Cinque Terre · Where to stay

The northern end of the line, the only village with real sand and the only one with hotels rather than rented rooms. Flattest of the five and much the easiest to arrive at with a suitcase; also, by some distance, the busiest.

Rooms up staircases, no lifts, no cars, and a hard stop on noise around eleven. Beautiful to wake up in and punishing to reach with luggage, and every bed is priced by scarcity rather than by what it is.

A proper small town with a sandy bay, parking that actually exists, a surf school, and the five-kilometre car-free cycle path to Framura starting at the seafront. Trains into the villages take minutes and rates are set by a normal market.

A working port city at the southern end of the Cinque Terre Express with the mainline station, ordinary hotel prices, a daily market and dinner available after nine. Card holders get into the CAMeC modern art museum free. You commute; you also sleep.