The Cinque Terre Ferry: Routes, Fares and the Season

The operator and the route

The Cinque Terre ferry is run by a single operator, the Consorzio Marittimo Turistico Cinque Terre - Golfo dei Poeti, which trades as Navigazione Golfo dei Poeti. Its office sits at Via Don Giovanni Minzoni 13, 19121 La Spezia, and it can be reached on +39 0187 732987 or at info@ngdp.it. The service in question is Linea 02, the Cinque Terre line.

It links La Spezia, Lerici and Porto Venere on the gulf side with Riomaggiore, Manarola, Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare on the Cinque Terre coast itself. In summer the line extends north beyond Monterosso to Levanto, and further still to Deiva Marina and Moneglia.

What a stop means

A fare is priced from your boarding point, not from a single village. That is why the same village can cost a different amount depending on where you start. A daily roundtrip ticket lets you hop off and back on at the stops along the way, which is how most people use the boat.

One-way fares suit a simple A to B trip, for example riding from Monterosso down to Vernazza and walking or training back. An afternoon roundtrip ticket covers the same circuit but only from midday onward, at a lower price.

Corniglia has no pier

One village is missing from every stop list. Corniglia is the only one of the five without a ferry landing. The village sits on a promontory about 100 m above the sea and there is no boat pier below it, so the line never calls there.

If Corniglia is on your list, you reach it by train, by the shuttle or the Lardarina staircase up from its station, or on foot on the trail network. Our Corniglia guide covers the practicalities.

On board

The boats carry free wifi, and the operator offers an audioguide app for Android and iOS that narrates the coast as you ride. There is no reserved seating and no luggage service on the published fare sheet, so treat it as a plain passenger boat rather than a cruise. See the operator's own page at navigazionegolfodeipoeti.it for the full timetable PDFs.

The 2026 timetable windows

The ferry does not run to one fixed calendar. The operator publishes the 2026 season in blocks. The spring and summer timetable starts on 1 March and runs in successive blocks through 27 September, which the operator marks as the main season.

Within that, an extension to Moneglia and Deiva Marina operates from 30 June to 29 August only. After the main season the autumn timetables take over, running in two blocks from 28 September to 1 November.

The winter service

From 2 November to 8 December a reduced timetable called Cinque Terre Trip WINTER operates. After 8 December the picture changes. The operator does not publish a schedule covering the rest of December through February on this page, so the service reads as suspended or minimal in deep winter.

If you are travelling between late December and the end of February, check the operator's own page directly before counting on the boat.

Booking and advance sale

Tickets are sold online up to the day before departure. From 1 February the online advance sale opens for the new season, which matters if you want a specific summer weekend. There is no timed slot to reserve on the scheduled ferry, only a date.

Walk-up purchase at the dock is possible in practice when boats have space, but the operator's own channel stops selling online the day before.

When the scheduled ferry wins

The Cinque Terre ferry is the flexible choice. It is cheap, a daily roundtrip costs an adult US$47.70 (€42), it lets you get off in each village and reboard later, and it runs to a published timetable you can build a day around. If your plan is to see Riomaggiore, Vernazza and Monterosso at your own pace and walk or train between some of them, the ferry is the tool for the job.

Pair it with the Cinque Terre train for the stretches the boat does not cover, including Corniglia.

When a booked tour wins

A guided tour removes the timetable work. You get a fixed departure, a guide on board explaining the coast, and in some cases food, drink or a swim stop that the public ferry does not offer. Tours from La Spezia suit anyone based in that city, while small-boat trips out of Monterosso and Porto Venere trade village stops for a more personal ride.

If you would rather have the whole day arranged for you, compare the options on our Cinque Terre boat tours page.

The price gap

Guided tours cost more than the public boat, often several times the daily ferry fare, because they bundle a guide, a fixed route and extras. The trade is flexibility for convenience. The ferry lets you linger in a village for hours.

A tour keeps you on the water or on its own schedule. Neither is wrong, they simply answer different questions.

Three tours worth a look

Out of La Spezia, the Cinque Terre tour by boat to Riomaggiore and Monterosso is an 8-hour guided return sailing with a choice of routes, and it is the most-booked boat tour from that city. Out of Monterosso, the day or sunset boat tour with aperitif runs a small motorboat with a skipper and an on-board aperitif in a 3-hour slot, with no village stops. Out of Porto Venere, the Cinque Terre villages boat tour spends 4 hours cruising the coast by sea with prosecco and a snorkeling kit included.

