Cinque Terre
 

Does anyone have a recommendation on which town in the Cinque Terre to stay in? Hotel recommendations there?

Other than natural beauty, is there much to do in the area?

Thanks for your help!!!

Monterosso is the largest of the five towns and offers the most choices for dining and accommodation. Many people prefer Vernazza. I like Corniglia. It all depends on what you want.

Hiking between towns is probably the main thing to do. Some decent beaches
along the way. Also boat rides from town to town. Beyond that, it's pretty much relaxing and enjoying the good life.

Different opinions and experiences is certainly one of the things that make the world go round :)
We stayed at Riomaggiore and had a great time. Certainly the hiking was a highlight. We actually used the train to travel from town to town after our hikes.
Loved the stuffed squid & seafood ravioli

http://www.ristorantegamberorosso.net/index.html

great food.
the site is in Italian but use google to translate.

My vote is for Porto Venere as a perfect base. Range of restaurants and places to stay and quiet at night.

Cinque Terra
 

My suggestion would be to avoid Monterosso. It is the most built up, the most tourist, and the Cinqua Terra like. It's the only one with significant streets and cars. It's not as beautiful and unique as the others. But, hands down, it has the best (only) real beach of the five. You can easily take a train or walk from one to another.

We're passing through the Cinque Terre area this summer and are considering staying one night / one day in the area. I've booked rooms in Vernazza for now, but could change/cancel if necessary.

I have a couple questions:

(1) Is Vernazza a good town for the night's stay? The other thread here about Vernazza being "nearly destroyed" by floods in 2011 has me concerned. I was aware of the Cinque Terre flooding that year but I guess not its scale or that whole villages were destroyed. Is it suitable for tourists to return? Do the people there even *want* tourists to return if their town is in full-on rebuild mode?

(2) We're roadtripping in a van. Everything I've read about cinque terre is that there are large car parks outside the villages themselves and you go in on foot or perhaps with a short train ride from an adjacent village. Anyone have any detailed advice or do's and don'ts regarding this? Everyone in our party is in good shape and capable of walking, but I'd still like to minimize the stress of the entry/exit to the town with our heavy packs.

(3) For our full day there, I'm assuming our main plan would be to do some of the walks between a couple of the towns, shoot lots of photos, enjoy good food/wine, and then take a boat back to our starting point if necessary. Anything else we shouldn't miss in this area? We'll probably stick to the easier trails. We don't have any expectation that we see all five towns unless someone has a compelling reason that we should.