Pisa & Lucca Day Trip from Florence with Optional Leaning Tower
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Florence, Italy
- 9 hours (approx.)
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Go beyond Florence on this day trip to Pisa and Lucca on a day trip. Enjoy flexibility with different package options. Choose whether to set your own pace and explore each city on your own, or let a guide handle your touring itinerary (with select entry tickets included). In Pisa, admire the Piazza dei Miracoli—with the Baptistery, the Duomo, and Leaning Tower. Afterward, journey to Lucca to discover the Cathedral and Piazza dell 'Anfiteatro.
- Visit two of Tuscany's noteable cities in just one day
- Get up close and personal with a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Round-trip coach transit from Florence makes exploring easy
- Enjoy a semi-independent option, or upgrade to explore with a guide
What's Included
- Journey by fully-fitted GT Coach with air conditioning and free Wi-Fi on board
- Expert multilingual Tour Leader
- Admission fee to Pisa Cathedral (not included in the semi independent option)
- 1 hour Guided Tour of Pisa (not included in the semi independent option)
- 1 hour Guided Tour of Lucca (not included in the semi independent option)
- Buccellato cake tasting (traditional cake from Lucca)
- Leaning Tower of Pisa entry ticket (if option selected)
- The semi independent option does not include the guided tour in Lucca or Pisa
- Leaning Tower of Pisa entry ticket (unless option selected)€34.00 per person
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Piazzale Montelungo, 50129 Firenze FI, Italy
TOURS & NEWS KIOSK AT PIAZZALE MONTELUNGO BUS TERMINAL Located at 5-10 minutes walking distance from Santa Maria Novella Train Station. Look for our staff wearing a FUCHSIA CIAOFLORENCE JACKET and holding a CIAOFLORENCE CLIPBOARD!
End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.Start time.9:00 am
Itinerary
Your tour will begin in central Florence, where you’ll hop aboard your coach and journey west to Pisa (with your local guide, if option selected).
Arrive at the central square of Piazza dei Miracoli, and hop out to explore by foot. Your guide will lead you on a walking tour past the Baptistery, where you can admire its mixture of Gothic and Romanesque architecture. Afterward, head to the city’s iconic attraction: the UNESCO-listed Leaning Tower of Pisa. Originally intended as a bell tower to accompany the Duomo, hear how the monument began its famous tilt in the 12th century.
Head inside the stunning Duomo cathedral to study the carved pulpit, a masterwork of medieval sculpture, as well as other features of the ornate interior. Then soak up some free time to explore on your own.
After reuniting with your guide, continue to the city of Lucca, one of the lesser-known jewels of Tuscany and home to an impressive collection of Etruscan ruins and Renaissance architecture.
Take off on a walking tour of the city, following your guide to see the Piazza dell ‘Anfiteatro, Lucca Cathedral and Guinigi Tower as you hear tales of their history. Treat your taste buds with a sample of buccellato, Lucca’s ring-shaped cake, before exploring independently for a bit.
Your day trip will conclude with drop-off back in central Florence.
Arrive at the central square of Piazza dei Miracoli, and hop out to explore by foot. Your guide will lead you on a walking tour past the Baptistery, where you can admire its mixture of Gothic and Romanesque architecture. Afterward, head to the city’s iconic attraction: the UNESCO-listed Leaning Tower of Pisa. Originally intended as a bell tower to accompany the Duomo, hear how the monument began its famous tilt in the 12th century.
Head inside the stunning Duomo cathedral to study the carved pulpit, a masterwork of medieval sculpture, as well as other features of the ornate interior. Then soak up some free time to explore on your own.
After reuniting with your guide, continue to the city of Lucca, one of the lesser-known jewels of Tuscany and home to an impressive collection of Etruscan ruins and Renaissance architecture.
Take off on a walking tour of the city, following your guide to see the Piazza dell ‘Anfiteatro, Lucca Cathedral and Guinigi Tower as you hear tales of their history. Treat your taste buds with a sample of buccellato, Lucca’s ring-shaped cake, before exploring independently for a bit.
Your day trip will conclude with drop-off back in central Florence.
