Portofino is a small fishing village in northern Italy. It is known for colorful buildings on either side of the harbor. Portofino is often visited by celebrities and many impressive yachts can be seen in the harbor. Even though it has a reputation of being expensive, it doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money. So here is our guide to a day trip to Portofino, Italy for two people for under $25 USD including how much we spent on everything from transportation to food during our day trip to this beautiful spot!
Getting to Portofino- $22
Depending on where you’re coming from it might look a little different from this. The closest train station to Portofino is Santa Margharita Ligure.
So we took the train from Rapallo, where we stayed in the Italian Riviera, to Santa Margharita Ligure which was only one stop. From the Santa Margharita Ligure train station we got on the 82 bus to go all the way to Portofino. The bus stop is right outside the train station so you don’t even need walk anywhere. You can buy tickets on the bus, both one way and round trip.
Train Cost: $2.20 USD per person per way
- With our Eurail Global Pass, we took the train from Rapallo to Santa Margharita Ligure for no charge. We simply rode the train one stop, wrote it on our Eurail pass and were good to go!
- If you don’t have a Eurail pass you can buy just one ticket at either of the train stations.
Bus Cost: $3.30 USD per person per way
Exploring Portofino- $0
While transportation to Portofino costs money, all of the activities we did while exploring Portofino were completely free! Of course there are things we didn’t do, for example going inside Castello Brown, that do cost money. But this goes to show that you can visit an expensive place without paying a lot to see things nearby!
Watch the Boats in the Portofino Harbor
The bus drops you off at the end of the town so we walked through the small street to the main harbor area. There are some stores and then quite a few restaurants down along the water. The whole harbor area is so beautiful! Looking at all the colorful buildings in the Italian Riviera seriously never gets old!
We spent some time walking around the harbor. Facing the water if you walk to the left you’ll walk past many restaurants that offer outside seating. If you want to the right it wraps around the harbor to the other side. You can sit and watch the massive yachts coming and going forever. The sheer size of some of them are so impressive! There are benches as well as bathrooms on the far side.
Take in the Views from Chiesa di San Giorgio
The Chiesa di San Giorgio is a church that sits up overlooking the Portofino harbor. Walk around the harbor and there is a staircase on your right just before the Yacht Club Italiano. It’s a relatively short staircase and there are signs along the way so you don’t have to worry about getting lost. It takes about 5 minutes to walk up.
You can walk inside the small church for free. But the real reason for hiking up the stairs is for the view from the top! There is a small terrace area to the left of the church that overlooks the entire harbor and all the buildings that make up the village of Portofino. It is absolutely incredible!
There were a few other people but there taking pictures but not nearly as many as we expected for how amazing of a spot it is.
On the other side of the church there is another terrace which faces out to the water opposite the harbor area. You get views of the nearby cliffs and crystal clear water below!
Walk to Castello Brown
Castello Brown is a castle farther out on the peninsula that again has amazing views looking back to the village. The walk from Chiesa di San Giorgio to Castello Brown is an amazing walk! It’s a small walking walkway that is so quiet and enjoyable.
To enter Castello Brown it is 5 Euros, however, there is a spot you can get amazing views for free! Walk to the entrance like you’re going to go inside. You will reach a sign pointing to the left for Castello Brown and then a green gate on the right side. The green gate should be open (it was when we visited) so walk through and along the pathway. You’ll be walking in front of the castle so if you look up you should see it. Eventually you will get to the end and have an amazing viewpoint of all of Portofino!
- At the end the path continues down to the beach below (we think). Or you can walk back to where you started and continue walking out to the Lighthouse.
- This is a great option if you want a similar view from the Castle but without paying the entrance fee. We were initially concerned that we were in an area we should have paid for but there were no signs or barriers and there were quite a few other people around so we think it was totally fine!
Go out to Faro di Portofino
From Castello Brown the walking walkway continues out to the end of the peninsula to the Faro di Portofino or the lighthouse. Honestly the walk from Castello Brown to the walkway is worth it in itself! It runs along the water the whole time but is filled with trees and flowers everything and it’s so quiet and relaxing. It was one of those walks that is more about the journey along the way and less about the destination at the end.
Once you get out to the lighthouse you get views all around. You can’t see much of the village of Portofino itself because it’s hidden by the cliffs and trees but you can actually see all of the surrounding towns including Santa Margharita Ligure, Rapallo and continuing east down the coast.
Enjoy Baia Cannone
Baia Connone, which translates to Cannon Bay, is a beautiful swimming spot close to Portofino!
Once you’re back at the bus stop you will walk along the road in the direction of Santa Margharita Ligure for a few minutes. Then the road narrows and the pedestrian walkway goes up the hill. It is very similar to the walkway out to the lighthouse. It is very well paved, quiet and we only passed a few other people.
You will round the corner so Portofino is behind you and start to see the bay. You will see Piccolo Hotel Portofino, a big yellow building that is near to the beach. Walk down past the hotel along the road around the corner and you will find a small, brown sign pointing down the staircase to the public beach. It really isn’t hard to find!
The beach area is absolutely one of the most beautiful spots we’ve jumped in! The colorful houses built into the cliffs opposite the water are unbelievable! There is a ladder going into the water on one side as well as two rocky areas to go in as well. The warm was so refreshing on a hot day. There is also a shower to rinse off after swimming. This was one of our favorite parts of our day in Portofino!
Because Baia Connone is a little outside Portofino this is a good spot to end the day. If you walk back up the road there is a bus stop about 90 meters from the Piccolo Hotel Portofino on the right side of the street. From that bus stop you can catch the bus 82 back to the town of Santa Margharita Ligure as well as to the Santa Margharita train station.
Read More: 4 Day Guide to Visiting the Italian Riviera
Food- $0
We spent no money on food during our day trip to Portofino. Our biggest tip when visiting more expensive places, especially when there are not as many quick and affordable places to grab food, is to come prepared! We all get hungry and thirsty, especially on hot days like this one, so we almost never travel without snacks and water. We have found it’s much more budget friendly to grab some snacks, or even stuff to make sandwiches, from the grocery store and pack it for the day than to stop when we’re starving and hot and the only option is an upscale restaurant.
We’re all for trying local foods, and we definitely embraced the Italian cuisine, but you definitely can take advantage in more affordable places. While the restaurants along the water in Portofino are in a beautiful location, it wasn’t in our budget to have lunch there so we packed a lunch to avoid impulse hunger buys!
So, Is Portofino Worth Visiting?
Yes! Hopefully from this post we’ve shown you that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to visit Portofino! Other than transportation to get there we spent no money wandering around. It is a beautiful little village and you can get amazing views from quite a few different spots. It is very small so you can easily do it in a day trip or even a half day if you only have a few hours. Getting there is very easy with the train and bus as well so we would definitely say it is worth visiting!
