italybound01

We will be travelling to Italy from the South of France. We will be staying in Bellagio for a few days and then would like to visit Cinque Terre/Italian Riviera region before heading to Florence. I originally planned to stay in Vernazza but have heard that Cinque Terre could be too touristy. I will be travelling in early June. Would you recommend I stay in Vernazza or Santa Margherita Ligure? My husband and I are 30 if that influences your recommendation. Thanks in advance!

LarryJ

To be a regular member of this forum you must have an opinion of the CT. Everyone here does. Therefore you must visit CT to form said opinion. I visited CT many years ago before it was a tourist Mecca and a couple of times post tourist Mecca but don't care to go back. I have been to Santa Margherita Ligure twice in the past three years and really prefer that area, including Portofino, Camogli, Rapallo, Sestri Levante etc.

Larry J

MyriamC

I would also prefer Santa Margherita Ligure or the towns the previous poster mentioned (Portofino, if you can afford!). Vernazza may be a bit dead at night.
From S.M.L. you can easily visit the Cinque Terre towns, either by car (although parking will be a problem) or by train/boat which is very convenient.

mr_go

Staying in SML and visiting the CT from there is not a bad way to go...plenty of decent hotels to choose from. Or, staying in Portovenere and daytripping to both.

Enjoy!

medhead

Can I invite a little elaboration from you experts out there? I'm in a similar situation, making my first trip to Italy, and looking for a nice place on my way from Rome to the Cote d'Azur, in late June. This area of Italy seemed the right one.

We're in our mid-30's, no kids, looking for spectacular seaside natural and man-made beauty, great food, nice people, and peace (as opposed to raucous crowds and a hopping club scene). I'd love to do some oceanside hiking, and I'm happy to put on study shoes and climb a ruin or two, but I'm definitely old and weary enough (and a heavy enough packer) to need a real air-conditioned hotel to come home to. My backpacking adventure days are way behind me.

I could afford a not-so-exorbitant hotel in Portofino, but it seems like it might be too mobbed, and might feel like Madison Avenue with a gorgeous Italian backdrop painted in.

With all that in mind, and after reading guidebooks and looking at the above posts, I was thinking of staying in SML and boating around for sightseeing. What should I do? What is it that you don't like about Cinque Terre?

Thanks in advance!

sssteve

Italybound01

I vote for santa margherita, although you should make a day trip to CT.

You can also check out my web site which describes all our trips to Italy, including Liguria and Lake Como.
www.travel.stv77.com

Hope it helps.

Weadles

medhead,

Santa Margherita sounds perfect for you, although I have to admit we didn't find any food that wowed us the way it did in Tuscany and Rome.

Anyway,last August we stayed at the Hotel Miramare, which is sort of the grande dame of Santa Margherita. It was pricey ( last summer it ran about $375) a night, but heavenly in every way, with great service and a small but very useable beach full of vacationing Italian familes just across the street.

If the Miramare's too expensive and/or unavailable, you could also check out Hotel Laurin, or Hotel Continental, both of which looked very nice. However, at this date, it may be hard to book them!

If you're serious about putting on your hiking shoes, you can pretty easily walk between Santa Margherita and Portofino all the way along the coast, although some of the walk has little or no sidewalk! It's only about 3 miles between the two towns.

We enjoyed Santa Margherita's relaxed way of life, and pretty palm-tree lined waterfront. One afternoon, we had an early "dinner" at a trattoria overlooking the marina, which consisted of amazing olives, Prosecco, and tiny sandwiches which were out of this world. The whole thing cost us about $25!

It is pretty easy to get to Cinque Terre from Santa Margherita by boat. We never did it, because we're complete slugs on vacation, and we only had a couple of days to explore the coast. From what I'm reading of it, and hearing about it, I don't think I missed much.

Anyway, have a great time whatever you decide!

BoulderCO

I agree with others - stay in Santa Margherita and do a day trip to the CT. I would suggest taking the train there rather than a car as parking is very limited. SML is a very nice town and in fact you don't need a car there at all. You can take a train from Como to SML. A ferry trip to Porotfino is a must.

roussillon

for me the joy and beauty of CT is actually doing the walks between the various villages along the sea...

in the spring the wildflowers are out and then the vines fill, and it almost always breathtaking. You are hanging is space overlooking the colours of the med far far below. Magic to see people working the steep slopes and maybe chat for a moment if you've got some skills.

Then you enter your destination village on foot (walking/hiking is really not difficult for anyone in average shape) pleasantly fatigued, thirsty and hungry.

You poke around the village, walk around the boats, marvel at the isolation and try to eat a good fish meal in the local restaurants with a pleasant unassuming local wine...yeah, the restos are for tourists, but the good ones are solid Med cuisine and not outrageous.

You can always get back from where you are to where you started by a 10 min train ride.

It is the whole experience of walking and looking at the sea, and eating reasonably well for not a fortune. No comparison with Portofino style trip.

For me CT is still good for a few days of an Italian sojourn...Rouss

JJ5

We stayed in Rapallo several years ago and went everywhere else from there. We took the train between the CT towns and walked the coast.

Rapallo is not "found". And it has a great market area that was enjoyable and lively in the evenings. We loved sitting and watching the after dinner walk. As much as we liked SML, it was way more touristy than where we were. There were quite a number of young people as I think Rapallo has a medical school. Waterfront is marvelous.

medhead

Thanks everyone! This is just the kind of information I needed. I'll look into staying in SML or possibly Rapallo, and traveling to Cinque Terre and Portofino from there.

christy1

I had similar questions, and after doing a ton of research and question-asking, I decided to stay in the CT (I've been before, but wondered if it was now too crowded). It seems like the CT is best for people that want to hike, swim, relax, etc, not shop or visit tourist attractions or beautiful churches.
Many people compared the tourist experience in the CT to some of the well known Tuscan hilltowns-by that I mean, if you day trip to the area, especially the most touristed towns of Vernazza and Monterosso, you will be among lots of crowds, and the experience may not be that special. If you stay overnight, and stay in the three towns that see fewer tourists, walk the trails, find the lesser known beaches, you won't feel like you're in an overly touristed place. I've booked three nights in Manarola and I cannot wait.

viking

CT is not a clear winner for hiking. The Portofino penninsula (a vast coastal park) has gorgeous trails without the crowds that nearly bump you off the slope. It's true that modern life intrudes along the Riviera stretch more than CT, but CT has intrusion problems of it's own due to mobs and mobs and mobs.