Save Money in Cinque Terre
Our family spent an amazing week in Cinque Terre in September 2021. During our trip around the world, we are staying focused on maximizing our family adventures while responsibly managing our finances. Here are our top secrets we used to save money in Cinque Terre while staying in Monterosso:
- Use the Trainline app
Individual train tickets are €4 each at the station, but our family of 4 saved at least €3 total per trip by booking our tickets via Trainline. That’s a lot of gelato! It is also much easier: no validating tickets, waiting in lines, or navigating a kiosk. Simply get directly on the train when it arrives and save money for the convenience!
- Fill up your water bottles
We use these bottles which are perfect for hiking. They fill up easily but then collapse down to create space when empty. Every town in Cinque Terre has potable public water fountains for refilling on the go! We did not buy any bottled water during the entire week, saving money and reducing trash. Win-win.
- Cinque Terre Card
You only need a Cinque Terre Card to hike 2 out of the 48 trails! During our trip to Cinque Terre with kids, we only bought the family hiking card for 1 day and hiked the 2 paid trails in both directions. It was cool to get the varying views hiking both ways. Plan your hikes to minimize the need for a trail card.
- Cinque Terre + Train Card
This card gives you access to the 2 paid hiking trails and unlimited use of the local trains. This connects the 5 towns of Cinque Terre along with Levanto and La Spezia. However, if you are going to hike, stay in Monterosso and you won’t buy this card because you’ll never need more than 2 trains in a day. This card is only worth the value if you will ride 3+ trains in a day. It does make sense if you plan to visit all 5 towns in a single day without any hiking.
- Enjoy the beach
The Monterosso beach has free public access. Bring your own towel and goggles and enjoy an amazing day without spending any money.
- Maximize grocery shopping
All the towns in Cinque Terre have small grocery stores. Expect great produce, but limited selections and an expensive price. In contrast, Levanto has several full-sized supermarkets. We found a significant improvement in both selection and price to shop in Levanto. Plan to visit Levanto early in the week for the bike ride to Framura Beach, and return loaded with all your groceries for the week. Our home-cooked meals included chicken caesar salad, pasta with meatballs, pizza, focaccia sandwiches, and the classic Italian staple: Texas Cheese Fries.
- Eat from cafes, not restaurants
We prefer spending our money on activities rather than restaurants. During all 3 of our longer hiking days, we ate lunch at smaller cafes. You can enjoy amazing focaccia sandwiches for €3-5 each, pizza from €3, and to-go pasta from €6. Our 3 lunch meals ranged from €18 to €24 total for our family of 4. If you want to sit down for a nice meal there are a lot of options, but a full meal at the nice restaurant by our Airbnb in Monterosso costs €87 per person! Yes, this was the most expensive we saw, but plan for sit-down restaurants accordingly.
Pro tip: several restaurants give a slight discount for takeaway orders!
To see a detailed breakdown of our costs for an entire week in Cinque Terre, click here.
You can also check out our top 5 Cinque Terre activities with kids, all are under €30!
Cinque Terre was one of our first stops during a year-long trip around the world! To see all our travel adventures, head over to our Instagram page.
If you have questions or tips for saving money in Cinque Terre, let us know!
