I believe I read in Frommer's that the boat between the 5 towns does not run beginning in October. My original plan was to hike the 5 towns and take the boat back.
Also, what order of towns is best for the hike? We are staying in Vernazza. We are in good physical shape and do not mind a challenging hike.
Thanks.
When you arrive, go to the Tourist Information Office and ask for a map of the trail. They probably give one when you buy your National Park pass.
We hiked the trail in our own order. You will want to do the same. We started in Vernazza and hiked south. Next day we took the train to another village and hiked from there to the next village. The train is easy to use between villages.
We hiked all the villages in one day. We started North to Monterossa from Vernazza, took the train all the way South from there and hiked back to Vernazza. We had three kids in tow as young as 8 but all used to taking hikes.
It might be better to split it in two. Go North one day and take a train or boat back. Go South the next day and take the train or boat back.
We didn't take the boat, we were there late October but we saw a boat unloading in Vernazza that I assumed was the ferry.
My husband and I were in Cinque Terre Oct 23, 2007 for 4 days. The boat was running. We had a very rainy day but the trails were open for us to hike and we did see the boats unloading passengers. We took the train to Riomaggiorie and walked back on the Via Del Amore'. Very lovely "stroll". We planted two jade plants close to the entrance that a local lady(Ivana)gave us when we were inquiring about her room for rent. We didn't need a room but we would rent from her if we get to CT again. In Vernazza we hiked up to a cemetary at the top of the town and continued on looking for the monestary but after about an hour we turned around and came back just as the sun was setting. Hike up to where Rick takes his picture for his brochures, along with the rest of us, and time it when the sun is setting. Beautiful.
We took the train to Manarola then took the boat back to Vernazza. You can buy a pass for the trails that include the boat. It was lovely. Sometimes the trails are closed due to bad weather but we were fine at the end of October.
Thanks everyone. We will be there October 10 - 12, I am glad to hear the boats were running in October.
