This was absolutely one of the best decisions we made about our trip! Over the course of quite a long day starting at 7.30am, we visited all 5 villages. The tour operator had arranged all transport (minibus to and from La Spezia, train tickets around the villages, a boat ride too). Our guide, Alberto, was excellent - he was very knowledgable and entertaining. There were 10 of us in total and 6 of is decided to brave the hike. I fell behind a number of times (I blame the many steps and my short legs!) but Alberto made sure he stopped at a good point to wait for us to catch up, and kept us going. Having done this tour a number of times, Alberto knew exactly where all the best views would be. My only comment (and we had expected this) is that whilst we had some time to explore each village, this ended up being about 30-45 minutes in most cases (certainly if you choose to do the hike), so you won’t have time for a full Instagram photoshoot :D they villages werent overly busy, I can imagine that will only improve too.