Cinque Terre boat tour question

[Oriolesfan8]

We are visiting on a cruise ship and Port in La Spezia. I have a boat tour scheduled and I’m trying to decide whether we should start the tour in La Spezia, Manarola or Monterosso. My concern with starting it in La Spezia is the time it takes to get to the Cinque Terre and the possible sea conditions. Advice would be appreciated!

[Hlitner]

You have done a good job framing the issue.  Keep in mind that getting to Manarola or Monterosso means you first need to get to the La Spezia train station.  You cannot walk out of the port, so will have to wait for the internal port shuttle bus which gets you to the port terminal (just outside the port).  From there, it is a long walk (just over a mile) to the train station and getting a taxi is not always possible.  Once at the La Spezia train station, the queue to buy a train ticket, can be long.  In fact, we were there a few weeks ago (before the busy season) and it was about a 30 minute wait to get into the ticket office.  Once you have a ticket you might wait 20 minutes for the next train.  I believe it is possible to get a train ticket, online, but we never explored that option since we were not sure what we were going to do until after we left the ship (what can I say except we are independent travelers who often do things on the spur of the moment).

 

I mention all this because starting the boat tour in La Spezia might not take longer...depending on the tour boat schedule.  As to sea conditions, that is always a crap shoot, but the Med weather is usually pretty good (and sometimes hot) during the summer months.

 

Hank

[Oriolesfan8]

I was researching purchasing train tickets on Trenitalia and all tickets are stating sold out. I was under the impression that train seats on the regional trains or Cinque Terre express did not sell out. Looking at June 19th.

 

I appreciate the previous response and we will have to plan accordingly if we train.