Cinque Terre or Portofino
Aug 18th, 1999, 05:23 PM
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
Cinque Terre or Portofino
We need some advises to decide where to stay, only for 02Nights, Cinque Terre or Portofino. <BR>Hotel Splendido in Portofino is too expensive, does anybody knows a good hotel in Portofino, about USD 180 to USD200.Maybe stay in Vernaza, one of the towns in Cinque Terre could be a good idea.Advises will be greatly appreciated.Thanks.
Aug 18th, 1999, 05:31 PM
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
It would be helpful to know your interests. Portofino is lovely, but small and not so convenient. I recommend you look into the town of Santa Margherita. The train stops there, and is about 1 hour from the Cinque Terre. Also, it is filled with shops and restaurants. I stayed at Hotel Laurin, and thought it pleasant -- at the time we booked through Best Western 800#. Some people like the very reasonably priced Hotel Jolanda. And, there are two very lovely, larger, expensive hotels. Keep in mind, this area is a weekend getaway for the Italians -- if you're going to be there for the weekend, book in advance -- that goes for restaurants too.
Aug 18th, 1999, 07:58 PM
#3
Guest
Posts: n/a
I agree on Santa Margherita Ligure. Ten minutes down the road from Portofino, where you can spend a few hours and one hour train ride to Cinque Terre, where you can spend most of day. We stayed at another Best Western, Regina Elena. It was reasonable, casually comfortable and not stuffy, and had a wonderful rooftop pool to view the harbor and surrounding area. Was nice to come back to after a day of sightseeing. Look in some guidebooks on Santa Margherita Ligure and see what they say about the different hotels mentioned or others. But the town is very nice and I would go there again. <BR>
Aug 19th, 1999, 09:06 AM
#4
Guest
Posts: n/a
I also recommend Santa Margherita Liguria. It is about 40 min. by train to Cinque Terre and 15 min. by bus to Portofino. I found 1 whole, long day to hike the Cinque Terre towns was good and then another day to explore Portofino and Santa Margherita Liguria. I stayed at a magnificent place called Hotel Jolanda and if you e-mail me directly, I can link you to their web site. <BR>Ellen
Aug 24th, 1999, 11:40 AM
#6
Guest
Posts: n/a
We stayed at the "Hotel Piccolo" in Portofino 3 years ago. It was wonderful. It has a 4 star rating, located under Hotel Splendido, and is across the street from a private beach. I would highly recommend it. We liked Portofino much better than Santa Margherita because it was smaller and very special. It is true that there is much less to do in Portofino, but it is an incredible experience to people watch. Also, walkin/hiking up in the hills above Portofino was a lot of fun.
Aug 25th, 1999, 05:00 PM
#7
Guest
Posts: n/a
We stopped at Portofino on a boat cruise. Had plenty of time to take the short bus trip to Santa Margarita. You can do either city for a hotel and still visit the one you do not stay in. Busses are easy and run frequently for about $1 if i remember correctly.
Sep 1st, 1999, 12:26 AM
#8
Guest
Posts: n/a
I would agree with Karen that Hotel Piccolo is wonderful. Although we stayed at Hotel Jolanda which was high quality and well located at Santa Margherita Ligure and resonably priced.We thought that Portofino was lovely and we walked between SM Ligure and Portofino and crossed the Piccolo, it has a beautiful private beach and is situated in a lovely cove. Its peaceful and if your idea is to relax and stay in a picturesque surrounding and swim, then this is definately for you. We checked the price, about $150 per night including breakfast and parking. On the other hand, we were very dissapointed in the Cinque Terre (I must be the first one on this forum to feel that way). The hikes are good but if you have visited the AMalfi coast, the views are no better. The towns themselves are small and overcrowded and have nothing special about them. We could not even find a place to sit and eat a slice of pizza.
