Cinque Terre with 4 kids for 3 nights.

Sounds like fun! Don't worry about finding accommodations in Monterosso....you can easily get to Monterosso from any of the other cities by train. Each is only about a 15 minute ride away. You can also go by boat or hike (although I wouldn't recommend that with children as it is rigorous!). We stayed in Vernazza where there are no real hotels, but lots of bed and breakfast type rooms. Book early!

I would suggest going no further north than Levanto for one reason. You get buy the Cinque Terre Treno cards at TI offices. These passes provide unlimited train travel and covered fares on the trails for 1, 2, 3 or 7 days. However, this card is only good from Levanto in the North to La Spezia in the South. CLICK HERE to see what they look like. Also, make sure the card says "TRENO" on it and has the Trenitalia logo.

Second, are you aware of family fares in Italy? Children under 4 ride free (but with no seat). Children under 12 get a 50% discount under certain conditions.

Here's the language from the Trenitalia website:

Familia Offer
Offer for journeys of family groups made up of from 3- 5 persons made up of at least 1 adult and 1 child of less than 12 years, includes ticket booking (free) and allows a discount of 20% (only for adult passengers) and 50% off (30% for couchettes and WL) for children with respect to the standard fare. The minimum price is 10 euro, subject to the minimum fares applied to the train used.
The offer has limited seats availability, which vary according to day, train and class..

Trains you can use this solution on: AV, T-Biz, ES, ES City, IC Plus, IC, ICN, Express, couchettes and WL.

Kristen

"2 families traveling for 3 weeks in Italy in June with 4 kids under 11...are we nuts? "

Probably :-), but that doesn't mean you won't have a great time regardless.

We usually stay in Vernazza; not much beach but really laid back, and you can always take a short train ride to Monterosso for the beach. The last time we were in Monterosso there was a group of drunk American teen-agers on the beach playing the Ugly American role. I was embarrassed and it left a bad taste in my mouth about the place. Hopefully, they are gone by now...

Italians are very family oriented. They have a soft-spot for children. There is no better way to be warmly welcomed in Italy than to have some well behaved children in tow. Our youngest daughter had a great time there.

She celebrated her 8th birthday in CT. She loved petting cats in town and on the trails and feeding pigeons pieces of her pizza on the jetty in Vernazza. Everywhere we went people commented, "Bella Bambina!". The only Italian she learned on her trip was a very dramatic, "Io Fame!" (I'm hungry!), which we usually heard when we were passing a gelatto shop. On her birthday she had an hour-long conversation with several middle-aged Italian women who spoke no English. Somehow she communicated to them it was her birthday so they all bought her chocolate eggs with a prize inside for her present (unfortunately those eggs are outlawed in the US because they are considered a safety hazard for kids).

We didn't start bringing our kids until they were 5 or 6 and we're ready for a full day of walking.

we stayed at monterosso at Hotel La Spiaggia(1 block from train station) Phone 011390187817567..it is right across from the beach and the owner was very nice..rooms were clean and breakfast was great..would stay there again JO

What a fun trip! We were in Vernazza 2 years ago and there were often quite a few local children playing around the main piazza area by the water, especially in the early evening. Your children should feel very welcomed there and perhaps make some friends. A word of caution - the guardrails and other safety features our children have grown accustomed to in the US are often not present in Europe - just a good thing to keep in mind. As for accomodations, you might try emailing some of the contacts Rick lists in his book with rooms to let and ask for their suggestions for rooms sleeping 4. We stayed at Elizabetta Carro's ([email protected]), which we loved. I think she has at least one large room but perhaps she could refer you to someone else nearby. Her place is located quite high in Vernazza with a lot of steps - maybe too much with the children? All the towns are so compact and it is quick and easy to take the train everywhere, so any place you stay is really not that far from the beach or anything else.

Kristen,

We stayed in Riomaggiore in 2007. My 9 year old son loved it so much he cried when we left. His favorite things were going to sit on the rocks by the water and watching the sunset...then heading for a gelato before hanging out on our apartment terrace before bedtime.

My kids loved the swimming hole at Manarola. They had a great time jumping off the rocks. There is no beach...you just spread your towel on the rocks. The best thing is that the swimming is free! We never did spend time on the beach in Monterosso as we found it too crowded for us and besides...can't get much better than free for swimming!

It worked well to swim in Manarola and then walk back to Riomaggiore. As a result we didn't have to worry about wet suits on the train.

We used MarMar for our apartment rental.

We're headed back again for 7 nights in 2010 and we'll stay in Riomaggiore.

You will have a wonderful time!