Portovenere
 

Hi everyone
I'll be picking up a rental car in La Spezia to spend a week driving through Tuscany and plan on spending my first and last nights in Portovenere. I would appreciate the names of any Hotels in Portovenere. As I will be arriving in La Spezia by train could someone supply the directions to the closest bus stop to Portovenere from the La Spezia train station.
Thanks for your assistance

Hi we travelled from La Spezia to Portovenere by bus recently and I was able to get directions from the train station to bus station from Trip Advisor. I can't remember the name of the poster but here are the directions as I wrote them - they were spot on and it was only a 10 minute walk from the station to the bus stop.

"from the train station exit left and go downhill, follow the street to the first square (S. Bon) and continue down Via Fiume to Piazza Garibaldi. Turn right at the fountain into Viale Garibaldi. After the first traffic lights the bus for Portovenere departs on the right hand side of the street."

The bus we took was #11P and the bus stop was just past Corso Cavour. We bought the tickets from the newsagent across the street just before the traffic lights.

Hope this is of some assistance to you.

Portovenere is a great seaside town. Unfortunately it has no great hotels to complement it. There are two major hotels--Grand Hotel Portovenere on a point with both town and seaside views and Royal Sporting Portovenere around that point with views primarily of the sea and a bit further from the main part of town (though quite walkable)so possibly a bit quieter. Both are "of a certain age" with all the charm and run-downedness that entails. Booking.com website shows user ratings of 7.4 and 7.7 respectively. We stayed several years ago at Royal Sporting and the pix on the Booking site don't show any renovation since then. I recall that Bob the Navigator stayed in GH Portovenere and found it acceptable, maybe even good. It would be nice if the town had one more, better option, or if one or both of these places would spruce up a bit, but if you're set on Portovenere you will find both as acceptable as the town has to offer. That said, the town is great. Enjoy.

Julie says it well---the GHP is a perfect location with great views but not very well managed these days. Another good 3 star option is Albergo Paradiso, but they may require half-board. I love the village--here are some shots:
http://www.slowphotos.com/photo/show...at=4553&page=1

We stayed for 3 days at the Royal Sporting a couple of years ago and loved it! You walk alongside the water for less than 10 mins to the center of town. I liked that it was away from the hustle and bustle. When I saw where the Grand hotel was I was glad we were staying at the Royal Sporting instead. Make sure you request a room overlooking the sea, it's worth it.

Thanks everyone. Very helpful information