Rapallo with kids: why you’ll love this family friendly town on the Italian Riviera

Rapallo with kids travel guide. Based on our own travels, our tips and guide to the best things to do in Rapallo with children, and why we love Rapallo for families.

The small city of Rapallo is a pleasant, colorful, local coastal town on the Italian riviera, in the stunning region of Liguria.

Located close to Cinque Terre, Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino, Rapallo shares several elements with its famous neighbors, yet also very much retains a personality on its own.

In Rapallo, you find the colorful homes typical of this area, pretty piazzas, restaurants, cafes, train and ferry options, beach clubs.

Yet, since Rapallo is much larger than its neighboring towns, the feel is much more authentic, local and urban: in Rapallo, you are very much in a living and breathing Italian town, not just a seaside resort!

I am very fond of Rapallo but I am not going to lie to you: when I say this, many Italians show surprise, and tell me they much prefer nearby Santa Margherita.

I can see why. Santa Margherita a is smaller, more upscale, more geared towards high end tourism and closer to Portofino.

Yet, in Rapallo there is an authenticity you don’t find in smaller towns and the amount of services and connections you have here is hard to beat.

So, today, I am going to tell you all about Rapallo and why ins many instances I find staying in Rapallo with kids the best option!

I hope you enjoy it!

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Why visit Rapallo with kids

There are many reasons why I recommend Rapallo for a family stay.

• Rapallo is a very pretty, safe and well served coastal town, easy to reach by car train and ferry, with a family friendly vibe

• The town has a walkable and flat city center full of restaurant, shops and services

• Rapallo is very much a living and breathing town, so you have more services here year round than if opting for a summer resort

• Rapallo is a great jump off point to visit Cinque Terre and Portofino

• Rapallo tends to be significantly cheaper than many more upscale resorts nearby

Why not stay in Rapallo with kids

Rapallo is a big center and feels like a small city. While it still retains the charm of a typical Italian town, it is densely inhabited and teeming with local life.

It is therefore suited to families who want a local experience and services, more than those looking for a sleepy, secluded seaside resort.

The best time to visit Rapallo with kids

Rapallo is best visited between late spring and early autumn. At this time, you can enjoy the sea (swimming and boat trips), tourism services will be in full swing and you can take easy day trips to nearby localities.

Within the summer months, August is the busiest and most expensive; June and September usually the most pleasant.

The best things to do in Rapallo with kids

Rapallo is a lovely base to explore the area, so the best things to do here are a mix of things you can do in the town and easy excursions you can take from here.

Enjoy Rapallo’s city center, promenade and castle

Rapallo has a lovey city center, with colorful streets, shops, cafes and a wonderful, flat promenade along the coast.

The town has been in existence since the middle ages and you can still feel the history here: small streets, frescoes, porticoes all bear witness of life and events that took place in the area.

Fun fact! As you walk around Rapallo, you’ll notice many houses with open windows painted on them, as if to mimic a real window.

This use dates from the 1700s when the city was at war. At the time, there was a tax on windows so the owners would keep the real ones boarded up, yet paint open ones on the walls to maintain the beauty of their building!

Idea for kids: get them to see how many fake windows they can find. Some are super pretty and even have cats or flowers designed on them!

The center has all you may need in terms of services, restaurants etc and it is pretty and pleasant for a stroll.

In pretty much all seasons, if you are in Rapallo, you can take a nice local walk to the stores, playground or beach, you can go out for ice cream of a meal and thanks to the several pedestrianized streets, kids are reasonably safe to tot around you in large parts of the town.

Rapallo also has an ancient castle, currently closed to visitors (it’s an event venue), yet pretty and atmospheric!

Go to the playground

My kids are very fond of Rapallo and the main reason for this love is one of the city’s playgrounds, which has nice climbing frames and the golden ticket to little kids happiness: coin operated cars!

The playground is indeed lovely and has great appeal for kids and adults alike since it is just beside a lovely cafe with outdoor tables, where you can have drinks, focaccia and nibbles while the kids play (you cannot see the whole playground from the tables, just parts, but it’s literally just outside it and the playground is fenced, so keeping an eye on them is easy.

Address: Corso Giuseppe Assereto 55, 16035 Rapallo

Go to the beach

Rapallo has nice water access right in the center of town and something rare in this part of Liguria: a sandy beach!

The sandy area of the coast is under the management of ‘Bagni Lido & Flora’ beach clubs, from where you can rent chair and umbrellas for a day or longer.

The lido has chairs on the sand and on sundecks: make sure you specify you want one on the actual beach for ease.

Rapallo also has a small free beach (spiaggia libera) with sand, which is cute and handy if you want to pop onto the beach for few hours and don’t need or don’t want a full lido setup.

Address: Via Avenaggi, 29, 16035 Rapallo

Take the ferry to Santa Margherita, Portofino and San Fruttuoso

Rapallo is an ideal jump off point to visit Santa Margherita, Portofino and San Fruttuoso, among the most scenic and beautiful spots in the area.

