I am planning on visiting cinque terre in late may either around May 25 or May 28 and have had a difficult time booking rooms. All of the ones that I have found mentioned on this board are already booked. Does anyone know of some others? Also, I have heard a lot of stories of people just going to cinque terre and renting rooms from people at the train station. Does anyone have any experience with this and do you think that rooms would still be available in late may at the last minute?

Perhaps www.cinqueterre.it/ might give you additional suggestions for accommodations.

A couple of years ago a friend and I stayed at Hotel Baia in Monterosso. Twin room in Sept. for E140. Lovely hotel, grumpy owners (we ignored them).

Dettmann-I had this problem as well for May 15th and ended up staying in Santa Margherita at the Hotel Metropole which looks pretty nice and Santa Margherita looks like a nice spot too. Our problem was we only wanted 1 night.

Hi Dettman,

We also stayed in Santa Margherita Ligure and took the train to Riomaggoire. From there we hiked 4 of the 5 villages. Stopped in either Manorola or Camogli for lunch, I can't remember which now. It was excellent, by the way. Fresh seafood! Then finished off in Vernazza with a gellato stop and trained back.

Loved SML and would have liked to stay an additional night there. 3 wasn't enough! We stayed at Hotel Laurin right on the waterfront. Great terraces.

Buon viaggio!

Another vote for staying in Santa Margherita Ligure. It's a much bigger town with plenty to do and see. Frankly I don't know what the folks who stay in Cinque Terre do in the evening (other than soak their legs in the tub.) Cinque Terre is just a short train ride away from Santa Margherita which provides many more options for dinner, dolci, etc. Another option, a little more downscale, but cheaper, is to stay in Rapallo. The train ride from Rapallo to Cinque Terre is even easier.

Another option is staying in Levanto. If you look at a map, you can see that it is right next to the Cinque Terre, just a few minutes by train into the first village.

Santa Margherita is lovely as other posters mentioned, but if your main goal is to hike/hang out in the CT, then Levanto is a good choice since it is closer. Nice town, great restaurants, and not as crowded in late May when we were there as was the Cinque Terre itself. (However, I noticed that Levanto is now featured in Rick Steves' latest Italy book, so that may be changing!)

We stayed at the Europa and were very satisfied.

I visited cinque terre in June a couple of years ago as part of a backpacking Europe trip, and we just arrived in one of the towns (i forget which but it was the "last" one of the five), and went into a bar and asked about finding accomodation. The owner of the bar referred us to someone who rented out a room in his apartment to visitors. From what I remember, this is how most people we met found their accomodation. I do however, suggest arriving earlier in the day rather than later, as rooms fill up as the day goes on.

This website might be helpful. It has several B&B listed. I was in Monterosso last May and we stayed in La Poesia which was lovely. The others looked very nice as well. www.monterossonet.com Click on hotels. Good luck.

Stayed in Villa Steno in Monterosso al Mare in 2003. It is recommended in Rick Steves. Some people like to avoid the Steve's experience but it was very nice and the people who owned it were very nice. It is up the hill and up the steps if this is a problem you may want to stay in a flatter area.

We were just there and decided to stay in SML, which we loved. If you decide to try it, here's a hotel ecommendation.
Hotel Continental: (4-star) We paid 120 Euros per night for a street-side room; 20 E more for a seaside balcony. Booked on Venere.com. Easy walk from the train station, LOVELY view, good breakfast, excellent nearby restaurants: Cinzia & Mario; Il Nostromo.

Yikes... make that "recommendation"!
Sorry,
Ellen

Hi again Dettmann,

One additional advantage of staying in SML is that you can take an early, 10 minute boat ride over to Portofino, check out the $$$$$ shops, plant yourself at a marina-side table and have a long lunch with lots of wine as you watch the gigantic yaghts squeeze into the harbor.....remember the lots of wine part!

We will be going in maggio as well and are booked at mar mar in riomaggiore. i did not see the list of the ones that you have already gone to but this is very affordable and good location.
la torreta was another choice for us but were fully booked. good luck and enjoy your trip.

I did find a wonderful inexpensive apartment once just by showing up and asking, but that was in 1998, and I'll bet it's harder now. Without knowing which hotels you've checked, I'd suggest that you check trip advisor (search the towns separately) as well as any guidebook you can get your hands on (take a pencil and piece of paper to a bookstore, if you have to).
Some people really do enjoy staying in larger towns with more amenities outside the CT but for me, being there in the morning and evening when the hoards of day trippers have left, is quite special. If you've stayed in any smaller Tuscan hill town you'll know exactly what I mean.

Try Portovenere...we always stay there...on the ferry route to the Cinque Terre towns..some really good restaurants. We stay at "Royal Sporting" They have a web site I think.