Ok you are not going to keep them entertained with this for very long, but with small kids, it works! The vacation rental agency CinqueTerre Riviera has a variety of family friendly properties to rent in the Cinque Terre region. Stay tuned for the ItaliaKids app to access all of our essential family information from any device. Our full family guide to visiting Cinque Terre with kids: practical tips on the best family friendly towns and hotels in Cinque Terre, transport options and family friendly hiking opportunities. There [], "Minori, Amalfi Coast is my favorite place for the beach in Italy. While I do understand that it can make sense if you dont want to change hotel each night, I believe a day trip Florence to Cinque Terre is too long and too tiring. A good carrier -if planning on hiking with baby, opt for a good structures hiking one, Sun hat and sun screen for baby in spring / summer, Beach gear including water shoes for toddlers. We enjoyed the stunning approach by ferry (about an hour) to the Cinque Terre, and found Portovenere less crowded than the five villages. The town is narrow and full of steps so I recommend it with older children only: if you have small ones, you can still enjoy its pretty harbor and Main Street however, I feel other towns will leave you more scope to play and rest. The question about how family friendly Cinque Terre is and how to visit with kids comes up often in Italy with kids travel groups and the answers are always the same: visiting Cinque terre with kids is great but you need to know where to go and plan in advance. You can get the Cinque Terre Pass, which gives you access to trains and hikes: find all the info here. Our suggestion is to cruise all the way to La Spezia which costs about 35 Euro. Did you got inspired? From here, comfortable boats tale the journey to the four towns of Cinque Terre on the coast and then keep going to Porto Venere, also a pretty town worth seeing. Although it was much less arduous than our inland hike, the landscape was similarly varied, revealing stunning ocean and cliff views as well as some of the inland agricultural area. The 22min train journey will pass through tunnels to each of the Cinque Terre villages. The rewards of this less traveled interior hike (approximately three hours in length) are fewer crowds, and stunning views of the sea as you wander the terraced hillsides planted in grapevines and olive trees. What is Cinque Terre? Families do need to plan carefully to experience kid friendly Cinque Terre as the terrain is varied. Seeing the villages from a boat gives you a superb perspective of how tiny and cramped these villages actually are and with the colourful houses, the azure sea and the forestation behind, this is a view long to be remembered. Cinque Terre famous for beautiful scenery more than actual things to do and the best things to do here as a family are a mix of sightseeing, hiking and of course eating! Motivated by the jokes my husband and kids were making about the graffiti inscribed concrete tunnel along via dellAmore (Path of Love), I decided we would try a more ambitious hike the next time. Cinque Terre like the rest of Italy will provide plenty of gelato and pizza plus local specialties such as focaccia that are likely to make kids very happy! Depending on the time of the year you visit, the train might be quite full and so will be the station. After you have enjoyed Monterosso book your boat ticket. Corniglia is the only town out of the five not to be on the sea. The Cinque Terre is a national park, and entrance fees are charged to walk between the towns. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. Dont forget to bookmark this guide and simply Pin it for future use. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Here are some more Italy travel tips for first time visitors. There are some steep steps involved and if it is a hot day you need to ensure to take plenty of water. ", "Biking on the city walls in Lucca, Tuscany was the best. At a glance, the best time for visiting Cinque Terre is: The best time for visiting Cinque Terre for weather and hiking opportunities is the spring. For assistance with planning your trip through our Italy Trip Planning Concierge, please contact us. Here the Italian coast is exceptionally high and over the course of the centuries locals had to adapt to the challenges of this peculiar environment, which resulted in many houses being built on almost vertical coastlines, in what look like a precarious and unlikely position. I believe that this Cinque Terre one day trip itinerary with or without kids was stress free and that you could all enjoy the beauty that Cinque Terre has to offer without getting frustrated at the thousands of tourists stressing through the villages. Each house here is a painted into a different shade and the result is a proper rainbow landscape any child will love! We strongly recommend that whichever restaurant you choose, to book in advance to ensure a table. Check with the local info point for updated information. Genoa with Kids, Liguria with Kids 1 Comment Tags: Cinque Terre, Liguria, Fairy tales inspire when hiking in the Cinque Terre with kids, While traveling in Italy this spring, our familys destination for an active, outdoor vacation was a dramatic stretch of Italys Ligurian coast known as the Cinque Terre. Whether you are planning your 1sttrip to Italy with kids or whether you have already visited Italy many times, I believe the romantic, colourful and breathtaking Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera coastline has to be seen at least once. Brows through some of these colourful Hotels and maybe you are lucky and find your dream place to stay in the Cinque Terre. The 5 villages of Cinque Terre may all seem similar when