First Time Visiting the Cinque Terre Italy | 4K HDR

So that was my trip to the Ginkgo Terra in Italy. And before I dive into all the details that you may want to know if you're planning on doing a trip yourself, I just want to say that this video has been sponsored by Surfshark. Surfshark is a VPN service that helps keep your online identity safe by encrypting the data set between you and the internet. By encrypting your data and masking your IP address, Surfshark helps to protect your online data from potential hackers and unwanted eyes. This is especially useful if you're planning to use public Wi-Fi like at airports. With over 3,200 servers in over 65 countries, there's always going to be a Surfshark server for you to connect to. This allows you to gain access to cheaper flights and hotel bookings by changing your virtual location. This is something that I use often when I'm traveling, when I want to watch my favorite shows from back home. If you're interested, then you get Surfshark by visiting surfshark.deals slash alansu or use alansu as the promo code during checkout to get 83% off and an additional three months for free. Thank you Surfshark for sponsoring this video. It's sponsors like Surfshark that helps me to keep doing what I do on this channel. So, if you want to support this channel, then support it by checking out my sponsors. Thank you. All right. So, let's dive into all the things you need to know if you're planning to do the trip yourself. So, I visited Djingotera at the end of October, which was officially off-season at that point. I stayed there for three days, but there were still a lot of people even though it was off-season. So, I can only imagine how busy this place gets during the peak season, which is from June through August. So, the closest airport to the area is the Pisa International Airport, but I believe that most people are probably going to be arriving in one of the three major airports in the Milano region, which is specifically Malpensa, Bergamo, and Linate due to them serving most of the budget airlines here in Europe. Depending on the airport, it takes anywhere between 30 to 60 minutes to connect to the Milan Central Station. This is where you'll board a three and a half hour train ride all the way down to the Djingotera area, passing through Genova, and stopping at either Levanto or La Spezia, depending on which of the five towns you're planning to stay at. As for the differences between the towns, Monterosso is the most developed of all the five towns, a nice promenade, good beach opportunities, ideal for families I would say. Vernazza is the more classical Djingotera experience, beautiful seaport, colorful buildings, maze-like streets, and plenty of restaurants, just very busy. Cunigla is the smallest town, no seaport, super quiet, so it's a great place for avoiding crowds, but there is however a stairway of death that you have to climb from the train station, but there is a bus that runs every 10 minutes or so between the station and the town if you can't be bothered. Manarola is the town where I stayed, and where you'll find the famous photo spot of the Djingotera. It's similar to Vernazza, but there's a lot fewer people, especially in the evenings, a handful of nice restaurants, overall a more relaxing place I would say. And finally, Rio Maggiore, yet again beautiful port area, colorful buildings, surprisingly busy when I was there, younger crowds, some nightlife opportunities, and from what I've heard it's a more budget-friendly place. So the main way to get around in the Djingotera is by jumping on the local train, which costs around 4 euros per person for a single ferry ticket. You do have the option of a train card that provides unlimited train rides, but more on that later. So the main attraction for me was hiking the famous blue trail. It's a famous trail that runs through all the five towns. With its total length of 12 kilometers or 7.5 miles and pretty mild elevation gains, it's a fairly easy trail to complete if you're actually able to complete it. I say this because the trail is notoriously known for closing parts, if not all the trail down due to landslides or maintenance work, which happens quite frequently. When I was there, I was only able to walk from Monterosso to Coniglia. The rest of the trail was closed off, so I had to resort to taking the local train for the last remaining parts. Nevertheless, the parts that I was able to walk on did provide nice coastal views, and a lot of times I kind of just felt that we were walking through other people's backyards, which I guess technically we were. We saw a lot of vineyards and what I believe were local agricultural fields in the area. If you plan to do the blue trail yourself, be aware that they do charge you a hiking fee of seven and a half euros per person. This is the only trail in the Cinque Terre area that charges a fee, so if you do the higher elevation alternatives, that's for free. It's only the blue trail that you have to pay for. This brings us to the Cinque Terre card. As mentioned earlier, there is a train card version, which includes the hiking fee, as well as providing unlimited train rides and bus services in the region. So I would only consider the train card if you're only in Cinque Terre for one day and you're planning to visit all the five towns, maybe even popping on the trail just to see how it is, because you really need to use the card well to get your money's worth. As for other things to do, I mean all the towns are pretty similar in terms of activities, so I would recommend to simply explore the different towns, walk the different streets, go to different viewpoints, just explore every nook and cranny if you want to. Eat. Eat a lot. There is so much good food down here. I especially enjoyed a pasta dish called Trophy al Pesto, which is this pasta with some creamy pesto sauce on top of it. But yeah, overall, just take your time to explore the different towns. And finally, the budget for two people. And obviously, this is not including plane tickets. And if you're traveling solo, you have the cost for food and transportation. That should give you a ballpark figure to work with. So that's it. That's all I have for today. I hope I gave you all the information you needed to do a Cinque Terre trip yourself. I'll be leaving some links in the description box below. Thank you for watching this video. This is Alan. See you in the next one.