SKIP THE LINE, BUY CINQUE TERRE CARD ONLINE WITH THIS LINK CLICK HERE
The five Cinque Terre villages are accessible by train, situated on the major train route connecting Genova and La Spezia then south towards Pisa and Florence.
If arriving by car , parking at the station which has parking on two floors and costs around 1.50 per hour . The station car park does tend to fill up after around 10am but it is a hassle free way of accessing the trains . Driving to the Cinque Terre by car can be stressful for the reasons outlined below.
The local Trains stop in the center of the villages apart from Corneglia which is situated on a hilltop with the station below , to reach the town you have to climb the ‘Ladarina’, a staircase which has 382 steps! It’s not a difficult climb as it’s quite shallow , for those with allergies to stairs there is shuttle bus linking the station and village, and is free to use if you have the Cinque Terre rail and park pass.Our Cinque Terre map page shows the layout of the villages and national park .
The Cinque Terre card includes rail travel between all the villages as far as Levanto (not a 5 Terre village ), and also gives you access to the national park hiking trails, the cost is 1 day Adults € 16.00 from 12 to 69 years of age valid until midnight of the validation, there are family discounted and child cards also available also discounts for 2 and 3 day passes . It’s possible to buy the Cinque Terre trekking pass without train travel included at € 7.50 for a 1 day Adult ticket.
There are Cinque terre info points in all 5 stations where you can purchase the cards, bare in mind depending on the time of day the info points can get busy with long queues, this especially applies to La Spezia where the majority of visitors enter the area . The cards are also available online.
Apart from the Cinque Terre pass, single rail tickets are available and cost 5 euros each , for example to Riomaggiore the closest village to La Spezia is 5 euros and it’s the same to Monterosso the furthest village. Not a bad option if you plan to hike between the villages and only need to get there and return or simply want to dodge the queue at La Spezia.
Other methods of seeing the area are by road , although parking is limited and costly , the villages are connected by small hilly , windy roads so this also adds time travelling between villages .Another scenic option is to visit by sea , with many Cinque Terre boat tour options, there are both small boats , yacht tours and also the very busy ferry which holds around 200 visitors at at a time.
When you arrive in the Cinque Terre there are many activities from wine tasting to pesto courses , hiking routes through the vineyards or simply relaxing in the many cafes and bars in the villages
Cruise ships are one of the more recent ways visitors are arriving in the area , docking then taking shore excursions from La Spezia to the Cinque Terre or further afield to Pisa etc
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