Cinque Terre - La Spezia or Levanto

We stayed in Manarola at La Toretta (sp). It is a lovely hotel at the top of the village, a pretty good walk up from the train with luggage. I noticed that about a block above the hotel was a parking lot. I thought at the time that it would be easy to stay in La Toretta if you were driving and just walk down from the parking lot to the hotel. In fact much easier than walking from the train station with luggage. You could base at Manarola right in the Cinque Terre and train from there. There are probably other hotels near the top as well. This would be a more pleasant experience than staying out side the villages. The views from La Toretta are wonderful.

I can't comment about Levanto, but this summer we stayed in Portovenere and had to drive through La Spezia a couple of times. I found it a very unattractive city, I least the aeas I saw. Would you consider staying In Portovenere? It is a gorgeous and magical place. The accees to the CT would be by boat. If worse came to worse and teh boat doesn't operate due to bad weather you could drive or take the bus to la Spezia and take the train from there.

I second Tonyr's recommendation for La Toretta. We stayed in May and loved it.

Levanto, but some hotels in le Cinque Terre do have parking (as does Monterosso al Mare).

Hi Som, We *just* returned from that area and stayed in Levanto. We liked it because it seemed to have a good selection of restaurants, etc. and was convenient to either take the ferry along the coast or the train. One day we took the ferry to Porto Venere and then stopped on the way back, walked between two cities then took the ferry back to Levanto. Another day, we took the train to Monterossa, walked to two cities and took the train back.

If you'd like to see pictures from the trip, visit this link

http://www.elzevir.net/parisPictures.htm

loved santa Marguarita. quick bus to Portofino and quick train to Cinque Terre

I've just returned from the Cinque Terre and stayed in Monterosso. The old village is car free except for service cars and taxi's but the rest of the town has car parking.

I did not really like La Spezia but liked both Portovenere and Levanto.

Thank all of you, your suggestions are great....on another note, what do you think our chances are of finding 2 doubles on the day of arrival; we are working our way South from Como stopping wherever we like so really don't want to book ahead unless absolutely necessary..except for these 3 nights on the road the rest of our 20 days are booked.
Som

Sorry, forgot to mention this is in Mid May 2010.
Som

I can't comment on mid May but I meet a couple from Canada who had great difficulty finding a place to stay during the last week of September. However, that was in one of the five villages, it might be different outside the villages.

Sominex,

Are you carrying cell phones?

I would not want to drive down to the sea from the autostrade into a town, only to be told I had to drive back up and then back down again to the next town and ask there-- and so on.

So if you have cell phones and are carrying with you the names of 10 different accommodations in le Cinque Terre or Levanto, you can probably phone ahead from the road and make your bookings. You should also have the names of accommodations in Moneglia, which is right next to Levanto but gets a fraction of the tourists. The name "Moneglia" means "gem," so it's a pretty town. And it is one train line, so you can park there and use the train to get to the five villages.

Yes we'll have a cell phone thanks, that's a great suggestion.
Som

We stayed in Levanto and thought it was a great location. The Cinque Terre train pass includes Levanto, and there's a great hike between Levanto and the northernmost Cinque Terre village, having a senior moment on the name. We were the only people on the trail.

Levanto felt more like a real town and not a tourist stop.

Monterosso al Mare is the northernmost town of the five villages of le Cinque Terre.

Me, I would stay in Levanto and train or boat into Cinque Terre. Take a boat over to Porto Venere for the seafood restaurants.

I'd like to thank Zeppole for mentioning Moneglia--I had not hear of this town before but when I looked it up on TripAdvisor I was surprise at the number of hotels receiving excellent reviews. Not the case with many coastal towns in this area.

How many days really to visit the CT? Two full days daytripping in from nearby towns? Three days?

The hotels with the rare parking lot must charge a mint just for the parking alone?

How much do the boats and trains to CT run?