Guides · Cinque Terre
5 Best Hikes in Cinque Terre
By Tomas Achmedovas · CEO and co-founder
CEO and co-founder
The best hikes in Cinque Terre are not all the ones the guidebooks list, and one of the most heavily promoted routes has been shut for more than a decade. This guide covers five walks inside the Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre, ordered from the two open coastal classics, through the short paved one, to the high crossing over Volastra and finally the 40 km ridge traverse. Every entry carries the official park distance, the official walking time, the maximum altitude, the park difficulty grade and whether a Cinque Terre Card is checked at a gate.
Start with the correction that matters most. Trail 592-2, the direct coastal path between Manarola and Corniglia, has been closed since 2012 after landslides left the terrain unstable, and the park has said it will not reopen in the coming years. Only the first 300 m or so out of Manarola is walkable. Pages still describing it as an easy half-hour seafront stroll are wrong, and entry four sets out the real alternative: the Volastra high route on trails 506 and 586.
Money next. The 2026 Cinque Terre Card restructure removed the old A, B and C seasonal bands, so pricing is flat year-round, and both tiers now include Via dell'Amore entry and Riomaggiore Castle. There is no separate Via dell'Amore ticket, whatever older third-party pages say about a EUR 10 supplement. The Cinque Terre Trekking Card is EUR 10 for one adult day, EUR 17 for two and EUR 23.50 for three. The Cinque Terre Treno MS Card is EUR 22 for one adult day and EUR 49 for three, and it adds unlimited second-class regional and Cinque Terre Express trains between Levanto and La Spezia Centrale, plus the village buses. Anyone walking point to point and riding the train back wants the Treno MS; if you are sleeping inside the park and walking out and back, the Trekking Card is the cheaper choice.
A workable three-day shape: Monterosso al Mare to Vernazza to Corniglia on the Sentiero Azzurro on day one, the Volastra crossing down into Manarola on day two with a booked afternoon Via dell'Amore slot, and a section of the Sentiero Rosso on day three. Wear closed shoes with grip. A park ordinance in force since 2019 bans flip-flops, slides and smooth-soled shoes on marked trails, fines are reported in the EUR 50 to EUR 2,500 range, and rangers can refuse you access at the gate. The Sentiero Azzurro closes on heavy rain with no notice, and the higher Volastra crossing closes before it does, so check Cinque Terre weather the evening before and keep the train as the fallback plan. Walkers with a spare day often run down to Sardinia or up to Genoa, but the more useful comparison for a rain day is Florence, two hours away by regional train. The hotels in Cinque Terre in Monterosso and Levanto are the ones with road access, which matters on the days the coastal path is shut.
Pro Tip: Check the official park trail-status page on the morning you walk, not the night before. The Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre closes Sentiero Azzurro sections at short notice after heavy rain, and on high-traffic days the Monterosso to Vernazza leg runs one-way until 14:00.
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1Monterosso to Vernazza - Sentiero Azzurro Trail 592-4
Trail 592-4 is the hardest of the open Sentiero Azzurro legs and the one people consistently underestimate. It runs 3.3 km with an official park time of 1 hour 50 minutes, which park signage often rounds up to 2 hours, a maximum altitude of about 175 m and roughly 350 m of cumulative ascent. The park publishes no official ascent figure, so treat that last number as an estimate. The grade is Esperto, the park's expert category, largely because of the roughly 500 stone steps that climb out of Monterosso al Mare before the path settles into vineyard terraces above the water. A Cinque Terre Trekking Card is required and it is checked at a manned gate.
On high-traffic days this section runs one-way, Monterosso to Vernazza only, until 14:00, with walking in the reverse direction allowed after that. Published 2026 one-way dates so far are 4-6 April, 1-2 May, 14 May, 30-31 May and 1 June. The park has announced an extension of the rule to summer peak periods but has not confirmed which summer days, so assume it can apply and check before you set out.
2Vernazza to Corniglia - Sentiero Azzurro Trail 592-3
If you only walk one stretch of the Sentiero Azzurro, make it trail 592-3. Vernazza to Corniglia covers 3.2 km with an official time of 1 hour 30 minutes, a maximum altitude of about 220 m and something in the order of 250 m of ascent, again an estimate rather than a published park number. The park applies the same Esperto grade it gives the Monterosso leg, but the climbing here is spread across the whole route instead of stacked into one staircase, and most reasonably fit walkers find it the easier of the two open sections. A Cinque Terre Trekking Card is required and checked at the gate.
The sting comes at the end. Corniglia is the only one of the five villages not built at sea level, and getting from Corniglia station up to the village means the Lardarina, a brick zigzag staircase of roughly 380 steps. Walking the route in this direction at least means you arrive at the top of it rather than starting your day at the bottom.
3Via dell'Amore, Riomaggiore to Manarola - Trail 592-1
The Via dell'Amore, trail 592-1, is finally back in full. The last section at the Manarola gate reopened on 3 April 2026 according to the Comune di Riomaggiore, restoring end-to-end walkability for the first time in over a decade. The path is 900 m long, graded Turistico, paved and wheelchair accessible, and the park allows a maximum transit time of 30 minutes. Access is one-way only, Riomaggiore to Manarola, with the entrance at the Riomaggiore end.
