Are you up for a genuine experience in Italy? Consider Cinque Terre.
Genuine Experience in Cinque Terre Italy
We’re talking about visiting the Cinque Terre. Lately, I’ve been taking my clients closer to real authentic local experiences via my on-the-ground tour operators. Many first time trips to Italy may include stays in Rome, Florence, and Venice. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that – not even the slightest little bit wrong. There is so much to take in from these three cities, and this is a hugely popular way to explore Italy (Rome/Florence/Venice) – especially for your first visit to Italy.
What about visiting the five villages or five “lands” that make up the Cinque Terre? While these rugged fishing villages are very popular, most tours (escorted or custom) do not over overnight in Cinque Terre. There are day-trips there for guests staying in Florence; I know as I’ve booked them for my clients.
Perhaps you’d like to stay in the Cinque Terre for a couple of nights to slow down the pace of your trip and escape the more crowded cities? Imagine more time for: hiking, beach-time, local seafood restaurants, and taking it all in? When you’re done here, you can go back to the cities and their must-visit museums, etc.
Monterosso, Cinque Terre
Cinque Terre Italy
Monterosso al Mare, one of the 5 villages, is easily accessible via rail from Florence. So, Monterosso is a good place to stay while visiting Cinque Terre. Monterosso also has its own little stretch of beach. Driving? Not unless you don’t mind twisty little roads nestled in the cliffs, and parking can be a hassle in the villages.
As time goes by, I build up more experience with my own network of international contacts at the actual tour suppliers and hotels to give you precisely the experience you want whether it is a special excursion, hotel, vineyard, etc.
This “closer to the action” post is the last of a series of three articles I wrote. Past articles took you closer to the action in Norway and Hawaii.
Interested in learning more about other destinations? Do let me know, and
Click to learn more about how to plan a better multi-city trip.
Wonder how I go from your initial travel survey to a wonderful trip itinerary?
Getting from our initial contact to your completed travel itinerary takes a lot of work! (The majority of the task is my job to make your complex travel planning easy.) After you submit your trip planning survey, we’ll take these steps to work together on your dream trip itinerary:
Trip planning kick-off call
Initial trip proposal(s)
Multiple email iterations
Calls as needed
Final itinerary ready
Let’s look at an actual travel planning survey that was submitted early in 2015 for a 20th Anniversary dream trip itinerary through Italy this August.
What is the objective of your trip? Any special celebrations or milestones?
Italiano: Collage di varie foto riguardanti la cultura dell’Italia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Pleasure, celebrating 20th wedding anniversary
Do you have a specific destination(s) in mind? Why?
Do you have specific dates? or a flexible window to travel?
Mid/Late August – somewhat flexible (our anniversary is in August which is the reason for the timing/date….as an option we could consider July but I suspect pricing/availability will be about the same given peak travel months).
This section provides a glimpse into your lifestyle and past “travel personality” so we can collaborate on a memorable experience. Where have you previously vacationed? What did you like or not like? WHY? I want to hear whatever you’ll share.
Personal trip through Western Europe out of college.
Vienna/Budapest with my wife
Australia – Sydney/Adelaide
Multiple trips to Hawaii, Mexico and around US.
And, what types of trips have you taken?
All-Inclusive Resort
Hotel
Theme Park
Escorted Tour
Independent Tour (Multi-city)
What will YOUR trip feel like? What do you envision yourself doing? Exciting with lots of activities? Group tours? Time to explore on your own? relaxing on the beach?
Interest in this trip is both site seeing as well as taking in Italian culture (food, wine, etc)….plus relaxation for part of the trip (e.g. beach town on Italian coast/rivieria). As far as site seeing, I am open to both group tours as well as exploring on our own.
Do you have a preferred hotel/resort/cruise line/air line? Loyalty program member? Any “must haves” such as ocean view or balcony room?
No must haves. Would like to stay in moderate to nice accommodations (nice, but does not need to be 5 star).
That was the beginning of the trip planning process or “trip genesis.”
What happens next in planning your trip itinerary?
So after we discussed the trip survey, I went to work designing the “trip flow.” When I design a custom trip itinerary, I work out the “trip flow” first which includes:
number of cities visited
number of nights in each city,
order of cities visited
required pre/post nights due to air schedules to begin or end the in-country portion of the trip itinerary
We review the trip flow prior to getting into the hotel and tours, etc. By focusing on the trip flow, my clients clients and I stay focused on designing the optimal trip WITHOUT getting distracted by how nice a hotel looks, or which tours are “must do’s” as this fun stuff will come next. NOTE: the tours can be the most memorable part of the trip.
Montalcino, Toscana, Italia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For this particular trip, staying in Tuscany was mandatory as touring wineries in the Montalcino area was KEY! Visiting a beach town in Cinque Terra was also highly desired for relaxation after heavy sightseeing. There were stays in Florence and Rome to take in the “must do” sightseeing.
We started getting some traction and agreed on the number of nights in each city. To make the whole trip itinerary work, there needed to be one longer travel day from Cinque Terra down to a Rome (FCO) airport hotel to finish up the trip. It was also decided to visit Venice as a day trip from Florence.
Now it was time to make this happen by selecting hotels, train, tours, and transfers. My client had already booked airline tickets to coordinate with the start/stop dates of the trip itinerary.
So, want to see the final trip? Click on the itinerary calendar below to get the whole trip (Zoom in and scroll around if you want to really take in the details.). Be sure to see some pictures of my travel guests enjoying their trip in Italy below the trip itinerary calendar. Want a custom planned trip for yourself?Don’t hesitate to contact me today.
Sample Italy trip Itinerary (click for enlarged view)View from Hotel Pasquale Monterosso al Mare on Cinque Terre coastlineCinque TerreCinque Terre Hiking
