Cinque Terre May 2017

We will be there a few days before you, and are staying in Monterosso. BOOK YOUR ROOM NOW! That's all I can say. The world wide rescission didn't seem to hit the CT.

I've stayed in Riomaggiore and Monterosso. Monterosso is more flat and I liked both Hotel Punta Mesco and the Hotel Spiaggia there. One of my favorite things I've done in the CT was taking a boat at about 5pm from Monterosso to Riomaggiore, then walking along the trail to Manarola and taking the train back to Monterosso. The light was lovely that time of day. And we didn't see many others on the trail. This was in 2011.

Monterosso is a perfect place for several reasons, especially if you stay at Hotel La Spiaggia, a half block from station. The whole town is basically flat, beautiful wide beach, long boardwalk along the harbor for evening strolls. But yes, get a room ASAP. The 5 towns are small, not lots of hotel space. La Spiaggia has a great breakfast buffet and you can get coffee to go in an American sized cup! The more economical rooms don't face the beach but are still nice, they face a lovely garden patio area which is great for relaxing. I loved the climb to the Capuchin Convent, quite an uphill hike but fab views of the Ligurian Sea. An evening boat ride is a marvelous idea. Reserve with Stefano who is recommended in Rick's book. He's near the breakwater.

Charlie & Anna,

I agree with the others and would also suggest staying in Monterosso. Levanto is good in some ways as it's only about five minutes by train from Monterosso, however the train station is a bit of a walk from the hotels so you'd have to deal with that both coming and going each day.

If you book a hotel in the new town area of Monterosso (where the station is located), you won't have to climb at all as it's mostly level. You could also stay at Hotel Pasquale in the old town, as it's an easy walk from there to the station and still mostly level. As someone else suggested, it would be a good idea to BOOK SOON!

"One of my favorite things I've done in the CT was taking a boat at about 5pm from Monterosso to Riomaggiore, then walking along the trail to Manarola"

That won't be possible this year as the Via dell' Amore is expected to remain closed for the remainder of the year. At the moment the Sentiero Azzurro trails from Monterosso to Vernazza and Vernazza to Corniglia are open. If you don't want to "climb too much on foot", you might want to skip those as there's a fairly steep climb at the Monterosso end.

One possibility would be to spend one day exploring the five towns by train, and the other day for a relaxing boat trip to Porto Venere. Note that operation of the boats is subject to weather.

Another vote for La Spiaggia but BOOK NOW for whatever you can get that meets your requirements; as the others have mentioned, accommodations in the CT book up fast and early!!!

Thanks to everyone. We just booked the last available room at La Spiaggia with Maria, a seaside room with balcony. Now to work on how to spend our short time in the CT. A day by train and some hiking and maybe part of a day by boat is certainly appealing.
Charlie

Since you twice mentioned part of a day by boat, I'll tell you about our adventure. During our three night stay in CT, we rented a boat for four hours on the dock at Vernazza (where we stayed). It cost under 100 euros and was a great fun day. We packed a picnic and slowly traveled up and down the coast and took tons of pictures. We were encouraged to anchor and swim (this was in September 2016 and the weather was gorgeous and the Mediterranean was about 72 degrees and crystal clear) by NordEst, the gentlemen who rented us the boat. If you are comfortable renting a small boat (think 18 foot rowboat with motor), then go for it! One of the best things was that we got to choose the hour (not morning vs afternoon) so we picked up the boat around 10:32 and returned at 2:30, at our leisure in other words. We gloated at all the ferries that passed by with folks packed like sardines. A highlight of our three weeks in Europe!

Wow, that sounds like fun, and not at all typical. Thanks for the idea.
Charlie

Charlie,

Boat tours are also available in Monterosso. There may be more than one, but here's one example.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFHDYxSntxo

Charlie/Anna,
We are doing the same dates in Monterosso this year. Not sure about your nightly stays but we find rooms/apartments/flats on the VRBO website and find that hard to beat. Full kitchens/baths/washing machines and the prices are fabulous. We plan to hike our buts off and take the ferry back. Relax in town and on the beach and maybe run into a few Broncos fans..........sorry Seattle we are. But hey, love'd seeing Payton go out the way he did, class act for sure.
Ciao for now.

Erik & Kim

Charlie/Anna,
We are doing the same dates in Monterosso this year. Not sure about your nightly stays but we find rooms/apartments/flats on the VRBO website and find that hard to beat. Full kitchens/baths/washing machines and the prices are fabulous. We plan to hike our buts off and take the ferry back. Relax in town and on the beach and maybe run into a few Broncos fans..........sorry Seattle we are. But hey, love'd seeing Payton go out the way he did, class act for sure.
Ciao for now.

Erik & Kim

We just booked the last available room at La Spiaggia with Maria, a
seaside room with balcony.

Excellent. We stayed in one of those sea-side balcony rooms and loved it. The rooms are small and simply furnished but drinking early-morning coffee (we pack our own small kettle) on the balcony and watching Monterosso wake up was one of the highlights of our days. You'll have a great view!

Maria is the owner's daughter (it's a family business) and she's a real peach. Papa (Andrea) will probably be around too, and while he can come off a little gruff, he's a wealth of information on the region. Be good guests and he might present you a bottle of his homemade wine when you check out, as he did for us and for friends of ours who stayed there more recently. :O)

This tip was discovered in Manarola, but I suspect could apply to several other CT cities.

A local guide in Manarola suggested that instead of commencing our hikes from Manarola, we should take the local bus that stops in front of the post office (fare=1.50€ when purchased ahead of time at the tourism booth at the train station, 3.00€ when purchased on-board) to Volastra. This small town is at the head of two beautiful trails, one relatively short trail leading back to Manarola, the other much longer trail to Cornelia. The difference between going up or down these trails is the key. Not only is the walk much easier, but also the spectacular views are in front of you!

Two other tips: the national park fee for using the trails applies to the seaside trails. The high trails that depart from Volastra are free. Also, arriving in Cornelia from above is quite preferred to arriving by train. There's a very long staircase from the train station to the town that is much better going down!

There's a very long staircase from the train station to the town that
is much better going down!

You can also take a shuttle bus (small fee if you don't have a hiking card) up there from the station and then take the stairs back down, if you wish. They pretty much time bus arrival to meet the trains. If it's very busy, you might have a wait for another bus, though.