Cinque Terre with Kids: Why We Stayed in Levanto (and How We Spent Four Days There)

Cinque Terre was on our list because it's a good train ride from Naples, where we flew in, and it breaks up the trip toward Nice and Nîmes in France. Friends of ours were also driving down from Milan for the weekend, and we wanted to meet them somewhere on the coast. We ended up in Levanto, a town just north of the five villages at the end of the same train line, and it was the right base for a family with a 7- and 2-year-old. We stayed four nights, and they were the slowest, most relaxed days of our first week.

If you're trying to decide where to stay in Cinque Terre with kids, this is why we picked Levanto and what we did from there. The full day-by-day stories are in our first day in Cinque Terre and our last days in Levanto.

Why we picked Levanto

Mostly for the bike trail through the old railway tunnels to Bonassola and Framura, which we'd been told not to miss. It also looked quieter and cheaper than the five villages, and we were so glad we went with it. Our friends from Milan loved it too and called it a hidden gem, since many of the people there are locals and Italian holidaymakers rather than tour groups.

Why Levanto worked for us

The five villages are beautiful, and they're also busy. Even in shoulder season, Vernazza was more crowded than I'd pictured, with people off the trains and ferries colliding in the narrow streets. Levanto has a long beach, a town square, bakeries, and a park by the water with a playground. Coming back after a day in the villages gave the kids somewhere to run and gave us a break from the crowds. The square, the playground, and the sandier stretches of beach made the evenings feel properly slow.

It also had a few things the villages don't. The beach has patches of sand for digging, there's a fenced enclosure of six large trampolines near the water (paid by the session, and Remi absolutely loved it), and the flat bike trail to Bonassola starts right at the end of the beach promenade. It was easier with Arlo's stroller too. Levanto is mostly flat, while the villages are made up of alleys connected by steps.

Getting around by train

Everything we did in the villages was a short train ride from Levanto. Monterosso is one stop down the coast, Vernazza is two, and Manarola is four, so we could go out for a morning or an evening and come back without planning much around it. We used one of our Interrail travel days on the first trip out, since we had one to spare.

The beach in Levanto

Levanto's beach is long and rocky, like Monterosso's, with enough sand in places to make it a proper beach day with little kids. A lot of it is divided into private clubs, which I didn't fully understand until we arrived, so we chose the public end and settled in for the morning. Remi, Arlo, and our friends' son River spent hours at the end of the pier pulling snails off the rocks and comparing them, which is exactly why we planned a beach day.

Vernazza and Monterosso

Vernazza is one of the main hotspots and it looked every bit as good as the photos, with colorful buildings stacked above the harbor. It was busy at noon, and we probably caught a double crowd from the boats and the trains, which made it a bit hectic with two kids. If I did it again I'd get there earlier in the morning, or walk through on the way to hiking to Monterosso. We started up that trail just to get a taste, then turned back, since the full walk is about two hours and was more than the kids (or the parents carrying them) were up for at midday. The trail needs the Treno MS card or a trail ticket, so it's worth deciding before you set out.

The better call was climbing the other side of town to Castello Doria, an 11th-century watchtower with a spiral staircase the kids loved and a view over the whole bay, for about €2.50 a person. Then we took the train on to Monterosso to cool off on its public beach, which is rocky enough to notice on bare feet but endlessly entertaining for kids, and ended the day with gelato. Vernazza has stone water fountains tucked into its walls, so we refilled our bottles all day.

The bike trail through the cliff tunnels

On our last full day we rented bikes and rode north from Levanto on the Ciclopedonale Maremonti, a trail built on an old coastal railway line that runs through the cliffs in a series of lit tunnels. Remi rode her own bike and Arlo sat in a seat on the back of mine, happily at the start and asleep with his helmet on by the end. We stopped in Bonassola for a swim, paninis, and gelato, then rode toward Framura, where the path into the village was closed for construction, so we turned around. With kids, the flat path and the tunnels made it an easy win, and it was shoulder season so we had long stretches to ourselves.

Manarola at sunset

We finished with an evening train to Manarola, the village in most of the postcard photos. Nessun Dorma, the terrace bar everyone tells you about, was closed for a pesto-making class, so we ordered the to-go tasting menu and ate it at the playground a few steps up from the terrace while the kids ran between us and the climbing structure. It was the best version of a meal we hadn't planned.

Where we ate in Levanto

Our friend Mel found a bakery down the street before we arrived, and its chocolate croissants became Remi's non-negotiable morning routine. This is focaccia country, so we also picked up a sampler spread from a bakery on the way back from the square one morning.

For dinner, Antica Trattoria Centro makes its pasta in house and is worth planning around (Remi ordered the rabbit), and we watched people get turned away all night without a reservation. We also had a good pasta dinner at Pasta de-e SÖE the night we arrived, and cooked in the Airbnb after our friends left, which felt right after a week of eating every meal out.

Would we stay in Levanto again?

I absolutely would. For a family with young kids it gave us a beach, a playground, a flat bike trail, and an easy train ride to every village, and it let us leave the crowds behind each evening. Our friends from Milan were just as happy with it as we were. If you've stayed somewhere else along this coast with kids, I'd love to hear how it compared.