Am going to Cinque Terre in May with 2 others and would like to rent an apt for a week instead of hotel. Any ideas or places to ck out???

Think about Santa Margherita, which is a few towns north of the actual Cinque Terre, but which is a bigger town/city. And very beautiful. Or Portovenere, which is south of the Cinque Terre and a bit bigger than the 5 actual Cinque Terre towns.

We rented an apartment for a week in Riomaggiore. 2 x bedrooms, balcony overlooking main street and harbour. Great for people watching as well. Will respond with details and website if interested.

Loved Riomaggiore and found it accessible to other towns within CT and boat trips.

Elly

Portovenere or Lerici are wonderful "home bases" for exploring the CT. Will you be renting a car? That will give you evem more flexibility to see the surrounding area, although the CT can be reached by boat from either PV or Lerici. By staying in this area, you have the opportunity to easily visit such places as: Sarzana, Lunigiana, Carrara, Tellaro, the beach towns of Versilia and even Lucca and Pisa.

Santa Margherita is very pretty but it's an hour by car or train away from Monterosso, the most northern of the CT villages. You would most likely visit different places than you would staying farther south, for example: Genova, Camogli, Recco, Portofino and a couple of inland villages.

Hope this helps!

Very wise words from Megan.

I agree, it really is best to either base yourself in or very near the Cinque Terre as that is where you want to be.

I just spent six nights in Santa Margherita and the day trip down to Portovenere and Cinque Terre area was just too long.

I enjoyed seeing Camogli, Portofino, Recco, Rapallo and Zoagli so much more than the day trip (or should I say TREK) down the south. As they were only a few minutes away, we were able to pop over for coffee or shopping or to the markets of all these towns as often as we liked.

Next trip, I would like to spend a week at the hotel in Santa Margherita, then a week further south at Lerici perhaps. Somewhere to base to see Lerici, Portonovere, the Cinque Terre and the inland towns.

Staying in or nearby the exact place where you want to go is so much easier and takes a lot of the stress away. Why make it hard? You can always go back and see the places you don't get to on one trip.

You might check out this web site:
Sea and Country Villas
which includes some apartments in the CT area.

I can't vouch for any of them personally, but I know that the manager of the agency is the daughter of the woman who owns the villa (Villa Ortensia) that we won as a prize in the last Slow Travel contest. Her villa is wonderful, and Letizia the owner is an extremely "simpatica" person, so I imagine that her daughter would be similar. (We did not go through her agency, as the one offering the prize that we won was based mainly in Tuscany.)

- Roz

Advice to find overnight lodging in towns just outside the CT is really good. Consider Portovenere to the south or Levanto to the north.
In season there is good boat connections from both and from Levanto there is excellent train service into the CT.

If you really want to experience the Cinque Terre, I don't agree with staying in other towns. Monterosso or Vernazza would be the best places to base for a week as they are the largest of the CT villages. You don't need a car if you locate centrally.

We stayed for a week in Monterosso last month (Vacanza Bella was the agency) and found it a central location for exploration. Our day trip extremes were Portovenere and Portofino and we felt we had a great exposure to Cinque Terre. Trains were very frequent and the weather was fine, so we used the ferry transportation between villages almost every day. There's not a lot to do in the Cinque Terre villages but if hiking and relaxing are your goals, you're golden.

Here's the link for the apartment we rented for four people: http://www.vbella.com/cinque-terre/la_vecchiona.asp

(I need to finish my trip report and rental reviews!)

Bill

quote:

it really is best to either base yourself in or very near the Cinque Terre as that is where you want to be.

Yes, that's what most of us are suggesting.

We find it usually works best and makes for a more successful holiday if you stay as close as possible to your main objective then travel outwards in small concentric circles if you have the time.

thanx to all of you for advice. Portovenere seems to have the vote of many and since I will be driving my car from Umbria-it will be a good base to explore by train or boat and not hassle with my car. Will let you know how it goes.

quote:

We rented an apartment for a week in Riomaggiore. 2 x bedrooms, balcony overlooking main street and harbour. Great for people watching as well. Will respond with details and website if interested.

The more I read about the Cinque Terre the better!

Elly have you written a review? (And no I haven't done mine - will have to wait until summer holidays probably.) If you haven't written one yet, any chance of telling us on here? Pretty please?

Late last month we stayed at the Hotel Jolanda on via Luisito Costa, 6 in Santa M. Ligure and were very pleased. We received a 10% discount because we brought Rick Steve's Italy book (where we found the hotel) and showed it to the desk clerk.
We walked from Monterrosso to Vernazza and this was a fascinating, exhausting hike of almost 2 hours. We enjoyed Il Gambero Rosso restaurant in Vernazza located by the water at Piazza Marconi 7 (closed Mondays). Bring water for the hike and use good hiking shoes.