Hello All,
We are a party of 7, including 1 kid. We want to visit Cinque Terre from Lucca where we will staying. The Original Plan was to rent a mini van in Lucca, drive to Cineque Terre. After some research, it seems parking is hard to find in one of the 5 Villages, and driving through the villages is a pain. So we changed the plan to park in La Spezia, park there, take the Ferry to the furthest North Town, Monterosso, train down to visit the other villages, then train back to La Spezia to pick up car. Seems like a plan until we found out ferry from La Spezia to Monterosso take over 2 hours! I don't think we want to stay in the boat for that long... Can someone gives me some advice on this day trip? We will be there mid May.
- where to park realistically within Cinque Terre (the 5 towns) that we could likely get a spot? if not, what could be the plan?
- if we want to make sure a parking spot could be secure, do we have to be there before a time?
- does driving a 7 people mini Van between the towns even realistic? and can the parking spot big enough for a Van?
- how crowded is the ferry in May? it seems that tickets cannot be book in advance? Can ticket be purchased at time of docking or it would be full?
We do not want to hike, especially with the kid thats why we prefer to take the ferry to see the beautiful towns.
Thanks a lot!
Posted by
Boston
1804 posts
This thread might help you decide. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/rental-car-park-for-cinque-terre-at-la-spezia-train-station
Posted by
Los Angeles
1207 posts
The ferry may take two hours because it stops at most if not all of the intermediate villages. So you might do better getting off at the first or second village and then go the rest by train.
Note that it may cost 35 Euro each time a group of 7 gets onto a train for a 5 minute ride between villages. You might look into getting day passes for the hiking trails, which can include train travel between villages.
Monterosso has what can be considered the best parking - but still limited, but the thought of driving a van anywhere in the CT is not appealing.