Cinque Terre Sea Park Day Trip with Limoncino Tasting

“Today is a day to forget,” said Alessandra at 1.31pm, as we sat in sweltering heat on gridlocked roads. We had left at 7am and, more than six hours later, still had not even reached Cinque Terre. Those words turned out to be the most accurate part of the entire tour. The day began with our coach arriving with a damaged tyre and having to be replaced. Quite how a company operating full day excursions allows a vehicle to arrive in that condition is beyond me, but it immediately put us behind schedule. We booked this tour because it promised visits to Riomaggiore, Manarola and Monterosso, together with a limoncello tasting and ample time to enjoy one of the most beautiful parts of Italy. That is not what we received. Instead, after spending almost the entire day travelling, we eventually reached La Spezia, only to discover there was still another 45 minute train journey before we even reached Cinque Terre. We then had approximately 45 minutes in Monterosso and around 20 minutes in Vernazza before being hurried back to catch another train and return to the coach by 5pm. Riomaggiore was not visited. Manarola was not visited. The advertised limoncello tasting never took place. There was no opportunity to enjoy lunch properly, wander the villages or experience Cinque Terre in any meaningful way. We spent the little time we had rushing between trains, constantly checking the time and trying not to miss the coach. The most extraordinary part is that this was entirely foreseeable. The tour operator chose to run this excursion on the weekend before Italy’s Republic Day on 2 June, creating a long holiday weekend when vast numbers of people travel out of Milan. They knew, or certainly ought to have known, that traffic would be exceptionally heavy. Yet they continued to market the tour as though customers would receive the full advertised experience. Had we been warned that there was a realistic possibility of spending the overwhelming majority of the day in traffic and receiving only a fraction of the advertised itinerary, we would never have booked. I do not blame Alessandra for the traffic. I do, however, question the complete lack of empathy shown. When passengers expressed understandable frustration, she responded by asking, “Why did you book when there was a bank holiday coming?” Because we are tourists. Because we are not Italian. Because we had absolutely no way of knowing that an approaching national holiday would bring the roads to a standstill. That is precisely the sort of information a responsible tour operator should provide before taking people’s money. To add insult to injury, we were told we would receive a 50% refund in recognition of the fact that the tour had not been delivered as advertised. In the end, only around 30% was refunded. Cinque Terre itself is magnificent. Sadly, we barely had the opportunity to experience it. This was not the full day excursion that was advertised. It was an exhausting exercise in sitting on a coach, running between train platforms and watching the clock. Avoid this company. Cinque Terre deserves far better than this, and so do their customers.

Comfortable ride to the coast. Fast paced day; Sandra, our guide, was great - knowledgeable and organized. A lot for one day, but if you only have one day - worth it to see Cinque Terre!

I did this trip to experience Cinque TERRE without having to drive. I wish the other reviews were wrong. But from the start, I arrived at the time stated 6:45 am and there were 7 tour buses in the location. The tour organizer was 20 minutes late and the bus driver was an hour plus late. This means less time at the attraction. We made 3 stops in Cinque TERRE. The first we had an hour. The second town 40 minutes ( much of the time was walking down and back up to the train.) The third we had 2 hours, but the lemoncello tasting was a 20 minute walk from the train and after that only 1.5 hours remained to go to the beach and take in the town. Again- factor in 20 minutes to walk back up to the train station. The tour guide was nice but not informative. He basically said when we had to be back to the train stations. Ultimately, I got to see Cinque Terre, just in haste. Definitely go see it. But either do another tour or go on your own to actually explore the area and learn about it. One last thing- it gets VERY crowded on weekends and during the summer. You should plan on going during the week to be able to walk around and not feel like you're in Times Square.

This was a bit of a disappointing trip. While the itinerary promises significant free time at Cinque Terre, in reality we only got 45 mins - 1 hour at each spot, which is barely enough given how crowded each place is. Additionally, the guide did not seem to know what the itinerary was. Everyone on the bus had booked through a different platform and each one gave them a different itinerary. We did not visit Riomaggiore and the guide seemed very confused when we said we were supposed to. We also had to remind her of the Limoncino tasting. Further, it isn’t clear in the listing that if you do not book the immersive guide experience you do not have pre-booked train tickets to Cinque Terre. Many people were left scrambling trying to find tickets at the last minute and that resulted in more wasted time. Lastly, while the tour advertises a bilingual tour guide who speaks Spanish and English, the tour guide didn’t speak Spanish. I would recommend avoiding a booked tour and going to Cinque Terrre on your own.

First, I recommend travelers avoid tours in more than a single language since that splits time between 2 or more languages. Overall, this was not a good tour because our guide was hard to follow, physically & sometimes linguistically. We were crowded onto a swamped train car, someone fainted, we lost some in our group for a while, had to get back on train after taking one in wrong direction, and on and on. This was a very stressful unpleasant experience, one that made us vacationers actually work harder than we should on a tour that we paid a professional guide to do the work so we can sit back and focus on enjoying the day trip.