Cinque Terre/Portofino
 

If you had one or two nights to stay in these areas, would you:<BR><BR>Stay one or two nights?<BR>Stay in Portofino or Cinque Terre?<BR><BR>Thanks<BR>Mary

i would stay long enough to get 2 full days in [not sure if that's 1 or 2 nights of stay depending on where you're coming from]. and i would stay in santa margherita di liguria. it's a 20 min. coastal bus ride from portofino and a great beach. and a quick train ride out to the cinque terre region.<BR><BR>JP

I would stay two nights in Monterosso (northernmost CT town). Last year, my husband and I stayed 3 nights in Santa Margherita Ligure and we both agreed that we rather would have stayed in Monterosso. SML is a cute little town, but because of the train schedule, we couldn't spend nice long evenings in CT. Of the CT towns, we figured we would rather stay in Monterosso because it is the most lively - something that we personally prefer over quiet villages.

I definitely vote for staying in the Cinque Tere, & staying for at least 2 nights.<BR>Caveat - these are sleepy villages, while Portofino a much bigger town. If you want hopping night life, you're not going to find it here. But if you want to experience peaceful village life, & quickly get to a point to where the locals recognize you & say "Buon Giorno," stay here! If you enjoy walking, the trail between the 5 villages is breathtaking & fun. You walk right thru the vineyards & can stop & chat with the farmers.

Two nights. Ditto on Monica's description. If you want laid-back, stay in one of the CT towns. They can get busy during daytime at high season (June-Sept) when everybody's training or trekking between these little towns. However, once daytrippers depart, evenings are peaceful. Larger & more "action" (all things being relative), stay in SML or Portofino.

I will say that we found some pretty active night life at the Blue Dolphin in Vernazza. It was all tourist nightlife but it was folks from all around Europe and it was fun talking, drinking, laughing (and I even think there was some dancing) with everyone.