The ferry leaves from the main Rapallo dock in the city center, very easy to reach on foot from anywhere in the city center and you can use it to see all three in a day or, better in my opinion, over two different days.

Santa Margherita is a lovely, upscale town, worth seeing for its pretty city center, promenade and shops. It is a lovely place for an afternoon or a meal: we often come here as the sun goes down to get the fresh air on the ferry and enjoy gelato in this very pretty center!

Find here >>> our guide to Santa Margherita with kids

San Fruttuoso is a stunning cove, perfect for snorkeling and swimming, ideal if you have older kids.

The cove has uneven terrain, rocks and can only be reached by ferry, so it is not immediately suitable to families with toddlers, yet it is fantastic if you have older kids or adventurous kids who like to swim in crystal clear waters and don’t mind wearing water shoes.

For is, it is heaven, one of the most beautigl places for swimming!

Portofino needs no introduction as it is one of the most famous and scenic spots in the area and Italy ingerneal.

A tiny port in a stunning natural cove, Portofino doesn’t have much for kids (it is pretty much just a marina) but the walk up the castle and the stroll to Baia di Paraggi (sandy beach) is worth it!

Find here >>> our guide to Portofino with kids

Take the train to Cinque Terre

The pretty towns of Cinque Terre are easy to reach by train from Rapallo. In a day, you can easily see all five owns and come back to Rapallo for dinner.

Rapallo train station is very much in the center, and you can get trains to Levanto (from where you can take the ferry to Cinque Terre and see them from the water) or a train straight into the towns.

Depending on the one you pick, you may get a train that is direct or you may need to change in Monterosso, which is one of the best connected.

Luckily, Monterosso is also the most family friendly, so a change there is a great opportunity to enjoy it! You can read here: all about Monterosso with kids .

And you can find train schedule and tickers on the train provider website Trenitalia.com

What to do in Rapallo with kids when it rains: day trip to Genova

Rapallo has some nice churches and museums (including the most peculiar Hairdryer Museum, which can be fun as a curiosity!) yet if you are looking for an activity to spend a long rainy day with kids, my recommendation is to get the train and go to nearby Genoa.

Genoa has a stunning Aquarium and Kids’ museum, both in the same complex in the ancient port area and they are absolutely wonderful.

As well as the two attractions, the area has large open spaces and playground, should the rain give reprieve, and it is walking distance from Genoa’s beautiful city center, worth seeing for its beautiful architecture, shops and atmospheres.

You can read here >>> all you can do with in Genoa with kids

Where to eat in Rapallo

Rapallo is full of lovely restaurants and the quality in Liguria is so high, it is genuinely hard to go wrong! However, here are some addresses you may like:

Restaurants:

Armida 1905 – lovely, family friendly restaurant with a good variety of options ranging from pasta to meat, fish and vegetarian options with many also suitable for the palate of kids – there is a very good variety here and the service is very accommodating to kids. Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Armida1905/

Rapala’ – a well known, good restaurant for seafood especially, it has indoor and outdoor tables and offers the option to book online. Pesto is of course on the menu too! Web: https://www.ristoranterapala.it/en/home-en/

Focaccia and baked goods:

Panificio Pasticceria Vivaldi, traditional forno (bakery) on Via G. Mameli 18, Rapallo, fantastic for delicious take out focaccia but also other cooked staples, for those days when you want to eat at home but don’t fancy cooking yourself!

Pasticceria Canepa, patisserie where you can take Rapallo’s typical sweets ‘i cubeletti’. Address: Piazza Garibaldi 41, Rapallo 16035

Where to stay in Rapallo with kids

When looking at Rapallo, you can look at a stay in the town proper or a stay in more luxury accommodation towards San Michele di Pagana, which is further from the center, but where you have more space, stunning views and hotels with amenities such as pools and large gardens.

Excelsior Palace Portofino, 5 star hotel. beautiful, high end hotel with sweeping views of Rapallo and the Tigullio Coast.

The hotel has rooms for up to three guest (double and single bed), free baby cot on request, option for an additional bed (depends on room type, enquire at the time of booking), it has two pools, wellness center and restaurant on site.

Hotel Vesuvio, 4 star hotel -lovely, well appointed hotel with family rooms to up to 4 guests (double beds and singles, or two doubles).

Excellent location to enjoy Rapallo city center, the beach and to catch the ferries, an ideal jump off point to use as a base to explore the area.

Hotel Giulio Cesare, 3 star hotel – nice, clean hotel in Rapallo with family rooms for up to 4 guests and lovely breakfast (with gluten free and lactose free options!) Great location only a few minutes from the beach which you can reach on foot.

How to get to Rapallo

Rapallo is easy to reach by train. It’s station is called ‘Rapallo’ and has connections to Genova, Milan and Rome, direct or with one change depending on train selected.