Liguria
Portofino, Santa Margherita Ligure and Portovenere by car
Portofino is about 88 km west of La Spezia, a drive of roughly 1h15 to 1h30; Lerici and Portovenere lie about 20 minutes in the opposite direction. A season-long traffic filter governs the last kilometers into Portofino. At Portovenere a private-hire car may set you down between 06:00 and 21:00, for 30 minutes at most.
| Duration | [[TODO: total duration for portofino-portovenere]] |
|---|---|
| Drive time | [[TODO: driving time each way for portofino-portovenere]] |
| Distance | 88 km |
| Passengers | 8 |
| From | [[TODO: from-price per vehicle for portofino-portovenere]] |
Where the day goes
- Santa Margherita Ligure · 1h00 on the ground
84 km (52 miles) from La Spezia, and already on the SP 227 towards Portofino, so stopping here costs no extra distance. An hour covers the harbor and the seafront.
- Portofino
A traffic filter runs the length of the season, so where a car is allowed to stop changes with the day and the hour. The last part of the approach is on foot.
- Lerici · 1h30 on the ground
About 19 minutes from La Spezia, across the gulf from Portovenere. Lerici and San Terenzo are one comune and one restricted zone.
- Portovenere · 1h30 on the ground
Set down at the Piazza Bastreri gate, 06:00 to 21:00, 30 minutes maximum for the vehicle. The seafront is flat; the streets behind it climb steeply.
A sample day
- 08:30Pick-up in La Spezia, or at the address you give us. The A12 runs west along the coast towards Rapallo.
- 09:50Santa Margherita Ligure, 84 km (52 miles) out. Coffee on the harbor front before the road narrows.
- 10:50The last 7 km (4 miles) on the SP 227: narrow, winding, and the only way in.
- 13:00Lunch, in Portofino or back in Santa Margherita, which has more choice and shorter queues.
- 14:30East again on the A12. Allow 1h15 to 1h30, and more on a summer Saturday.
- 16:00Back in La Spezia. Lerici and Portovenere keep for another half-day: they are twenty minutes away.
A sample day - times are illustrative.
What the price includes
- A car and driver for the agreed itinerary, for up to 8 passengers
- Pickup and drop-off at the address you give us
- A price agreed in writing before you travel, which does not change unless you change the itinerary
- Waiting time at every pickup: 60 minutes at an airport, 15 minutes anywhere else
- Flight tracking when the day starts at an airport - we ask for the number and follow it
- Italian, English and Russian spoken
- Payment by Visa, Mastercard, Maestro or American Express
- A reply to your quote request within 24 hours
Not included
- A licensed guide. Your driver drives and knows this coast, but does not guide inside churches, castles or museums. Licensed guides are arranged on request.
- Entry tickets, meals and refreshments
- The last stretch into Portofino, which is on foot: the center of the village is pedestrian
Is this the right day for you?
Ask yourself how much of the day you want to spend in the car. Portofino and Santa Margherita are about 1h15 to 1h30 each way, so the round trip alone is roughly two and a half hours. Lerici and Portovenere are 19 and 20 minutes from La Spezia, so the two of them together are well under an hour of driving. Put all three towns in one day and you have close to three hours behind glass before anybody gets out. That is why we offer this as two separate days - the Portofino run, and the Gulf of Poets half-day - and let you choose. If you have a short window, if walking is difficult, or if this is your second visit to the coast, take Portovenere and Lerici and use the time you save on the water.
Can all three really fit into one day?
They can, and we will drive it if that is what you want - but know the shape of that day before you book it, rather than at four in the afternoon. Portofino is west of La Spezia and not close; Lerici and Portovenere lie in the opposite direction, and are very close indeed.
| From La Spezia | Distance | On a normal day |
|---|---|---|
| Santa Margherita Ligure | 84 km (52 miles) | about 1h15 to 1h30 |
| Portofino | 88 km (55 miles) | about 1h15 to 1h30 |
| Lerici | 11.3 km (7 miles) | about 19 minutes |
| Portovenere | 13 km (8 miles) | about 20 minutes |
Those are road averages on a normal day, not promises. Toll-road calculators quote less, because they measure gate to gate and leave out the streets at either end.
With the return legs, all three towns in one day comes to roughly two and a half hours of driving before anyone gets out of the car - the optimistic version, since in July and August the run to Portofino alone can take two hours.
So we sell this as two days and let you pick.
- The Portofino run. Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino at a civilized pace. Santa Margherita is where you sit down, Portofino is what you came to photograph.
- The Gulf of Poets half-day. Portovenere and Lerici, on either side of the gulf, with under an hour of driving in the whole day. Take it if your time is short, if a long car journey is hard for someone in the party, or if you have done the famous coast once already.
How close does the car get to Portofino?
Not to the piazzetta, and not at any point this season.
A traffic filter is in force under Città Metropolitana di Genova ordinance 36 of 17 February 2026: at Cervara during the day, and in the center of Portofino in the evening and at night, from 14 March to 1 November 2026 - the entire tourist season. The center is almost entirely pedestrian in any case, so the last stretch is on foot however close the car gets.
From the motorway at Rapallo it is about 7 km (4 miles) of the SP 227, narrow and winding, with no alternative when it closes - a sinkhole in March 2026, a landslide that August. Leave early. We publish no road status here, because it would be wrong within a week: the Città Metropolitana di Genova issues the ordinances for that road, sometimes a few days ahead.
Where does the car stop in Portovenere?
At the Piazza Bastreri gate, under a rule worth quoting: taxis and private-hire cars are admitted beyond the gate for the loading and unloading of people and luggage only, between 06:00 and 21:00, for a maximum of thirty minutes.
You are set down inside the gate with your bags; the car then leaves and waits outside the restricted zone until you call for it. It does not sit on the square while you have lunch, and neither does anybody else’s.
