Cinque Terre is a magic world of color, courage, nature caprices and human endurance. This place defies all the laws of nature: houses build on the steep mountains, train goes through the rock and just from time to time you see the light, grapes grow on the terraced hills, waves are powerful and unforgiving, and yet millions of people come here every year to witness the show, to be part of something unprecedented. Cinque Terre in Italian means "five lands", referring to the five villages: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare and all are included in UNESCO World Heritage. All the villages are nestled in golfs on the edge of the Ligurian Sea. In order to plan your trip you have to decide how many days you want to spend in Cinque Terre. The lowest accommodation is 100 euro and everything is expensive because the demand is really high and the offer is limited. If you stay one day, you can visit all 5 villages with train and it would be best to buy the daily pass (16 euro) otherwise each trip will be 4 euros - 5 cities mean 4 stops and one return. If you decide to spend and extra day here I highly recommend buying a ferry pass, or even a ticket. Seeing the villages of Cinque Terre from the sea will give you a new perspective. A full day ticket will cost you around 35 euro (if you include Portovenere). Remember when taking the ferry that the village or Corniglia does not have a port, so you won't be able to access the village from the water. Also another important factor is the weather. This waters are deep and troubled and there will e days when the ferry wont be able to work, or there will be villages that it won't be able to stop. On our trip we wanted to get of the ferry in Manarola, but the ferry did not stop, so just like that we had to reconsider. And if you have a third day to spare here, do a hike. The views are worthwhile: see the water and villages from every turn, the steep slopes and the waves braking down below will keep you interested all the way and the terraced vineyards will make you understand the power of human nature to create such order in an unwelcoming place like this. To sum up what we decided to do is visit all the 5 villages in 3 days with 3 means of transport. We stayed in Riomaggiore, we went for a hike between Monterosso al Mare and Vernazza, go by train to Corniglia, and by ferry to Manarola and Portovenere (this was a bonus). The plan did now work out as planed, but we saw a lot. If you want to throw in some more adrenaline, you can go in a kayak trip, but usually in the summer when the waters are calm. All of the villages have very strong policies for cars. You won't be able to enter the village, you would have to park outside, pay a lot for parking and if you go between villages with a car it is pretty scary because the roads are up in the hills, very narrow and very steep. So don't do it, leave the car in La Spezia if you are on a car trip and go by train, is the best way to do it. You will reach in no time any village and you will be right at the center.