La spezia to cinque terre

From the port take a taxi. It's about a couple of miles to the station so taxi won't be expensive. The train to the Cinque Terre is a short 8-10 min to the first of the Cinque Terre(Riomaggiore). The. Cost is insignificant to any of the Cinque Terre, just a handful of euros depending to which of the five town.

Ditto Roberto. Add that all trains that you will be on to/from La Spezia Centrale will be Regionale trains. You cannot buy tickets for these trains online in advance unless you are within 7 days of travel. Not to worry. You can easily purchase, validate your ticket and board the train. Note that you must validate these tickets in the little time stamp boxes in the train station before boarding the train.

You can get a Cinque Terre card at the Park office at the train station---unlimited use of the trains for the day---admission to the park trails and use of park shuttles (like uphill to Corneglia) all for 10e Paul

Elaine/Rick, What Roberto said. Could you clarify whether your ship is docking in La Spezia OR in a nearby port such as Livorno? In any case, you'll need to get to La Spezia Centrale (there's more than one rail station there). You won't be able to buy tickets in advance as most of the trains in that area are Regionale. Tickets are quite cheap, so I'm not sure whether a Cinque Terre Card will save much money. The tickets range from about €1.80 to €2.40 per trip. Buy tickets at the La Spezia and other stations, either from the staffed ticket office or Kiosks. With Regionale trains, tickets must be validated prior to boarding the trains, or you'll risk a hefty fine which will be collected on the spot. However, the runs are all very short in that area, so it's possible that your tickets will not be checked. As Roberto mentioned, the trip from La Spezia to Riomaggiore is only about 9 minutes, and the trips to the other towns are equally short. You may find it helpful to pick up a copy of the RS Mediterranean Cruise Ports Guidebook, as that has a LOT of good information and probably covers most of the ports you'll be visiting. Happy travels!

@ Paul's comment. You want the Cinque Terre Treno card. It's the Treno card that gets you the unlimited train rides. You can buy the card in the TI office in the La Spezia train station (if its still there). That's where we bought ours.

Thank you so much for all your help!
Elaine

May I suggest the boat? We had planned to take the train this spring, but as we were walking from our tender dock to the taxi area I saw a tourist boat. It was advertising all day hop on and off rides, but I asked and they let us buy a one way ticket to the farthest town. This was GREAT. You get to see each of the towns from the shore and get a great feeling for how they are wedged in there. The scenery is AMAZING. We then took the train back stopping at three towns. Once in LaSpezia we walked back to the port. The town has a very cute pedestrian road right to the port. Just make sure you get better directions to the start of the pedestrian road then I did (I was rescued by a great Italian man who walked us right to the start).

Thank you so much for all your suggestion... I researched them and I think we will take the boat there and maybe the train back..sounds good. thanks again,
Elaine :)

Elaine, what time will you get there? I'm asking because the towns and hiking trails aren't quite as busy in the morning but do fill up later in the day. We did the boat ride to Cinque Terre in the morning and the train back and in hindsight wished we had done it the other way around. By the time we arrived it was already a busy place. At the end of October it might look a bit different than during our summer experience. Also, if the waters are choppy the boats won't run and you have to take the train anyways. Just keep that in mind as your backup plan.