Looking at one or two nights & thinking about logistics of getting bags to & from lodging so we can enjoy rail, hiking, and boating without them.
Best place to leave car and if we can get to train easily, do all the towns work to drop bags and begin exploring?
There is ample parking at Monterosso (one lot on the beach near the train station and a multistory carpark in the old town). Riomaggiore also has a multistory carpark. All other towns have small lots and are harder to reach. Outside of the 5 Cinque Terre villages, Levanto on the western side and Spezia on the eastern side have parking.
If you search Cinque Terre parking on the search feature above you will find multiple posts about the options available.
We stayed in Manarola and also had a rental car. We originally didn't want a rental car in CT but the logistics just worked out better with where we came from and where we heading to. They have a parking lot in Manarola that was wide open, but this was in October and we got there in the afternoon. It was $20 a day and there is a fellow in the parking lot who will transport bags for $6 each, but you need to arrange it through your hotel and contact him when you arrive. It was about a half mile walk to the hotel.
Many talk about using the trains from the parking lots but often that is quite a hike and getting on and off the crowded trains with luggage would have been challenging for us. We just parked the car and enjoyed using the train for the 2 days we were there.
