Thanks for the info ycemann - will google "hotel a rimini" for more options as well!

So you are aware "Rimini" addresses covers ~ 14km ~ 9miles of coastline from Torre Pedrera in the north to the southern end of the Airport.

It is therefore highly important that wherever you choose (wherever in Italy) you check the exact location of any property. Do not rely on the Hotels "town" address or the hotels own blurb. YOu could literally end up miles from where you thought you were going:

Similar issues with Riccione.

General thing in Italy. Where there is no immediate postal town properties have to take the nearest place. THe areas in between Rimini and Riccione for example are just areas where both towns have expanded.

Rimini itself was and still is a prime destination for Italian youngsters looking for nightclub scene. My Italian friends form Turin and Milan used to go there as youngsters - that was in the 80's.

North of the harbour up towards Rivabella/Viserba is popular with young families.

Rimini/Riccione/Cattolica coastline is one of the most overdeveloped beachfronts in Italy. Only beaten by Viareggio/Forte dei Marmi on the west coast.

Unfortunately a lot of italys coastline has been ruined by over developement.

Unfortunately in Italy show an Italian some sand he will line it with Hotels, cover it in Bagni (Beach emplacements) and charge you for the privelege of going to the beach.

You are not allowed to plonk yourself down on the sand in the vicinity of these Bagni.

A sunbed will cost you €12+ (EACH) per day.

The only "free" beach area is at the northern end near the pier.

The Bagni at Rimini (and Forte dei Marmi) are the only manmande objects visible from Space ;-)

The via Elena Regina (on which the Hotel Cristallo is) is the main thoroughfare between Rimini and Riccione. Lots of traffic including buses.

From Piazzale Tripoli southwards the street becomes lined with tacky shops and snack bars. Restaurants have their outside tables on the pavement right next to the traffic.

None of the Hotels are actually beachfront as the other main road runs between them and the promenade on the seaside.

Rimini old town centre (around Corso Augusto) is very nice area away from the "tackiness" but a good 2 miles from the Cristallo

If you wanted to choose this area IMO Riccione would be a better choice.

In Riccione the Viale Ceccarini (off the via Milano from the sea front) is a mostly pedestrianised area with numerous quality shops and restaurants with side streets to other bars and restaurants.

The Lungomare Liberta (road) between the Hotels and the beach is a pedestrian road so a lot quieter.

Examples

http://www.nauticohotel.it/

www.lungomare.com/en/hotel-riccione_2.html

There are various train services connecting Cattlica, Riccione and Rimini up to Ravenna.

Ravenna is only ~ 1hr by regional train. Only costs €5

www.lefrecce.it or www.trenitalia.com for trains.

Please Note when using Regional trains you must stamp your ticket in one of the yellow boxes at the station/platform prior to boarding. This is to validate your ticket. Failure to do so will result in a €50 on the spot fine.

Regional Tickets are for a specific Regional journey e.g. Rimini to Ravenna - but are not fixed to a specific Regional service, day or time hence the need to stamp.

You can for instance purchase Regional tickets in advance, keep them in your wallet/purse and then just stamp on the day of use.

@giftzwerg

But do You really know what You are talking about? You wrote this now: "A sunbed will cost you €12+ (EACH) per day." while some days ago You wrote this: "The seafront is just one long stretch of Hotels and the beaches are just covered in "Bagni" Beach emplacements where you will get charged €15 for a sunbed."

These people asking informaion about Rimini, not about Riccione. You keep on making pubblicity for hotels in Riccione! Do You get some commission from them?

I go to repeat again what I wrote some days ago and I hope You learn from this:

tripadvisor.com/…47141054

I kindly ask You to stop writing bad about Rimini!!!

I think Rimini is a nice ancient town worth to visit, but if you want to go to the sea, enjoy the nightlife, beautiful shops, a wonderful pedestrian lungomare where you can walk or seat in a restaurant just in front the sea for around 2 km, go to Riccione, it's the really best place on the Romagna Adriatic coast for a sea holiday for all ages

Edited: 4:22 pm, May 02, 2013

Forget about Riccione, apart of the small walking street and the small beach boulevard, there is nothing this city can offer You!

Ah ha, we're there again, Rimini vs Riccione!

Please take ycemann's advice (if not mine) to not stay in Riccione, it offers absolutely nothing. No history and certainly no culture. They can't even offer good shops anymore as the top designer boutique market came to an end in the 80's. Once you've walked Viale Ceccarini (10 mins) and half of Vialle Dante (5 mins) you've done it. A paese built on tourism and tourism alone.

Unless some of your family are gay or Russian, you might struggle to find anything interesting to do, as it seems to me that these days Riccione has a very niche market.

Forgot to mention that I'm yet to pay more than 4 euro's for a sun bed. 12 euro's!!??!!

Edited: 10:40 am, May 07, 2013

I have to disagree: Riccione is smaller than Rimini but all the best shops and restaurants are here and the shorter distances are a pro if there are elder people in the group.

