We are a family of 9. We are headed to rome in July. We are starting in rome. I would like to hit the cinque terre area and then venice.

My question is cinque terre. Are we better to stay in cinque terre or is it possible to stay in Lucca or somewhere on the coast and then do a day trip to cinque terre?

On another post someone mentioned lercini?

As of now we are not renting a car as with a group of 9 i think it will be much more economical to do the train, although we could possibly change that if we needed to.

I think you need to consult a map of Italy. The towns of the Cinque Terre ARE on the coast - Lucca is not.

And there are no cars that will hold 9 people - you will need to rent a van for 12 or more to hold 9 people plus luggage.

Look at staying in Santa Margerita Ligure. We liked the little harbor city.

Hi jerrylee,
We really enjoyed our stay in Vernazza in the CT. We stayed for three full days. The boat ride between villages is fun. It gives you a different perspective of the villages as you approach them from the water.

The train between the towns in the CT is easy to use. Click on my name to read my previous post warning of the trains in the CT. Remembering a few rules can save you a hefty fine, especially a hefty fine times nine!!! And trust me, it happens, we witnessed it.

In order to make your final decision you should probably see if there are enough rooms to accommodate your group in the CT. July is a busy season. We booked ours one more than six months ahead and we got the last room at Albergo Barbara. And we traveled in October.

Lucca is a lovely little town. It has a great wall top park surrounding the entire village where you can rent bikes for 4 euros and ride around. It was a lot of fun. We had a lease car for our three month stay so I cannot inform you on public transportation to Lucca. Sorry.

Regarding the car: It is unnecessary in Rome, the CT and Venice so unless you plan to do day trips where public transportation doesn't go you would probably be better off just forgetting the car this time. It would be quite expensive for your group anyways.

You will have a great time. It will be hot when you are there so just be prepared.

Have fun,
Michele

My traveler,

Sorry, I should have clarified. We definitely want to hit CT. So my question was if it was easier to just stay there or if we would be better to stay in a nearby town and do a day trip in to CT. Or another option would be further south down the coast where there would be more of a beach, but still could do CT as a day trip.

Any thoughts?

Michele,

Do you know which post you commented on the trains. I looked through the list but did not see it.

thanks,
jerrylee

I am not getting this. You want to hit CT, but looking to stay in another town? You might be facing high prices or a lack of availability in CT, but it is not clear from your message.

Hi jerrylee,
Here is the link to my topic. http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rain-fines.cfm

I don't want to scare you but there are certain rules that are not always obviously posted so I just wanted people to have a heads up so as not to ruin their trip.

Take care,
Michele

Sorry for the confusion. I definitely want to hit CT and intitally was looking for place to stay within the villages.

But was beginning to wonder, if we would be better off to stay in a different town slightly south that would give us more options for day trips. Pisa and Lucca having good access to trains seemed possible.

My husband would really like to do a day at the beach, and although we would love ct, i think that is not really a sandy beach. Maybe staying somewhere south of there would give us a better opportunity.

It sounded like getting in and out of CT was a little more challenging, which got me thinking about staying somewhere else.

So bottom line...CT is a must. Better to stay there for a few days or should we stay in a town south of there and just do CT as a day trip. Right now we most likely will not have a car.

hope that helps??

Beach at Monterosso:


http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationP...n_Riviera.html

Here is a very interesting article about beaches in Italy:


http://www.vbella.com/essays/beach.html

Hi Jerrylee,

I have been to the CT twice but have never stayed there and frankly I'm glad. They are very picturesque but I don't think I would have cared to stay there overnight. One time I went by train as a daytrip from Lucca (approx 1.5 hr) and last year we stayed 3 days in Portovenere and took the boat from there to CT one day. We LOVED Portovenere and if if we are back in the area we'll stay there again. IMO, the best way to get to the CT towns is to approach them by boat as that way you can really appreciate the landscape.

Talking about better to do one thing or another presumes that a certain context of objectives and constraints have been established.

You mention options for day trips. But to where?

Thanks to zeppole and ekscrunchy, my group of five and I stayed in Bonassola. It turned out to be a perfect choice for day trips and easy access to the Cinque Terre. I will be doing a trip report in the next couple of days but here is a quick summary of why I suggest it.
It is a small town with a very nice beach. There are plenty of restaurant, cafe and gelateria choices, plus grocery stores, foccaccerias, and salumerias. It was much less crowded than the Cinque Terre towns; but, is only a ten minute train ride away. It is also served by the ferry.
Bonassola is connected by a paved trail (used to be the rail bed and goes through well lit tunnels) to Levanto a twenty minute walk away.
My only real regret about our trip was renting a car. The train was very easy and a good bargain. The car was unnecessary.
Have fun!

Try the town of Levanto....considered the "6th town of the CT"...it is a 10 minute train ride to the CT, and a little over an hour by car to Lucca (not sure of the train time but Levanto has a great train station with easy access out of the CT area. Levanto also has the biggest (and in my opinion the nicest)sandy beach in the CT area. More restaurants, shops, hotels, than any of the CT towns, but again a 10 minute train ride to Monterosso.......it is a great town!

Mike

CMCfong: Welcome home.

I am eagerly awaiting your report! Just to whet our appetites, could you post the link to the house? (I tried to do a bit of detective work but am not sure if I found it or not).

Although I only had a peek at the coast during a 6-night visit, what I did see was enough to put that area very high on my list of favorite Italian vacation spots. How I long to return!

Hi ekscrunchy, you were so helpful in our trip planning! I really appreciate it.

I posted a little bit about the villa on the lounge (villa rental in Italy) and a review in the Trip Advisor forum on Bonassola (I could not for the life of me figure out how to post a review under rentals, so I took a modified approach).

The villa was the Casa Bona Mare rented by www.rentavilla.com
http://tiny.cc/c7fv9

My review is
http://tiny.cc/hoh2c

I will be on the trip report soon! I'll be looking for yours as well.

Wow! What wonderful information. Thanks all.

CMC: If you want to slog through a lot of banter, you can read my current (ongoing) report about my last trip (Burma and China with a few days in Bangkok) on the Asia board.

I am glad I could help in a small way--I fell in love with that area of Italy and I hope I can return someday in the not too distant future!

I will keep an eye out for your report!