Cinque Terre from Milan

Cinque Terre day trips from Milan: the two tours we sell

For a day with the transport sorted, we sell two coach tours from Milan. The day trip at €139 takes 13 hours: a coach from Milan to Manarola, the train from Manarola to Monterosso and a boat from Monterosso to La Spezia, with a guide, and the transport back to Milan is included. Food and drinks aren’t, children aged 4 to 11 pay less and under-4s go free, and you can cancel up to 24 hours before the date.

The guided day trip, from €69, takes 14 hours with transport there and back. The day on the coast begins at Levanto, at the northern end of the line, and a coach takes you on to Riomaggiore; after that you go between the villages by train, with the guide or on your own, as far as Manarola and Monterosso. It includes the Park entry, a guide and a limoncino tasting, and the local train tickets come only with the dearer option.

The first tour rides the train from Manarola, and the second goes from village to village by train when you take its dearer option, so the weekends with no trains between Corniglia and La Spezia (14–15 November, 19–20 December, 9–10 January and 6–7 February) may cut into them, and the listings are silent on what happens instead. After 8 December, when the public boats along this coast stop, the first tour’s listing doesn’t say whether its boat from Monterosso still runs.

Milan to the Cinque Terre by direct InterCity

On your own, the InterCity is the train to look for: it runs from Milano Centrale to the Cinque Terre without a change, to Monterosso at the northern end or to La Spezia at the southern end. With regional trains you change in Genoa, at Piazza Principe or Brignole, and the trip takes the best part of an hour longer.

Those are journey times and fares, not a timetable: look up the first train out, the last one home and the trains back from Monterosso for your date. Flying into Malpensa, add about an hour on the Malpensa Express into Milano Centrale.

The InterCity isn’t part of the Cinque Terre Card, which only covers the regional trains between Levanto and La Spezia Migliarina. Buy the card with trains before you leave, at the ticket offices in Milano Centrale, Porta Garibaldi or Rogoredo: €17.30 a day from 2 November to 31 December, for every regional between the villages, the paid paths and the Via dell’Amore.

Out and back on the InterCity with a one-day train card, an adult spends €59.10 to €65.10 in November and December, if the fare home matches the fare out, €20.90 to €23.90 each way.

A Cinque Terre loop from Monterosso, on your own

Arriving in Monterosso, one of the five villages, you can make a loop that starts and ends at the same station:

The middle of the loop goes by train because the path from Manarola to Corniglia is closed. The loop skips Corniglia, the village on its headland, about 380 steps above its station; get off the train there if you want to see it. On the four weekends with no trains south of Corniglia, Riomaggiore and Manarola drop out of the loop as well.

For the walk you need a Cinque Terre Card, either the Trekking card at €10 or the train card, which also covers the regionals in the loop; our page on the Cinque Terre Card sets out both. On a day with an orange or red weather warning the paths close, so check the forecast the evening before.