Cinque Terre with bad knees?

You can still enjoy much of the towns! All but Cornegila have good walks you can take without many stairs. Go up to the top of Riomaggiore primarily by ramp, as I recall. Same to the belvedere in Manarola. Stroll to the waterside in Vernazza and Monterosso easily enough. You might benefit form a walking stick I used one in Ravello when I had a torn meniscus.

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IMO, you can still enjoy the Cinque Terre, even with bad knees. I'd suggest staying in Monterosso as it's the most "level" of the five towns. You can easily walk from one end of the "new town" to the "old town" at your own pace, without having to navigate hills or stairs.

Each of the towns have their own peculiarities regarding terrain, and here's a quick summary....

• Monterosso - mostly flat as mentioned but you will have a few stairs at the rail station and boarding the trains. Walking up Via Roma in the old town has a slight incline, but it's not difficult. Also great beaches!
• Vernazza - again there's a stairway to get from the station down into the town, but it's mostly level if you stay downhill from the station. There are lots of restaurants in the small harbour area where you can stop for a meal and enjoy the ambience.
• Corniglia - the town is located on a bluff far above the rail station, and there's a considerable stairway to get there if you're walking. However, there is a shuttle bus that departs at regular intervals from the station.
• Manarola - mostly level at the lower end but a bit of an incline if heading to the upper parts of the town.
• Riomaggiore - mostly level at the lower end by the station but if you're heading uphill there's more of an incline. There are some stairs to get down to the harbour area. If you have to use the tunnel at the station to get from one platform to another, there are also stairs there as well as leading up from the station platform to the Via dell' Amore (although as I recall an Elevator is provided there).

You don't have to hike any of the No. 2 trails as you can travel between each town using the local trains. There are also boats (good weather only) but I'm not sure if they'll be operating in October. If the Via dell' Amore is open (Riomaggiore - Manarola), you could walk that as it's mostly level and paved. There's a small bar close to the Manarola end where you can stop for a snack or a glass of wine and enjoy the spectacular views. Note that you'll need a Park Pass to hike any of the No. 2 trails, which you can buy locally.

You may find once you've arrived there that you had booked at least an extra day. It's a great place to relax and just enjoy Il dolce far niente (as well as some of the excellent food, especially Pesto in the area where it was invented).

Happy travels!

It is definitely worth the trip to Cinque Terre. We stayed in Riomaggiore for a week and there is a bus at the bottom of the street (a little walk up) which will do a loop around the top of the village and back. Monterossa is flat and try to find an airbnb/hotel right by the sea. Just the trip on the train is awesome and likewise a boat trip will avoid any climbing.
Overall it is difficult to avoid stair climbing and hill climbing in the other 4 villages.
Enjoy, I would go back there in a heartbeat.

Thank you all! You've talked me into it. I'll see what I can see -- no pain, no gain.