How far in advance to book rooms in the Cinque Terre

olsen,

For a stay in June, I'd suggest starting to look for rooms in February or March (although some place may not be open at that time of the year). Your first step will be to decide which of the five towns you want to stay in. After that you can start to figure out accommodations, as the choices will vary a bit from one town to the other.

I prefer to stay in Monterosso, which is the largest of the five towns and therefore has the greatest number of hotels, restaurants and other tourist amenities, as well as the best beaches. You might find it helpful to have a look at the RS Italy guidebook as that has listings for reliable accommodations in each of the towns.

Excellent, thanks! I’ve also already bought all the RS literature I can get my hands on so I’m covered there! Now to immerse myself in it and learn all the things. :)

It is never too late to start investigating rooms you would like to book. Once you have a few rooms in mind, you can contact landlords (this season) to see when they start booking for next season. Last November we already knew the room that we wanted to book for this July. We contacted the owner and they let us know to contact them again in January to book. The early bird gets the worm.

Last month I booked my rooms about three days before arriving in Levanto. Granted, I already knew the place I wanted to stay and was in touch with the B&B owner from the last time I had stayed there. Levanto isn't everyone's favorite choice for the Cinque Terre, but it is a nice town and a nice alternative to some of the overpriced lodgings in the five villages. And it's only one train stop north of Monterosso, with the trains included in the CT train pass...

Last year I traveled with a group of six to the Cinque Terre (we needed three rooms--two doubles and one with two single beds) at the end of May/first of June. I booked in late February and every RS recommended hotel was full. I found this wonderful place in Monterosso, Hotel Stella della Marina: https://www.stelladellamarina.com/en-hotel.php. The owner, Gabriele only had the three rooms left. Located in the old town, it is a charming small hotel with a lovely rooftop deck. Most importantly, Gabriele is one of the most hospitable owner. He treated us as family, making reservations, ensuring we got to our transport on time. I would stay again.

The thing that I wasn't aware of when I booked is how busy the Cinque Terre gets and with all the RS tours, there is a lot of competition for hotels. I did look at Airbnb and VBRO, but decided against it due to the short time we were in the Cinque Terre and the lack of properties that fit the size and requirements of my group.

Have a great trip.
Sandy

There will be four of us—my husband and me plus our two kids. I know rooms in Europe are much smaller than here in the States—do I need one room, or will we need two to sleep all four of us? Or might an Airbnb/VRBO be better? We will definitely stay at least a couple of nights.

Sandy thanks so much for that link! I’ll definitely check it out!

Janine we will definitely be doing some heavy research the rest of this summer into early fall to figure out what we are doing. I definitely want to book our flights first so we have our dates. A lot of people wait until about four months out for that, but it seems we may need to do that about six months out (which would be December/January) and then start booking rooms.

We made our reservations either end of Dec. or beginning of Jan. and barely got into our first choice of hotel and specific room at that hotel. I'd say if there's a property that you KNOW you want to stay at, nail it down around Christmas or even before. If booking directly with a property, some close over the winter and don't check their reservation-request mail every day so you might have to be a lil' patient with responses. :O)

It depends upon how fussy you are. If you want something really specific the sooner the better. I booked our nights in Vernazza 7 months before we travelled....and our accommodations were really great. Staying there allowed us to enjoy the town early and late, when it was not besieged by the thundering herds of boat people. While they invaded, we were on the trails or sitting in the shade at a nice restaurant eating the local anchovies...as soon as you have dates, book your rooms. I prefer AB&B"s....I like to stay where I don't encounter crowds at breakfast.

Our dates are slightly flexible depending on flight expenses—i.e., if flying on Tuesday is significantly cheaper than Friday then we would go on Tuesday. At this point I can’t see flights out that far, or at least they are really limited so far. It seems booking those flights first so we know what days we will be in Cinque Terre is important so then we can get the rooms booked early too! Definitely want to stay and enjoy the towns early and late so we avoid some of the crowds. Thanks all! There will obviously be lots more questions posted in the weeks and months to come!