French Riviera or Cinque Terre

Nicole, what month will you be traveling?

There is more to do in the French Riviera. Cinque Terre is more relaxing and slow paced, but we found it dead at night. There is more things to keep you busy on the French Riviera.

Thank you so much for replying!

Grier we will be traveling mid may to europe for a little over 2 weeks of actual traveling (minus) airtime from and back to US.

Cinque Terre is great before May, but starts to turn into a circus as May winds on. The Riveria gives you so many more options, but only you can decide what appeals to your interests.

We did the Riveria early one May, and got to watch them set up the race tracks for the Grand Prix in Monte Carlo. We walked some of the track, watched them bring the cars out, and did a lot of "people watching". It was fun getting there before the races, and seeing all of the preliminary operations. This year the race is from the 13th to the 16th of May.

Then we explored some of the other towns and even got to spend some time in the sun and water.

I have been to both, and i prefer Cinque Terra.
There is lots more nightlife in the the French riviera thought.
I really liked hiking the trails, the food and the scenery
of Cinque Terra.

How old are you? What do you like to do? What time of year will you be there? How many days will you spend there?

If you like spending a lot of time doing a lot of nothing, and just melting away into your vacation (like me), then I'd steer you toward the Cinque Terre.

If you want stuff to do, night life, and whatnot, go to the Riviera.

Where are your other destinations? It could be that travel time will dicated to you which one is realistic.

nicole,

As the others have mentioned, the two areas are quite different in terms of "character". Are you interested more in a larger city, Museums, restaurants and night life OR small unique villages, great food (in the location where Pesto was invented), hiking and a relaxing ambience (not much night life)?

If you'd prefer the first choice, Nice would be a great home base. In addition to some great Museums (Chagall & Matisse as I recall), you could day trip to Monaco / Monte Carlo, Villefranche, Eze or other places in that area. This option would likely be a bit more expensive.

If the second choice sounds more attractive, you could enjoy relaxing on the nice beach at Monterosso (might be a bit chilly, depending on the weather at the time), hike the trails, enjoy the food and day trip to Portofino, Carrera or other spots on the "Italian Riviera".

I don't suppose there's any way you could spend a bit of time in both places? They're relatively close by train. That would give you an idea which one you want to return to and enjoy in more depth on a future trip.

Using open jaw flights might allow seeing both locations. Inbound to Paris / CDG, TGV to Nice and then return home from Milan / MXP.

Happy travels!