Three days in Pisa - any advice?

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Arriving in Pisa airport and will be looking for accommodation for 3 or 4 nights in June.
We will be hiring a car for an onward trip through Tuscany and just wondered if anyone had any tips around the logistics. There will be 4 of us and I wondered if it is better to hire the car on arrival and park it either at a hotel or secure carpark, or get train from airport and then go back to hire car after our visit. I can work out the costs, but I am not sure how easy it is to find parking for 3 days.
Any tips around tours/tickets/accommodation would be very welcome.
I am googling and researching, but advice based on personal experience is always much appreciated.
TIA

Pisa isn’t great IMO, especially for that amount of time. I would stay maybe 1 night, see the leaning tower, stroll around and get a nice lunch and then travel to Luca and stay there. Beautiful city, great food and market.

*Lucca sorry

Thats exactly what I was going to say. Lucca’s much nicer than Pisa.

We flew into Pisa a couple of years back and stayed overnight while we waited for the friends we were holidaying with to drive down from Paris -- I'll be honest, I thought it was completely uninteresting. If I were flying in there again, I would just skip it. I know we rented a car in central Pisa, and dropped it at the airport when we left again, after spending our time near Barga. Hotel parking was rather tight multi-storey underground, if that's an issue.

Pisa is not especially exciting. Leaning Tower and that's it. But a day trip to Florence and onwards to Lucca is really easy by train. We did a loop. Could be two separate days even. Florence us expensive to stay in so Pisa saves you money.

And yes, very much agree.

I was not impressed with Pisa, Lucca is beautiful.

Thank you. I will look again at our itinerary and study Lucca! This is why MN is so useful.

We stayed at the place below which is near to both Pisa and Lucca. It was a few years ago so worth checking recent reviews but it was lovely. The family who ran it were so helpful and welcoming, and the food was exceptional…I am no foodie but I remember to this day how amazing it was!

https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/locanda-sant-agata.it.html?aid=356980&label=gog235jc-1FCAsocUISbG9jYW5kYS1zYW50LWFnYXRhSBRYA2hQiAEBmAEUuAEHyAEN2AEB6AEB-AECiAIBqAIDuAKrkOS_BsACAdICJDk4MmE5YmZlLTQyODctNGRiMi1iMmRmLWMyOGMwZGFjOGRhONgCBeACAQ&sid=7191be67f59ba58dae4b5a1134b23efb&dest_id=-127681&dest_type=city&dist=0&group_adults=2&group_children=0&hapos=1&hpos=1&no_rooms=1&req_adults=2&req_children=0&room1=A%2CA&sb_price_type=total&sr_order=popularity&srepoch=1744373816&srpvid=8e0a565687c600e5&type=total&ucfs=1&

Use the train. It's great. Go to Lucca and Florence. You'll love it xx

Totally agree re Pisa and Lucca! Lucca is lovely!.

You can see the tower/ square in 1/2 a day - Train to Lucca / Florence and then hire a car . Watch out for ZTL in Italy when drivin ( limited traffic zones in cities) .

We went to Pisa last year. The airport has an excellent, cheap train which goes into Pisa where you can pick up a bus to the tower. Luggage storage is available by the train station . I thought Pisa itself was uninspiring we spent a day there to see the tower; that was enough for us. You can catch a fast train from there to Florence which is worth a couple of days stay and where we based ourselves. Watch out for the lookey, lookey pickpockets in Pisa.
The trains have great, cheap coffee, we booked our tickets here before we left.

We stayed here as a family of 4 for a few nights last year having flown in Pisa and it was beautiful https://www.villabuonvisi.com/

Train to Florence. Beautiful city, climb the Duomo.

Train to Lucca. Bike rides, city walls, towers

Train to La Spezzia and onto Monterosso,Cinque Terre.
Stay at Hotel Palme. Swim all day or climb to old monestries.

Train to Venice. Stay at Hotel Gabrielli.

Book trains before you leave, book first class, it is not much more expensive and you are supplied with water and snacks and large seats. Trains are clean and twice as fast as cars, no parking.

Pick up the car later & go to Cinque Terre by train. Spend half a day in Pisa to see the tower & then get the train & stay in either La Spezia or one of the 5 villages. Hike between them or get the train & explore, eat & swim. Then train back to Pisa airport to collect the hire car. Lucca is beautiful too but similar to towns you’ll visit in Tuscany.

There are the Tuscany sections of the walk/pilgrimage of the Via Francigena that could be cool.

Travel agent prebooked all trains. It was absolutely simple and civilised to travel via rail as all of the tickets were transferable should you miss a time or day.

Totally agree with everyone else. Pisa isn't great, Lucca is lovely.

If you want to go up the Leaning Tower, make sure you book online well in advance.

If you travel on buses in Pisa, beware of pickpockets using distraction techniques, they are a menace.

I actually rather like Pisa. I would certainly visit for a day. The Cathedral blew me away, it is breathtaking and the Baptistry is beautiful too.

Unlike most on here I liked Pisa. We stayed there and travelled to Lucca which is beautiful and the Cinque Terre by train. Very easy and pretty cheap. In June, particularly if the weather is good, the Cinque Terre will be heaving. We skipped one of the towns as we'd had enough of wadding through the crowds. If a train is cancelled trying to get on the next or out of the station on arrival is worse than rush hour on the tube. Beautiful though and glad we've been.

Just jumping on this thread to ask if anyone has a recommendation for a place to stay in Pisa, with easy transport from the airport at night, and also to the airport for an early flight.
Thank you!