La Spezia · Cinque Terre · Liguria
Private driver in La Spezia, for the Cinque Terre, Portovenere and Tuscany
Transfers to airports, ports and stations, long-distance journeys, shore excursions from the cruise ship, and private tours of the Cinque Terre, Portovenere and Tuscany, for up to 8 passengers, driven by a licensed English-speaking operator based in La Spezia.
Prime Drive is a licensed private-hire (NCC) operator in La Spezia. We drive airport, port and station transfers, long-distance runs, shore excursions for cruise passengers, private tours of the Cinque Terre, Portovenere and Tuscany, and outlet days, for up to 8 passengers. The price does not change unless the itinerary does.
Destinations
Where we'll take you
Cinque Terre
Florence
Pisa & Cinque Terre
Portovenere
Lucca & Pisa
Airports
Outlet days
La Spezia
Somewhere else in mind?
We drive to places that are not on this list too. Tell us where you are going and we answer straight away.
The car
Mercedes-Benz, up to 8 passengers
Room for the luggage, and the price agreed before you travel.
Where can you take me?
Airports, ports and stations
Ten airports, met on arrival and driven to on departure: Pisa, Florence, Milan, Rome, Bologna, Bergamo, Genoa, Turin, Verona and Parma. Pisa is the closest and the one most visitors use, 89.4 km (56 miles) from La Spezia by road, roughly an hour and a half on a normal day rather than the hour other sites promise. Railway stations and the La Spezia cruise terminal are served the same way, and transfers are not limited to the ten: a one-way run to another city or another region is driven and quoted like any other journey. See airport transfers, or, if you are arriving on a cruise ship, the page written for a port day.
Tour days in Liguria and Tuscany
Five days out: the Cinque Terre; Pisa and Florence; Pisa with two Cinque Terre villages of your choice; Portofino with Lerici and Portovenere; and Pisa, Lucca and Forte dei Marmi. Each is customizable, so the order and the timing are yours, though the driving times are what they are. Every trip a driver can make in a day is listed with its distance and an honest time.
Where a car earns its place is at the far end of the drive. Tourist coaches are kept out of many historic centers and sent to outlying car parks: in Pisa they are banned from Via Cammeo and directed to the free park on Via Pietrasantina, about 2 km out, while a private car sets down on Via Cammeo or Via Andrea Pisano, about 500 m from the Piazza dei Miracoli - five to seven minutes on flat pavement, with no steps.
Outlet and shopping days
Barberino Designer Outlet, Serravalle Designer Outlet, Fidenza Village, The Mall outside Florence, and the shops at Forte dei Marmi and Viareggio. What usually decides it is what you carry home: the bags go in the car, and the car waits where you left it. The outlet days in detail.
Weddings, dinners and business travel
Ceremonies, dinners and business travel are driven too, with Italian, English and Russian spoken in the car. What a day with a driver covers sets out each service in turn.
How does it work, from the first message to the car door?
- Tell us the journey. Date, pickup time and address, where you are going, how many passengers and how many cases. If you are landing, the flight number as well. Phone and WhatsApp: +39 345 3408361. Email: book.primedrive@gmail.com.
- We answer within 24 hours with a price in writing. The quote names the journey, the timings and the price, and that price stays unless you change the itinerary.
- On the day, the driver is waiting with your name on a tablet. It reads at a distance, which a handwritten card does not. Italian, English and Russian are spoken.
- You pay by card. Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and American Express are accepted. Amounts are in euro.
Why book direct rather than through a booking site?
Booking direct means the agreement is with the operator who carries out the journey. If your flight moves, or the ship berths somewhere other than where you expected, you are talking to the person driving the car, on the day, in Italian, English or Russian.
A portal adds a layer between you and the driver. It costs nothing while everything runs to plan, and it costs you the afternoon on the day a road closes or a landing slips by three hours.
Five things worth knowing before you book
- In Monterosso the car reaches Piazza Garibaldi. We obtain the permits for that comune and can move along the seafront. The other four village centers are restricted-traffic zones with a pedestrian core, so the last stretch into them is walked. Seeing all five in one day is over 94 km and 2 hours 36 minutes of driving before a single stop, which is why two villages, or three on a long day, is the honest plan. The Cinque Terre by car.
- The car gets you there; the train moves you around inside. From Pisa airport with luggage a car saves roughly one to one and a half hours to Monterosso or Vernazza. Between the villages the train wins: Riomaggiore and Manarola are a few hundred meters apart on the coast but 7.8 km (4.8 miles) and 14 minutes by road, because there is no through coastal road.
- Your driver is not a tour guide. Guiding inside monuments and museums is a separate licensed profession in Italy; where a guide earns their fee, mostly Pisa, Lucca and Florence, we put you in touch with local licensed ones. More about who drives you.
- Waiting time is 60 minutes at airports and 15 minutes everywhere else, included in every pickup, with the flight followed from the number you give us. Why that hour matters more than it used to.
- You can check the license at the car. A licensed private-hire vehicle carries a “noleggio” badge in the windscreen and a rear plate with the crest of the comune that issued the license. Prime Drive is the trading name; the license holder is La Spezia Transfer NCC, VAT (P.IVA) 01556400115, of La Spezia.
Common questions
Can you drive us into the Cinque Terre villages?
Into Monterosso al Mare, yes: we obtain the permits and drive in as far as Piazza Garibaldi, and we can move along the seafront. The other four village centers are restricted-traffic zones with a pedestrian core, so there the last stretch is on foot, as it is for anyone arriving by road. What the car removes is the connection, the timetable and the bags.
How much does it cost?
We do not publish a price list, because each journey has its own distance, timings and stops. Tell us the route and a price comes back in writing within 24 hours, with the terms it is given under - what the price includes, and what applies if you cancel - set out before anything is booked. Once agreed, it changes only if you change the itinerary.
My flight is delayed. How long will you wait?
Waiting time of 60 minutes at airports and 15 minutes everywhere else is included in every pickup. We ask for your flight number when you book and follow the flight, so a delay or an early landing moves the pickup rather than costing you the car.
Is the driver also a tour guide?
No. In Italy, guiding inside monuments and museums is a separate licensed profession, and your driver does not hold that license. The driver drives, knows this coast and will tell you what they know about it. Where a guide genuinely adds something, which is mostly Pisa, Lucca and Florence, Prime Drive puts you in touch with local licensed guides on request.
How many of us fit, and what about luggage?
Up to 8 passengers, in a Mercedes-Benz. Send the number of passengers and the number of large cases together when you ask for the quote: with a full car it is the luggage that decides, so the answer should come from your real load rather than from a guess.
Tell us where you need to go
We answer within 24 hours with a price in writing, per vehicle.