you look at photos in the area but they all have distinctive traits that make them worth an individual stop. The short walk on its own is a beauty in itself as it brings you over the hill where earlier there must have been a castle or some kind of royal building. Your best day in Italy might soon be at an end but never the less you still have the bonus visit of this itinerary Cinque Terre one day visit with kids before you. What I wanted to show you with this Cinque Terre with Kids How Best to visit in One Day guide, is that sometimes less is simply more. Like the rest of the path above, it is currently closed: check with local info points for updates. Cinque Terre is a series of 5 villages perched on the rocky coast of Liguria, the curved coastal region in the North West of Italy between France and Tuscany. Cinque Terre is one of the most visited parts of the whole of Italy. We hiked three very different trails with our two kids, ages seven and nine, when we visited in late April. Manarola would be your Cinque Terre village for this. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Approximately two hours later we finished our hike in Monterosso, where the kids celebrated by going to the beachthe nicest beach in the five villagesbefore catching our ferry back to Portovenere. Hi Elizabeth, thank you for your comments. If you come here by car, you will be hard pressed to find a parking spot pretty much any time of the year and the risk of spending the whole day in the car looking for one is very high! Now, I hope you packed your swimming costumes. Second, the area has beautiful sea and if you have kids who love to splash about and even better love a boat ride, the place will be the perfect destination for them. The view is breathtaking. Meet the cats: small kids wont be able to resist the many cats that roam this area. In some towns like Vernazza, where there is no playground, watching the beats can be fun and a good way to slow down while mum and dad sip coffee on the seafront! Unfortunately, this path was subject to a landslide and large parts of it are currently closed. This option is available during the summer season only and can be very handy also for families who want to avoid the premium prices of accommodation in Cinque Terre and prefer a stay in nearby Levanto. This position means that the town offers stunning views over the Ligurian Coast and also that is see a tiny less tourism than its seaside counterparts. Cinque Terre is one of the most beautiful places Ive ever been to. Gianni Franzi, Piazza Marconi, 5, Riomaggiore if budget of logistics make them out of the question, I highly recommend you also look at making your base in one of the localities nearby such as Porto Venere or Levanto. Manarola is a wonderful child friendly location in Cinque Terre stealing the heart of adults with incredible views over the Mediterranean sea and the hearts of children thanks to its beautiful playground! Unesco listed this area as world heritage site not just because of its beauty but also because of the peculiar way agriculture developed here. Especially with kids, such a short trip will rob you of the most beautiful of all the moments in this area: sunrise and sundown, when the crowd of day trippers leaves the towns and you get a glimpse of real local life under the shiny rays of the setting sun. Find here >> our family guide to Manarola and all our tips for visiting! The ferries are timed to allow you to see all coastal Cinque Terre towns in a day: it is possible to buy a day pass, which is handy. Over the weekend and in the morning, you should have no problem at all to find a place. In terms of practicalities, it is the easiest town in Cinque Terre for strollers and it has plenty of kids running around which gives it a nice and family friendly feel. Loved this post? Trattoria la Lanterna, V. S. Giacomo 46, off V.C. 2 or the Blue Trail, is a 13 km (8 mile) path that winds through all five villages and can be completed in about five hours. Where is Cinque Terre? Tag your photos on IG with #likeithikeit_suisseWe love to see them! Despite not being great with toddlers, Corniglia is adorable and highly enjoyable if you have older kids as, usually, quieter than the others. ", "I love the Roma Estate Festival along the Tiber river in the summer. There is also a play area for the kids with much needed shade. There are several stories on why each house had each color but the usual explanation that these were fishing villages and the bright colors allowed fishermen to recognize their home even from the distance (a similar explanation is given about the colors in Burano, near Venice). I suggest in particular Villa Montale (Monterosso, where the Montale the poet used to spend his summers), San Lorenzos church (Manarola) and San Giovanni Battista church (Riomaggiore). Although this is an easy walk with kids of all ages, it is also the least attractive part of the trail, and we would have been very disappointed with the Cinque Terre if that was all we saw. I had heard the towns and villages are a nightmare for cars so had wondered how we could do it without stressing ourselves out. Proper hiking shoes (for you) essential in this area! For additional hotel and vacation rental options in the area, see the Italiakids.com recommendations for Liguria. You main enemy here is geography: the town truly are hanging off cliffs and this means many of the roads and steep and with uneven terrain or steps. At the time of writing, there is no playground in Vernazza. http://www.golfoparadiso.it/index.htm. The town is well served with hotels, restaurants and shops (other towns have B&B more than hotels), it has easy access to the beach and has a playground ideal for small kids. It is outdoors where we feel the most connected and happy with