Best hotels in Florence and Cinque Terre area

For Florence, we stayed at Hotel Duomo last September. Literally next to the Duomo & a lot of rooms have balconies looking out to the church.

For CT, you better book soon! I was searching for hotels in May 2015 for Sept 2015 and many were already booked. We stayed at Hotel Marina in Monterroso. It was fantastic! It's down a side street just behind the small piazza outside the two churches. The family that runs it were so nice & the breakfasts in the morning were amazing. When we go back, we will be staying there again.

"Best" is highly subjective -- we wouldn't consider a $200/night hotel when we can stay three nights for €210 in comfort (although not luxury) a few blocks away. In Florence we just finished staying at Hotel Dali (see RS book) with down-the-hall baths and go-out-for-coffee breakfasts ... but we saw the Duomo every time we walked out the front door, and heard the bells. Our second time there. Everyone has their own trade-offs.

Why not check out the Rick Steves book? You can find a lot of suggestions there.

mj,

I'd also recommend checking the RS Italy guidebook, as there's lots of information there on good hotels in various price ranges. As someone else mentioned, "best" is a somewhat subjective term so it's difficult to know your criteria. Also, you didn't specify which of the five C.T. towns you want to stay in, so it's difficult to provide specific recommendations.

Are you spending 4 nights each in Florence and the Cinque Terre, or 2 nights in each? In any case, I'd highly recommend getting something booked SOON as July will be busy and many places will already be fully booked. At this late date, you may have to take whatever you can find at any price.

Thanks so much, everyone. We're thinking of spending Tuesday and Friday nights in Florence and Cinque Terre Wednesday and Thursday. Don't know which towns yet - but need to decide!

I will check out the guide, your recos and get something booked ASAP. 😍

Martha

Martha, the reason I'd look beyond RS recommendations is that they may all be booked for summer. To my knowledge, we've never stayed in an accommodation listed in one of his books (there are many others than are just fine) so take a look at booking.com to see what rises to the top in your price range and desired list of amenities.

We liked La Spiaggia in Monterosso in the CT but that one can book up far in advance:

http://www.booking.com/hotel/it/la-spiaggia.html?aid=318615;label=New_English_EN_MN:_Minnesota_23537646505-SW0Fr*JPAaZpSdUpV_DwYQS99510848305:pl:ta:p1:p2:ac:ap1t1:neg:fi:tiaud-146342136550:dsa-166246053385:lp:li:dec:dm;ws=&gclid=CPeygLj5ucwCFQQEaQodtVcJbA

For Florence, we liked Hotel Giglio but I haven't checked most recent rates:

http://www.booking.com/hotel/it/hotelgiglioflorence.html?aid=311088;label=hotel-81474-it-L*_WkDrMKWxdWdqUTwylVAS94018709226:pl:ta:p1:p2:ac:ap1t1:neg:fi:tiaud-146342136550:kwd-186876356:lp9019610:li:dec:dm;ws=

Just curious here...why are you going to Florence for one night, Cinque Terre for the next 2 nights, and back to Florence for one night? You will be using up a lot of time traveling back and forth, and checking in and out of hotels.

We stayed in Riomaggiore last June for 3 nights. We stayed at a B & B that had the best view ever. the room we stayed at is called Venere. It was a short walk to the train station and "downtown". The owner was an absolute sweetheart. She helped us out with our planning and picked us up and dropped us off at the train station. I believe we paid 100 euro per night and it included breakfast. Here is a link to her website. http://www.casalorenza.it/index.php/en/