Where to drop rental car before Cinque Terre?
 

Can anyone tell me if it makes more sense to drop a rental car at the Pisa airport or in La Spezia before taking the train to Cinque Terre?

My concern is that I know I will be able to find the airport in Pisa, hopefully, and can connect easily to the train station. I don't know how far away the rental car companies are from the train station in La Spezia. And I am also trying to avoid driving in towns and traffic as much as possible.

Thanks.

I rented a car from europcar back in June 2006. I dropped it in La Spezia on the way to Cinque Terre. it was OK. had a very hard time finding the location and then the location was closed when we drove up and wouldn't reopen for many hours. However I saw a woman in there so I pounded on the door. She spoke no english and I speak basically no Italian. She was trying to tell me to wait or come back later as they were closed and I was trying to explain that the car was alreay late to go back (we had hit a lot of traffic coming from Siena) and that I could not wait as I was on a time schedule. also I did not know the car return place would be closed all afternoon. After about 30 minutes of going back and forth she took the keys and came out to inspect the car. I was very worried that something would go wrong. There was a bus stop right by the drop off and we got on that for about 15 minutes to the train station, then went straight to Cinque Terre. On the other hand when we originally rented the car in Venice it was extremely easy to find, everyone spoke english and things went very smoothly. I did wind up being overcharged for the car return but upon realizing I was overcharged I emailed the company and was refunded.

so long story short, La Spezia isn't as easy to get around as I thought it would be and it was challenging to return a car not understanding the language. maybe sticking to somewhere like the Pisa airport might be better because the car rental place at the airport must be easy to find, and it is more likely that there would be more than one person at the place and that they would speak english!

Thanks LizaMarie. That sounds exactly like the situation I want to avoid, which unfortunately I always seem to find myself in. Sorry you had a difficult time. Sounds like Pisa would be an easier option even though it means more train connections. Thanks for the insight.

bostboy... your welcome! glad to help. My husband and I are very good at getting around foreign countries so I didn't think it would be that hard to return the car, LOL! I wish I had been as smart as you to look into it before hand. I think you'll be happiest in the long run going to Pisa to drop off the car even if it means more train connections. have fun! I loved Cinque Terre so much!

Hello Bost
From airport to Pisa Centrale it take 5 minute by train. From Pisa C.
to CT it take 1.20 hour
If you have many problem catch the train . In CT you don't use the car
but trains - boats - walking
mino from vernazza

I agree with ditching the car at Pisa airport and train to CT. We picked our car up in La Sppezia. I recall that it was a bit of a walk from the train station and the place was hard to find. Had to ask many times where the rental car place was. (They had told us when we called ahead that it was very near and easy to find. They gave us directions which made no sense to us when we arrived in LaSpezia)

The rainy day we had while spending a week in CT, we took the train to Pisa. It was not a long trip or difficult.

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Seems like Pisa will be the easiest option so that's where I'll plan on going. Thanks.