We stayed at the Carugiu B&B in May and found it to be wonderful! The family was very welcoming and the suite that we stayed in was great. Really comfortable beds with a balcony. There are no sea views with these rooms but they are still really nice. We heard water running outside all night which was great to fall asleep to. They had a high speed internet cable as well that helped since we had a laptop with us. The town is Manarola which is a very easy going, small town. Definitely not a party town so don't go there for that. The only downside is that it was at the very top of the hill which made it difficult to walk up with our heavy backpacks.

We were staying in a villa in Tuscany for 3 months and took a week in September to do a little side trip to Lucca, Pisa and the Cinque Terre. We arrived by train with just a backpack and walked up the hill through the beautiful streets of Manarola to the B&B where we stayed a few nights.

We booked with the owner's daughter Christine by email who speaks English and was very helpful in every way. On arrival we were greeted by her very lovely mother who showed us our suite upstairs which was the larger suite with tiny dinette, little balcony, spotless modern bathroom and beautifully decorated spacious bedroom. Lovely and private. She was kind enough to try to communicate in English and was able to explain how everything worked. There was a coffee machine out our door to make our morning coffee, and bookshelves with games.

The decor was dark polished woods, marble topped dresser, high quality bed, large wardrobe, flat screen tv. Luxury linens and bedspread were all of a high quality and all spotlessly laundered. We loved it immediately and thought it was excellent value.

We loved experiencing living in a real Italian house/home in a narrow alley up stairs in a very quiet and beautiful area high in the town. It was perfect and the alley was beautifully maintained with lovely homes.

Manarola is the second of the five towns. We walked the easy 20 minute path down to Riomaggiore the first night and the next day walked the famous pathway to the three other towns which is more of a hike especially the final two towns. But it was a fantastic day and cool and a bit rainy which was perfect. We caught the ferry back.

After exploring each of the towns along the way we were soooo happy we chose to stay in Manarola by chance. Manarola has way more charm as far as we were concerned and we also thought it was the prettiest. The others like Riomaggiore and especially poor Vernazza were so incredibly overrun with tourists and cruise ship passengers. We were delighted to be away from all that and have a more authentic experience. But that's us. There was a great restaurant right down overlooking the water we ate at both nights and it served the best pesto linguine. Excellent.

We'd highly recommend this delightful B&B. It was a real gem.

We stayed in Manarola for 3 nights in september 2009. Carugiu is a great place to stay, sure it has no view but we did not need it after spending our days hiking and strolling around. It is a 5-10 minutes hike from the station, The owner Isabella is very nice, she does not speak lots of english, but she will show you how everything works, her daughter in law speaks english and can help out! The suite was great, more like an apartment, big bedroom (bed a bit firm), flat tv, small bathroom but with everything you need, small eating area with a fridge, and a balcony and clothes line. Internet connexion worked well, short walk to Coop store, restaurants, waterfront. We would stay there again, anytime, we hope to go back one day! Manarola was the best of all CT towns!

We stayed 4 nights in the large suite, with bathroom and kitchenette (has a small fridge and table/chairs but nothing else). We enjoyed this place and loved Manarola! Manarola is smaller than the other towns--still very quaint and central, but not to many tourists. The only downside is that Manarola doesn't have a beach. We found most of the people to be friendly.

Pros:
* The two B&B rooms are owned by an Italian family--their flat begins on the second floor. They only speak Italian, but their daughter-in-law met us on our first night to greet us and explain everything. She is originally from Minnesota, so of course speaks perfect English. She was very helpful and recommended some great hikes for us. She had to leave a family wedding to meet us!
* Nice, spacious flat.
* Quiet, but still fairly close to town shops and hiking trails.
* Lavazza espresso machine in the hallway makes good espresso, or hot tea. It's at your disposal whenever you want! This is shared between the other B&B room, but we never needed to use it at the same time they did.
* The room had a large wardrobe and large dresser for our clothes. It had a faint smell of moth balls, but it didn't bother us.
* There is a hostel up the hill (next to the church) which can do your laundry and provide access to the internet, for a fee. Manarola also has a couple of good restaurants, a small grocery market, and ATM.
* Very good value for the room rate.

Cons:
* No sea view, but we didn't mind. There is a stream below, which makes a nice sound with the balcony doors open, and a nice view of the hillside.
* Bed was large, but not the most comfortable.
* We kept the windows open one day and experienced little gnat-like bugs in our room one night. Not the flat's fault, but was still bothersome.
* No A/C, but we found we didn't need it if we cracked the windows for some air circulation. There was a fan in the closet if we had needed one.

Overall, we loved it! We would love to return.