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Deciding whether to stay in monterosso or santa margherita ligure

Hi everyone,

I am in process of weighing where to stay during our upcoming trip to Italy this May. Specifically, for the middle part of our trip we plan to stay in the cinque terre or north of. I am having a hard time deciding between monterosso and santa margherita ligure. We have been to the CT 10+ years ago on a day trip, so this will be our first time staying overnight.

On one hand I would prefer to stay north of and day trip into the CT but on the other I know that we won’t experience the magic of being in the villages early morning / late evening when it is not overwhelmed by day trippers if we don’t stay in one of the 5 villages.

We do like to hike and bike so we will likely plan to do a few trails while there but I don’t expect many options for biking in this region; although I did note earlier that there may be an option for that in camogli and I recall seeing a video from Rick recently about a backroads or similar bike tour in the region. I sure hope we luck out with good weather / minimal rain but I know that rain in the month of May can vary.

Input would be appreciated to help me decide which town and accommodations. I would prefer something within a 10 minute walk to the train station.

Here are some of the lodging options I bookmarked, a couple are based on a search of the forum.

B&B SoleMare / Via san martino 11
/ Monterosso

La colonnina Hotel /
Via Zuecca 6 /
Monterosso

Hotel sant’andrea /
Via privata belvedere 10 /
Santa margherita ligure

Hotel metropole /
Via pagana 2 /
Santa margherita ligure

To note, bookmarked the following but they are not available for our dates:

-Hotel Albergo Degli Amici

-Hotel villa steno

Posted by
164 posts

Would you consider staying in Camogli, which has a train link to the CT?

@ekscrunchy - yes we would consider. Are there any accommodations you can recommend and pro’s to staying here as compared to SML or Monterosso?

Posted by
1407 posts

The RS Village Italy tour stays in Levanto these days which is the 1st town north of the CT and is about 3 minutes away by train. You might want to consider that instead of Santa Margherita Ligure which is a nice place (we've been there) but more distant from CT. Or just south of the CT is Lerici which doesn't have a train station but is reachable by bus and has daily ferries to the CT.

Both towns would offer hiking (you can look up details online) and Levanto as I remember also has bike trails.

Posted by
1263 posts

Because Camogli is on a train line and I am not sure that SML is on one.
For me, Camogli is more charming than SML,, although both are really pretty towns.
SML gets cruise tourists.
But you can walk from SML to Portofino.

I took one trip when we split the time--about four days in Camogli and four in SML, before driving up to Lake Como.

Posted by
164 posts

Thank you so much for the responses!

The RS Village Italy tour stays in Levanto these days which is the 1st town north of the CT and is about 3 minutes away by train. You might want to consider that instead of Santa Margherita Ligure

@John - I read up a bit more on Levanto after you responded and we are now considering, thanks!

Because Camogli is on a train line and I am not sure that SML is on one.
For me, Camogli is more charming than SML,, although both are really pretty towns.
SML gets cruise tourists.
But you can walk from SML to Portofino.

@ekscrunchy - although SML appears to have a train stop, after a deep dive and considering we are traveling by train, Camogli and SML are further north than we want to be from the CT, so we are now deciding between Levanto and Monterosso. Will definitely try to fit in a trip up to SML and the walk to portofino while there. Thanks for this!

I do need to research what dates the cruise-ships will be in the area so we can try to plan our days accordingly to avoid as best possible those crowds. Our stay will include a weekend and not sure if weekend/weekdays have any impact on how busy the villages are.

Other accommodations that we are considering below, all appear to have availability for our dates. Also to note, hoping to find accommodations with softer beds which I know is sometimes hard to come by.

Oasi boutique hotel / Levanto

A Durmi / Levanto

Hotel villa adriana / monterosso

L’antica Terrazza / monterosso

Thanks again for the input!

Crystal