Florence to Cinque Terre: Day Trip??

With all of the places you could go in Tuscany, I never understand this, but it really depends on you and how much you wish to see it, if you think you'll be back, etc. A tour is not necessary though.

It will be an all day, exhaustive trip.

If you're going by train, a total of 6-hrs (3hrs each direction) of it will be traveling and changing trains, then barely 6-hrs of actually visiting CT. You and about 50k other people will be jammed into every narrow walkways, alleys, staircases, waterfront and train platforms, trying to get a gelato, focaccia or, any eatery with shade. You can run through each village by train, checking-off your must-do boxes or, focus your time in 1-2 locations, leisurely take your time, grab a meal then do it all over again returning by train.

CT is best visited by spending a night or, two minimum. During the day it's over-run, at night it's charming, endearing and evocative.

VERY long day. So much to experience in Florence or Bologna or Pisa. Those latter two so much easier to visit by train.

We did a day trip in April via bus from florence. I imagine crowds are more significant in June. It wasn't my first choice, I was at the whim of my daughters and this was our only option within our dates. They were thrilled with it and it wasn't a bad way to wrap up our trip.

We didn't do the tour, we only rode the bus and then bought our own cinque Terre card (which covered trains) and the trail. The trains were super easy -- and super clear. We planned one of the shorter hikes, but it didn't work because the route we wanted was closed (rain the day before). However, we climbed up and out of Vernazza for views and then went back the way we came.

We also had a nice lunch by the water -- I wish we had done so on our hike up. I didn't realize there were restaurants at the top, would've been better. We also visited monterosso (?) for gelato and spent about an hour on the beach where my youngest took a dip and strolled through a third village (not corniglia, but name is escaping me). Friends did the full bus tour -- they wandered 3 villages with guide, had lunch and did a boat ride. There were only 13 people on our bus (car tour), but the friends who did full tour (ciao florence) were with like 50plus people....

I was really on fence because there are so many comments about how a day trip sn't worth it. We were very tired after 8 days and wouldn't have done a ton of hiking anyway...if you're only going to see the views, eat and stroll I felt like this was a decent compromise. If you want to hike you need to spend more time....

CAF tour...sorry