Cinque Terre - how long and where to stay
 

Hi, myself and a friend are planning on a trip to Italy in June, to include some hiking (and lots of nice food and wine!)

We plan to spend some time in Tuscany hiking between some of the hill-top towns (we did this a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it). This time we would like to include the Cinque Terre. How much of our time should we allocate to this part of the trip in order to hike between the towns, with enough time to have a coffee or lunch in a couple of the towns along the way? We are relatively fit, like to walk/hike approx 6/7hours a day.

Also, could you recommend where we should stay? We like nice views, quaint towns, as few crowds as possible...though the crowds I appreciate will be impossible to avoid! We would like to spend under $100 a night.

Any advice much appreciated.

For that price, look into what's available in Levanto.

We stayed in La Spezia. Quick walk to the train station or the ferry.

I agree with vincenzo32951. I stayed in Levanto twice and thought it was a nice town (though not quite as quaint as the five villages of the Cinque Terre) and found it convenient enough to get the train back to the five towns. You can also hike from Levanto back down to Monterosso al Mare (I didn't).

Yes, I would expect the Cinque Terre to be very crowded in June. It was crowded enough at the end of September.

Count about 2 days for the hike within the 5Terre area (the trail continues on both sides up to La Spezia resp Sestri Levante).
You can stay at any place between Chiavari and La Spezia (except Portovenere) and reach the trail by very frequent commuter trains.

Thanks all!