cinque terre and cars
 

We are traveling to Cinque Terre in Mid May from Tuscany and have our own car. We would love to stay in one of the 5 towns rather than outside CT. Can anyone recommend B/B or hotels ? Anyone know where cars are parked ? We are two adults with two children (4 and 5).

Most of the towns have rooms for rent. The town with the most hotels is Monterosso al mare, but the town with a couple of hotels that I think is wonderful is Vernazza. The other three towns have places to stay but it's more like renting a room. We always stay in Vernazza at this place, http://www.giannifranzi.it/, mainly because we usually go in for one night and the other place in town will not book for one night.

As to cars, you can drive into most of the towns. Go thru La Spezia and keep going (it's about 40 minutes to Vernazza) the drive is quite narrow and when you drop to your village it is very very narrow and twisty. We had a full size car and only had to pull all our mirrors in twice. In Vernazza, there will be a guy to direct you to the overnight parking lot and then the van picks you up and drives you down to town.

Some day people park there car in La Spezia and take the train in but I was told not to park your car overnight in La Spezia. We have parked in Lerici and taken the ferry in, which was wonderful. That being said last year we were going to park in Lerici, but the ferry was not working because of high seas... no problem we'll just go in by train... but there was a train strike that day!! Flexibility in travel is a must so we just walked back to our cars and drove into Vernazza. Had a wonderful time.

Monterosso has a big lot on the water, but I would still stay in Portovenere.

My husband and I have driven to Monterosso twice. We avoid going via La Spezia. We continue on the highway (a12/E80) to Carradono. You get off at that exit and head for Levanto - the road eventually splits towards Monterosso.

It is still about a 20 to 30 minute windy drive on a narrow road - but there is good signage and you end up right in town, not too far from the parking lot.

Hotel Villa Steno also has parking - its limited but they will help you park your car if their lot is full.

I can also recommend La Poesia Bed and Breakfast. Its in the heart of old Monterosso and its very simple, comfortable, and the hosts are lovely.

www.lapoesia-cinqueterre.com

We stayed at the Hotel Continental in Santa Magherita and were able to park at the hotel.

We used the train (about 500 ft. or so away from the hotel) for our trips into the towns.