Need to find a Cinque Terre group excursion tour

I plan to do it myself next Spring, but if that makes you nervous .. try viatour.com You will probably have to email them to get booked, but they generally do this type of thing. A couple of other suggesitons. 1. Cruisecritic.com has message boards on each port. Lots of info there.
2. Ask your TA (if you used one) mine found me a GREAT operator for excursions in Belize a few years ago. (cheaper and better then the cruise line :) )

Carol, You might also see if you can find Rick's new Guidebook, Mediterranean Cruise Ports in your local Library. That's specifically intended to provide alternatives to excursions offered by the cruise lines. It may have the answers you're looking for. Happy travels!

I don't know if this would work for your group but my husband and I were there on a cruise two summers ago. We preferred to go it alone so we tried to find a rental car option in Livorno, without a lot of luck. Plus we weren't sure how we'd get there easily from the ship. Well, we just walked off the ship that morning thinking we'd just ask a cab to take us to a rental car agency when as it turned out there were two or three agencies renting right at our dock! It took about an hour and a half to drive there; yes, we had a Garmin. We parked in Riomaggiore and then took the train. We spent most of our day in Vernazza and we also walked the Via dell'Amore. It was great! We returned with time to spare. It would also be an option to drive to La Spezia and take the train from there. However, I will say that some of our most beautiful pictures from our whole trip were taken on the drive along the coast before we got to Riomaggiore. So, I know you wanted info on a tour, but I hope this information is in some way helpful to you or others. :-)

go on the cruisecritics.com forums,, when you ask there you are WAAAY more likely to get alot more answers since it is a forum devoted just to cruises and cruising,, you can actually go on a forum for your exact cruiseline and sailing and maybe even arrange to share a private tour with another couple!

Carol, you can really do this easily by yourself. There are a lot of people who do a 1-day tour of the CT from Florence and many who do this from Livorno. Here's a suggested travel agenda. There are two methods to consider. 1. Rent a car at the docks. Not sure where your particular ship docks but there is a Europcar rental agency at the docks. Here's a LINK to show you its location. Drive to Riomaggiore and park in the 5-story parking garage (90-100 minutes). Hopefully, you are in Riomaggiore no later than 10:00. Tour Riomaggiore (walk down the center street to the water's edge. On your right, you will see the entrance to the world famous Via Dell'Amore trail. Take the 25-minute walk to Manarola. Tour Manarola. Should be about 11:00. Next, take the train to Vernazza. You'll need a train ticket. Tour Vernazza and have lunch. Should be about 12:30-1:00 with lunch. Take the train to Monterosso. Tour Monterosso. You should depart Monterosso on the train for Riomaggiore to get your car no later than 2:00pm. Get your car, drive back to Livorno and turn in the car. It now should be 5:00pm. Board the ship. The second method is the train. The first train out of Livorno Centrale will be 09:17. For Riomaggiore, there is a 1-hour wait at La Spezia. You arrive in Riomaggiore at 11:18. However, there will be a train to Monterosso much sooner. You could arrive in Monterosso at 10:54. If you want the train, you would need to choose your run. The rental car will get you there much faster but I just looked at the cost on the Europcar website. WOW!. 164Euro ($206) for 9 hours. Ouch. The train fare is 17Euro or less each way depending on the train type.

thank you all for your wonderful suggestions! I'm new to this forum and am grateful to have found it. I forgot to mention our port is La Spezia. Fortunately, an excursion from Oceania just opened up. I booked everything else with less exp. shore excursions (not from Oceania) but it seems the only thing I could find was private for CT. But I can always cancel and think about one of your options.
Thanks again.

From La Spezia you could just take the train....very easy...and then follow Larry's itinerary above. The Cinque Terre was just a nice place to wander through and was well suited for people not on a tour. Have fun!