Please, help to decide.
We are going to travel to Italy for 15 days next June. We would like take 4-5 days break between Florence and Venice in a little town where we can relax, do some hiking and/or short bus/train trips and come back every night for dinner and evening stroll on lovely promenade or main street. Somebody recommended Cinque Terre with Lerichi , Portovenere, Levanto, Sestri Levante even Santa Margherita Ligure as good budget base. Which one better? We are not going to have a car. We thinking to rent a condo/apartment with refrigerator in order to have a breakfast and sometimes lunch and eat out in the evening. We are less interested in the beaches, water is too cold in June for us.
Our doughtier like evening stroll, seat in cafe and do “people watching”, she never been to Europe before, so this city break is mostly for her, she is graduating high school this year and more interested to see people then historic stuff.
But after reading comments about overcrowding in 5T ,I am not sure what to do. Should we stay in other places in Liguria, away from 5T, or should we choose place in another area of Italy with good views and hiking?
We are open for any recommendations.
Itinerary from 5/30/2016 - Rome 3-4 days, Florence 4-5 days, unknown little town 5 days, Venice 2-3 days. Flying back to US from Venice.

Check out Lucca. Easy train access from Florence and day trips to Pisa and 5T and local walks hikes from town or easy local bus ride away. Plus beautiful 4km walk around the village on the path on the top of walls.

Sestri Levante is your best budget base, and maybe Levanto in second place. Another town you should check out is Moneglia. Make sure wherever you rent is an easy walk to the train station.

Le Cinque Terre will be quite crowded during the day, but peaceful at night. It is not easy to "stroll" in the little villages because they are very steep. But if your daughter speaks English, she will probably find many teens her own age in le Cinque Terre who also speak English, and the towns are very safe. If she is social, she might enjoy that.

But if all of you would rather not be walking up and down hills in the hot sun all the time, then maybe one Sestri Levante or Levanto would be better, because they are flat and have long walks along the seaside. They are also very lively at night and have friendly people, many of whom speak English, but not as many as you will find in le Cinque Terre.

Lucca is rather far from le Cinque Terre. I would not stay there if you want to enjoy the seaside.

Santa Margherita Ligure.

Santa Margherita Ligure wouldn't qualify for most people as a "good budget base."

I stayed in Rapallo for a week a couple years ago and loved it. I found hotel prices to be less than S. Margherita, I wasn't looking at apartments. I did day trips to the CT villages and Portovenere and Portofino - all were easy and I thought worthwhile.

Here's my pictures of the area: http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/ital...ligurian_coast

I adored Portovenere but its way off track, so despite my love of the place, I would not base myself there. That said, you can get about via the boat in June from Portovenere. Its probably not as expensive than the 5 villages

We stayed in Bonnasolla and loved it. Walked or took the train everywhere. Enough out of the sctivities we felt part of the town.

We have stayed in Levanto. It is a nice town with many good bakeries and places to buy prepared food. The passegiata and atmosphere is authentic and transport to Cinque Terre is easy and quick. We also took the boat to Portovenere and Portofino. We did a day trip to Genoa on the way to Nice,France. Loved Genoa too.

We have stayed in Levanto. It is a nice town with many good bakeries and places to buy prepared food. The passegiata and atmosphere is authentic and transport to Cinque Terre is easy and quick. We also took the boat to Portovenere and Portofino. We did a day trip to Genoa on the way to Nice,France. Loved Genoa too.

Chiavari is quite nice and the possible excursions are many, ditto Sestri Levante. The Cinque Terre villages are too crowded and too small. Lerici has no train. Look at this website series to help narrow your choices:
http://www.apathtolunch.com/2015/10/...or-Part-1.html

I loved basing in Santa Margherita Ligure - a sweeet seaside town where locals still haul in the daily catch from the sea (many other 'fishing villages' like nearby Portofino now angle more for tourists' euros than fish) - so a resort and a more real town than others I've seen - especially the totally inundated in season Cinque Terre towns.

We day tripped to nearby Portofino - can take shuttle buses or boats but we did a lovely lovely walk uphill through forests - can also walk to lovely seaside San Fruttusoso and its famous abbey -

we took trains to the Cinque Terre and in one day walked the about 7 miles I think all told on the main trails from Monterosso to Riomadggiore.

Anyway S M Ligure is exactly what you want your daughter to see - the tradition passagieta (sp?) - evening stroll along the seafront and flks lapping up gelatos at caffes, etc.

Again S M Ligure seemed to me more than strictly a tourist town than the other smaller places like Vernazza and Portofino.

How long has it been since you were in Santa Margherita Ligure? The cruise ship industry has very much altered the town in the direction of tourism, and it has been developed as the prime weekend getaway for sophisticated single young professionals from Milan. So that skews the culture of the town very much in favor of drinking and nightlife, and while it is nothing terribly wild or risqué about it, it is not a high-school-senior scene.

Also, it is simply one of the most expensive towns on the Italian Riviera and the OP specifically asked about a "good budget base." It is misleading to tell the OP that Santa Margherita Ligure is "exactly what you want your daughter to see" since there are so many other towns that would be better -- and not just for a high school grad and the opportunity for peer socializing, but for the traditional passaggiata, gelato, etc. Sestri Levante, Chiavari, Levanto would be better choices.

Thank you everybody for your help! We booked place in SML and going to visit nearby cities by train.