La Vista Di Marina By The First

I was worried after booking to read these reviews. I have to admit, booking this hotel to a bit more due diligence than usually but we couldn’t be more glad to have booked there. The sheer fact that you wake up with the most beautiful view ever, from the quiet sea to the colourful buildings of Riomaggiore makes up for any pitfalls. People need to check their expectations. This is not a hotel - and I don’t think it ever represented itself like that - so don’t expect a grand entrance or someone to take your luggage for you. I’ve read some crazy stuff on some of these comments … It is an appartment, it could benefit from some upgrades but it does the job. True, there’s some steep steps but by reading other reviews, you have the impression it’s Mount Everest. You do some cardio, but, again, you’re in Cinque Terre … True, communications is not the smoothest and is at time concise, but that’s not the point of your stay, is it? We received detailed information ahead of our arrival that was very clear. So, yes, it’s not a 5* star hotel (but never pretended it was), yes some upgrades could be done and communications could be more nicely worded, but the stay in itself is magical. The room is nice, the room is clean (and cleaned every day) and the terrace is amazing. If we ever come back to Riommagiore, we’ll book here without a doubt in mind!

Felt compelled to review after reading so many negative reviews that had me pretty worried until arriving. Firstly the location is excellent just metres after coming out of the tunnel. To be fair, if you are unfit, carrying a lot of heavy luggage, and opposed to climbing stairs then this is not the place for you and probably won’t enjoy Cinque Terre anyways. Otherwise, as good as you will get in the area. A very nice room, well renovated and furnished, comfortable bed, strong air conditioning, and all photos from their website absolutely reflected what we got. Stayed in the honeymoon suite which had a king bed and a pullout double + a large bathroom with jacauzzi. It was up 5 flights of stairs but frankly we were probably doing 100-200 flights a day hiking so what’s another 5. Read many complaints about the management which are totally unfair from our experience. Perfect details for arrival procedures, very prompt responses to any messages sent, housekeeping set to our schedule every day, late checkout accommodated, and very friendly service. Would definitely stay again

I can't give a lower rating; I wouldn't even want to give it one star. The service attitude is extremely poor, and they randomly assign rooms. This group has several buildings in different locations, so even if you book a specific place, they give you another one that doesn't meet your requirements at all. The room is old and half of the lights are broken. Although the view is beautiful, the landlord completely ruins the experience. They only ensure that you have an unforgettable journey, but it's filled with frustration.

We reserved the "Luxury Honeymoon Suite - Jacuzzi Bathtub." We probably should have read the reviews before we booked, instead of just looking at the location on google maps, and looking at the photos provided on the website. I wouldn't agree that booking here is a scam, but I would say that it is quite misleading. We were hoping to stay in a "proper" hotel, and this was not that. The room was located on the top floor of a building of apartments above the main part of the main street in Riomaggiore (there were about 40 steps, and the stair case was very steep and narrow). The location was fine, we did have a small view of the harbor and the sea, but not like the photos showed. The room was comfortable and spacious. The Jacuzzi tub was huge, but it didn't "jacuzzi," which was disappointing. The host was communicative and shared the details with us ahead of time, so we weren't scrambling. We did arrive early, and were able to leave our bags in the room, even though it hadn't been cleaned yet. The bed was comfortable, and there was a cleaning service that came each day. I probably wouldn't chose to stay here again, because, as I mentioned, it felt a bit misleading and wasn't quite what we wanted. But it was fine.