Cinque Terre + Portofino

The Cinque Terre have some charming accommodations, but don't expect luxury. The rugged geography of the place means that space is at a premium. Monterosso is the only one of the five villages to have a good range of hotels (though none of them are particularly inspiring). But the Cinque Terre experience is not really about accommodations: The best places to stay are small bed-and-breakfasts or guesthouses, many of them with four or fewer rooms. This is a seller's market most of the year round, and the few really special guesthouses (like the three we list below) need to be booked well in advance. An alternative is to stay just outside the Cinque Terre, in the laid-back resort town of Levanto, which has good train connections and is covered by the Cinque Terre Treno card, which gives you unlimited train travel on the line from La Spezia to Levanto. Chichi Portofino is another thing altogether. There are just six hotels in town, and no official B&Bs. Unless you book into the Splendido—in which case money should not be an object—we don't recommend staying in Portofino itself, as the other hotels offer very little for their elevated rates other than the privilege of waking up here. Instead, explore the much wider and better-valued range of accommodations in nearby Santa Margherita Ligure (known simply as "Santa"), a lively, elegant resort town. Note that most hotels in the area are open from Easter through the end of October, though guesthouses and B&Bs in the Cinque Terre sometimes stay open for all or part of the winter.