Cinque Terre apt/hotel and train info please

Cinque Terre is a group of 5 towns (hence the name): Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Each has a railway station. If you are looking up transport, you need to enter whichever one you want to go to.

The best place to look up times and prices is the Italian Railways site: http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en
Just enter From: Roma Termini, To: whichever town you want, a date and a time and it will give you the trains.
Coming from Rome, you normally have to change trains in La Spezia.

Edit: The plan to limit people was just a wild idea the papers picked up, no substance in it.

Train to Milan: Catch it from whichever of the 5 towns you are in. You will probably have to change trains in Genua, but the Trenitalia website will find the best train and list where you have to change.

$75.00 per night for 4 people is pretty tough anywhere in Italy. You might try ArbaSpaa as a local resource. We found a place once through them. More like 110.00 Euros/Night for two of us, though.

Levanto is not too far away, just a few minutes by train.

If you're travelling from Rome, I'd suggest using one of the direct trains from Roma Termini to La Spezia Centrale (no changes) as that will be the quickest and easiest option. Travel time will be about four hours, and then another few minutes to whichever of the towns you'll be staying in. You will probably have to make one change at La Spezia Centrale. Note that many cities in Italy (and elsewhere) have more than one station, so you'll need to know which stations you're using in each case when you buy tickets.

You won't be passing through Levanto, as that's north of Monterosso so you'd have to go through all five towns to get there. NO, Levanto is not far from the Cinque Terre, as it's only about four minutes by train from there to Monterosso.

I usually travel solo so never stay in apartments, so can't offer any advice on that. I'm sure the others will be able to provide some tips. Monterosso is the largest of the five towns and therefore has the best choice in accommodations as well as the most restaurants and other amenities, and the best beaches. You can check the RS Italy guidebook or sites like Trip Advisor to find accommodations.

As someone else mentioned, I think you'll find it "challenging" to find accommodations for US$75 per night, as that's only about €70. IMO, you'll need to increase your budget.

Don't be concerned about the rumours that visitors to the Cinque Terre will be "limited". That's a lot of rubbish which resulted from the musings of a local official which were picked up by news agencies as being "fact". Local officials are no doubt looking at strategies to overcome the over crowding which occurs during busy parts of the season, but nothing has happened yet (AFAIK). In any case, I don't think this will be much of a problem in April as that's the beginning of the tourist season, although if there are cruise ships in the area you may find that all the towns are "busier" in the day time.

The easiest option for travel from the C.T. to Milan will be to use one of the direct trains from Monterosso to Milano Centrale. There are departures at 10:55 & 12:55 (among others) with a travel time of about three hours.

If you haven't travelled in Italy before, note that the direct trains will most likely have compulsory seat reservations, which are specific to train, date and departure time. Therefore you must use only the train specified on the ticket or you'll be subject to hefty fines, which will be collected on the spot! Your tickets will specify your Coach no. (Carrozza) and your Seat no's (Posti). If you're travelling on Regionale trains using locally purchased tickets, you must validate your tickets prior to boarding the train on the day of travel, or again subject to hefty fines. Validating tickets also applies to Metro in Rome, Buses, etc.

To throw my shoulder behind the others...

The Trenitalia website will be your go-to tool for checking train schedules/pricing and possibly pre-purchasing tickets. The national railway doesn't operate in all areas of Italy - some locations are on regional commuter lines- but it covers a largest part of the country. There's another private line - Italo- which connects some of the major cities per high-speed rail but you wouldn't use that one for the CT.

We have taken a DIRECT train from Monterosso al Mare to Milan. Some trains do involve a change so it's just a matter of which one you choose. Same with trains from Rome to La Spezia.

Pat special attention to Ken's note about validating tickets for regional trains within the CT (and anywhere else). It's a particularly notorious place for incurring ticket checks and fines by on-board authorities.

I'll agree with them that you'll need to increase your accommodation budget; €70 is very low for anywhere in Italy, and especially so for 4 people. Hotels/apartments may run a little cheaper in Levanto, which as Ken stated is only 4 minutes from the northernmost CT village (Monterosso al Mare). Same with La Spezia, which is just minutes from the southernmost (Riomaggiore). If you are exploring accommodations within any of the five villages, Corniglia is the most challenging to access as its train station is far below the village; a small bus runs between them.

No, there are no current limitations on the number of visitors to the region.

We used arbaspaa.com as well for our two stays - great because you can narrow it down to your wants/area to stay in/etc. They were also very quick in responding to our inquiries. We stayed in Corniglia both times in the same home - because it was the smallest and least touristy of the villages - but I'm contrary like that. :)

Nicole, I love tiny Corniglia as well. It's just that some tourists may prefer having faster/easier access to the trains and the village itself aside from the bus, the 382 steps of the Lardarina, or climbing up the side of the steep roadway.

Oh Kathy - I know. Luckily, we were able to take the little shuttle up...passed people walking up with luggage! We travel light, but even that would have been much. Second stay, the shuttle was having problems and we had to hoof it down the stairs to the train stn - thank goodness we were going down and that we only had carry on size bags! Still hard though.

Yikes, Nicole! Either the stairway or the road would be a heckuva haul UP on foot with luggage! We did take the Lardarina down (no luggage) as the line for the shuttle was pretty long so it was faster (and more fun) to hoof it than wait around for the next one. I wouldn't mind staying there next time, though; the two prettiest of the CT chapels are in Corniglia, and that sweet little piazza. Ahhh.....

Thank you to all of you for the helpful info! We really appreciate it. Guess we will bump up our room/B & B costs to 100 - 110 Euro per eve.
Any favorite places to stay? Any names of pensions, hotels would be much appreciated!

Before suggesting places to stay, it would help to know which of the five towns you plan to stay in.

Hi Ken(from Vernon, BC, Canada,)
We are flexible as to which town(s) we are going to stay in. Most likely will be Monterosso, Vernazza, or even Levanto since it is not too far by train and Levanto is a larger town.
We are now planning on spending 100 - 110 Euro per night now for the 2 of us.
Thank you!