The Ultimate Cinque Terre Travel Guide

If you’re thinking about planning a trip to the iconic colored-building cluttered cliffsides of Italy’s Cinque Terre in the Liguria region, there’s probably a few questions you’re itching to figure out! Where are the best areas for photos? Where should you stay? Why did I also mention Liguria? How in the heck do you even pronounce the name Cinque Terre?

These were all questions I didn’t have the slightest clue about before I went there spontaneously, so I made sure to get all the info down to help you out when you go!

As always, some of my trips like this one are done on my own dime, so if you appreciated me making myself a travel guinea pig to make your trip better and easier to plan, please do me a solid and share my posts!

Here’s everything you need to know about Cinque Terre!

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What Is Cinque Terre and How to You Pronounce it?

For some reason this took me a while to get right, but you pronounce Cinque Terre, “Cheen-quay ter-rey”. It’s Italian, in case you didn’t already guess. That being said, its translation means “Five Lands”

As you may be able to also guess, the Five Lands refers to the five different little (once) fisherman towns that comprise Cinque Terre, which is IN a region called Liguria. They are all cute and unique, with some more popular than others, but I will describe each of them below so you can decide on your own which ones to stop in.

A Caution and Request to Travelers:

Before I get into all of the important information, I do have one word of caution and also a request. Cinque Terre has obviously become a popular tourist destination now, with people coming from all over to see its charm and beauty in their own unique ways.

Some people like to take a lot of pretty photos, others like to just hike and not be bothered with photos. But regardless of your travel style, please do not take it upon yourself to judge or share your opinion to other people you don’t know.

Twice I encountered extremely rude American tourists, who both had something to say about what myself and my gay guy friend were wearing since we were what you’d say “very stylish”. They had no clue I was shooting photos for my blog and Instagram (which is my full time job), and one even left a nasty comment on my Instagram post making fun of my friend and I for running around and taking photos! Obviously my awesome small army fought back, but in all honesty, none of it was necessary.

Another woman had something to say about my clothing on one of the hikes (which honestly happens often). She said, “You’re not really going to hike in that are you?’ to which I replied, “Lady, I just climbed Kilimanjaro, this is nothing.” The moral is you don’t know what people are or are not comfortable in, so don’t judge people, and if someone says something to you, simply reply, “It’s not bothering me, is it bothering you?”

Last but not least, please be smart and cautious when getting your photos. We post a lot of things on cliff sides and rocks, but this is a job for us that we are very strategic and used to doing. You’ll read later on about the Chinese tourist who almost drowned trying to take a photo too close to the sea wall…

Moving right along!

How to Get to Cinque Terre

Flying Into Italy

You have several options for flying into Italy, and a couple of these main cities are about the same distance to Cinque Terre, so usually I suggest flying into the one with the cheapest flight.

I always play a game I call Flight Roulette to find the cheapest possible flights using flexible dates and destinations, which you can see how to do here: FLIGHT ROULETTE

Taking the Train to Cinque Terre

Anyway, I was already near Bologna, so that was my starting point, but then took the Speed Train to Florence to meet my friend who flew in there. Then we took another train together to La Spezia, which is the southernmost “big town” near Cinque Terre, but not one of the official “5 Lands”.

I would strongly suggest using Google Maps on your phone to figure out which trains to take, since you will likely try to enter “Cinque Terre”, which is NOT a train stop, but your Google Maps will get what you mean. If you’re having trouble, or don’t have service, look for “Liguria” or “La Spezia” on the train schedule/map.

The train costed only about €10 for second class (First Class was sold out, and the only difference is that you get nicer and an assigned seat). You can get your ticket easily right at the station, and don’t worry, they have multiple language options on the screen. Whatever you do though, don’t forget to STAMP your ticket at one of the smaller machines that documents the date and time…otherwise you can get charged 60 euros for not having it!

I checked train times from my phone the entire time to know when to get to the station, which you can access through: ItaliaRail

How to Get Around Cinque Terre

Once you get to Cinque Terre, you’ll have a couple of options for getting around depending on what you want to do, and the weather. By getting around, I am referring to getting to the different cities — once you’re in one, everything is accessible by foot. In fact…you won’t find cars at all in most of them! (Which actually was scary and a super fail when the guy was drowning since an ambulance didn’t arrive until almost an hour later…so don’t get hurt!)

For us, we had big suitcases, and it would randomly rain, so we’d take the trains mostly, then do some hikes. Here’s all of your options:

Train:

A very easy to use train runs back and forth through all five of the Cinque Terre cities, and then of course out of them as well. It’s only €1.50 each ride in between the small cities, or you can get a Cinque Terre Card for €13-16 (depending on season) which is good for the day if you plan on hopping around or seeing as much as possible in one day. If not, the single tickets end up being way cheaper!

Again, don’t forget to validate your tickets at the smaller stamping machine (even though no one ever even checked that we had tickets in general, but they do check on longer rides).

All the info for train timetables plus duration of trips can be found here: Cinque Terre Train Schedule

Ferry:

If the weather is nice, and you want a very scenic experience, you can take ferries in between the towns as well! Just like the trains, they pick you up and drop you off right in the main areas of the towns. The only downside of the ferries is for those of you who are trying to avoid crowds…since they drop off mass amounts of people.

