Cinque Terre Boat Tour - Best Cities (Port La Spezia, Italy)

[Travel To Be Free]

We're in port 7-7 and are a party of 4.  We would like a boat tour of the Cinque Terre with stops at the best villages.  What villages are the best for stops?  How long at each stop?   

[Travel To Be Free]

I'm still doing research and there are a few agencies on TripAdvisor, however, some are around 200E.  I was hoping to find one not quite so expensive.  Those included lunch on board and swimming, but we're looking for doing lunch in one of the villages and then just boating along the coast.  Hoping to find some suggestions.  

 

 

[GeezerCouple]

You might try sending queries to the vendors advertising on TripAdvisor, about a private boat charter.

However, if 200E is your price for all four of you for the full day, I doubt that would be possible, unless you sign up with a much larger group.

 

We had some trouble getting responses, but that may have been because we were probably emailing during their "off season" (mid-winter).

 

From and back to La Spezia by small boat may not give time for many stops.

 

GC

Edited March 18, 2019 by GeezerCouple

[Ski Mom 2]

Here is what we scheduled for Cinque Terra (September 2018):

We booked an excursion through our cruise ship that was a ferry boat to cruise the Cinque Terra stopping in two of the towns. We were to have time to spend in each location before taking the ferry boat back. Price: $189 per person. 

 

Here is our tale of what happened:

The seas were rough and our tenders took extra time getting into Portofino. The ferry boat was reserved just for our tour but because of the rough seas, we were late getting on that ferry boat and it took extra time to reach the Cinque Terra. Because the seas were so rough, we were unable to dock in both locations and ended up in Monterosso only. We did have a beautiful “drive by” of all 5 towns. (My husband jokes the five photos of the five towns are the most expensive photos I’ve ever taken!) Once we finally arrived in Monterosso we were told by our guide to be back to take the ferry in 1.5 hours! Now, we actually had until 8:30 pm to be back to the ship and I knew we could see more on our own than that 1.5 hours was going to allow us so I said to my DH and the Aussies we were traveling with let’s get off the tour and take the train to Riomaggiore and so we did! 

 

It was very easy to get to the train station and purchase tickets to Riomaggiore. Once there we hiked uphill on the Main Street and found the most wonderful restaurant for a late lunch called La Cantina del Macellaio. It was fantastic and the owners delightful. After lunch they helped us figure out how to take the train to Sante Marguerite (it doesn’t go all the way to Portofino). After walking around there for a while we grabbed a taxi back to Portofino where we stopped for pizza and beer and some shopping making the last tender at 8:30 pm back to our ship. 

 

What I learned: 

We had a much better time on our own than on the stupid tour that we paid way too much for. We could have booked our own ferry ride over and then continued on with what we did very easily. And it would have been much cheaper. I am SO happy we got off the tour and walked to the beat of our own drummer!

 

 

[marazul]

Here is the website for the ferry that seves Ciqueterre:

http://www.navigazionegolfodeipoeti.it/en/

It stops at 4 of the 5 villages.  Corniglia is not on the water.  My favorites are Vernazza and Riomaggiore.  You do not need a guide for any of the villages.  Just get out and enjoy them. 

Edited March 18, 2019 by marazul

[Travel To Be Free]

6 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

You might try sending queries to the vendors advertising on TripAdvisor, about a private boat charter.

However, if 200E is your price for all four of you for the full day, I doubt that would be possible, unless you sign up with a much larger group.

 

We had some trouble getting responses, but that may have been because we were probably emailing during their "off season" (mid-winter).

 

From and back to La Spezia by small boat may not give time for many stops.

 

GC

The 200E was per person.  If it were for our group of four, that would be nice!!

[Travel To Be Free]

Ski Mom 2 -- we also like doing our own thing!!  Thanks for the input!

 

Marazul-Thanks for the ferry schedule.  Do you know if the ferry that starts from the La Spezia port a good way over to tour the 5 villages?  

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, Travel To Be Free said:

The 200E was per person.  If it were for our group of four, that would be nice!!

 

If you are willing to pay that (pp, or a bit less), you should be able to get a very nice private excursion from La Spezia for the four of you.

But you'd need to plan ahead, especially if during the busiest tourist seasons.

But I don't know how much time there would be for more than one stop.  It would also depend upon weather and sea conditions.

 

GC

[marazul]

2 hours ago, Travel To Be Free said:

 

Marazul-Thanks for the ferry schedule.  Do you know if the ferry that starts from the La Spezia port a good way over to tour the 5 villages?  

Yes.  The ferries are also used by ship's excursions that just put groups there. The alternative is the train.  Compare timetables to help you decide. The boat trip is beautiful, but keep the train timetables handy in case it is too windy and the ferry is not running. 

 

A private boat tour might get you there a little faster, but not a lot.  With enough time you can stop at each village for about one hour and move on to the next one.  If you are enjoying one of them a lot or having lunch, you can skip to a later ferry. 

 

To get to Corniglia you would have to take the train from one of the other villages. You can train to the next village and get back on the ferry. You can also hike to Corniglia, but that takes time. You will probably be satisfied with the other four villages.

 

You can also take the ferry one way ending in Monterosso and then take the train back.  It is a lot faster than the ferry. About 30-40 minutes to La Spezia and you could get off at Corniglia and take the next train out.