We will be staying for 3 nights in this area in July. Still trying to decide on which town. We will leave from here by train to Milan, so want an easy direct train. Have seen good hotel options in La Spezia, Monterosso and Levanto. We want to hike one day, take a ferry to Portofino and just take in the sights in a beautiful area. Are there certain towns to avoid that are over run by cruise ship passengers or will every place be crowded in July? Any suggestions?
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32225 posts
jean,
My first comment is that for travel in July, it would be prudent to decide on a town and get a hotel booking SOON, as It will be busy in that area. To answer your question, all of the towns will be packed when the cruise ships are in the area, but in my experience Monterosso handles the crowds better as it's larger and has two parts (the smaller towns don't tend to handle the crowds as well - I learned that "the hard way").
Regarding which town to stay in, Monterosso is probably your best bet at this late date, although you could certainly check the others. Monterosso is the largest of the five, and therefore has the greatest number of hotels, restaurants and other amenities (and also the best beaches). Corniglia is probably the least popular as it's very small and located high on a rock bluff, so not close to the ocean at all.
The quickest way to get to Portofino from the five towns of the Cinque Terre (IMO) is to travel by train to Santa Margherita Ligure and then take a short (~20 minute) boat trip from there. Ferries from the five C.T. towns to Portofino will likely be very limited (I haven't checked).
If you're planning to hike the popular Sentiero Azzurro trails, note that not all of them may be open. At the present time, only the segment from Monterosso to Vernazza is open. However there's an extensive network of other trails, so if you don't mind some robust hiking up into the hills, you'll have lots of opportunities to do that.