Booking a timed slot is mandatory. The park releases 200 entries every 30 minutes, capped at 400 people an hour, and a guide meets each group just past the entrance gate. There is no standalone Via dell'Amore ticket any more: a Cinque Terre Card is the only way in, and the same card also covers Riomaggiore Castle. Opening hours run 09:00 to 21:00 from 29 March to 24 October 2026 with last entry at 20:30, then 09:00 to 18:00 from 26 October 2026 to 28 March 2027 with last entry at 17:30. Entry is free and needs no booking for under-3s, disabled visitors with certification, and residents of Riomaggiore, Vernazza and Monterosso. Riomaggiore Guest Card and CETS holders still have to book but may walk in both directions. Refunds are issued only when a yellow, orange or red weather alert is in force.
One practical consequence of the one-way rule: plan the return. Manarola and Riomaggiore stations are one stop apart on the Cinque Terre Express, whose 2026 season runs 14 March to 1 November, and a Treno MS Card covers that hop without a separate ticket.
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4Corniglia to Manarola via Volastra - Trails 506 and 586 (the 592-2 closure workaround)
This is the entry almost every Cinque Terre article gets wrong. The direct coastal path between Manarola and Corniglia, trail 592-2, has been closed since 2012 after landslides, and the ground has stayed unstable ever since. Only about the first 300 m out of Manarola is walkable, there is no reopening date, and both the park and local sources are clear that it will not reopen in the coming years. Anything telling you to stroll the coast between these two villages is repeating pre-2012 information.
The working alternative climbs over the hamlet of Volastra: trail 506 from Manarola up to Volastra, then trail 586 across to Case Pianca and down into Corniglia. That comes to about 5 km, about 2 hours 30 minutes, a maximum altitude of around 400 m and a medium Escursionistico grade. The middle section along the terraced vineyards above Case Pianca is arguably the best walking in the park, with the villages laid out below rather than beside you. Walk it Corniglia to Manarola if you can, because the Manarola side involves roughly 1,200 steps. Trails 506 and 586 are reported to be ungated, so no Cinque Terre Card is checked, though that comes from a reliable secondary source rather than an official park page. Trail 587, Corniglia to Cigoletta, is also open at about 2 hours 20 minutes and an Esperto grade if you want to link up to the ridge.
5Sentiero Rosso, the Alta Via delle Cinque Terre - Trail 591
Park trail 591, formerly trail number 1, is the Sentiero Rosso or Alta Via delle Cinque Terre: about 40 km from Portovenere to Levanto along the ridge above the villages, roughly 11 hours of walking, a maximum altitude of about 800 m and around 1,300 m of cumulative ascent. It is graded E for Escursionistico, waymarked in white and red, and it is free. There are no gates and no Cinque Terre Card is needed anywhere on it. The whole ridge sits inside the UNESCO World Heritage site of Portovenere, Cinque Terre and the Islands, and it is the one route here where you are more likely to meet Ligurian walkers than tour groups.
The park divides it into five official stages: Portovenere to Telegrafo, 4.7 km in 3 hours 20; Telegrafo to Cigoletta, 6.9 km in 2 hours 40; Cigoletta to Il Termine, 7.1 km in 3 hours 15; Il Termine to Sant'Antonio and Punta Mesco, 7.2 km in 1 hour 35; and Mesco to Levanto, 3.3 km in 2 hours 15. Most people should take the final two stages as a single day. Il Termine over Punta Mesco to Levanto is 10.5 km and about 3 hours 50, it holds the sea view for most of its length, and it finishes at a station rather than a bus stop.
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CEO and co-founder
Tomas is the co-founder and director of trip1, an European company specializing in reservation services. He launched the company in 2025 with a focus on building scalable, efficient operations.
5 Best Hikes in Cinque Terre - Trail Times, Cards & Closures - FAQ
Moderate, but harder than it looks. The two open coastal legs, Monterosso to Vernazza and Vernazza to Corniglia, carry the park's Esperto (expert) grade, mostly for their stone steps: about 500 of them climb out of Monterosso. The 900-metre Via dell'Amore is paved and wheelchair accessible. Wear closed shoes with grip, and expect trails to close after heavy rain.
About 6 hours along the coast, or 11 on the ridge. Monterosso to Vernazza takes 1 hour 50 minutes, Vernazza to Corniglia 1 hour 30, and the Volastra route on to Manarola about 2 hours 30. The Via dell'Amore adds up to 30 minutes but only runs from Riomaggiore to Manarola. The 40 km Sentiero Rosso from Portovenere to Levanto takes about 11 hours.
Vernazza to Corniglia is the pick of the coastal path: 3.2 km in about 1 hour 30 minutes, with the climbing spread out rather than stacked into one staircase. For views from above, the Volastra route between Corniglia and Manarola crosses the terraced vineyards above Case Pianca with the villages laid out below. Take the bus up to Volastra to skip about 1,200 steps.
Yes, but not all along the coast. The direct coastal trail between Manarola and Corniglia, 592-2, has been closed for over a decade after landslides and has no reopening date. Walk Monterosso to Vernazza to Corniglia on the Sentiero Azzurro, take trails 586 and 506 over Volastra to Manarola, and use the Via dell'Amore, which runs one way from Riomaggiore to Manarola.
Because the paths above the villages are mountain trails, and too many walkers in flimsy shoes had to be rescued. A park ordinance in force since 2019 bans flip-flops, slides and smooth-soled shoes on marked trails, with fines reported from 50 to 2,500 euros, and rangers can refuse you access at the gate. Wear closed shoes or boots with a grippy sole.
Only for the gated trails: Monterosso to Vernazza to Corniglia, and the Via dell'Amore, which also needs a booked time slot. The 2026 Trekking Card costs 10 euros a day, or 15 euros on high-traffic days, and the Treno MS Card, which adds trains, 22 to 35 euros. Both include Riomaggiore Castle. The Volastra trails and the Sentiero Rosso are free.