Where and when to buy

The operator sells tickets online through its own site, and online sales close the day before departure, so buy ahead of your sailing day rather than counting on a same-night purchase. The advance sale for the new season opens on 1 February, which is the moment to secure summer weekend dates. Beyond the online channel, tickets are also sold at the operator's departure points, and the daily ticket includes on-board free wifi and access to the audioguide app for Android and iOS.

Choosing your ticket type

Three choices dominate. The daily roundtrip suits a full day of hopping between villages and is the best value if you plan three or more landings. The afternoon roundtrip covers the same route from midday at a lower adult price, which works if you spend the morning on the trails first.

One-way fares make sense for a single leg, for example riding Monterosso to Vernazza and returning by train. Families should note the reduced fare is defined narrowly, for children aged 6 to 11 accompanied by a paying adult.

What the ticket does not include

The ferry ticket covers the boat only. Trail access, village buses and the Via dell'Amore are park products sold separately under the Cinque Terre Card. If your day mixes sailing and hiking, price the two together before buying either.

Our Cinque Terre travel guide ties this fare into the rest of a first visit.

The northern extension

North of Monterosso the line continues to Levanto, the first town outside the Cinque Terre proper, and in high summer to Deiva Marina and Moneglia further up the Ligurian coast. The extension to Moneglia and Deiva Marina runs only from 30 June to 29 August, so outside that window the northern limit of the line is Levanto.

What is priced and what is not

From Levanto the full fare range is published: the daily roundtrip at US$47.70 (€42), the afternoon roundtrip at US$31.80 (€28), the 3 Islands add-on at US$5.68 (€5), and one-way fares to each village and down to Porto Venere and La Spezia. From Deiva Marina and Moneglia the price sheet lists only two products, the daily roundtrip at US$47.70 (€42) and the 3 Islands add-on at US$5.68 (€5). Point-to-point fares from those two stops are not printed, and we would rather say so than guess.

If you board at Deiva Marina or Moneglia and want a single-leg fare, ask the operator on +39 0187 732987 before you travel.

Why Levanto is a useful base

Levanto sits on the same rail line as the five villages, so it works as a quieter base from which to ride the ferry south on a day ticket. The one-way fares from Levanto into the villages are modest, with Monterosso and Vernazza at US$13.64 (€12) for an adult, and a daily roundtrip lets you return at the end of the day without a second purchase. See our tickets overview for how the ferry fare sits alongside train and park costs.

Starting from La Spezia or Lerici

La Spezia and Lerici share the same fare table on this line, so the choice between them comes down to where you are already sleeping, not price. Both sit at the southern end of the route, so a daily roundtrip from either covers the whole run north to Monterosso and, in summer, on to Levanto. This is the natural start for anyone based in La Spezia for the cruise port or arriving by train from Florence, Pisa or points south, since the rail hub and the ferry dock sit close together in the same city.

Starting from Porto Venere

Porto Venere sits just across the gulf from La Spezia and Lerici, with its own identical fare table for the daily and afternoon roundtrips. Boarding here suits a day that starts with the town itself, since Porto Venere is a stop worth an hour or two on its own, then continues north into the villages on the same ticket. One-way hops from here to Riomaggiore or Manarola, at US$20.50 (€18) adult, are slightly cheaper than the same legs priced from La Spezia.

Starting from Monterosso or Levanto

Boarding at the northern end of the line flips the logic. From Monterosso, a one-way to Vernazza costs only US$11.37 (€10), the cheapest short hop on the whole sheet, because you are already inside the park. Levanto works the same way and adds the option of a quiet overnight base one stop outside the villages, with the ferry as the way in each morning.

Either point suits a traveller who plans to spend most of the day inside two or three villages rather than covering the whole line.

Board early where you can. The fare sheet lists no reserved seating, so on a busy summer sailing the best outdoor spots go to whoever is at the dock first. Carry cash or a card for the audioguide app's data if you plan to use it, since the free wifi covers the crossing but the app itself needs a working phone.

Pack light. Nothing in the published fares mentions a luggage service, so a boat crowded with roller bags is an uncomfortable boat, and none of the moves between low piers and rocking decks are easy with a full suitcase. Weather on this coast can close the sea to boat traffic the way storms close the hiking trails, and the operator's timetable pages are the place to check a specific sailing rather than assuming a listed departure will run in poor conditions.

If a sailing is cancelled for weather, the train on the same line is the fallback, since it runs largely independent of sea conditions.