Where to snorkel in the Cinque Terre: the best coves along the coast

The Cinque Terre is better known for its trail than its water, but the coastline underneath the villages holds its own — clear water, rock rather than sand, and coves that are only reachable by boat, which keeps them quieter than anything within walking distance of a train station.

Sheltered Coves Near Manarola and Riomaggiore

The stretch nearest Manarola and Riomaggiore holds the coves at the centre of the Coast & Coves tour, where close to an hour of the three-hour run is spent at anchor in sheltered water rather than moving. The rock here drops steeply, which makes for clearer visibility close to shore than the shallower, sandier stretches further along the coast, and the cliffs cut enough wind that the coves stay calm even when the open water beyond them doesn't. Masks are provided on board, so there's no need to arrive with one.

Golden Hour on the Sunset Run

Further along, the Sunset Aperitivo works two separate coves into its two-and-a-half-hour run, timed for the last hour or two of daylight — the water holds the day's warmth by then, and the low light changes the colour underwater compared with a midday swim.

The Five Villages tour, the shortest of the four at two hours, still carries a dedicated swim and snorkel stop along its run past all five villages, which makes it the easiest way to combine a first look at the whole coastline with time actually in the water rather than just alongside it.

The Grottoes of the Gulf of Poets

And then there's Byron's Grotto, on the Portovenere tour — a sea cave at the base of the headland below the San Pietro church, named for the stretch of water Byron is said to have swum across to Lerici. Past it, off the island of Palmaria, sits the Blue Grotto, where light entering underwater turns the interior of the cave a deep, saturated blue. Both are reachable only by boat, and both sit well outside the water most Cinque Terre visitors ever see, since neither is within reach of the coastal trail.

Four tours, four different stretches of water — sheltered coves near Manarola and Riomaggiore, the golden-hour coves on the sunset run, the village-to-village swim on the shortest tour, and the grottoes of the Gulf of Poets on the longest one. Which cove suits a trip depends mostly on how much time there is to spend in the water rather than on it.