each other. No problem, take some photos and head on. Techically, you can visit all Cinque Terre villages in one day but two or even better three days are ideal for visiting Cinque Terre with kids. If you are interested in hiking, you need at least 2 days in the area to fully enjoy it, 3 days being the perfect length. Each ticket is valid for 75 minutes so if you are planning on taking several trains in one day you may want to consider the Cinque Terre card instead. The islands arenoteworthy not only for their natural beauty but also for the many remains of early monastic establishments that they contain. But the path is amazing and offers beautiful views. With the hop-on hop-off ticket, the boat stops at all other Cinque Terre Villages except Corniglia as it has no port. It is kind of sad that due to mass tourism the region is suffering. If you are in this area, consider stretching beyond Cinque terra and discoer more of Liguria, there is so much to do here for families! We began our walk in Vernazza, a village with a pretty harbor, after first eating a delicious and satisfying lunch of seafood with gelato for dessert. Catch the train to explore each village: the distances are minimal, you hop from one to the other in a matter of minutes! A hike in the Cinque Terre with kids you will certainly remember for years to come. Hiking between the villages is still the best way to discover the terraced vineyards, the lemon trees and olive groves, the scents of rosemary and lavender, and the tiny clusters of multicolored houses in this unique region. By far the best way to reach and discover Cinque Terre with kids is traveling by train. The town has all the charms of the typical Cinque Terre town, including colorful houses, gelato, boats and it also has a lovely playground for children, with amazing views! Riomaggiore is another lovely stops for families that mixes the charms of colorful homes and pretty harbors with the fun of a small yet beautifully located playground. This is an easy path that can be waked in about one hour and a good one for accessibility if open. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". If you do decide to come by car anyway or you have no option due to rental constraints, a good option is to leave the car in Levanto. How to get to Cinque Terre with kids: easiest access, Cinque Terre with kids in one day: how much can you see, Cinque Terre towns: what to expect in each town, The best place to stay in Cinque Terre with kids, Best places to stay near Cinque Terre for families, Cinque Terre info points: where to get updated info, Tips for visiting Cinque Terre with toddlers, family guide to visiting Manarola with kids, How many days in Cinque Terre? We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. My name is Marta Correale, I am the travel-loving Italian Mama behind this Mama Loves Italy Blog. Bacicio Via G. Capellini, 17 While more tiring, you can entice older kids to tackle it with the promise of swimming in the sea on arrival! This post may contain affiliate links, which means that we may earn a small commission, at no cost to you, when you make a purchase using one of these affiliate links. Vernazza is often considered the most beautiful of the five villages in Italys Cinque Terre, it dates back way in to the Medieval time and the village has beautiful stony narrowed passageways leading up to the hillside vineyards. Vernazza is gorgeous and a must see but it hasnt god much for families as such: the best thing to do here is to watch the boats and have a snack, while the adults take an endless number of photos! Price is 20 euros (22 euros holidays and in August) roundtrip for adults, 12 euros for children ages six to eleven. For a shorter, more kid-friendly experience, take advantage of the ferries that run between the villages, or take the advice of our kids and hike the trail that is just right.. Find here my travel guide to Liguria with kids. The second thing you notice and the one that probably most of all attracts people here is that these high perched houses are painted in the brightest of colors, creating a wonderful rainbow effect. You will thank me for it. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Cinque Terre are a scenic and charming part of Italy so unique UNESCO included the area in their list of World Heritage Sites. Already when the boat turns the corner and enters in to the harbour area you are in awe. Cinque Terre towns are wonderful but very popular and, as we have seen, not always super child friendly. None of these attractions are interesting for kids as such but the towns are pleasant for a stroll and the visits can happen quite casually as you explore: there is no need to get tickets or endure long queues here. The train to Monterossodeparts from La Spezia Centrale Station. Sometimes when it was wet they might close it. 2 is a walk of less than an hour between the villages of Riomaggiore and Manarola. Monterosso is the biggest of the 5 villages in Cinque Terre and the most popular with families thanks to its reasonably large beach (bigger than others in the area) a lovely and flat seafront for evening walks and a nice playground. The downside of this season is that the heat is intense and hiking not recommended. Well now it can also be your photo that can be featured. Cinque Terre is a stretch of five towns (Cinque=5) on the coast of Liguria, in the North West of Italy. The official tourism board actually urges travelers and visitors not to visit the Italian Riviera Coastline during peak summer times, as they cannot cope anymore. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. On this site, you will find Italy travel ideas, inspiration, guides and tips that I hope will help you plan a wonderful stay in my wonderful, complex, magical country.