Resort La Francesca

La Francesca, while located in a beautiful spot, should really only be considered if you drove in. Otherwise, the hike in and out of Levanto isn't practical, especially after a full day of activities. We ended up cabbing every night (€15-20 depending on who you get). The facilities themselves were clean, but probably more suited for the '80s. They require that you clean your own dishes or there's a pretty heavy fine. Front staff was very kind though, and helpful. The experience wasn't horrible, but I wouldn't recommend it if that makes sense.

My stay was in late May and both pools were closed. Nothing at the so called resort is easily accessible. It takes about 30 minutes or a 15€ taxi drive just to get to Levanto train station. Then you must get on a train in order to get to Monterosso. Not a good location at all.

The La Francesca resort is located in a beautiful area just north of the more-famous Cinque Terre refuge. However... The walk to the nearest train station to get to Cinque Terre proper is 40 minutes, which isn't easy for older folks. The resort itself is an entire section of hillside, but each cabin is old, with 1970s decor. Their restraunt was good, if a bit pricey, but good - the problem is that to pick another place to eat, you'd have to travel quite a ways because the resort is a bit remote from any other restraunts. There really is no service to speak of - they don't have maid service. The cabins are in passable condition - not falling apart, but definitely need a sprucing up. The rooms don't have climate control, so windows must be used - which is nice, but it makes the rooms and beds damp from the ocean air. It was fairly easy to drive to, but I certainly wouldn't recommend taking a train to this resort because you'd have to hoof it quite a ways. Overall, beautiful surroundings, and nice resort - but who goes to Cinque Terre just to stay in one remote place and not visit the rest of the cities? It was very overpriced.

We wanted to see Cinque Terre, and chose to stay at La Francesca. I would rather have stayed in Bonassola or Levanto for this purpose. La Francesca was a bit off for us. PLUS about La Francesca: Beautiful location, very quiet, great pool area. MINUS about La Francesca: very expensive and poor quality of rooms (it is no more than 3 star). We booked a room With sea view - but too many large trees all over the place, and we could not see the Ocean at all. Strict rules and little flexibility.

Pool is always close, if you don't have a car , it's a problem because the personal don't care about you and you Will havé to transport your luggage alone in the mountain . The don't transport you at the train station as they write on there web site.

This is not a four star hotel. We slept on a foam mattress. This was not a pleasant place to stay.

The location of the hotel is beautiful. It is up on a mountain overlooking the gorgeous sea, falling directly between levant and Bonassola. Unfortunately, our train got in late to Monterosso, and the taxi would have been 80-100 euros. We spent the night in Monterosso, and travelled to La Francesca in the morning. It is an inconvenient location unless you have brought your own car. We did not bring our own car, so we spent 15 euros to get up to the hotel from Bonassola. The taxi itself was very hard to get, as Bonassola is such a small town. This is a fine hotel if you plan on staying in one place for your entire vacation, not venturing out into nearby towns for exploring and dining. I will not return to La Francesca!

Nice self contained room, but quite isolated place to stay if you don't have a car. We relied on taxis which was expensive. The seafood restaurant at the bottom of the hill was nice, with a small shop attached for supplies but the walk back up was rather hard work! Nice place to base yourself for Cinque Terre, surrounding towns have lovely restaurants. Interesting experience trying to have a swim in the hotel pool (think it's an italian thing...) where we had to wear swimming caps. Also had problems getting replacement towels and toilet paper, 'apartment' didn't get serviced during our stay at all. Would give it an overall average rating.

When I made the reservation, I think I expected more of a hotel/suite-type setting. This is more of a glorified camping village. While the apartments are clean and furnished, they are pretty basic (and smell strongly of cleaning products). It's similar to renting a beach condo in the US - you can cook for yourself, but at the end, need to make sure the kitchen is clean, trash is out, etc... It is excellent for families wanting to stay in the Cinque Terre for an extended vacation (there's a pool, beach access, sundries store, a restaurant a couple times a week), but wasn't what we expected for a romantic honeymoon escape (having said that, I maybe could have researched more on my end before booking). One plus, though, is that they take online reservations, unlike many hotels in this region!