Here are the best Cinque Terre photo spots which you can accomplished all in one day. I should know since I just did all of them! If you’ve been following my Instagram, you would know that on our Virgin Voyages cruise, we had one day in Cinque Terre so we were trying to make the most of it. To be honest, we didn’t really plan on doing this photoshoot but everything was so picturesque that we ended up trying to find the best spots to take pictures. So, I’ve made maps down below of the exact spots where we took pictures so you don’t have to waste time.

 

How to Accomplish All the Best Cinque Terre Photo Spots in One Day?

You’ll definitely want to buy the Cinque Terre Treno MS Card which gives you access to all the trains in between the five towns. This is a special train card and you can buy it once you arrive to one of the Cinque Terre towns. Since we were on our Virgin cruise, we had to take a train from Marina di Carrara (where we ported) to Monterosso. At Monterosso station, we bought our Cinque Terre Treno MS Card there. 

The cost of the Cinque Terre Treno MS Card will depend on the season, your age, and the duration. Since we went during June and it was only for one day, it cost us 27 euros. The card gives you access to the trains and the hike, but you’ll definitely want to take the train to each town. You won’t have enough time to hike and take all your pictures.

 

Best Time of Day to Take Cinque Terre Photos?

Since you’re going to be accomplishing this in one day, you won’t really have a choice on the type of lighting you get. In a perfect world, I would have shot all of these photos during golden hour or blue hour, but the sun sets so late during the summer and we had to be back on the ship by a certain time.

My recommendation is to start at the town of Monterosso (the farthest north) and then make your way back to Riomaggiore. We started earlier in the morning around 10:00 am and as you can tell, it was still pretty cloudy. The clouds probably didn’t start burning off until 1:30 pm-2:00 pm. It’s just really going to depend on your weather and the season. If we didn’t have to be back on the boat, we would have started all of our picture-taking after lunch and ended it after sunset.

 

Where Are the Best Cinque Terre Photo Spots?

As you can tell by the name, there are five towns or five lands. But for the purpose of this blog post, we are only going to visit 4 towns: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. You might be wondering about the 5th town (Corniglia) and why I didn’t include it. It’s actually sandwiched in between Vernazza and Manarola and takes a 382 step hike up to the town or you can take the shuttle bus. But due to time constraints, my friend opted out of going to this town. You can totally make all five towns in one day but we decided to have a more relaxing lunch in Monterosso then to rush over to each town.

 

Best Cinque Terre Photo Spots

Monterosso al Mare

I took this picture where there’s a curve or bump out of the boardwalk where there are stairs going down to the beach. The location was nice since there was a place to sit and the bump out allowed us to get a good picture of the umbrellas in the background. The location is really easy to get to and it’s an easy walk from the train station. To be honest, the whole boardwalk is very picturesque so you won’t have a hard time finding a good photo spot. 

 

 

Vernazza

For this photo spot, unfortunately yes, you will have to hike up a bunch of stairs on a side of a mountain. The path is paved for a little bit and then it becomes all dirt. The good news is that it’s only a 15-minute hike from the town. The bad news is that it’s pretty much straight up. I was sweating like a mad man, but it was absolutely worth the effort. 

 

 

Manarola

This photo spot is about a 10-minute walk from town but the good news is that it’s flat and paved for the most part. Once you get there, there a bunch of places where you can take a photo. There’s an upper level so make sure you go all the way to the top. 

 

 

Riomaggiore

This picture spot is about a 10-minute walk from the train station. Granted, you will have to climb down onto the rocks but there are a lot of people there so it won’t be weird or anything. Surprisingly, not a lot of people were taking pictures here and mostly were locals just sunbathing. So, you’ll have plenty of space and time to get your shot.

 

 

Conclusion

Just to reiterate, it’s totally possible to do all five towns in one day. Again, my friend and I weren’t planning on doing this big photoshoot and our priorities were mostly to eat, drink and take a couple of pictures. If we didn’t spend two hours at lunch in Monterosso, we probably would have made it to Corniglia. But if you are on vacation, you should definitely be enjoying the town and the amazing food it has to offer. I know we all want to take good photos so hopefully this guide will help you save time so you can enjoy the rest of your trip. Ciao!