What city is best to fly into when visiting the Cinque Terre? Is Pisa the best city to fly into and then take a train to the Cinque Terre or is another city better?
Pisa is closer then Milan. More flights go into Milan.
Mary is correct, in that Genoa is closer then Milan. Milan is almost always cheaper. You can not get a nonstop from the east coast to Genoa.
You could fly into Genova (Genoa-GEN) take a taxi to the train station then take the local train to Cinque Terre (30 minutes more or less). Very quick and easy trip. This past June
we turned our rental car in at the Pisa airport. We had to take a taxi to the train station, take a train to LaSpezia, change trains to the small local train to Cinque Terre. It was not difficult, much longer, not as quick as Genova. CT is our favorite part of Italy-enjoy!!!
For some reason I was advised to fly into Florence or Pisa....maybe there is a major price difference...airport in Genoa is small, I would check both
Tom and Jane, Which city to fly into will depend on whether you want to change planes in Frankfurt or another major hub. As the others have mentioned, you'll likely find greater flight availability for direct flights into Milan (I've found that these can vary according to season though). If you're travelling to one of the smaller airports such as Pisa or Genoa, at least one transfer will most likely be involved. Travel by train from Milan is fairly easy though. Using Monterosso as an example, the trip from Milano Centrale is only about three hours (add at least an hour to get to Milan from MXP). Another option you could consider would be to fly inbound to Rome, as there's a direct train to La Spezia which only takes four hours (add at least half an hour to get to Roma Termini from FCO). There are several options..... Happy travels!
I am flying Delta to JFK out of Pisa after visiting Cinque Terre next spring. I will take the train from Cinque Terre. It's a little over 2 hours with a change in La Spezia.
Tom & Jane. We did this trip last year before our cruise. Fly into Genova and stayed at the Hotel Bristol, walked 10 minutes to the train station. We got off at the farthest town Riomaggorie. It took 90 minutes and cost about 9.60 euro each way. You can purchase the tickets at the kiosk in the train station and use Visa or mastercard. We hopped on and off the local trains between the towns.
It was great.