Advice on home base for Italian Riviera
 

We will be visiting Italian Riviera and Cinque Terre first week of September for 5 nights and need help deciding on a home base. We like to be close to the water/beach, so considering Deiva Marina or Rapallo. We will side trip to the Cinque Terre , so need an access to train/ferry as well.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated or recommendation for a different home base close to the water and convenient to the transportation.

Santa Margarita Ligure - south of CTerre. No a beach town per see though on the water but only a few miles from famous Portofino - you can walk the few miles from SML to Portofino via several routes including ones thru lovely forests. Portofino in the day is one of the most horrendously mobbed places but still a nice old fishing village:

SML itself attracts a lot of cruise sips and tourists but is also a real town - you can still see the daily catch come in. Anyway I really loved SML and its animated night with many folks out and about:

https://www.google.com/destination?q...ml0YSBMaWd1cmU

The city itself has nice colorful pastel buildings in a harmonious blend of hues:

https://www.google.com/search?q=sant...w=1097&bih=535

I'm very fond of SML. The parts of town nearest the train station have scant private beach access, but if your budget fits there are some very nice hotels with private beaches. Nearer the ferry port, and towards Portofino, there is better beach access. You can always take the bus to the train station. I believe they coordinate.

Last fall, we based in Rapallo and were quite pleased. Lots of easy rail access. Good restaurants. Nice shops. Lodging seemed a bit more affordable than SML and perhaps a tad better accessibility to places like CT. If interested, here is our trip report: https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...t-oct-1659667/

This entire area was hard hit by a freak fall storm, after we were there, that wiped out the road to Portofino and demolished a number off boats in Rapallo. Not certain if they all have fully recovered.

Oops in my mind it's always been south of CT -thanks for correcting.

No need of ferry to go Rapollo or other town to CT - all five villages have train stations and ferries I believe do go between them in season and once there, many people walk between some or all of them. Info on Italian trains - www.trenitalia.com - book your own discount tickets there for long-distance trains - www.seat61.com is a big help doing that yourselves online.
general info - BETS-European Rail Experts and www.rickseves.com.

Regional trains like to CT and up and down the coast are flat fare dirt cheap with no seat reservations so no reason to book them in advance - just buy at station.

Stayed in Rapallo - loved it! we could ferry southeast (CT) or west (SML / Portofino) or train. I thought Portofino was very snooty, SML less so, but not as casual / friendly as Rapallo. Still hoping to re-visit Rapallo one of these years.

I stayed in Rapallo for a few nights last month. FYI, it suffered major damage last fall in a big storm that disabled the harbor - ferries can't stop there, at least as of last month, and I got the idea the work wasn't quite done, so maybe not by September, either. But you can check.

Santa Margherta Ligure is a lovely town - haven't spent the night there but have day tripped there a few times. But my favorite is Camogli to the north of there.. It's smaller than SML (or Rapallo) I think and more quaint. It's more of an Italian tourist town than one for international tourists. I saw a few Americans when I was staying there but nothing like in the other towns. One downside of Camogli is that fewer trains stop there (more stop in SML and Rapallo), so even though you can day trip to the Cinque Terre etc. by train there are a few fewer options, more connections. I did catch a morning train from Camogli one morning direct to Riomaggiore, however, but there weren't many of those.

You can also ferry between Camogli, Portofino, and SML, around the peninsula. (And Rapallo when the harbor is fixed.) You can hike around/between towns too - much much less busy than the Cinque Terre hikes (not always as rewarding). But you have options.

If you want a base further south consider Sestri Levante or even Levanto, a nice beach town one town north of Monterosso. I stayed in Levanto (again) last month and hiked from there to Monterosso. There were people on the trail but surely much less busy than the hikes between CT towns. You can view all five CT towns from one point in the hike, too, really stunning views down.

Thank you everyone for recomendations

Look also at Sestri Levante. There are some beautiful hotels with immediate access to sandy beaches. The Miramare has a shuttle to/from the train station. There is also ferry service.

Yes probably and a swell town too. Trains so good along coast from one base you can day trip to so many other neat places - from Genoa - one of nicest old town centers around to Pisa and the Leaning Tower.