I'm planning a trip next summer to Italy. Any ideas where to stay in Portofino area? Interested in bed and breakfast or small inn. Want to have a sea view. Also traveling with 2 teenagers.

My daughter and I visited Portofino last May, as a day-trip from Santa Margherita Ligure. It's a rather short bus ride between the two ports, and makes a very nice day. But I have to say that Portofino may be postcard pretty, but it's very expensive to eat or purchase anything. It's also so small that I think you'd run out of things to do, especially with two teenagers. And they would be expensive to feed in Portofino-- just getting a caprese salad for lunch was ridiculously expensive there.
I didn't price lodging there, but I'm sure it's higher than Santa Margherita Ligure, which we found to be a very nice small to mid-sized harbor town. It has good restaurants and shops, also several nice hotels. And markets to purchase a teenage snack.
We stayed in a nice B&B, the Nuova Riviera, but it doesn't have a sea view. It is just a couple of blocks up the hill from the harbor, and we had a very nice big triple room, with a new bath. No elevator, just a pretty staircase, but the owner insisted on carrying my biggest bag for me. Very nice place, and we only paid 98.50EUR, including breakfast. They are on venere.com, which is how I reserved Nuova Riviera, but if you go directly to them for reservations, it's cheaper.
I'd recommend Santa Margherita Ligure. It's charming. You can also do an easy trip to the Cinque Terre from there, by train or boat.

I'm with MaureenB on this one. Two teenagers in Portofino? I'm not sure they would appreciate the ambiance there, and I think they would be bored.

I am seconding the vote for lodging in Santa Margherita Ligure (SML), as Maureen suggested, for your family trip. And, you most certainly can get that sea view that you want in SML!

Oh, let me add one more thing about SML: The train station is there and you would have quick access to traveling to other towns in the area (even the Cinque Terre).

Can you tell us a little more about the ages of your teens and their interests -- and what about the adults? They count, too!

Portofino itself is too expensive and too remote for a stay. Ideally, you should pick a town where the teens can safely wander off by themselves and have fun. In Portofino, they would be spending 5 times as much as they would elsewhere to buy trinkets and gelato.

If you are not going to rent a car, consider Levanto, Santa Margherita Ligure and the Cinque Terre villages. Ordinarily I don't recommend that people stay right inside the Cinque Terre, because it is so touristy and packed with daytrippers, but I think for teens, it might really be ideal. You would have the combination of a setting that is nothing like any beach town you can think of in the US -- it's really foreign! At the same time, there are lots and lots of young people about, lots of cheap eats and trinkets, and lots of energy-burning activities, including swimming. For one thing, the kids could go by themselves to hike between the 5 villages, or take trains between them, or boats between them. That's really 5 locations for the price of one.

However, everybody has to be comfortable with steep hills and plenty of stairs. And the Cinque Terre is remote from other sightseeing.

If you stay instead in Levanto or even the more upscale Santa Margherita Ligure, you can find room to park a car and then use it for day trips into nearby Tuscany.

Another possibility is to stay in Camogli or Nervi, near Genova. You have the city very close by, but you also have very nice swimming opportunities and hiking opportunities. (Camogli is nicer than Nervi.)

If a sand beach is a must, check out Sestri Levante, a mid-sized town with some very charming and very pretty features, but without the spectacular beauty of other Ligurian sea towns and with many modern construction apartment buildings.

Thanks for the reply. Have any of you traveled to the Amalfi Coast? If you had to choose between Portofino area and Amalfi, which would be better with teens? We've never been to Italy, so it's all new to us!!

I recommend the Hotel Laurin in Santa Margherita. We had a room with a large balcony overlooking the water. From there we took the boat to Portofino and the bus back. It can also be a nice hike. We also trained to the Cinque Terre and Camogli. It was nicely situated so we could travel to these surrounding towns.

ElMorro,

In my experience, not all teens are alike. Maybe the easiest way to do this is through very bad analogies:

Would your teens rather go to South Beach or Santa Barbara for the summer? If the answer is South Beach, you might prefer Positano.

But let me add that the Amalfi is more expensive than the Cinque Terre and (not unlike Portofino) it is difficult to get in and out of in the summer because of traffic jams and poor road access.

I think of the Amalfi coast as a place that mainly appeals to honeymooners and people celebrating their 30th anniversary without teens. On the other hand, Pompeii is close by, so is Napoli with all its wildness (if you all enjoy that) and Capri has allure. In fact, were I taking teens to that area, I might spend time in Pompeii itself with a day trip to Napoli, and then go to Capri for 3 or 4 nights (or one of the other islands).

Cinque Terre attracts a lot of young European hikers. It has good transportation connections to other towns.

Are your teens addicted to their Ipods and the Internet and totally uninterested in seeing something new? In that case, I wouldn't spend a heck of a lot of money to have a sea view in the Amalfi.

If they are curious to see Italy, what are they looking forward to? Swimming? Sightseeing? Hiking? Meeting other teens? Shopping 'til the drop? Eating pizza and gelato?

Very few teens (if any) post on this board, so the only recommendations you are going to get are from older people telling you what they enjoyed unless you tell us what your teens enjoy -- and then maybe we can steer you.

ElMorro

I post this link all the time, and you can, of course, ignore it if you came across in a Fodors Forums search for Portofino. But in case you didn't, it might be helpful.

http://www.postgazette.com/travel/20...fino0810p1.asp

I wrote this about one of my favorite places in the world.

Is mid to late April a good time to visit the Amalfi Coast? According to the guides, the temp will be in the mid to high 60's but sunny for the most part. That's too chilly for the beach IMO, so I am guessing that the crowds will be more managable, but will all of the shops and restaurants be open then?

All the shops and restaurants will be open and unless you are keenly interested in a beach vacation, going early in the season can mean pleasantly cooler weather for hill climbing and fewer crowds.