Rick Steves' Travel Blog

September 25, 2011January 6, 2018

A Human Traffic Jam at Nice’s Train Station

Whether you’re docking in Nice or Monaco, or tendering in from Villefranche, getting around the Côte d’Azur is a snap by train. You may encounter congestion that has nothing to do with the cruise crowds — as we did here in the Nice train station. When there’s a human crush like this in Europe, I like to settle into a peaceful nook and just enjoy a little people-watching until the jam clears.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

September 24, 2011January 6, 2018

Just Hop a Tender to Villefranche and the Cote d’Azur is Yours

If you make a point of it, it’s easy to avoid the cruise mobs both on and off the ship. For example, in Villefranche on the French Riviera, I skipped breakfast and “tendered” into port as others were hitting the breakfast buffet.

The only time we didn’t actually dock at a pier was in Villefranche, our springboard for the French Riviera. There we “tendered” in with a big shuttle boat that seated about 200. To avoid congestion (as lines to get off the cruise ship onto the tender can be very long), I skipped breakfast, caught an early tender (about 8:30), and found breakfast in Villefranche. I had expected congestion and waiting in line to be a daily part of the cruise routine. But even though our ship was sold out, I never noticed congestion. Both onboard the ship and on shore, if you make a point to get away from the mobs, you can. For example, I enjoyed being all alone on the bow of the ship at night under the moon. After dinner, the top deck was all mine. A few ports (like Dubrovnik) can be inundated by cruisers when several ships are in port at the same time. But in each of the ports on this cruise, I could be on my own — without a hint of the cruise industry — within an hour of finishing my onboard breakfast buffet.

Here is the view from where our tender dropped us off. Thousands of cruise travelers wash in and out of ports like Villefranche daily throughout the season. It’s like a tide bringing in nutrients: the locals make a few bucks and the travelers are free to either glob together in tour-bus groups or get lost on their own. Throughout the cruise, I found a very healthy and efficient “find a need and fill it” energy in ports accommodating the demand for whatever cruise travelers might want: Internet access, taxi service, hats to provide shade, and small shops renting electric cars or bikes.

September 23, 2011January 4, 2018

Docking in Livorno — Florence’s Port

Here are some of my photos of Livorno, along with some tips cruise travelers might consider to save money or time (or both) while visiting a port.

Each morning our ship arrives in a new port — today we’re in Livorno, the port for Florence. I stood on my little deck and surveyed the scene as buses, taxis, and security forces waited for the cruisers to disembark. When you’re on vacation and in a cruising mind-set, it’s easy to be oblivious to the fascinating economic metabolism of the cruise industry.	Aggressive cabbies smell easy money when a ship docks — but it’s still a competitive business and taxi drivers are eager to deal. Plus, more and more local governments are regulating taxis since rip-offs give a city a bad reputation. If you can organize a group from the ship ahead of time, a good plan for a day in Florence is to hire a mini-bus taxi that holds eight people and split the (otherwise high) cost of hiring a taxi. While spending 400 euros for a day trip into Florence from Livorno is costly for two, for a group of eight, it’s just 50 euros per person — which is a steal. While you could certainly go cheaper by bus or train, with a shared taxi you’re dropped off in Florence in an hour (twice as fast as the train), picked up at an agreed-upon time, and zipped back to the port.
While the initial cost of a cruise vacation may seem too good to be true, cruise operators earn their gravy with extra profit centers: mostly drinks, gambling, onboard shopping, kickbacks from shops on land, and excursion tours to places of interest within an easy bus ride from the port. I was struck by how most cruisers are happy to pay the inflated prices ($150 to $200) for an excursion. Anyone willing to hop the shuttle bus to the main square of the port town and survey the options for local sightseeing tours could easily plan their own day trip — and save around 50 percent. Here in Livorno, right on the main square where the shuttle buses drop off passengers going ashore who aren’t taking the cruise excursions, is a tourist info kiosk staffed with an English-speaking person happy to explain your options. In most ports, there are nearly always local buses, shared taxis, and small tour operators offering plenty of good options to those who want to see a lot without spending a lot.	I found that the various ports (Civitavecchia for Rome, Livorno for Florence, and Toulon for Provence) had their own surprising charm. While all three are generally panned as boring industrial ports, I found each had a gritty harbor character, a long maritime history, were substantially bombed in World War II, and are legitimate urban representatives of their respective regions — just without the famous sights. In other words, if you’ve already seen Florence’s famous art treasures, save yourself three hours of bus time and just enjoy slice-of-life Italy in Livorno.
Cruise travelers generally stampede through Livorno to head for nearby Pisa (20 minutes away by train), Lucca, or Florence. But the city of Livorno has a rough charm with a “Little Venice” district that is built around canals. A €10 hour-long boat tour leaves from the port’s tourist info center, right where the cruise shuttle buses drop off visitors.

September 22, 2011January 4, 2018

It’s 6:30 in the Morning: Welcome to Civitavecchia — the Springboard to Rome

Massive cruise ships keep a graceful rhythm at sea: sailing through the night, docking in major ports at dawn, and letting their passengers off to frolic on land until about 6:00 p.m. and return to enjoy evenings on their floating home at sea. This video shows the view from my little deck as we arrived in Civitavecchia, the port of Rome. Rather than going into Rome, I spent today nailing down all the details of this port and figuring out good travel strategies. Rome is an important cruise port because many cruises start or end here, and many travelers just get a single day in the Eternal City during their cruise.

As is the case in so many great ports, at first it seems complicated to get into the main city (an hour away by train), but actually, it’s really easy. From the huge dockyard in Civitavecchia, you take a free shuttle bus from your ship to the cute little gateway to the port, walk ten minutes to the Civitavecchia train station, and then catch the train into Rome (1-hour ride, 2/hour, €4 ticket). My challenge in fine-tuning this book is to find the smartest plan (for example, a €9 day pass covers your round-trip train ticket into Rome — plus all your bus, tram, and Metro travel within the city). Once you reach Rome, get off at the Ostiense train station and then hop on the subway; in two stops, you’ll land on the Colosseum’s front door. After you do some frantic sightseeing for the day, walk from St. Peter’s Basilica to Rome’s San Pietro train station and catch your train back to Civitavecchia. Do it once and it’s a snap. My hope is that with my guidebook, it can be a snap for you on your very first time.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.