Discover Cinque Terre from the sea with our boat tour: an intimate and local experience with only 6 guests on board, two extraordinary hosts and a small yacht. You will discover the most famous villages of Italy from an exceptional point of view, diving into the crystal clear waters of the coast and enjoying a lunch with typical products prepared for you by your hosts.
Duration 6 hours
Available Every day
Small Group Max 6 people
Meeting Point Port Mirabello La Spezia
Start time
10:00am
Cinque Terre is a place that is best seen by the sea. Live a true local experience on a small yacht with just 6 people and 2 amazing hosts, far from the tourists crowds, exploring the picturesque coastline of the Cinque Terre villages. In one day have a good, exclusive taste of this gorgeous region: enjoy a touch of local culture and the amazing views from the water, experience a lunch with local food specialties and take a swim in one of the cleanest seas of Italy.
Tour program of the Cinque Terre boat trip from La Spezia with lunch:
Meeting point at 10.00am at the port Mirabello of La Spezia and start of the boat tour.
The cruise starts sailing through the “Gulf of Poets”, passing by the charming village of Portovenere, the “gateway to the Cinque Terre”. Stop in Portovenere with visit of approx. 1 hour and lunch in Portovenere, with the possibility to eat on the boat or at a local restaurant according to your preferences and comfort at sea.
Continue along the picturesque coast of the Cinque Terre National Park. During the tour, enjoy a stop for swimming in a bay accessible only by sea.
The first town is Riomaggiore, a picturesque coast-side village with post-card perfect panoramas at every bend.
The tour continues to Manarola: the village is perched atop jagged ocean cliffs and surrounded by lush-green vineyards and is the second of Cinque Terre’s five towns. It has an incredible spit of land where the most famous Cinque Terre Instagram photos are taken.
From Manarola, you will depart on a boat for Vernazza,the beauty queen of the Cinque Terre: the most popular and the most photogenic one, for the iconic colourful buildings along the cliffs and the beautiful church tower that looks out onto the bay. Get off the boat and visit Vernazza for about 1 hour.
Further along, you will see Corniglia: the smallest of the Cinque Terre, built far above the ocean on the cliffs.
Finally, Monterosso al Mare: the largest and most visited of the villages; admire its large beach, lined with colourful umbrellas and spiral up through the village. Relax with a glass of prosecco or soft drink as the sun sinks lower in the sky. The tour will end in Monterosso around 4.30pm.
* Before booking the tour, contact us in chat or write us an e-mail to check availability.
**This experience requires a minimum number of 4 travellers. There is a possibility of cancellation after confirmation if there are not enough passengers to meet requirements. If so, you will be offered an alternative or full refund.
The price includes: Professional skipper – English speaking assistant – Happy Hour – Lunch.
The price does not include: Hotel pick-up and drop-off.
Do not forget: Swimsuit – Beach towel – Camera – Sun hat – Sunscreen – Comfortable shoes.
Don’t miss one of the most famous coasts of Italy: the Ligurian Riviera and the Cinque Terre are definitely worth seeing by boat. Along the coast with our small yatch, you will admire the most important villages of the Gulf of Poets such as Riomaggiore, Vernazza and Manarola; the Genoese tower-houses, the typical terracing of local agriculture, the coves with their small boats and the crystal clear sea. A boat tour to the Cinque Terre is the best way to visit the Ligurian Riviera, even more so if you choose this excursion which includes lunch with the typical dishes of this colourful and fragrant land.
The Gulf overlooking La Spezia, the city from where our tour starts, is also known as the Gulf of Poets. It’s not difficult to understand the reasons for this renaming: once you have taken a boat ride in the Cinque Terre, you will understand why this stretch of water that goes from Riomaggiore to Monterosso al Mare has been renamed so by artists and residents. The Gulf of Poets is a coast of wonders where it is easy to be enchanted and inspired by the beauty and peculiarity of the places.
Portovenere has been included among the World Heritage Sites and is very close to La Spezia. Its city is full of history, caves and churches like St. Peter’s Church, which is the first thing you see of Portovenere coming from the sea. The houses of Portovenere are tall and narrow to form the famous Palazzata a Mare that you can see in all the photos of the village. Here is Byron’s Cave, so called because it was the inspiration of the English writer.
Born around the bed of an old stream bearing the same name, Riomaggiore is the first of the villages in the Gulf of Poets. Its village, seen from the sea, looks like a perfect postcard to photograph. Riomaggiore is full of colourful houses, like all the villages on this coast and is split in the center by a steep descent to the sea that leads to the town’s marina. From this perspective you can take the best pictures.
Manarola stands on a great rocky spur overlooking the sea. The view from the boat is both impressive and delicate. Think of it as a large nativity scene overlooking the water: it is here, in fact, that the largest illuminated nativity scene in the world is installed at Christmas time.
Vernazza is one of the most famous villages of the Cinque Terre, even mentioned in the Times as a place to visit. Its characteristic is that it lies almost at sea level, unlike other Ligurian villages and for this reason it was damaged by a sea storm in 2006. Now the houses have all been repainted, thanks to the contribution of Italian and international artists and Vernazza has regained its vivid and tremendously fascinating color that places it at the top of the Gulf of Poets cities.
Corniglia is considered the balcony of the Cinque Terre. It is located on a natural terrace about 100 meters above sea level and about 300 meters inland: it is the only one of the villages, therefore, not to develop directly on the sea. A brick staircase of about 377 steps connects Corniglia to the train station, while the Via all Marina is a pedestrian path that moves between the terraces and dry stone walls and leads to the sea.
Reviewed in the first 15 of the most beautiful beaches in Italy, the coast of Monterosso al mare is certainly one of the best places to enjoy a comfortable swim in the crystal clear waters of the Cinque Terre. Here, in fact, you will find the largest beach of all the Cinque Terre, protected by a huge statue of Neptune, god of the sea, erected in 1900.
Ligurian cuisine is very tasty and favours local products such as fish and wine. If you want to know what to eat in the Cinque Terre, then, you cannot leave out of tasting the local fish and wine produced in these wonderful lands. Among the typical dishes of the Cinque Terre there are, for example, the muscles (as mussels are called here) stuffed or fried: we recommend those cultivated in the breeding of Portovenere with clear and clean waters. For lovers of fried fish, then, among the typical dishes of the Cinque Terre do not forget the fried cod or whitebait fritters. Rice cake, on the other hand, is excellent for snacks by the sea and on all occasions when eating standing up and is a typical Genoese dish, also very popular in the Cinque Terre. You can’t miss the great seafood risottos or ravioli stuffed with fish, anchovies and stuffed squids and, of course, the Ligurian focaccia. Don’t forget to accompany the typical dishes with a local wine such as the white wine of the Cinque Terre DOC. The Cinque Terre are also famous for another wine, made from a selection of grapes from the vineyards between Riomaggiore and Monterosso, which is dried in the sun to extract the passito typical of the Cinque Terre: sciacchetrà.
Yes, in case of bad weather/sea conditions the tour might be cancelled. In case of cancellation we are happy to offer our customers the choice of an alternative date or, in case of inability to rebook, the full refund.
Food & Wine Experience – Cinque Terre boat tour from La Spezia
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