There are not small streets but big pedestrian boulevards, including the brand new lungomare (which has become a real open living room on the sea, with bars for aperitivo, restaurants etc...) in which you can walk, run, bike without seeing a car for the distance of around 40 "bagni" (from Porto to S. Martino), and the world famous Viale Ceccarini (the complete name is viale Maria Ceccarini, actually Maria Ceccarini was born Maria Boorman Wheeler, a rich american lady who married an Italian and did a lot for Riccione, so the main street has her name)

Rimini is bigger and has also a nice old centre if you want to do some sightseeing, but for a typical beach holyday for all ages I think Riccione is more suitable and you can visit rimini in a day trip from Riccione (10 min. by train).

If you decide for Riccione ask your hotel which is their "bagno", because the really central area is from 60 to 85, so in this way you are sure to have the main attractions really at a walking distance.

And in any case I think none of the contributors should say "don't go there" in such an unpolite way.

Finally gizftwerg description is actually realistic, I think adriatc coast can be liked or not but it's not useful to anybody to always say that everything is wonderful just to convince people to go in a place instead of another, everybody should list pro and cons in order people can build their own ideas and decide.

Edited: 10:49 am, May 07, 2013

It's because I care so much that I try to persuade tourists not to stay there. On reflection Sylvia, you're right that to attempt to stop someone going to a resort is probably inappropriate, and for this I must apologise, I just don't want someone IMO to make a terrible mistake.

I'll give you that the new Riccione boulevard puts Rimini boulevard in the corner, and taking into account that there is an 80 year old in the group, it would be nicer.

I'll also agree with you Sylvia, that perhaps, taking in account that there is an elderly person, the shorter distances could be a pro.

However, the "World famous Viale Ceccarini" is history. The boutiques cater for an Eastern market and are far better in Rimini, as are the restaurants. I am seriously struggling to understand what you are seeing in Riccione that I'm not. I've thought about what you have written, and on reflection am able to see your point of view on the size, the boulevard, the attractiveness. But other things no, so I please ask you to enlighten me. You wrote, to ask the hotel about the attractions, please explain the attractions, I just don't get it. I know that it appears that we are continually disagreeing with each other but I seriously want to know. We can even do a "pro and contro" if you like, you name a shop, then I'll match it. You name a restaurant, and I'll match it, you name a bar and I'll match it. Please, enlighten me on Riccione attractions.

Thanks for your interesting questions, not easy to answer actually.

First of all I think we both love these 2 places because we feel "home" there, and this can be explained just after years of stays, beautiful summers and memories (I came the st time when I was 4 month old and I'm 44, my mother used to come when she was a kid, and my kids do and bring their friends).

Then for beaches I think they are very similar, I used to come to Rimini with my classmates on Sundays when we went t school, simply beacuse it was closer to Bologna, but at a certain point I suggested to move to Riccione, which I knew very well, simply because the beach was closer to the station, but they immediately loved it and never proposed to go to Rimini again.

If I compare Riccione with Rimini I take into consideration mainly the part of the town on the beach, Rimini centre is for me to compare with other cities, the beautiful small ones of Emilia Romagna, like Ferrara and Ravenna.

So as for the sea part, I really think Riccione is much better than Rimini: you have the most beautiful shops of the Riviera (together with Milano Marittima probably) and they are not for Eastern buyers only, I always buy there in July with the sales, and many people do (and there are still top brand shops like Iceberg, Armani and Dolce and Gabbana), a large pedestrian area, green and beautiful on the sea, with bars, restaurants and no cars, a beautiful porto with nice restaurants as well, all the fancy discos for young people, Oltremare and Acquafan for kids and teenagers, Terme for elder people, you see Gabicce and this gives you something natural to see among the many hotels of all the riviera adriatica; there's the friday market where you can find fabulous vintage long elegant dresses for 5-50 € , what you can ask more to it?

But if it's many years you are coming you should know that Riccione is considered the best place together with Milano Marittima of the Adriatic coast, many famous people if they come for a few days in riviera stay here, it's from the 60S that it's a place for the Italian (and sometimes international too) jet-set (did you know that the famous football player Pelè chosed Riccione for his honeymoon?).

It became a sort of "mith" for young people in the late 80s, when Radio DJ started to work from here in summer (and they still do every day in Viale Ceccarini), actually I did not like it very much in that period because it was too crowded, and also now I never stay in August for the same reason, I like mainly June and July and after a few years of it I hate "La notte Rosa" for the same reason,

As for the kind of tourism, there are all kind of people, Russians of course (but also people from Arabians countries), gays probably ( I usually don't ask), young people, families, elder people (my mum's aunt has come here until she was 86, then she died, and she loved Riccione a lot, she loved to walk early in the morning on the beach to the porto, and to dress up at night to go out and see many beautiful people in their best clothes)

Of course you don't come to Riccione for the culture, but I live in Bologna inside the culture every day so I don't care if for a month I just sunbath, walk, talk, read (this is culture in any case), go to the restaurants and do some shopping.

I don't wnat to convince anybody to come if it's not the right place for them, I would like to have less people sometimes in July too, but when I read a post I ask to myself what they are actually looking for, depending on the period in which they travel, the age of people and on what they are focusing on, for these reasons I suggest a place or another.

The average price for a sunbed is around € 8, but if you stay more days you spend less (like 15 for 2 days and so on).

Edited: 1:37 pm, May 07, 2013