Hello. My wife and I are headed to Cinque Terre later this summer for our 30th wedding anniversary.
Any ideas/suggestions for accommodations in Cinque Terre? We are looking great views and just want to soak in the culture.
Which town is preferred for romance?
Thanks...
I'm not sure you could go wrong with any of them. Monterosso is the largest, so personally, I think one of the other 4 might feel more romantic.
There are plenty of rooms with views, I hear it gets pretty booked up later in the summer, so I'd recommend trying to get reservations soon.
I stayed in Riomaggiore in early/mid May, and was very happy with the accommodations. It was the top floor with a private terrace & had greats views of the village with the sea in the distance. There are other properties with views of the sea if you'd prefer that. Send me a message, & I will send you the e-mail address of the owners.
If you have done so by now, booking a room at this late date might prove difficult. The Cinque Terre gets crowded with locals in the summer. That said, Vernazza and Manorola and Riomaggiore are my choices.
Hi Larry,
I was in Cinque Terre in May and personally I LOVED Riomaggiore. We rented from Edi's Rooms: www.wel.it/Vesignaedi . We were in the Case Mimi room which had a huge balcony (table & 3 chairs) and it was overlooking the ocean and town. It was just gorgeous. One night we got some pizza and wine and just sat out there looking at the ocean. I will warn you though...there were 52 steps to climb to get there...but it was worth it. Any place with a room will have a lot of steps to climb.
At night we would sit on these big rocks and watch the sunset. Very romantic, and it wasn't very crowded either. Riomaggiore is also the start of the Via Dell Amore which is a path along the coast (and takes you to Manorola). We loved walking on their at night to also watch the sunset. I thought Riomaggiore seemed more romantic just because it was less crowded (visiting Manorola at night was very similar). Vernazza and Monterosso are going to be busier than the other towns.
Check Edi's out though. Rick Steve's recommends them in his book and gave her the Best Business practices award.
Have a great trip! :-)
Hi Larry,
I was really happy with Riomaggiore. I found a place through Mar Mar, which is an agency that rents out private apartments in town (they also have a cleaning staff and the places were kept nice and clean). You can fill out their accommodation request form with the date, and they will email you with the price of each available place, along with a realistic description that includes how many stairs you must walk to get to each one.
As for the best town, I would suggest that you ignore Corniglia simply because it is a long hike up all those stairs from the train station. You will not want to get around so much if you had to walk them all the time.
I personally preferred Manarola and Vernazza, but they are smaller towns than Riomaggiore. Riomaggiore is the second-largest of the CT towns. One of the nice things about it is that the easiest (and shortest) section of the hiking trails runs from Riomaggiore to Manarola. If you stay in either one of those towns, you can easily stroll along the Via dell'Amore and watch the sun set. Obviously you can do this if you stayed in any other town, but then you would need to take the train back after.
That being said, Vernazza is usually the most sought-after town as it is the one preferred by Rick Steves, and I agree that it probably is the most picturesque of the five.