On foot, the harbor front is flat and the streets behind it climb, with steps up to the castle. If steps are hard for someone in your party, say so when you book and the day is built around the flat part, which is the best part anyway.
And in Lerici?
A different answer, deliberately: one sentence about access written across three comuni would be untrue in at least one of them.
Lerici and San Terenzo are the same comune and the same restricted zone, controlled by four gates - via Matteotti, via Bagnara, via Milano and the Primacina tunnel - and the via Milano gate is active twenty-four hours a day. Access there runs on authorization rather than on Portovenere’s loading-and-unloading rule, so the set-down point is a different one.
The three sets of rules have nothing in common, and no single sentence covers Portofino, Portovenere and Lerici at once. The exact set-down point is confirmed in writing with the quote, comune by comune, before anything is booked.
Is Portofino actually worth the drive?
Sometimes, and not for everybody. This is the honest part of the page.
Portofino is small: a horseshoe of painted houses round a harbor, a piazzetta, a row of expensive shops. Some travelers come back delighted. Others say plainly that the crowds and the price of a coffee soured the day. Both are common and both are fair. If you want the photograph you have had in mind for years, go early: the SP 227 is the only way in and the whole coast uses it.
Portovenere is the one people name years later: the same coastline, twenty minutes from La Spezia instead of an hour and a half, a church on a rock at the end of the harbor front, a castle above it and Byron’s grotto below.
Can we combine the car with a boat?
In one direction, often. There is no ferry from La Spezia to Portofino, which is exactly why a car is the only way there. The Portovenere and Cinque Terre boats do leave from Molo Italia, about 300 m from the cruise terminal, so car out and boat back is arranged on the morning: sailings are seasonal and they stop when the sea gets up.
Can we do Portofino and the Cinque Terre in one day?
Portofino with Manarola and Riomaggiore is on the list. The arithmetic first: Riomaggiore is 28 minutes from La Spezia and Manarola 29, and the two villages are 14 minutes apart by road. Add the Portofino round trip and the day carries close to four hours of driving before a single stop.
On a long summer day with an early start it works; on a short day it is a tour of the inside of a car. Note too that no vehicle enters Manarola or Riomaggiore: the last 150 to 600 m is on foot, every time. The Cinque Terre by car has it village by village, Monterosso included, which is the one village we drive into.
Does this fit a cruise port day?
Here is the arithmetic, to set against your ship’s own all-aboard time.
| Itinerary | Driving, round trip |
|---|---|
| Portovenere, or Lerici, or both | about 40 minutes to 1 hour |
| Portofino, with Santa Margherita | about 2h30, plus the last stretch under the traffic filter |
| Portofino with two Cinque Terre villages | close to 4 hours |
Getting off the ship, the port shuttle and the security check on the way back sit on top of those numbers, and none of it is under anyone’s control. All-aboard is earlier than sailing time, and your ship’s exact time is published on board in the daily program, not by us. Build the margin in when you decide how far west to go.
Portovenere and Lerici make the most comfortable port-day trip we sell. The port logistics, tender days included, are on the cruise port page.
Asking for a quote
Ask on the contact page, and say which of the two days you have in mind - the Portofino run, or the Gulf of Poets. If you are not sure, describe your day and we will tell you which one fits. A reply comes back within 24 hours.
The fare and the terms that go with it - what the price covers, what is billed separately and what happens if you cancel - are confirmed in writing with the quote, before anything is booked. We publish no figure here, because this day changes with the pickup address, with how far west you go and with the hours.
If what you need is a journey rather than a day out, the same car does plain transfers as well, including long-distance ones.
Questions about this trip
Can we drive into Portofino itself?
No, not to the piazzetta. A traffic filter is in force for the whole 2026 season under Città Metropolitana di Genova ordinance 36 of 17 February 2026 - at Cervara during the day, and in the center of Portofino in the evening and at night, from 14 March to 1 November. The center is almost entirely pedestrian in any case. Where a car is allowed to stop changes with the day and the hour, so the last part of the approach is on foot.
How long is the drive from La Spezia to Portofino?
About 1h15 to 1h30 on a normal day, for 88 km (55 miles). In July and August it can run to two hours, because the last 7 km from the Rapallo motorway exit is the SP 227, a narrow coast road with no alternative route. Those are road averages, not promises: toll-road calculators quote less because they measure gate to gate and leave out the streets at either end.
Where does the car stop in Portovenere?
At the Piazza Bastreri gate, and the rule there is unusually clear. Taxis and private-hire cars are admitted beyond the gate for loading and unloading people and luggage only, between 06:00 and 21:00, for a maximum of thirty minutes. You are set down inside the gate with your bags; the car then leaves and waits outside the ZTL. No car of any kind sits on the square while you have lunch.
Is there a ferry from La Spezia to Portofino?
There is not, and that is the plain reason a car is the only sensible way there. What does leave La Spezia is the Portovenere and Cinque Terre service, from the dock at Molo Italia, about 300 m from the cruise terminal and under five minutes on foot. Sailings are seasonal and depend on the weather, so a car out and a boat back is planned on the day rather than promised in advance.
Is Portofino worth the drive, honestly?
For some people, yes; for others it is the least rewarding stop of the three. Portofino is a small harbor, a piazzetta and a row of expensive shops, and travelers regularly say the crowds and the prices spoiled it for them. Portovenere is the one people name years afterwards, and it is twenty minutes from La Spezia rather than an hour and a half.
Is the driver also a guide?
No, and in Italy those are two different qualifications. Your driver is a licensed private-hire driver: he drives, knows this coast, and will tell you where to eat and which way to walk. Guiding inside a monument is a licensed guide's work, and a licensed guide can be arranged on request when you book.
Other days out
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