I was planning to stay in Genoa for about five days and to take day trips to Cinque Terra and to Portofino and also to one other city that begins with a C near Portofino. Is this a wise idea? Is travel from Genoa to these places easy/reasonable? Is there a better place to use as a bas to visit this area?
Thanks very much for any assistance!
It is a big industrial port city. Not the most beautiful city in Italy, in my opinion, but it has a few things to offer to the visitor.
My preference would be to stay in a smaller quaint town on the coast, of which there are many.
The town you are referring to, starting with a C, is probably Camogli or maybe Chiavari.
If you don't care to stay at the Cinque Terre and if you like quaint small towns, may I suggest Moneglia?
It's one of my favorite villages on the Eastern Ligurian Riviera. I thought it was because of memories from my youth, but it turns out that Moneglia made the list of the Most beautiful villages of Italy in the Borghi d'Italia website, so I'm not alone.
Moneglia is about half way between the Cinque Terre and the Genova area (which includes Portofino and Camogli). You are basically less than half hour train ride from all the places you want to visit.
I would not want to stay in Genoa as there are many other towns with more to offer. Roberto's suggestions are good, he really knows Italy!
Do you not want to stay in one of the Cinque Terre towns? They are lovely.
Another possibility is S. Margherita. We stayed there and took a boat over to Portofino. The train ride to CT was pretty fast. We visited Camogli, as well, by bus I think. You could also do a day trip by train to Genoa. There are some interesting things to see there, but I can't see any reason to use it as a base when there are more attractive options.
Why day trip when you have five days?
Book in to Portofino for 2 nights and Monterosso for 3 nights.
Why travel to and from, when you can be in there amongst it?
Enjoy.
I just got back from the CT and I believe anyone who visits these towns for day tripping would really be missing out. Even though we went midweek in September, each town (other than Riomaggiore -didn't go) was absolutely packed disneyland style from about 11 am until 5 pm. I can't imagine what it is like during the summer or even on weekends. The mornings and evenings were absolutely magical and certainly the best part of our vacation.
Thank you so much to all of you! The replies have been so helpful. Clearly, I'm not going to base myself in Genoa :)
I am going to try to find a nice place in one of the CT towns or the others mentioned and then go from there.
What do you think of Portofino? I've found some of most romantic apartments to rent there, on the bay, but online, people seem to say that its over-priced and snooty and not worth it to stay there.
I agree with celfan! We stayed in Monterosso last week and it was wonderful in the mornings & evenings when all the tour groups were gone. Sitting outside for dinner and walking around town were great experiences.
It is less than 50mins by direct train from CT to the station for Portofino, so definitely worth a day excursion.
RE 2296 Dep 10:07 MONTEROSSO (Italy) Arr 10:54 S.MARGHERITA L.-PORTOFINO (Italy)
RE 11209 Dep 17:56 S.MARGHERITA L.-PORTOFINO (Italy) Arr 18:42 MONTEROSSO (Italy)
The downside of staying in Portofino is that you have to take either the bus or ferry to Santa Margherita Ligure to catch the train to anywhere else. Not insurmountable, but adds to travel time and you are dependent on the bus/ferry schedules. There isn't really much to Portofino either. I've stayed in much nicer seacoast towns especially in the CT. But it all depends on your tastes and what you like to do.
Portofino is nice but very quiet...the town is beautiful and I love walking up through the olive groves above the harbor.
Yes, it is very expensive and caters to the yachting crowd. They line the harbor in warm weather and are some of the most over-the-top boats I have ever seen. Fun to look at but unless you are into that short of thing then find somewhere else less pretentious.
I suggest you stay in Monterosso or any of the other villages at the Cinque Terre. If you want to stay away from the Cinque Terre or if the Cinque Terre are totally booked then Moneglia would be my choice. Closer to the Cinque Terre is also Bonassola, which I like as well.
I wouldn't stay in Portofino unless you like being surrounded by pretentious billionaires or other famous stars who occasionally visit the place with their yacht. In fact there are paparazzi stationed in the harbor 24/7 who hope for the scoop of their life. Portofino is however a good place to visit for a few hours and have your wallet plundered. Santa Margherita is good too, but it's a busy big resort town.
adam,
I agree with the others that the Cinque Terre or somewhere in that area will be a much nicer "holiday experience" than staying in Genoa. I also agree that Portofino is at best worth a day trip. You can easily travel by train to Santa Margherita Ligure by train and then take a short (20 minutes or so) boat ride from there to Portofino.
We very much liked staying in Santa Margherita Ligure. We took the train to the Cinque Terre and hiked. Vernazza was our favorite town with a wonderful lunch of fresh anchovies, pasta and some of the local white wine. Also, the walk from Santa Margherita to Portofino was lovely, about 5 miles round trip. Nice shopping in Portofino, too.
I would not stay in Genoa. We have stayed in Monterosso twice and really enjoyed it. The Cinque Terre towns are magical at night after the day trippers are gone and I'm glad we opted to stay in Monterosso. I believe you're referring to Camogli which is a nice town but it's over an hour by train to the CT towns. I would stay in one of the 5 CT towns and take a ferry to Portovenere for a day trip and then visit Camogli & Portofino as another day trip.
