Levanto/Santa Margherita Ligure

I stayed in Levanto on a Rick Steves tour a few years ago. Easy access to the the CT villages, a pleasant place to stay, and not too hilly. It has a beach, too.

You might also consider Rapallo. A little easier to access the other coastal locations than SML and flat overall, but a lovely cable car to a viewpoint and restaurant above.

Thank you both for your help. I appreciate the feedback!

SML is mostly flat unless you need to walk to the train station, which is on top of a hill.

Cinque Terre isn't just about hiking. The 5 villages are nice to see.

We've stayed in Levanto a couple of times when visiting the Cinque Terre. It's easy to take the train to the Cinque Terre villages, but you have to get to the Levanto train station from your hotel. Monterosso is flat and easily walkable, both the Old Town and New Town areas.

4 of the 5 Cinque Terre towns have ferry service...Monterosso, Vernazza, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Corniglia is high above and does not have a ferry landing. Vernazza and Manarola aren't difficult to walk around if you stay around the ferry landing. Almost all of Riomaggiore is an uphill walk.

You might also want to think about visiting nearby Porto Venere (south of Riomaggiore) by ferry. It's another beautiful village and most of it isn't too difficult to walk around.

Thanks for the additional info! I've sent it all to my mom and told her to see what she thinks. Grazie!

Levanto. It’s flat with a nice paved path along the beach. Easy train to CT or Santa margherita.

I've stayed in both towns.

Levanto is flatter and closer to the CT.

I stayed near the train station in SML so it was a slight uphill walk from town to my hotel but there were plenty of hotels closer to the center of town. If she stayed in SML she could get the bus to Portofino while you explore the CT,

It will take anywhere from 50 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes to get from SML to Monterosso depending on which train you take. Levanto is a five minute ride.

While I pesonally preferred SML, for your wants I would suggest Levanto.

My family used to rent an apartment in Levanto for several weeks every summer. It’s a great family beach town, very walkable, with grocery stores and good restaurants. We stopped going after COVID and have moved on to explore other areas of the world but we would like to go back soon. Levanto gives you not only easy train access to the 5 Cinque Terre towns, but it’s easy to explore towns north of Cinque Terre, such as Rapallo, Portofino, and Santa Margherita Ligure. I’ve heard Camogli is a great fishing village to visit as well. Our favorite activity was to rent bikes and ride them from Levanto through the rail trail along the ocean to Bonassola, which is a cute beach town. We would eat lunch, go swimming and either continue on to Framura or return home. It’s a beautiful, safe rail trail with lots of openings to view the ocean and completely flat, not more than 4 miles to go all the way to Framura. Lastly, there’s a great 2-hour hike from Levanto to Monterosso, after which we would eat lunch and swim on their beautiful beaches. Enjoy your trip!