Cinque Terre Accomodations

Levanto is not one of the "Cinque Terre". If you do not mind commuting to "CT", it could work.

When is this trip happening? If you do choose to stay in a CT town and want everyone to be in the same lodging booking sooner is better.

I once took the train from Nice to Monterosso (one of the towns along the Cinque Terre).
The train goes from Nice to Genoa change and then Genoa to Monterosso.
https://www.thetrainline.com/en/train-times/nice-ville-to-monterosso
If you don't want to drive it I'd say it is not hard to figure out.
Also you can fly into Pisa or Genoa to get a train to the Cinque Terre area.

I think that you are right in driving only to Levanto if you want to drive, although i think the rail connections to the CT are pretty straightforward from Nice through Genoa. Mostly you can't drive in the CT so you will do best to park in Levanto, which is a bit more of a work-a-day town with good lodging (if not as cute) as the CT. The distance from Levanto into the CT towns is about the same as between CT towns so it is a matter of tens of minutes difference.

Another option is fly into Italy (ideally Pisa or Florence, but even Rome or Milan would work fine if you got direct flights there), train to CT, then when done in CT, train to Nice and pick up your van there, and drop the van in France and fly home from there. Enjoy your trip!

You can drive into Monterosso and stay there. Are you thinking of a minivan for 6 people plus luggage? If so, know that this is a tight squeeze. You will have to limit luggage to one carryon size per person. Plus everyone may want a day bag/backpack. I recommend testing the luggage you plan to bring in a minivan, then consider where you will put the souvenirs.

Also be aware that parking lots may limit the size of vehicles that use them, by placing a metal bar over the access lane. We found this in France, even at outdoor parking lots. We had a Mazda suv (4 people) so we were ok, but if you end up with a larger (taller) van you may have trouble.

I would also caution against driving after a long flight. Maybe stay the night in Marseille or Nice, then take the train (or van) the following day so you aren’t as tired.

We plan on renting a full-size van, as we have done on several European trips. Everyone packs light. And, yes, we are spending the night upon arrival, not driving after a trans-Atlantic flight. I am still searching for some kind of reasonable airfare! One-way flights are out of the question.

gd,

It's not clear from your post whether you'll be spending some time in France prior to visiting the Cinque Terre, and then returning to France? The easiest solution would be to fly inbound to Milan, visit the Cinque Terre and then travel to France by train and rent the van there.

Note that each driver listed on the rental forms will require the compulsory International Driver's Permit for driving in Italy, and that's highly advisable for France also. You'll also have to be extremely vigilant to avoid the ZTL (limited traffic) zones which exist in many towns in Italy, as there are hefty fines for each pass through these zones. Add to that parking costs, tolls, high fuel costs, etc.

Rail connections to the Cinque Terre are not "tough to work out" at all. There are regular trains from Nice Ville to the Cinque Terre towns each day, usually with at least one change at Ventimiglia and sometimes also a change in Genova or elsewhere. On the present schedules, there's a EuroCity departure from Nice at 14:09, arriving Monterossa at 19:01 (time 4H:52M, 1 change at Genova Piazza Principe).

As someone else mentioned, you can easily park in Monterosso as there are car parks in both the new town and old town, accessed by different roads. Driving from one part of town to the other is not possible as it's a ZTL area. Some hotels in Monterosso provide limited guest parking (first come, first served).

With three couples, are you planning to rent three double rooms? What time of year will this trip be taking place? Have you started to look at hotels yet?

I have stayed in Levanto at a very nice, small hotel, L'Oasi, which has parking. We met two couples who were driving in a van, as she was in a wheelchair. Levanto is a sweet little Italian resort town with a great beach and some very good restaurants, away from the mobs in the 5T.

Thanks to everyone for their input!

Our travel dates are the middle of June. We are not spending significant time in France before heading to Cinque Terre, but are spending a week in Provence afterwards. Flying R/T is imperative, due to one-way fares!! Opting for Marseille or Nice at the end of our stay in Provence allows us to drive to the airport in 2.5 hours, or less.

Which city in France are you flying into and what time-of-day does your flight arrive? Since you're not spending much time in France prior to your Cinque Terre trip, you could travel to Italy immediately and then focus on France in the latter part of your trip. As I mentioned previously, the rail connections are fairly straight forward.

Have you decided which of the five Cinque Terre towns you want to stay in? For travel in June, I would highly recommend getting hotel bookings soon, perhaps early in the new year.

Let me clarify, also, it's not difficult to work out the train schedules; we have used the rail system in Europe many times. The problem with this trip was coordinating them with arrival times at the airport(s) (i.e. not enough time to get to the train, or way too much time). I'm sure after driving myself crazy with airfare, everything will be just fine.

Multi-city (open jaw) flights are NOT the same as 2 one-way flights. That's what you should be looking for.

If you haven't booked flights yet, have a look at open-jaw flights inbound Milan and outbound from Nice or other location in southern France. While these often cost a bit more, they're often a more efficient arrangement as that avoids the time and cost of having to return to your starting point.

We stayed at Hintown Pretty House in Vernazza. It would be a great place for 3 couples. The house has 3 suites, maybe four. It’s in a great location above the train station with a coffee bar and laundry across the street. I would not recommend driving to Vernazza, but the parking lots are within a block of this house. The house was comfortable but not luxurious. The coffee bar La Pirata is a local gem for breakfast, pastry and coffee.