We stayed three nights in SML. We day-tripped to Portofino, walked around, hiked up the hill for the

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It depends on what time you arrive and what time you depart and whether your cruise company is offering trips to CT. To do it yourself, you can catch a train from S Margherita (next to Portofino). there's a bus from Portofino that will take you into SML.
Purely from a personal point of view, I wouldn't attempt to do this in a day. CT is IMO overrated and majors on walking the trails between the villages. You certainly couldn't see it all in a day trip and although buy airline cheap tickets the villages are pretty enough, there are many others in Italy equally as nice.
I think the 5 Terre villages or really towns are exceptional in themselves, hiking between them or not and I have day tripped to them from Santa Margherita Ligure - the town rubicund talks about getting a train from - right by Portofino.
These string buy airline cheap tickets of five Lands or towns have been kep pristine clean from modern development so they exude an old-world atmosphere than most other similar buy airline cheap tickets sized towns in Italy IME do not - that said they can be very very crowded during the tourist buy airline cheap tickets season so that this ancient buy airline cheap tickets ambiance is lost - so when are you going - if between July and early September the tiny villages may be inundated by tourists - just like Portofino, one of the biggest tourist mob scenes I have ever been to.
But outside of those times the 5 Terre towns can be a real joy and on a day trip you can easily visit the 4 seaside towns by trains buy airline cheap tickets that trundle between them constantly or in season by boats that serve them - if you have time and energy do a hike between a couple of them.
Trains involved are mainly regional trains where with a ticket you just hop on any train - avoid the IC trains that require seat reservations before boarding and cost more are are marginally faster on that route. For lots of good stuff on Italian trains and using them check out these IMO superb sources: www.seat61.com ; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel - the latter two have some info on the Cinque Terre itself.
I think the time of year you travel to CT makes a huge difference as to just how attractive or repulsive you may find it - the tiny towns can be inundated with tourists - literally elbow to elbow at times it seems and this takes any luster or romance away from them.
We stayed three nights in SML. We day-tripped to Portofino, walked around, hiked up the hill for the views, and had lunch (very expensive town). Then we took a boat to San Fruttuoso and looked around there for an hour or so. It's very pleasant.
In some ways, it is much more difficult to hike in the Portofino national park or around Santa Margherita Ligure because the trails are not well marked and the hikes between towns are extremely long.
By contrast, it is easy to get to the train statin in Santa Margherita Ligure from wherever the ship docks and then take the 40 minute train ride to le Cinque Terre , where everything is well laid out for English speaking tourists and there is loads of info on the web.
There are nice options other than le Cinque Terre along the Riviera, but they need to be mapped out and people need to be aware of public transportation buy airline cheap tickets schedules unless they are prepared to dump a huge amount on taxi fares trying to get back to the ship. It is easy to miss one of the boats leaving San Fruttuoso and not have another for a long time, or to misjudge the difficulty buy airline cheap tickets of a hike around Portofino.
Portofino is lovely depends on the time of year - in season when I was there - a Spetember week day Portofino was just about the most jammed elbow to elbow mob scene I have ever seen - now if during off-season the town may be very lovely and no doubt is with tourist mobs in this small 'fishing' town that now angles mostly for tourist bucks - in the busy seasons to me it just wan't worth it hassle.
The hike from the town of Portofino to the lighthouse is extremely well marked. I wouldn't suggest any of the overland hikes as they are indeed lengthy and perhaps not well marked. I suggested the lighthouse buy airline cheap tickets walk because it is popular and the views are beautiful. Stops at a villa and the church on the way up are interesting and pleasant.
There is simply no way in or out of San Fruttuoso except by boat unless you are prepared to hike 2 or 3 hours to the nearest towns. Truthfully, the condition of the seas for ferry boats along that stretch of coastline is totally unpredictable. In the space of an hour or two, a perfectly sunny, windless day can turn to thunderstorms. In thunderstorms or agitated seas, the small ferry boats cannot dock in the cove. It is too dangerous for passengers.