Hi all. I would appreciate help is advising the best way to get from Milan (will be either Linate or Malpensa airport) to Santa Margherita (staying in the Lido Palace Hotel). Trying to get my head around whether it's quicker to get a train to Milan central and then another to Santa Margherita or if I should get a bus from the airport to Genoa and a train/bus from there. Any and all advice would be appreciated.

Plates - There are only 1 or 2 buses daily from Malpensa to Genova, depending on season. (The daily year-round service leaves MXP at 11.30)
http://www.volpibus.com/servizi/index.htm

So unless your arrival time coincides with that, your best option will be train from Milano Centrale.
(From Malpensa there's a frequent direct Airport bus service to Milano Centrale.

You can find Milan-Santa Margherita train times on
www.trenitalia.it

Hope this helps ...

Steve

Another question just occured to me. Am I right in assuming that Milan is the best palce to fly in to (I'm travelling from Dublin) if my ultimate destination is Santa Margherita?

Hi Plates

I think if you can get a flight to Genoa it's much closer and easier to get the train to SML, IMO.

If you are flying in from Dublin....then by all means get a flight to Genoa (you'll, of course, probably have to change someplace). It will be much more time consuming to fly into Milan, get to the train station and then take a train to Genoa.

Hi Plates,

I'm flying to Santa Margherita in September from Dublin to Milan Linate. Genoa is closer but you would have to get 2 flights which ends up very expensive. Aer Lingus flys direct from Dublin to Milan at a very cheap price. I'm going to get the direct trains from Milano Centrale to SML which take about 2 hours.

Just a suggestion: Ryanair flies from Dublin to Pisa for 20 Euro each way. The train ride from Pisa to Santa Margherita is one line and takes about two hours.