Cinque Terre Day Trip from Florence with Optional Hiking

The outing totally exceeded my expectations. Amazing day excursion to experience from Florence. The guides Mano and Gabriel were excellent and so accommodating. They gave us great background on the villages and the scenery along our drive from Florence. It was a warm day and the hike kept us huffing but so worth it to experience the coastal vistas.

This tour is a great way to see all 5 towns if you only have a day. Gabriele and Manolo were great guides and had lots of tips to see the best sights of each town. We chose the hike and the trail was great and had amazing views.

The Cinque Terre Day trip was such an amazing trip. The tour guides had a great blend of knowledge and also shared their own personal stories of the area. Great way to experience the charm of the area, with the guides giving you suggested things to do but also the ability to chart your own path. Definitely recommend this tour for anyone who can take it.

Of all the things we did during our 10-day trip to Italy, this was our favorite. Everything about it was awesome. We met Chris and Manolo at the train station in Florence and hopped on a sweet double-decker bus for the ride to Cinque Terre. While we traveled, they introduced themselves and gave us great info about the cities and towns we were passing (along with recommendations for what to do if we wanted to visit them on another day). They also split us into two smaller groups so that we'd have a more personalized experience, and we were in Chris' group. Chris was very knowledgeable, funny, and clear regarding directions to meeting points and times. It made the entire trip relaxing even though we did a lot. We opted to hike, and it was awesome! The views were incredible, and the lemonade slushi at the halfway point was the perfect refresher. Taking a dip in the Mediterranean after the hike was something we'll never forget. As we toured the five towns, and Chris shared history and other tidbits about each one when we arrived. For lunch, we chose to eat with Chris and Manolo as part of the group, and this meal did not disappoint. The pesto was amazing, and the views from the restaurant were breathtaking. I could not recommend this tour more. If you're thinking about it, BOOK IT! It's worth every penny.

Beautiful tour. The energy of the guides is amazing and 80 % of your good experience. Pro: very organized, nobody left behind. Cons: the lunch is awful and expensive. Do not get it! When you go to Riomaggiore, don’t go to the fried calamari restaurant, the owner is a jerk. He made fun of my English and mistreated a nice American couple. The fried calamari are subpar and he believes bc he is Italian, he is the best. The tour is excellent! The extras, not worthy.

OMG what an awesome tour! The hike was definitely difficult but worth it for the view. Gabriele was an excellent tour guide and he did an amazing job keeping track of all 27 of us between trains, the bus, the boat , the hike and all of the towns. I highly recommend to anyone to take this tour as it would be difficult to do all that we did by yourself for your first time there.

This was an amazing full day trip from Florence, highly recommend to anyone wanting to see this area. Guides were amazing, thank you Chris! It’s a full day so rest up before but the guides give you great information throughout and keep you entertained during the drive. Once you arrive, they give you lots of options in each area and let you make each stop what you want which is nice. The hike is worth the views!

The tour was great, you get to see awesome and beautiful places. Chris, our guide, was awesome, he really connects with the group and has a lot of interesting facts to share!

First thing you need to know is that this tour is a LONG day and you should be aware of that. Having said that, this tour was AMAZING. Absolutely your best option out of the few day trips to Cinque Terre being offered on Viator. I did the research on all of them and this is the best. If you are on the fence, don't be. There is a reason this tour is highly rated compared to the others. This tour company knows what they are doing and cares about you and making your experience the best it can be. We also used this company for their Tuscany in a Day Tour which was equally amazing. We chose the non hiking version but always had the option to join the hike it we wanted. The hike part was only between 2 towns and not all of them so don’t expect to hike them all, that would take far to long to do in one day realistically. You get a hike preview in Corniglia when you hike up a lot of stairs. To stat, there was about 1.5 hour bus trip to La Spezia from Florence train station where you will catch the train to Manarola, the first town stop. You have time to explore a bit and take photos before you move to the next town on the train. Manarola was beautiful and one of my favorites. Next we stopped at Corniglia. This is the only town up on a cliff. You had the option to climb the stairs to the town or to take a shuttle from the station to the top. Be warned that the shuttle is a small "bus" with limited seats and mostly standing. It was hot and uncomfortable, especially in the COVID times but if you don't want to climb the stairs this is the only option. At the top, if you chose the lunch option with the tour (we did not) you will go to a restaurant with a great view over the water. We were able to explore Corniglia and find a restaurant for lunch. There are lots of little bars where you can get a drink and some food. We chose a place in the little town square but I would recommend not eating in the restaurants in the square. There are much better options before and past the square. Do some checking on google maps before you get there so you don't run out of time. The hiking group hiked between Corniglia and Vernazza. We did not do this and took the train. Because of this we had much more time to walk around Vernazza. In my opinion, Vernazza was the most touristy of the towns. It was very pretty but it was still crowed. We had time to sit down by the “harbor” and enjoy the sun and watch the swimmers. Next, we went to Monterosso. This was a really pleasant little town with good shops and room to breath. We had a little more than 1 hour here which was perfect amount of time. From Monterosso, we caught the ferry boat back to Riomaggiore where we had a short while to take few phots and grab some quick souvenirs. The Ferry was great as we got to see all 5 towns from the water. It was a little far out to take great photos with your phone but if you have a better camera with a lens you will do great. This was getting later in the day, and we had to catch the train back to La Spezia to get the bus back to Florence. On the way back we were able to see the mountains where Carrara Marble comes from as we passed by on the highway. Pretty cool. The tour started about 7:30 am and ended around 9pm so it is a full day for sure but it was so worth it. It took the hassle out of getting to Cinque Terre from Florence and back and navigating between the towns on the train. Sometimes it’s just nice to have someone else worry about the logistics. Our tour guide was truly awesome considering he had to keep track of both groups (hiking and non hiking) and keep everyone on time but also give us the time and freedom to explore. He was also full of great information and always was looking out for you to be having the best time., Don't hesitate to book this one if you want to see Cinque Terre from Florence and only have 1 day to do it. Make sure to give yourself a leisure day the day after to recover and relax. You will deserve it. Walkabout Tours is a great company and I think other tour operators could learn a lot from them on how to conduct quality tours.

Awesome. Highlight of our trip so far. The views are truly breath taking. Definitely recommend getting something to eat before and maybe packing snacks. Also pack a bathing suit and towel if you want to take a dip in one of the towns.