beach in santa margherita
 

This may be a silly question, but is the water okay to go into off the coast of Santa Margherita or Portofino? Is it clean (enough?) I have children, and it seems that most of the reasonably priced hotels do not have pools, and you know kids and water--at least mine! <BR> <BR>I saw a website for Portofino, I think, and there was a caption for water quality, but it gave no information. <BR> <BR>Anyway, any feedback would be appreciated!!

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The whole area is fairly weak on all that. Portofino is the highlight. We drove there, took a boat to Portofino, stayed a couple of hours, came back, walked around for an hour or so and were ready to go. We were glad we did not stay there.

Just spent a couple of days in Santa Margherita Ligure. It was nice to see that the water was very clear (and warm). However, beaches are very tiny and most of them are private ones. If your hotel has one, it's fine (unless they charge a daily fee, but generally it is included in your room price). Regarding Portofino, this is a harbour, so you won't find any beaches there. However, there are a few ones on the way between Sta Margherita and Portofino. However they belong to hotels or restaurants for most of them. <BR>Both places are nice and deserve the visit.

Sorry but I forgot to say that beaches are rocky ones (practically no sand), so bring plastic shoes along to avoid foot pain while walking to the water !