We stayed at Grand Hotel Portovenere to explore Cinque Terre for three nights during our honeymoon. The hotel was well located for catching the bus or ferry, but doesn’t have a train station. Unfortunately the cost of transfers offered by the hotel to book were extortionate (400€ approx to Pisa Airport - a 1 hr 15 min journey). The ferry was running hourly until early evening during our stay, and we enjoyed seeing Cinque Terre from the sea. However, the trains between the villages are much quicker to use - it takes nearly 1.5hrs to get from Portovenere to Monterosso by ferry. The staff at the hotel were very friendly, and the room was comfortable and clean. We had booked a room with a sea view, which was lovely. Although not necessarily expected, it was surprising that for a 5 star hotel, we weren’t provided with any extras for this being part of our honeymoon - the only hotel during our trip around Italy to not do so. The additional bottles of water provided each evening were appreciated. We did eat at the restaurant one night, which was a bit underwhelming, and we would recommend Porto 82 a few minutes walk away instead. However the view from the restaurant if you manage to get a table on the terrace is beautiful. We had breakfast on the terrace in the mornings, and it was the best we had during our Italy trip, particularly the freshly made to order eggs.