1
Florence
1 hour • Admission Ticket Free
2
Pisa
1 hour • Admission Ticket Free
3
Piazza dei Miracoli
1 hour • Admission Ticket Free
4
Duomo di Pisa
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
5
Leaning Tower of Pisa
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
6
Lucca
2 hours • Admission Ticket Free
7
Piazza Anfiteatro
15 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
8
Duomo Di San Martino
5 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included
9
Florence
1 hour • Admission Ticket Free
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Stroller accessible
- Near public transportation
- Infants must sit on laps
- Infant seats available
- No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
- Most travelers can participate
- Kindly note that the Pisa and Lucca Semi independent option does not include the local guides in Pisa and in Lucca
- Please note that the Cathedral of Pisa is now free and, on extremely crowded days, it will not be possible to visit its interior due to a long queue. In such cases, we will offer a tour of Piazza Cavalieri instead
- From November to March (Low Season): The tour is always confirmed in English and Spanish. The minimum required to confirm the tour in Italian, French and Portuguese is 4 pax
- From April to October (High Season): The tour is always confirmed in English and Spanish. Italian, French and Portuguese are confirmed as follows: PORTUGUESE: Tuesday - min 2 pax FRENCH: Thursday - min 2 pax
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 40 travelers
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Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
Great guides for the tour! Highly recommended to explore Pisa and Luca in a day! It’s informative and succinct.
Reviews
4.3
based on 459 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
Bus driver Alberto and Gian Marco bus leader were fantastic. Pisa English leader (Simonetta) was great & had some humor. Lucca-English leader (Ileria) just kept walking ahead, not checking if group was near & together for crossing intersections or when turning corners. Never 1-2 min to stop or sit down ! Hot & crowded and could have used a wall or seat or bench to rest & listen to explanation. Lucca tour needs a few places to stop for a few min. every 15-20 min.
Never in a million years did I ever think I would climb Pisa, so surreal and amazing. Lucca was beautiful, I think I wanna live there !
If you go on a hot day, it might feel very long. Lucca was calm compared to Pisa. Tje heat definitely sapped people’s energy by the time we got to Lucca (second stop). The guided tours included in the price are mainly outside. If you want to go into most churches etc these additional fees can add up.
Pisa was incredible but felt rushed. We did not have the opportunity to completely climb the tower and also have time for something very quick to eat. Lucca, also lovely, but again felt rushed. There was only 45 or so minutes to explore which was partially taken by a needed stop for water on a very hot day. No time remaining to explore city, climb towers or walk walls. This trip may be best done on your own with a car.
Wonderful trip to Pisa and Lucca, 2 very different Tuscan towns. Views were amazing, guides were all knowledgeable and helpful. We definitely recommend climbing the leaning tower, but be advised there is a lot of walking.
Antonio was very easy to understand. He was patient and congenial. He routinely gave individual attention to his travelors we would use him again..
This was a wonderful experience as learned so much about the history of Pisa and Lucca. The tour guides were very efficient and knowledgeable. I am so glad we opted to do the full tour guide experience instead of the self guided tour.
A few helpful tips: Regarding the bus, it was clean and quiet. No food or drink allowed with the exception of water. Regarding the tower: no bags allowed inside but you can easily rent a storage locker for your time inside the tower. Regarding the cathedral: ladies do not forget a covering for your shoulders if they are bare. If you forget, you can easily buy a shoulder wrap/shawl at the bookstore. I recommend bringing a backpack of some sort in case you want to buy anything along the way as you can easily carry it with you. You can also put your bottled water inside, etc..
Hope this helps!
I am rating this a 4/5 because I do not want our guides to be "slighted", as they were both very nice and good.
The reason I would rate this a 3 is that I selected an English tour. This tour was combined spanish and english, which meant both factions were stagnant as the tour was repeated in the alternate language. That is NOT for what we signed up. Our 2nd guide actually seemed more comfortable and conversant with our Spanish group...I would say it was almost 60% spanish/40% english. I felt we could have learned more and seen more if we were not relegated unknowingly to a multi-lingual tour. I recommend this ONLY if you can guarantee full english tour next time.
The Pisa tour was amazing thanks to our guide, Ricardo, who so animatedly made the tour fun and informative. The climb to the top of the Pisa tower was well worth it. The view was astonishing. Although the time spent inside the cathedral was short, it was so beautifully decorated especially the ceiling. The surrounding buildings and grounds added to the overall beauty of this landmark. Pisa outshined the Lucca tour which was fine but lack the wow factor. The tour guide, Maximo, was very knowledgeable of the history of Lucca. Lucca had some interesting sites but when compared to Pisa, it wasn’t as impressive. A very special acknowledgment and profound thank you to our bus tour guide, Anthony, who ensured that we met our tour guides at each site and accompanied us to each event to make sure we returned to the bus. Last and not least, a big thank you to our tour bus driver, Simone, who’s expert driving safely took us to both sites and back to the initial pickup location. Definitely recommend this tour and hope that you have the pleasure of being assigned these great individuals.
