How to visit the Cinque Terre from La Spezia Cruise Port

If your Mediterranean cruise visits La Spezia in Italy, you should definitely consider visiting the beautiful Cinque Terre.
In this video, we give you a step-by-step guide to visiting the Cinque Terre from La Spezia cruise terminal, where to get the Cinque Terre Cards for unlimited travel for a day and we take a look some of the Cinque Terre villages themselves, including our recommendations of the ones not to miss.
We’ve created this guide specifically for cruise passengers who want to visit the Cinque Terre so we hope you find it useful.
Cinque Terre ferry timetable: www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en/boa...
#cinqueterre #cinqueterreitaly #mediterraneancruise #cruiseport

[@ksarahlou87]

We’re cruising on Edge in October and this video was so well made and informative. Before this we had only seen people taking the ferry and now we’re sold on getting the train!

[@CruiseLifestyle]

That’s so wonderful to hear! I can’t recommend it enough, it was our favourite port stop on our cruise. Let me know how you get on.

[@patriciaglobetrotter19]

Thank you so much for the very informative video. I am going with my friend in October 2024, on the Costa Pacifica and as my friend has slight mobility problems, I think we will be ok taking the train to Manorola I am so happy because I didn't think she would be able to cope with the walking and be stuck in La Spezia for the day

[@CruiseLifestyle]

There is walking involved and I think from memory there may be steps at Manarola train station but there’s no reason why you can’t take your time and enjoy the village.

[@victoriadrehoff2641]

I cannot tell you how grateful I am for this video!! We're going in two weeks and for some reason it has been SO hard to find the right info on this!! Thank you!!! :)

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Glad it was helpful! Enjoy yourselves 😍

[@TomandDomTravel]

What a great video! Just what we were looking for. This video will be our guide. Thanks Laura

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Glad it was helpful!

[@northernrails4462]

Wow! What a great video. Stunning! ❤

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you so much! It’s such a beautiful place to visit and really straightforward from the cruise port.

[@clairedelara9]

Just watched your video and I can’t thank you enough for posting this in time for our cruise to Western Caribbean in a few months👏🥳😎! This video is very helpful to skip the cruise tours which is very expensive 😊!! I subscribed to your chanel💗! I hope you post more of your travel vlogs👍🎉! Thank you so much💗!

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you so much for your feedback, we’re assuming you meant Western Mediterranean? There is no way you need to book an excursion to visit, we wanted to create this video so you know how, save money and make the most of your time in port. Enjoy the cruise and let us know how you got on!

[@clairedelara9]

@@CruiseLifestyle yeees, sorry🤣..it’s Westeen Mediterranean💗

[@thanos22463]

Superb. Loaded with practical information and worth considering suggestions.

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you so much for your comment

[@susanfowler1539]

Heading here in May. Awesome video - great quality and informative. Thanks!

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you and we hope you have a wonderful time

[@rossmckee7346]

Great info we are going next May and it's the only place thats been difficult getting info on! Your video is brilliant..Thanks

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you, I’m glad this was useful. I found the same when planning our trips so thought it was worth making the video to help others.

[@bkhullmd]

Nice job! You actually provided the kind of details one needs to feel confident doing an “on your own” day. Thank you!

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you, we found ourselves needing a video like this for our first visit so we thought it would be useful to create one to help others.

[@faithevanstam1184]

This video is super helpful. Thank you.

[@CruiseLifestyle]

I'm so glad! Thank you!

[@user-xf7oz9es3k]

We will be going next year and have decided to do Cinque Terre on our own. Your video is great and has shown me we can do it without a tour! Thanks!

[@CruiseLifestyle]

So good to hear! I hope you have a great time, we absolutely loved it

[@CruiseWithAmber]

Not me scrolling back to 2:38 to see Craig’s reaction to that little peep 😂 Such a useful video - saved and bookmarked. This is the type of cruise content I love.

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you, this is the stuff I absolutely love too. I really enjoy doing the research about the cruise ports beforehand and this place was definitely our favourite one of the cruise.

[@InnocentsAbroad]

Yep.. it's done really well!

[@renademetriou-ig2iv]

Thank you ever so much for all this information.

[@CruiseLifestyle]

You are so welcome! Glad you found it helpful

[@81klong]

Thank you, this video was very helpful. We'll be visiting on our next cruise and luckily the day we stop here is our wedding anniversary! Looks so beautiful and easily do-able by ourselves and our two kids.

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Glad it was helpful! It’s a beautiful place to visit- enjoy your anniversary cruise!

[@vacatis]

Fantastic Video and Great Details! Subscribed!

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you very much! I’m glad you liked the video.

