Hi All,

My wife and I are planning a trip to Riviera Levante in the last week in Sept. We will be traveling with our 2 yr old daughter. I have been made incharge of the planning but I have to confess that I am a bit lost.

First of all I have not figured out the best way to get to this area. Fly to Milan, Florence or Pisa and drive? Can we take a train instead of driving?

We would like to stay in the towns of Portovenere or Lerici. Not sure if these are good choices. What are some of the other town options? I am also not finding enough vacation rental listings in this area. I searched several agencies listed in this site, but most places have few or no listings for Liguria region.

Please help!

Thanks
Dev

Dev, we are less than a week out from our trip down to that area with a 5, 3 and 1 year old. When I return, I'll share my thoughts on travelling with small children (and a grandma) in that area. I really, really wanted to stay in Portovenere or Lerici, but we need either a large enough rental or two hotel rooms and that wasn't in the budget. We decided to stay a little bit of the way to get the size place we needed within our budget, but we definitely plan to explore the Cinque Terre towns and I want a day in Lerici and Portovenere. Those two towns get such great reviews here at slow travel. I think that you will be able to find great accommodations in those towns with just one small child.

As for arrival, I'm not sure. We are driving from Germany so I'm not certain of the distances from the airports.

Both Lerici and Portovenere are Liguria at its best. Lerici is a bit more convenient and accessible than Portovenere, but you can't go wrong with either. You can visit the area without a car as trains, buses and boats are available, but a car will allow you some freedom (especially if you stay in Portovenere).

There are very few rentals online for both villages. Most apartments and villas are rented via the local, non-english speaking agencies who only accept cash - and are also strictly Saturday to Saturday. (This area of Liguria is a bit behind in terms of being "tourist savvy" which is both its charm and its curse!). If you do a search for "Rentals in Lerici" or Portovenere, you will come up with a few good places (if they are still available!). Otherwise, I would suggest looking into the following hotels:

*Doria Park
*Hotel Europa
*Hotel Florida
*Locanda Miranda
*Grand Hotel Portovenere
*Hotel Belvedere

Happy Planning!

P.S. Pisa is the closest airport, then Florence and Genoa. Milan and Nice are about 3 hours away...

Hi All,

Thanks for the information. Unfortunately we are unable to get decent(affordable) fares to Florence, Milan or Pisa. Not much luck with the villas either! I am learning that we started planning this trip a bit too late and that smart travelers typically plan and book their trip upto a year in advance!

Thanks for all the help.

Dev,
Megan, who answered your post is also a trip planner for Italy and is quite the expert on the Ligurian Coast.(she lives there) It might be worth it to hire her. We used her for some of our trip planning and found her most helpful. Just a thought...There are also may other good trip planners on this board. This late in the game it might help take the stress off you.

Thanks, I did look up Bellavita website. This year we have decided to do an off-peak travel in Dec to a non-coastal location. When we get back to our Liguria trip planning I think it would be terrific to get help from Megan.

If you are thinking of using Lerici or Portovenere as a base, I think you should reconsider. Portovenere is at the end of a peninsula and is not convenient for taking day trips, and neither town (to the best of my knowledge) has a train station. They are both beautiful towns, and worth visiting, but not necessarily good as bases. You didn't mention whether you will have a car, which is an important factor in selecting a base.

I suggest you consider Santa Margherita Ligure, which is a nice town, is conveniently located and has a train station.

Perhaps my web page on our trip to Liguria might help you in your planning.
Here's the URL:
http://www.travel.stv77.com/liguria/liguria.html

Have to agree with sssteve, Santa Margherita or Rapallo make a better base, since you can easily get to the cinque terre & also over to Camogli and Portifino easily. Much more to do in S. M or Rapallo also.

Neither Lerici or Portovenere have train stations, but that may also be part of their charm! In both cases you can easily get to either the La Spezia or Sarzana train stations by bus or taxi. In addition, they both have much better accommodations than the villages of the CT (whether we're talking amenities or pricing). The ferry runs regularly from both and (IMO) opinion the best way to enter into the CT (hiking and train can be done in between).

Hope you are able to make it this way someday soon Dev! Have a wonderful trip -

Megan, I have some friends staying at my appartment in La spezia in mid June. They will be arriving at Pisa Airport at 9.30 pm do you know of any taxis or drivers in our area and also the likely costs.

We usually take the train or get picked up by friends so have never had to consider this before.

Shaun - Send me an email and I can give you some reccommendations - M

Dev - a suggestion for next year's trip planning: what about staying in Levanto? My friends and I were just there a few weeks ago. It's pretty in its own right, and has a train station which, coming from La Spezia, is the next stop right after the Cinque Terre towns, so it's really convenient too.

I'll put in a word here for staying at L'Erba Persa, which we booked after reading a review here on slowtrav. It's lovely, serves a nice breakfast with homemade jams (and the best croissants I had for the entire trip!) and the owner, Grazia, was truly the most helpful of all the places we stayed in during our trip.

Hope that's of some help