) to Florence and then wait to drive you back. We found that it was cheaper than booking the transportation from the cruise line (Princess in our case). We told the driver we would pay him when we got back to the pier. If he didn't wait for us we would have hired another cab in Florence to get us back to the port. But he met us at the appointed time and place in Florence and we stopped in Pisa on the way back. It was a wonderful day!<BR>In Cannes we rented a Hertz car for the day and drove to St. Paul-de-vince via Cap d'Antibes so perhaps you could something similar if so inclined. My firend drove: I would not! But it was another fabulous day.<BR>The train to Rome is great. We didn't stop in Naples but we did stop in Sorrento and took the ferry to Capri, another winner.<BR>What a great cruise you'll be taking and you won't have to worry about SARS.

For Florence there is very good train service and you can even stop at Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. You can take a taxi to the train - very inexpensive.<BR>It is a shorter train ride to Florence than it is to Rome.

Florence - definitely taxi to train station (be the first off the ship to get a taxi interested in the fare), train to Florence - train station only ten blocks from anything you'll want to see), train back to Livorno and if time - get off at Pisa - taxi to tower and back.<BR><BR>Naples - three alternatives. Train to Pompeii, hydrofoil to Sorrento (Amalfi coast) or hydrofoil to Capri. You can do two of the three if you plan accordingly.<BR><BR>Villefranche - you'll tender into the town (very small) - walk thru the town to the train station and either go south to Nice or north to Monte Carlo. If you go north, you can get off at Eze and walk up (or take bus) to &quot;old&quot; Eze for a medieval walled town with great shops and a perfume factory.<BR><BR>Peter

Thanks everyone!!!!!!<BR>

Yes DMG, I am glad to not to have to worry about SARS. We're very excited about this new trip! I spent the last 2 days making travel arrangements, including hotels in Barcelona and Venice, so we can extend our stay.<BR><BR>I will definitely make sure we have ample time to return to the ship. I can't imagine the horror of missing the boat.<BR><BR>Thanks everyone for your comments. I'll do some research on train schedules.<BR><BR>Take care,<BR><BR>Monica