Med ports on your own - 2011

[ga9497]

Great article from NY Times about Naples - was just posted June 7 2011 so info is current

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/naples-must-sees-and-see-what-happens/

 

[Allesma]

Bump

 

[sinnika]

Did the train ticket give you access to the vineyard hike? What about the via dell'amore between Riomaggiore and Manarola? We don't plan on doing any other hike, we will travel by train in between towns

Just wondering if we have to purchase anything other than the regular train ticket that is valid for 6 hours

Was looking at purchasing the Cinque Terre train card for 8,5 euros each and also includes use of the buses from the train station to the main square of the towns in case the town is a quite a walk away from the train station

The vineyard hike is free. Its described in Rick Steve's guide to Italy in the Cinque Terre section. We loved the views from there and would have never known about it had it not been for the guidebook. Manarola was our favorite town (so far! We are exploring Monterosso and hopefully Portoverne this trip!)
You will need a Cinque Terre card to walk the via dell amore.

 

[tripodjw]

Question - Did anyone try to purchase tickets at the National Parks office at the train station in La Spezia? I know that this is an option beside the regular ticket office

I was also wondering if we could purchase both a ticket to Pisa and the Cinque Terre card at the same time to save time later on? Kids want to see the leaning tower (not climb it) so thought we would head out there first, spend about two hours in Pisa then head to Cinque Terre

You can only buy the cinque terre treno card at the national park office at the train station. You can't buy it at the regular ticket office.

You also need to remember to validate it in the yellow machines.

 

[tripodjw]

Answers in red

I was afraid of this. I gots lots of questions!!

So you did Cinque Terre on your own and were able to get onto the first "Open Tender"? Correct And what time do you recommend going in order to get one of the tix to be on the first tender? Go to bvt at the time they say the first tender is Was anybody outside of DCL excursions allowed to go on any earlier tenders or were they reserved only for DCL excursions? We didn't try on la speaks day but at villefranche they filled in space on tenders with non-tour people What time did you actually end up making it onto a train? Got on 9am tender, 15 mins on tender, 30 mins walk to station. (no taxis available) 30 mins wait for buying ticket. Got on train at 10.15 it didn't leve until 10.50. Did you start in the first town or did you go to Monterosso & work your way back? We went to first town, walked lovers path to second town. Train to third town then train to fourth town. Then back to ship. Going to all 5 is tough to do in a day I wanted to go to Monterosso first & spend the morning on the beach there then go to Vernazza for lunch. Don't know about monterosso but vernazza was insanely busy. Someone said it was busier than it was in Rome. Then work our way back using a combination of the ferry & train. Since they were calling for rain were the ferry boats running?? Ferries were running. Queues were long.

 

[KAZPRINCESS]

To those who have done Cinque Terre themselves and those who did it with DCL.

Any experiences from recent Med cruisers, I have read a handful of positive reviews of the DCL trip. I would like and prefer to be able to DIY this one and do it for cheaper than the $585 DCL cost.

We are a family of 5 with 3 boys aged 5 to 9.

Pros and Cons for both for recent cruisers would be appreciated. Getting on a DCL trip with the boat collecting and dropping from and to the Magic is a definite Pro for DCL, but cost is a major Con.

 

[jdybnsn]

Just thought I'd post a link to this tour company in Malta whose prices seem very reasonable -especially for the Turkish Schooner trip ,which is on the boat Fernandes I believe - its roughly half the cost of DCL's prices and will be the exact same trip. :

http://www.malta247.com/index.asp

Pick up and drop off are included in the price.

 

[makaylee]

To those who have done Cinque Terre themselves and those who did it with DCL.

Any experiences from recent Med cruisers, I have read a handful of positive reviews of the DCL trip. I would like and prefer to be able to DIY this one and do it for cheaper than the $585 DCL cost.

We are a family of 5 with 3 boys aged 5 to 9.

Pros and Cons for both for recent cruisers would be appreciated. Getting on a DCL trip with the boat collecting and dropping from and to the Magic is a definite Pro for DCL, but cost is a major Con.

You should search the Cinque terre on your own thread, it is very informative. We did it last year for 9 euro pp. It was super easy, the locals point you to the train station which is only about a 10-15 minute walk. They will give you a map when you buy your ticket.