We're now looking into going to Liguria instead of Milan. How long is that train ride from Paris? Does anyone know of nice affordable hotel and what do you recommend seeing and doing there?

That is an entire Province of Italy that stretches for 200 miles along the coast. Do you have any idea where in Liguria---San Remo, Portofino, Cinque Terre, Portovenere????

We stayed at Hotel Jolanta in Santa Margherita. I would recommend it. It is affordable and very nice. You don't have a water view, if that's important, but the hotel is very clean and charming and the staff is very helpful, too.

There is lot to do in Liguria. We toured the Cinque Terre towns, Portofino and the surrounding area, and Genoa. There are other charming coastal towns that we didn't have time to visit.

Oh, I didn't know it was that big. But we should probably see Cinque Terre and Portofino, yes? Anyone know how long the train ride from Paris to Luguria is?

It took us from 7:40am to 1pm to get from Santa Margherita to Nice, so just over 5 hours. Not sure how long to get from Paris to Nice, but I'd guess 6 hours on the TGV. It would be an all day trip. You'd probably be better off flying from Paris to Pisa on a budget airline and training from there.

Here is a very long thread with much info on Liguria:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35130024

Hi SC - Unless you take an overnight train from Paris you would effectively lose a day travelling.

Would you consider flying?

Easyjet fly Paris-Pisa
Myair fly Paris-Genova

www.easyjet.com
www.myair.com

Steve

How much time to you have? Stopping in Nice for a few nights might be an idea, then proceed on to the Ligurian coast. We spent three nights in Nice, and also visited Antibes and St. Jean Cap Ferrat (sp?) from there.

We then spent three nights in Santa Margherita Ligure, and from there we day-tripped to the Cinque Terre and Portofino. I can post my trip reports on SML and Nice, if you're interested.

One thing you should certainly do is eat lots of pesto and trofie pasta!!

I didn't know it was that far I don't think we have enough time to want to get on a plane again. We only have about 7-9 days in Paris. Then we talked about taking the train to another nearby place. We just can't decide on what at this point. Because we only have two weeks altogether.

Why don't you consider Brittany or Normandy after Paris?

Hiking between the Cinque Terre towns is a dream! There is a lot of great food (see earlier comment re: troffie and pesto), plus a beach in Monterosso. If you're going during a warm month, you can't lose!