Don’t pay for the guided tours. I think this is fine without them, but paying more for them was a waste of time and money. The guided tour in Pisa is JUST if the little complex with the cathedral and tower — it doesn’t take you anywhere else in town, so you stand around (or sit around in the church) not really seeing much and listening to a history lesson for an hour.
We also ditched the walking tour in Lucca. They grouped languages together, so we spent half the time standing still listening to the guide speak French. Ten minutes into the tour and we were still outside the city walls, standing in there. Use this tour for transportation to the two cities but don’t bother with the guided tours.
Very convenient to catch bus to and from Pisa /Lucca from the station in Florence. Our tour guide John did a great job on the bus switching between two languages and providing all essential information.
Our guide in Pisa (Ricciardo I think was his name) gave an enjoyable tour which enhanced the visit and plenty of time to explore afterwards.
Was disappointed with the Lucca tour guide. He was like my boring high school history teacher and it seemed to ho in forever. Would have preferred to have free time instead of the tour.
Too many things going on in one group - some attendees were part of a guided tour and some not, 2 different languages so lots of waiting for everything to be explained twice, some attendees climbing the tower and some not. Pisa was great but not enough time to eat if you chose to climb the tower (we were running to eat and get back to the bus). The guide in Lucca was WAY too slow and took up the majority of our allocated free time at the end, so we didn’t get to explore the city walls. Ideal would have been shorter guided tours at each location, then have more time to explore, eat lunch, etc. This was the first time I wish I hadn’t taken a guided tour (Lucca). I don’t plan on returning but feel like I really didn’t get to experience Lucca like we wanted to.
This was a great. We were a large group and traveled in a double decker bus. Lots of room and everyone was comfortable. Our guides took time to explain important points of interest while also making sure we all knew about our free time, points of interest and where to meet for each part of the trip.
Pisa is well worth seeing and Lucca is a beautiful city with towers, a music school and beautiful shops and cafes.
Thoroughly enjoyed the tours of Pisa and Lucca, the climb to the top of the leaning tower was well worth it for the views and Lucca was a pleasant medieval town.
Lot of walking and couldn’t understand the leader.Leader was not helpful. I am a retired travel agent and have used Viator many times but this was not a good one
Response from Host, Oct 2025
Dear customer, as written in the description, this is a full day tour and there is a lot to walk. That’s why we don’t suggest it to people with impairment issues or to everybody who knows that doesn’t like to walk for so long. We hope you can join us for your next trip to Italy and maybe choose a private option so we can organise your tour at your own leisure and pace!
There are hordes and hordes of people that make igoing to Pisa not worth it at all. As for Lucca, although the tour guide was quite knowledgeable, I thought we would have time to walk on the city wall and we did not.
Lots of walking but worth it. It was a trip back to ancient times and the architecture was awe inspiring.
It was very nice trip. Bus is departing from a bus terminal close to St Maria Novella train station and takes 1,5 hours to arrive in Pisa.
Keep in mind that although the bus is very comfortable but it has no toilet so the driver makes a stop at rest area 30 minutes before arrival to Pisa.
Miracle Square looks awesome especially the leaning Tower.
Then we had a trip to small town Lucca 30 min drive.
Our group guide Fredericko was terrific, he translated in Spanish, English, and French.
At Pisa and Lucca, we had local tour guides.
They were ok but I expected more content from them.
We also had some free time to explore the town and then our guide very efficiently made sure everybody was present.
Overall trip is a must see.
Make sure you bring your walking shoes because from the bus to the Pisa monument. it felt very long and probably was about a half a mile. I thought that was a little bit too much. The overall experience in Pisa a bit disappointing. The Luca tour was also disappointing and didn’t feel the guide did a very good job. It was also very distracting that he needed to go from English to French in our group for a couple of people, Just didn’t flow nicely. Also no explanation of the cake we tasted??
Viator offers outstanding tours and customer service
Our tour guide Sarah in Pisa was tremendous . Informative and entertaining!
Our Luca tour guide was very nice but not as thorough.
Jacobo and Dino a great job of getting us to Pisa and Lucca. I appreciated Jacopo’s commentary along the way.
