Cinque Terre--stay in Monterosso or Levanto?

this recent thread might help:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/is-monterosso-or-vernazza-or-another-ct-town-the-best-to-stay-in

just search the page for Levanto as it came up as an alternative to Monterosso

I've done both.
Monterosso is a good location and does have a beach for swimming....
It is IN the CT.

But I loved staying Levanto. It is a bit larger and does have a nice sandy beach for swimming, it reminds me of a real beach town with small shops selling floats, tubes , towels, swimsuits.
I enjoyed walking around the town and found some really good restaurants.
Very Quick train ride to the actual 5 towns of the CT, and we were able to buy our trail pass right at the train station.
The trains are very frequent - so not much waiting.
What I enjoyed more was taking the boat down the coast to visit all the 5 towns, got off and wandered around, then got on another boat and headed to the next town.

There have also been years when I hiked the trails too...... an amazing experience, but now some of the trails are closed and you have to hike higher up the hills to get to the next village.

If you want to stay in Cinque Terre it has to be Monterosso. Levanto while being close is not Cinque Terre.

thanks for the feedback so far--we don't necessary have to be in CT, just near enough to enjoy it.

adriem, if you intend to spend your daylight hours sightseeing IN the CT, staying elsewhere won't help you avoid them. Monterosso is also the least overrun of the villages, the largest and most spread out.

The hotel you booked is far enough away from the waterfront (doesn't appear to have a view of the sea) that I don't think you'll be dealing with any crowds during the hours you'll be spending there. Hotel Souvenir looks very nice and seems to receive good reviews.

Some people want to stay in the heart of the action/location, for me there is no question at all if I want to go to the Cinque Terre on vacation I want to stay there not commute in daily, so I would stay in one of the 5 towns.
I know people who love Venice but prefer to stay outside of Venice and travel in daily for much the same reasons but even more extreme since the distance away is further.

The thing about the crowds in the CT, is that the towns are overrun during the day by day trippers. The towns are not crowded by folks staying overnight, that is a small percentage of the tourists.
If you stay outside and travel in daily you will experience the crowds at their worst.

The same could be said about my Venice example, Venice is at it's worse from 11:00 - 18:00 so if not staying overnight it is harder to escape the crowds.

Last point: 2 nights is a very short stay, you basically have 1 full day. To fear you will be overrun by crowds in Monterosso for a 2 night stay is not a valid reason at all. If your trip involves other popular Italian sites/cities the crowds in Cinuqe Terre are unlikely to be the worst crowds. I did not find it as crowded in Sept. as other areas were. If you were staying a week it makes some more sense to stay outside of the 5 towns.

Like Frances, I've also stayed in both towns and prefer Levanto to Monterosso. The Levanto beach is big, uncrowded, lovely and fun to walk along. We walked (biking is good along here, too) along the somewhat higher paved coastline path to the next tiny town (I'm sorry, I can't remember it's name) but that was a really gorgeous walk. Lots of cute shops and good food in Levanto and it's not nearly as busy or crowded as Monterosso. I've also stayed in Rio Maggiore and Vernazza and while I have loved all my visits, if I were to go back (WHEN I go back!), I would choose to stay in Levanto again.

If you already have a hotel booked in Monterosso, I'd suggest hanging on to it as September is still a busy month for hotels in that area. A few thoughts, some of which have been mentioned earlier....

• if you're going to be out sightseeing during the day, you won't have to deal with the cruise ship hordes in the town you're staying in.
• Accessing the station is easier in Monterosso than Levanto (the station in Levanto is about a 10-15 minute walk from the main part of town).
• If you're only going to be there 2 nights, you're only going to have one full day of sightseeing time anyway, so I wouldn't be too worried about the crowds.
• Levanto and the trains from there could also be busy, as the large coaches from the cruise ship firms often use that as their access to the Cinque Terre (since it would be difficult to get vehicles of that type into the five towns).

Enjoy the Cinque Terre!

I like Monterosso because it is flatter than the other villages. Some of the hills are very steep in the villages. The train station is large and they have a manned ticket counter (Not sure if the other villages have these or just the machines) where we were able to purchase an all day pass for the trains and trails (12€ each??). I also loved the walking path from the train station to our hotel, a slow climbing hill along the water, through the tunnel to a town square then up to our hotel with lots of places to eat.