[@SuperIndiedrummer]

What a fantastic guide thankyou! 😊 We are on our 1st ever cruise next May and The La Spezia is one of the ports most looking forward to but also worried about....so many things to potentially visit, The Leaning Tower, Florence and of course the stunning villages! 😮

[@CruiseLifestyle]

If it helps, my Mum and Dad came with us on this cruise and decided to visit Pisa from the same train station. They said it was really simple.

[@CharlesDavis-of7bj]

Great Video- thanks- wow you two really work hard at this !

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you so much! We really appreciate your comment. We enjoy making helpful videos 😃

[@angelahorton5745]

Fantastic video Laura and so useful for people wanting to explore Cinque Terre independently at a fraction of the cost of a shore excursion. Cinque Terre is stunning and you've captured beautifully. We stayed in a pretty little seaside town, Monglia and took the train to a village and walked back or between them on the Ligurian Blue Path, going up and down all the hills.😂

[@CruiseLifestyle]

It’s great for walking, I knew it would be up your street. This is definitely a good way to explore independently and excellent value for money. I saw a cruise excursion to one village for £166!

[@angelahorton5745]

@@CruiseLifestyle I think cruise excursions are a ridiculous price.

[@MimyBongiorno]

Thank you so much for this video so detailed

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you so much for watching, I’m really glad you found it useful 😁

[@Braseer]

Well done for making the video. Very useful

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you, I definitely thought it would be useful for anyone considering going. Discovered a need when I tried to find out information myself for our trips 👍

[@themurraymint1]

What a fabulous video

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you very much!

[@medterms]

Helpful video! Thank you!

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Glad it was helpful!

[@fifaleaf]

Thank you so much for sharing this! I'm taking notes on my spreadsheet as we'll be arriving at La Spezia port in September :) I really appreciated the price breakdown, how much time it takes to get from one point to another, and all the details in between for a manageable walking tour.

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Glad it was helpful! It’s very do-able on your own and by doing your research in advance it should work fairly smoothly. I’d go back again in a heartbeat - enjoy!

[@InnocentsAbroad]

Step-by-step clear directions for getting around the Cinque Terre area by train. Really beautuful and well-done. I'm with @cruisewithamber... the reaction of both of you at the train station, lol - I do hate it when PA announcements get in the way of vlogging 😂

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you 😊 I had to keep the train station part in for comedy value. We loved our time there and it definitely lived up to our expectations.

[@simonsilvaggio7105]

We chose Sarzana as a base to visit the Cinque Terre and it was a fantastic choice. Walking in the evening between concerts and vintage markets was so nice and fortunately not very touristy. We recommend it

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you for your recommendation, it’s definitely a place I’d like to go back and see more of.

[@yipmabaruya1148]

Good afternoon from Papua New Guinea. I enjoyed watching your contents. I liked and subscribed to your KZbin channel.

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thanks and welcome

[@yipmabaruya1148]

@@CruiseLifestyle thank you for responding to my comments. May God bless you.

[@leesilverman1760]

We took the train to Vernazza and hiked to Monterosso. What an epic adventure.

[@CruiseLifestyle]

That must have been quite a long way but I’m sure the views were wonderful

[@rosi9664]

Thank your so much!

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Glad it helped!

[@SoloonaCruise]

Very helpful.

[@CruiseLifestyle]

I’m glad you found the video helpful 🤩

[@vickinestinghearts9367]

We will be there in early November on the Celebrity Beyond. Thank you

[@CruiseLifestyle]

It’s a wonderful place - enjoy! I hope this video helped.

[@irispepin4520]

So far this is the best video I have come across that goes in to detail of how to go about exploring Cinque Terre from a cruise port. I will be traveling to Italy next week and plan on visiting Cinque Terre. I do have a couple questions though… Do you know if the taxi’s take electronic payments? And also, do you know if I would be able to get back to the cruise port by shuttle after exploring?

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Wow, thanks! That means a lot. I’m unsure if the taxis accept card. We took Euros with us both times. The cruise ship shuttle buses only take you out of the port to the cruise terminal building (and back) but you should be able to pick up a taxi from the train station back to the terminal if you wanted.

[@lloydchen1697]

Great video. Thanks for posting. Question: what camera handle he holds to have that 360 degree circling view?

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you, we used an Insta 360 camera with a bullet time handle.

[@user-rp6xc1oc8g]

Great video. This is just what we were looking for while surfing YT. Can you tell me is that a pocket drone you're using for the cool aerial shots? We are considering bringing ours, but Princess has a no drones policy so we'd only be able to use it once before it was possibly confiscated for the duration. Thanks. Or it could be a 360 camera which is now what I'm thinking.

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Hi I’m glad you found our video and you enjoyed it. We used an Insta360 for some of the footage. We did see someone with a drone in Riomaggiore but we used a 3m pole with our insta360 to capture the ‘drone-like’ footage in Vernazza.

