organized vs independent Siena/San G
 

I have noticed that in previous posts reference to organized tours (1 day) to Siena and San Gimignano as opposed to traveling independently, which I found curious, since "we" the forum "we" seem to pretty much prefer independant travel. What are your thoughts, and costs that make the tour idea a wiser one?

Unless you have a car, it is impossible to do San Gimignano and Siena in one day.

To get to San Gimignano, you take a train to Poggibonsi and then a bus to San Gimignano.

Even if you take the bus back to Poggibonsi, there is no train connection between Poggibonsi and Siena.

Are you sure about this Eloise? I'm pretty sure that a friend went to both the same day.

I don't know how accurate this webpage is, but according to it, there's a bus between Siena and San Gimignano.

http://www.toursbyroberto.com/transportation.htm

I only took the bus between Siena and Florence once, so I can't speak for the Siena and San Gimignano out of personal experience.

Some other random trip report -- the writer claims that he/she took a bus between Siena and San Gimignano.

http://www.gregmce.com/italy/day04.html

If there's a bus it certainly doesn't seem impossible to do both in the same day but it would be a very long day.

(Supposedly the bus between Siena and San Gimignano is a little over one hour; the express bus between Florence and Siena is 75 minutes.)

I think it would be difficult to do both in the same day on your own. CAFTours does have an excursion that I have taken that lets you visit both towns. I enjoyed the trip, but it's not by any means preferrable to actually spending a day or two in each city. If you're pressed for time, it's better than not seeing them at all.

I stayed in Siena for a few days and from there I took a local bus one afternoon to San Gimignano. The bus leaves from Piazza Gramsci and takes just over an hour. It might be too much to try to visit both places in the same day. Have you considered spending at least one night in Siena?

111op: I plead innocent on a technicality: I said there was no train between Poggibonsi and Siena.

It would certainly seem that there is a bus between San Gimignano and Siena whose existence I was unaware of, having once done an organized one-day San Gimignano/Siena tour and having spent two nights each in San Gimignano and Siena on another occasion.

And frankly, I find most of the Italian bus schedules just too darned complicated to read!

While I do not like organized tours, the organized tour of San G. and Siena is by far the easiest way to do it.

On the tour I took, we spent 1.5 hours in San G. and the rest in Siena. Overall, I liked it

JSLee- what tour company did you go through? did you book it here or in Florence?

Can't say. My hotel booked it for me. All I can say is the tour office was diagonally across the street from the Florence train station. Check with your hotel for booking help, or book as soon as you arrive in Florence. The sooner the better, I lucked out and got one of three places left on the days the trip was offered.

Double decker busses. Lunch on your own or with the group. On your own gives you more time to wander.

It sounds like CAF. www.caftours.com Same one I took. Very pleasant. Also, check out their Chianti wine tour.

Of course is possible to do in one day, even without a car.
Thrain stop at poggibonsi..I tokk a day trip from Florence to San Gimigliano and Siena this past June.
Check trenitalia.com

Please excuse my typing errors..:)

I found the organized tour to be a pretty good compromise, assuming time is short and you only have time for one daytrip during your stay in Florence.
We too had two hours or less in San G which frankly didn't impress me all that much as a town. No doubt there were aspects of it I didn't experience, but I didn't feel that bad about leaving it after a very short visit, it didn't make a 'wow' impression.

I loved Siena on that same trip, it definitely whetted my desire to want to spend lots more time there. Once in Siena, we left the bus group (I think a brief guided tour was being offered, don't recall exactly) and we wandered Siena on our own, saw the Duomo of course, browsed, got back to the bus in plenty of time.

Getting out of Florence in the morning on the tour bus was very slow going due to rush hour traffic, but I assume even public buses have that same problem.

The next entry in my Trip Report will be our day trip to Siena/San Gim. We did this independently and in one day. I'd post a link to the Report, but I'm not sure how. Just click on my name and you can get to the trip report. I probably won't be able to finish the next installment for a day or two, though.

Suffice it to say that we took the train from Florence through Poggibonsi and on to Siena. Then took a bus to San Gim. To get home, well that was another adventure altogether and I don't want to steal the thunder from my report!

We did feel like we needed lots more time in Siena, though. If I had it to do again, I would have seperated them into two days.

It has always been my understanding that it is more convenient to take the bus from Florence to Siena, because no change is needed (direct service).

Years ago, Italy expert Paulo on this forum posted the following (I've abridged it a bit) as the best logisticis for a one-day trip from Florence to both Siena and San G.
I'd ignore the specific bus and train times indicated until they can be confirmed by current schedule, but I'm assuming the logistics still work.

"…San G. doesn't have a train station of its own. It's served by the train station at Poggibonsi and a bus or taxi to shuttle between both cities would be called for…There aren't direct buses from Florence to San G…
There are frequent buses both ways between Siena and San G…The last express bus from Siena to Florence on a Saturday leaves at 7:10pm. I don't know exactly when the last bus leaves from San G. to Florence but you may assume that it's also around 7pm. The last train from San G./Poggibonsi into Florence leaves at 9:45pm, arriving at 10:44pm. From Siena it leaves at 9:23pm, arriving at 10:45pm...
I would take an early (6:30am or 7:10am) SITA through bus from Florence to Siena (arriving at 8:00/8:40am; SITA bus station in Siena is across the square in front of S.M.Novella train station). After visiting some of Siena and lunch, I would find my way to San G. midafternoon. After visiting and having an early dinner, I would get a taxi to Poggibonsi and a train back to Florence."

I beleive catbert is correct on the tour I took. www.caftours.com There map matches my pickup area, but when I went they did not have as many pichup sites.