A little crazy finding the pickup point, but we made it. Overall, a very nice trip. It took all the hassle out of trying to get there on our own, plus we got a guided tour around Pisa and Lucca.
Long day. I enjoyed the Pisa part of the day. Our local Pisa tour guide was great. Just enough time in Pisa. Lucca, which was the part I was looking forward to most, was ok. It was simply a walking tour of the town. The buccaleta cake was literally handed to you outside the shop to eat on the sidewalk so don’t think you are sitting down. Local Lucca tour guide was good. I didn’t think our Ciao Florence guide that accompanied us the day on the bus was very good. She thought it was ok to talk on her phone while I was waiting to ask her a question. I also didn’t like that they combined two different language groups on the same bus.
The local guides were very knowledgeable, sharing history with a touch of humor.. The bus guide moved through the massive crowds in Pisa too quickly, not waiting for those who got off the bus last. We had to scramble to try to keep up and find her in the crowds.
Tour was wonderful! Guides were very informative.
Met lovely people and had a great time, even though we got drenched in Lucca! Lol
Would definitely use this service again
Great tour guide. Very knowledgeable and spoke three languages perfectly. The guide is Pisa, Sara, was so funny and also very knowledgeable. Unfortunately when we arrived in Lucca is poured down rain but the tour guide never wavered and told us about all the important sights. I have been to Lucca before and it’s a charming city. Would recommend this tour.
Wonderful experience. Beautiful scenery. Be prepared to walk a lot. Overall tour guide was great. Specific site guides were very knowledgeable.
Well organised and very informative. Our host Jacob was fantastic. The guides were great and extremely knowledgeable
The tour operator is clearly trying to save money by grouping different tourists' needs on the same tour. On our bus, we had both an English speaking group and a Spanish speaking group. Within those subsets, some could choose to do a guided walking tour, others not. Also, some could choose to climb the Pisa tower, others not. The tour guide was a very pleasant woman who was doing her best under less than desirable circumstances, but for most of us, we were often confused with instructions.
There was a ton of time spent on the bus. Also, twice the group was allowed to go explore on their own and then meet back up at an appointed time/place, but on one such occassion, a group of three people didn't show back up, and we could not leave until they were found, delaying the day and inconveniencing everyone. We had little to no time to get lunch either, which was awful.
Save yourself the trouble and take the train to Pisa on your own, see the tower, and book a separate tour to Lucca, which is much cuter and has more ambiance and things to do.
Disappointing Tour Experience – Fell Far Short of Expectations
I’ve taken many tours through Viator, and unfortunately, this was one of the most disappointing. It did not meet my expectations on several key fronts—organization, communication, and overall quality of the experience.
1. Language Issues:
This tour was booked in English, but it was conducted in both English and Spanish. As a result, the time spent on translations significantly reduced the amount of information we received. It often felt like Spanish was prioritized over English, which left us with a diluted and rushed explanation of the sights and history.
2. Unengaged Tour Guide:
The guide, Frederic, appeared disinterested and lacked enthusiasm. He did not provide clear instructions regarding time allocations or logistics. For example, when we arrived at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, we were dropped off without clear guidance on the walking distance to the site, time constraints, or restroom access.
There was also no mention in advance that restrooms required tokens or that some facilities only accepted credit cards, which would have been helpful to know.
3. Lack of Preparation and Communication:
There was no prior notice that women would need to cover their shoulders to enter the church. This caused unnecessary stress and lost time as I had to queue at a busy bookstore to buy a scarf—ultimately missing the chance to join the tour inside the church.
4. Poor Execution of Activities:
The “cake tasting” in Lucca was extremely underwhelming. We were handed a single small piece of cake without any explanation about what it was or its significance to the region. There was no opportunity to learn about local baking traditions or the bakery itself.
5. Missed Opportunities:
I asked Frederic if he could share some background about the region during our drive from Florence to Pisa. He did not. Most of his time seemed to be spent chatting with the driver rather than engaging with guests.
6. Inadequate Time Management:
No helpful suggestions were provided for lunch, and due to the packed schedule, long lines, and poor time management, we didn’t have a proper opportunity to eat at all. This again reflected a lack of planning and guest consideration.
In Summary:
This tour felt rushed, disorganized, and lacking in personal engagement or insight. Compared to previous tours I’ve taken, this one stood out for all the wrong reasons. I hope Viator considers this feedback seriously to improve the experience for future travelers.
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