Hi Folks,

Need your help with some advice on travelling around and stay in Cinque Terre. We will be travelling by car from Montaione in Tuscany 3rd week of June and was looking for a nice place to stay which will give us the feel of the place yet let us park our car.We are 3 -my wife, teen daughter and me. Its a little confusing where to stay- the National Park or around La Spezia.Also things to do there. Please help

And how long is the drive from Montaione to Cinque Terre? We are actually driving on to Val Gardena in the Dolomites after CT, so is there any other city/town worth visiting besides Cinque Terre enroute to the Dolomites?

It should take you about 2 hours and a bit to get there if I'm not mistaken...

If you do include the CT, I would drive to Portovenere to stay and see the CT from the water---hopping on/off at the villages.

However, I would consider staying on Lago Garda instead--much easier route and still gives you a natural beauty venue.

Try one of the small towns - Rick Steves recommends a few B&Bs that are worth checking out.

Highly, highly recommend Cinque Terre. To this day, it's still one of my all-time favorite places in the world. Fondly remembering a weekend backpacking there in college - the hiking, the swimming, the wine, the pesto, the views!

Biggest recommendation is to hike the trails - the boats won't give you the same sense of awe as hiking.

Enjoy!
m.

If you have hotels booked you can park at the edges of towns in parking lots for guests - Monteresso has larger, for the Cinque Terre, public parking lots - a newish one on reclaimed land from the sea.

Thanks friends! So parking is an issue! But does one stay in the National Park or in one of the small towns....and which one- will check out Portovenere but guess thats across the water...

Hi
My husband I stayed in Riomaggiore for 2 nights last Sept and it was one the best places in our 6 week European holiday.
We stayed and Casa Lorenza (http://www.casalorenza.it/index.php/en/) and I could go on all day about how much we loved the room, our host Lorenza and the towns. I think you can park your car at National Park and Lorenza will pick you up.
We spent the our one full day going between the 5 towns by train and coming back by boat along the coast. I know it was just a taster and you could spend more time but we still thoroughly enjoyed out time in the CT.
We then caught the train back to La Spezia and picked up a hire car and headed to Tuscany.

Vernazza is a favorite of many - lovely old port.