Nice to Cinque Terre Road Trip: The Two Rivieras (4 Days)

Two rivieras, one road. The Côte d’Azur hands over to the Riviera di Ponente at a border you barely notice, and 340 km later the road runs out at a national park where cars are not welcome. That last part is the whole plan: this is a drive that ends by making you park.

You drive on the right in both countries and neither uses a vignette. Both use ticket-and-barrier motorways — France’s A8 and Italy’s A10/A12 — costing roughly €25–35 in tolls end to end if you stay on them. Almost none of that is necessary: the old coastal SS1 Via Aurelia shadows the motorway the entire way and is free, slower and far better.

The expensive mistake is the ZTL. Italian town centres are camera-enforced restricted zones, and driving into one — even for thirty seconds, even by accident, even following a satnav — produces a fine that reaches you months later. All five Cinque Terre villages have them.

Day 1 — Nice to Sanremo (75 km)

Climb out of Nice on the Grande Corniche, the highest of the three cliff roads, and stop above Èze where the village sits on a cone of rock 400 m over the water. Drop through Menton — the last French town, with terraced gardens and lemon groves against the border ridge.

Cross into Italy at Ventimiglia and finish at Sanremo, where the belle-époque seafront runs below La Pigna, a stacked medieval quarter of covered alleys most visitors never climb into.

Day 2 — Sanremo to Noli (90 km)

A day on the Via Aurelia through the Riviera di Ponente, a run of pastel towns and pebble bays that Italians holiday in and foreigners drive past. Alassio and Finale Ligure are the obvious stops; the walled coastal town of Noli, with its watchtowers still standing over the beach, is the better one to sleep in.

Day 3 — Noli to Santa Margherita Ligure (115 km)

Push through Genoa — the port is worth an hour, the traffic is not worth more — and out the other side onto the Riviera di Levante, which is steeper, greener and prettier than everything before it.

Base yourself in Santa Margherita Ligure. Portofino is 5 km further round the headland and the road in is tightly restricted and expensive to park in, so take the boat or the bus. Camogli on the far side of the promontory is quieter than both.

Day 4 — Santa Margherita to the Cinque Terre (60 km)

Follow the coast to Portovenere, a UNESCO fishing village where the striped church of San Pietro stands on the point at the end of the peninsula — and the last place on this trip you can drive to comfortably.

Then leave the car. Park in La Spezia, or in the barrier garage above Riomaggiore (Rio Park, roughly €3.50 an hour or €35 a day, about 60 spaces and a ten-minute walk down). The Cinque Terre Express train links Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso in a few minutes each, and the Cinque Terre Card bundles it with the trail network — from about €19.50 a day off-peak, rising past €30 in high season.

Costs

Use the cost calculator to price fuel and nights for your exact dates. As a rough guide: expect €100–180 per night on the Italian Riviera in summer and less in Sanremo or Noli, fuel for about 340 km, €25–35 of tolls if you use the motorways and close to nothing if you do not, plus parking and the Cinque Terre Card at the end. Budget the parking properly — it is the one cost on this route people underestimate.