[@lumweu23]

wow , beautiful video, congratulations, the most complete one I've seen, I have a question, the free bus that takes you from the ship to the cruise terminal, what time is it? for example if I leave in the morning and if I want to return by ship in the afternoon, how often does this bus leave? thank you very much if you answer me

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you! The shuttle buses run all day. We got off as soon as we could when we docked, we only had to wait until our shuttle filled (approx 5 minutes) and on our return there was a shuttle bus waiting to be filled also. We visited twice on two different cruise lines and the experience was the same. Hope this helps 😁

[@ozgerawlins8178]

Your video is amazing. After watching your video we decided to go to cinque terre by train on our own. But I am little nervous about going back the ship and timing. We will be there on May 4th and I would like to ask couple questions. We have to go back to ship by 6:00 pm. We will follow your route from riomaggiore, to monterrosso . What time should we go to train station in Monterosso be able not to miss our ship at 6:00 pm.

[@CruiseLifestyle]

That’s a tricky question but I have an accompanying blog post with further info about the train timetable and estimated travel times: cruiselifestyle.co.uk/how-to-visit-the-cinque-terre-from-la-spezia/ I would recommend giving yourself time to be back onboard the ship an hour before it’s due to depart so that you have time if anything was to go wrong!

[@carolyniannello7409]

Hello Thanks for the video was fantastic. Just wondering we are also staying in LaSpezia, and wanted to catch a boat to Portofino. Is that port they call Portovinere, Portofino?

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Portovenere and Portofino are different places. We have visited Portofino a couple of times. It’s very pretty and doesn’t require a lot of time if time is tight.

[@adrianaduque9290]

This was amazing video. Thank you so much! Helpful. However , we are coming in on Virgin into Marina Del Carrera. Do you know how far Marina Del Carrera port is from La Spezia? And wondering if there is a shuttle that takes us from Marina to Carrera to La Spezia. Would you know ow that answer?

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you for your comment. We’ve not done it ourselves but there is a direct train from Carerra-Avenza train station to La Spezia Centrale. We would get a taxi from the port to this train station (there is a bus but not sure how fast it is). At La Spezia you can buy the Cinque Terre card and go from there in the direction of Levanto to reach the villages. Just give yourself plenty of time to get back to the port.

[@adrianaduque9290]

Thank you! One more question.. if I buy a cinque terra card will that give me access to get from La Spenzia to Cinque Terra OR do I have to buy a separate ticket to get from La spenzia to cinque terra? I did this online through the Trenitalia app and I think I did it wrong. I first bought a ticket from La spenzia to Monterosso then bought a Cinque Terra card. I don’t think I need both. I did it online because they said that the lines might get crazy. Any advise would be great. Thank you!

[@CruiseLifestyle]

@@adrianaduque9290 the Cinque Terre Card gives you unlimited train travel for the day between La Spezia and the five villages of the Cinque Terre so that’s all you need.

[@annecrawfordnorwood510]

Hi Laura. If you only have a day, how long do you think for each place ? Thanks, Anne x

[@CruiseLifestyle]

I’d say about an hour in each at least. Riomaggiore is small so may not need as long perhaps. Monterosso is not as quaint until you get to the old town.

[@annecrawfordnorwood510]

@@CruiseLifestyle thanks. X

[@rich8305]

Does it make sense to go to the farthest village first and work back towards the Port?

[@CruiseLifestyle]

I think people definitely go with that plan but we decided to head to the smaller ones that would likely get busy faster. I’d definitely recommend heading to Vernazza early as it’s probably the most popular.

[@davenoble9652]

What is the furthest town we would like to go there then work our way back any info appreciated tia.

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Furthest village from La Spezia is Monterosso

[@davenoble9652]

@@CruiseLifestyle sorry is this in the Cinque Terre . Thanks again.

[@ricklatouch2263]

Can you take Lemoncello back onto the cruise ship?

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Yes definitely, if it’s a big bottle the cruise line may just hold it for you until the night before the end of your cruise.

[@Super123At]

Can you purchase the cinque terre pass online?

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Yes you can, you just need to specify the date you need it for.

[@SandyB4975]

How long does it take from the train station to the cinque a terra?

[@CruiseLifestyle]

The first village is a 7-8 minutes train ride

[@SandyB4975]

Sorry I meant from the port? Your video was very informative!

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Thank you! We took a taxi to the train station and it took 5-10 minutes but we walked back through La Spezia to the cruise terminal on the way back and it took about 20-25 minutes strollling. It’s a nice walk back through the town with shops and cafes to stop in if you want to break up the walk.

[@SandyB4975]

How long is the actual train take?

[@CruiseLifestyle]

Sorry I don’t think I understand your question. The train is quick between villages, only a few minutes between each village. The first village takes 7-8 minutes from La Spezia. From the furthest village back to La Spezia train station it’s about 20 minutes.