You can find the slightly confusing ferry schedule here: Cinque Terre Ferry Schedule

Hike:

For those who like a good challenge, view, and adventure; there are also hiking paths between some of the cities! For some reason you still have to pay a fee to hike them (around 6 euros…more than a train ticket), but the photo opps are well worth it! Fair warning though — although the hikes aren’t too hard

Here’s the main hiking trails, how long they take, etc.: Cinque Terre Hiking Trails

General Overview of the 5 Cinque Terre Cities

This was the trickiest part for me, because I didn’t grasp that there were five different cities to see, and I didn’t know the difference between them. I also planned my trip last second, and probably could have figured it out by doing Google research, but now I have all the info to give to you in one post!

For starters, I thought La Spezia was part of Cinque Terre since it’s the station you get your ticket for when you’re trying to go there, but technically it’s not! Even though the Cinque Terre Train Pass can start from there…anyway!

So here is a mix of my opinion and what others say! I’ll still start with the southernmost city La Spezia so you know the difference, and work my way north:

0. La Spezia

La Spezia is the first major city you’ll enter as you make your way to Cinque Terre from the south. It’s bigger than the rest of the cities, and also doesn’t have that prime colorful-cliffside real estate like you see in the photos. That’s probably why it didn’t get included in the Cinque Terre region. Boom!

It’s still a charming little town though, with cobblestone streets, a cute marina, and long stretch of shopping and restaurant streets. But WARNING! Almost everything was closed on Sunday!

If you’re trying to get a cheaper hotel, get your bearings together, or stay somewhere a little less touristy, this would be a good option for you.

1. Riomaggiore

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Riomaggiore is the first official city of Cinque Terre outside of La Spezia. To be completely honest, I didn’t stop there because it was raining and I thought I’d only have time for the two “most popular” towns, but looking at the photos of it makes me regret my decision.

Its colorful buildings form a U around the small marina there, and small fishing boats fleck the bay in the crest of it. If you happen to go, please share a photo with me since I didn’t get to see it!

2. Manaroloa

Probably the most popular of all five Cinque Terre cities is Manarola. Every photo you’ve probably seen on Instagram of a girl whimsically eating lunch, a picnic, or having aperitifs with the colorful cliffside off in the distance is from this location.

To get the iconic shot of the rainbow-specked panorama bordered with azure blue waters and hopefully pastel hued skies, you simply follow the pathway that winds to the right of the tiny marina. Of course when I was there it rained, but I waited for the brief windows of blue skies. It was definitely worth the wait.

Also, a word of extreme caution…although the waters are normally calm, if it happens to be a rough sea day, stay away from the sea wall. I watched in horror and helplessness as a Chinese tourist was swept into the sea while taking photos, and he couldn’t swim, so was drowning until a random good samaritan jumped in and saved this guy’s life.

3. Corniglia

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I also didn’t stop here, mostly because it was raining, but also because it’s a little town up in the mountain rather than down by the sea. I read online that the views from up there are great, but I’ll snobbishly admit that I wanted those coastal cliff views.

But! For adventure and nature lovers; Corniglia is also where the Cinque Terre National Park is!

4. Vernazza

Arguably the second most popular little city, if not the first. Vernazza has a much larger area by the water, and even a mini beach for those determined enough to get in the seemingly, unfortunately polluted shore waters. Don’t worry, it clears up just a few feet farther away, and is crystal clear like it’s supposed to be.

In Vernazza you’ll also find the iconic colorful buildings along the cliffs, but there’s also a lot more outdoor restaurants to indulge at as you take in the epic scenery.

Vernazza’s shoreline also stands out because of the beautiful church tower that looks out onto the bay. There’s also more cute alleyways and staircases to get yourself lost in, as well as the pathway that leads to the hiking path to Monterosso (al Mare).

5. Monterosso al Mare

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I didn’t make it to this one due to the weather (and by that I mean I opted to wait out the weather and spend more time in Vernazza), but this little city is best known for having the biggest stretch of beach in Cinque Terre!

As I mentioned above, there’s a hike from Vernazza to Monterosso that has stunning views. The only downside is the pathway gets pretty crowded (unless you go super early), there’s opinionated tourists (a woman literally stopped me to ask if I was “really going to hike in that” regarding my dress and flat shoes from Guatemala).

If you go there by foot and don’t want to hike back, you can simply take the train or ferry back to wherever you’re staying.

Where to Post Up (AKA Stay)

Some people go to Cinque Terre on day trips (there’s even tours that do this), but if you want to spend more time there like I did, I can recommend a few places to stay. I’ll also mention the schedule of stays I did and why I chose to do so.

Vernazza

After seeing how many people arrive in the little cities starting at around 11am, we decided to just stay in one of them to wake up early and get photos before anyone got there. We also discovered that most people leave just before sunset, so we mostly had the place to ourselves!

The hotel was located on the 6th floor of the red building that faces the bay in Vernazza, so all we had to do was literally walk downstairs. Not ideal for carrying luggage since there’s no elevator, but the nice reception staff ran to help us right away.

So there you have it! All of the possible information I have to help you plan the best Cinque Terre trip possible! If you have any questions, or want to show me some love, comments are appreciated below!