From Livorno: Day Trip to Pisa and Manarola in Cinque Terre

This was an extremely disappointing experience. The tour guide was rude, dismissive and confrontational from the moment the tour began. The biggest issue, however, was that the tour was advertised as an 8 hour tour, but after arriving at the first stop we were told it was actually 9 hours. We had provided our cruise ship details and departure time when booking, so had the correct duration been advertised, we would never have booked. We were then told our only options were to leave the tour early and miss Cinque Terre, the main reason we booked, or stay on the tour and miss our ship. The operator only disclosed this after the tour had already started. The day before we toured with a competing company and had an exceptional experience, which only highlighted how poor this one was. I would never book with this company again, especially as a cruise passenger.

We really didn’t receive insight to what we were seeing, and the tour guaranteed WiFi which we did not have. Most of the time we could not hear our guide. He was a very nice person, but really just walked us around without providing much background. We sat quiet for the drives, which was over 3 hours. Luckily we had nice people on the tour we could chat with.

The day trip was overall enjoyable. Except - our group from Livorno was around 20 people and we were sitting on a motor coach bus that could hold around 50 people. After being dropped off to visit Pisa (first stop) in the morning and returning to the meeting point, we were informed the bus had broken down in the parking lot and now merged with another group (from La Spezia) on their bus . Being combined, seating was now limited and cramped, and some families from the overall group were not able to sit close to one another. After visiting Manarola, the bus headed to La Spezia for drop off of the other group and we were informed that the original bus was repaired and waiting for us there. It appears to me that "Shore Experience" was saving on cost. However, we were dropped off directly to the cruise ship ported at Livorno instead of having to take the shuttle from city center back to the ship.

The 2 places were very nice but we were badly let down by the guide and transportation.! At Manarola we were asked to be back at the coach for 1650. We were back at 1643 only to find that the coach had already left!! We tried to contact the guide Martina but the number was not recognised and we also rang the experience provider but could not get a response. We had to find our own way back to Livorno via 2 trains and a taxi which took 3 hours and cost us €78. We have subsequently spoken to other people who were on the trip and they confirm that the coach left early as the guide wanted to get back to La Spezia to go home! We feel that we should be compensated for our costs and the stress and anxiety it caused us!

Sara was a wonderful guide and she kept us all organized and the tour on-time like clockwork. So appreciative of the brief history she gave us before every stop and pointed out which sights we had time to see and which ones to expect long lineups. A big thank you to our driver, Ernesto, who expertly negotiated Cinque Terre’s narrow, winding roads to Manarola. The very best surprise was being dropped off at our cruise ship, saving us all from a long walk !