Cinque Terre Shore Excursions from Livorno Port

Marta Bettini was our guide (my husband and me) we booked a private tour. She was right on time. And she and driver were very kind and knowledgeable. We cannot hope for something better. This was one of our favorite shore excursions thanks to Marta.

Don't get me wrong... A tour at Cinque Terre sells itself. How can you not be impressed by the scenery and unique villages. My review for this tour is just to let folks know that this is really NOT a guided tour. It was more like a private transfer from Livorno to one of the starting town at Cinque Terre. Our guide Carlo picked us up on time at the cruise port when we arrive. Although the car was a Mercendes, it was pretty beat up, which is fine, He recommended us to go to one of the big city to take a ferry along the coast of Cinque Terre which was a great idea. Carlo was not going on the ferry with us, We had hope that he would at least help us purchase the ferry tickets, but we sorted of had to figure that out by ourselves... He then told us how we can travel via ferry to the last village, get off to get a bite to each on the waterfront, then take the train back visiting each villages from a different vintage point. When we were ready to go back to Livorno, we can call him and he will bring the car to which ever village we were at and pick us up. So that is the jest of the tour. I can understand how it is very difficult for a guide to escort you all the way, but I just thought that someone should indicate that in the description and review.

Driver arrived on time at Port and was very friendly, introduced himself individually to us all. Spoke very good English. We told him that we would prefer the beach in the return rather than Pisa as we'd all seen Pisa before....the descriptive said we had this option yet the driver said there wouldn't be time, only time for a quick visit to Pisa...so our first disappointment. We got in the vehicle, very clean and air conditioned, no water, yet the day before when we were in Rome, also booked through Viator, the driver had water for us. Anyway moving on he drove to our first of five villages, what we didn't know was that our first leg of the trip would take nearly 2 hours !!! When we got to the first village the views were breathtaking and we had a guided walk around and up to the church, take good walking shoes with you as it's all uneven, slight incline but nothing major, I've a weak right knee and I was ok. A point to make, have some coins with you for the toilets, it's a strange system, you put money in machine and that opens the appropriate numbered door...anyway moving onto the second village, again lovely scenery and breathtaking views, next village we asked could we stop for a bit of lunch, driver took us to a pizza takeaway, we wanted a sit down, anyway eventually found one suitable. All boarded the vehicle for the next round of the trip and we asked about the boat trip, driver said wasn't really in the schedule !!!! We questioned this and showed him the description, anyway he took us to pick the ferry up......over another hour in the vehicle !!!!! By this time we were fed up of being in the van and glad to get out for some alternative transportation.....boarded the ferry and went along the coastline, he did say slight incline after the steps and he would meet us at the top....road pedestrianised. Well after getting off the boat, we climbed and climbed and climbed, only then to hit the Main Street leading up to the van.....it was an absolute nightmare, I was ready for collapsing one hundred metres from where our driver was. Even people in our part who are extremely fit found the incline very difficult, especially in those extreme temperatures....and had to go and get the driver to reverse to enable me to get into the van, after that we were taken back to the ship. A lot of money, was it worth it, no it wasn't and the descriptive needs to expand more on how much time your actually in a vehicle and those affected by motion sickness as it's all windy bendy roads, there's no escape. Yes we did see beautiful scenery and got lovely views over the sea and in the villages but was it worth the long long drive, in my opinion no it wasn't, but that's a matter of opinion. None of our party realised how long the travelling was and we had two children with us too a better option would have been to take us to the first village and let us take the boat from there, calling at each village at our leisure with the option of either Pisa or The Beach, we all had our beach stuff with us and the children were looking forward to that, which never happened. Not the drivers fault as he's only following instructions from the company he works for but really the description needs re wording so people are fully aware of what they are going to get.

Our Guide was very informative and knew the area well. He took us to 3 of the 5 villages and then drove us for an unexpected stop to view the Ferrari race that was going on. He then stopped at the store so we could pick up a few items that we had forgotten and overheard one of our friends say that she had not seen the Leaning tower of Pisa so on his way back to our cruise ship a small surprise stop to see the leaning tower. Great tour and well worth the money spent!!!

The villages of Cinque Terre are worthy of their UNESCO heritage designation. They should be on everyoe's bucket list. The villages cling to the mountain side. Our guide, Leonardo Soricelli, spoke excellent English, and he was very knowledgeable. We had an all day private tour with him. And he provided us with the added treat of visiting PIsa, and seeing the leaning tower and other sites in the immediate area. I would highly recommend this tour and Leonardo as your guide.

Excellent driver guide Leonardo, I believe - we went to 5 Terre by car since boat service was not frequent and in our party 2 had difficulty walking - went to Porto Venere absolutely beautiful on the way there - spectacular scenery - great shore excursion.

I highly recommend this tour. We had Leonardo as our tour guide and he was amazing. Our boat ended up having to do our itinerary backwards because of weather and this excursion ended up landing on Christmas Day. We called and Leonardo still came out on Christmas day to tour us around. We could not have been more grateful for this. This tour was personalized to what we wanted to do. Leonardo walked with us everywhere we went and gave us the history behind everything we saw. I would highly recommend booking with Leonardo and if I am ever back in the area he will be my first choice!

We all were excited about visiting Cinque Terre and our guide, Leonardo, exceeded all our expectations. He even arranged a private boat to take us along the five villages. It was all the same things that made this tour amazing - finding us a lunch spot etc. Such a lovely and informative guy.

High praise for Viator! They got us on the Discovery Tuscany with Leonardo Soricelli the night before the tour! The staff at Viator were very professional and helpful. Thanks to them and to our tour guide Leonardo, we had such an incredible and memorable day! Leonardo arrived at the Livorno port promptly in the morning. He accompanied us on the boat to Cinque Terre and guided us on the tour to three villages. Ample time to swim at the beach and to shop. Do not miss this tour! Our tour guide Leonardo was very patient and accommodating. His nine passenger Mercedes van was a plus too!

This tour was excellent for the sight seeing and boat trip. We experienced it all - walking, boat trip and train trip. Leonardo was a really good guide - always there to answer questions without being intrusive. Free time in Pisa on the way back to the ship broke the return trip nicely. The hill climb back to the car was hard but we made it and it was an experience!