travelmom68

My family and I (6 & 8 year old kids) will be in Cinque Terre for 3-4 nights the first week of September. We will be traveling all around italy for 3 weeks, and I promised my family that we would plop ourselves down in a beachy area with swimming & minimal sightseeing as a "break." (Our itinerary includes Rome x 4 days, Chianti in an aguritourismo for 3 days, CT, Venice x 2-3 days, then Sorrento x 3 days. Which of the towns have the best swimming combined with as much of a laid back atmosphere as possible? We like to eat & drink & relax while watching the kids play. We'd like to stay in someplace under 225 euros or so. Any recommendations? Thank you so much.
Missy

TuckH

I enjoyed a swim there (I think it was Manarola) but it certainly was not a "beachy area". The shoreline is heavy rocks and I don't know if there is such a place in the Cinque Terre.

PalenQ

Monterosso has a great sandy beach - the others i think are rocky.

One guy told me recently that he read that Monterosso's beach was listed by some magazine as one of the top in the world.

That surprised me but it is the best beach i think in the 5 Lands.

SRS

For a real beach Monterrosso is the best. The beach there is long.

I like Vernazza's best though. Vernazza has a cute little beach, which is probably sufficient, but it really is little. But it is right off the main square. It would be my choice for beach, espcially with smallish children.

Manarola has good swimming, but it's all on rocks, so no real beach. We did like the place we stayed there very much. www.arpaui.com. We are staying there again at the end of August.

Have a great trip!!!

SRS

I meant www.arpaiu.com.

amandab

Monterosso has the best beach and when we were there, I couldn't get over how blue the water looked. The water was also warm (and this was during middle of winter time - I wish I had taken my togs with me, I would have been in, no hesitation). Have a lovely time.

bobthenavigator

Monterosso or Levanto--just north.

susiedq

Monterosso does has a lovely beach. we were there in september of 2005 and the water was warm. I would advise beach shoes as the sand is really small pebbles and can be rough on the feet. We rented chairs and umbrellas on one of the private beaches as the public beach was incredibly crowded. The private beach only had about 15 people so it was wonderful.

sprin2

As the other posters have said, Monterosso has a wonderful sandy shoreline. Both Old and New Town have good beaches and one area near the large car park is especially gentle for very young kids. The far end of town also has a nice beach -- near the statue of the giant.

We spent a week in the CT when our boys were about 5 and 7. They also loved the Vernazza harbor beach and the rocky beach around the corner from the harbor in Riomaggiore. My older boy also enjoyed swimming in the harbor in this town -- the rocks were perfect for learning to jump off.

We loved the atmosphere in this area. Each evening a large blow-up slide was open at the Old Town playground and tons of kids were there. There are good playgrounds scattered throughout the villages and lots of gelato.

Our trip report is http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34523667

teacher33

I hesitate to mention this as I am a cat lover and can be rather casual about cleanliness. However, when I was in Vernazza in April two years ago, I would wander down to the harbor area for breakfast, and as I was sitting on the harbor wall with breakfast, I would see many cats come down and use the beach as a litterbox. I would be squeamish about walking barefoot there. However, maybe the sea cleanses the area and maybe in summer they rake the beach, but I think for that reason I might choose Monterosso for digging, splashing and swimming with kids. Just my thoughts.

teacher33

This posted before I was finished. I hope this does not turn you off Vernazza altogether, because I loved every minute there (we spent a week) and thought the whole CT was magic. It was just this one little thing, and we weren't swimming in April, so it didn't impede our activities. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything, so take it for what it's worth.

travelmom68

Thanks you guys! I ended up making our "beach trip" a stay in a town just south called Lerici. Its a beachy town and apparently that's where the Italians go for their swimming holiday. It's connected with some sort of international chain, but privately owned and managed with the owners on site. The owners seem very helpful and kind and accomodating as far as arranging boat trips to CT. They seem to understand that's part of the popularity of their location. It got great reviews on TripAdvisor too. Here is the link
http://www.hotelflorida.it/
Because it's outside of CT, the price is reasonable- a quad with a sea view for 220,00 Eur. We can spend a day or 2 plopped on the beach (not my idea, but for my husband and kids) and a day or 2 traveling into CT and hiking for the day with a boat ride or 2 pending the weather. In planning this 3 week trip for my family, and I have to remind myself that it's not all about what I want to experience (ha ha) but making the rest of the family have their down time so that we can all enjoy it together. I don't want to run them ragged and end up being miserable. The reality is that I have to accept the fact (going into it) that "sites" are going to be missed, but if everyone is miserable that NONE of the sites will be enjoyed by us as a family. So hard, so hard...
We're excited though!

SRS

The hotel you picked looks lovely! It looks like a great place to stay!

Sally

sapito

Stay at Hotel La Spiaggia in Monterosso.
Take a train ride to Vernazza if the beach in Monterosso isn't to your liking, highly improbable.

I wish my parents could have taken me to a place like Monterosso when I was a child. Fabulous.