jessicam40

Hello,

Help is much appreciated for our itinerary - we are traveling to Northern Italy in April. We are flying in/out of Milan. We have 8 nights. I would like to go to Lake Como, Lake Maggiore, and Venice. Can you please suggest an itinerary - I am struggling with fitting Venice (comfortably) in our itinerary, since we plan on driving in the Lake District.

I would also appreciate any recommendations.

Thank you!!!
Jessica

Postal

It's not much of a drive from Lake Como to Venice (two hours tops), but if you want to spend the night in Venice, you of course have to park your car outside of Venice or take the train from the lake district. Personally I wouldn't go to Venice without spending at least one night.

Traveler863

I agree, Venice isn't a long drive but I'd definitely spend at least one night, perhaps two. If you have a car the best thing to do is drive all the way in, well as far as you can drive and park at Piazzale Roma. From the parking garage you just walk across the street to pick up the vaporetto (water bus) to get into Venice.

jessicam40

Thanks for the replies!!! I really appreciate your feedback. My concern was whether we should take the time to drive back to Milan from the Lake District and take the train to Venice? I was under the assumption that the drive from Lake Como to Venice was around 4 hours?

My tentative plan is to fly into Milan - take the rental car straight to Lake Maggiore for 2 nights, than to Lake Como for 3 nights, than to Venice (via train? car?) for 2 nights and then back to Milan 1 night and fly out. Any critiques/suggestions? I would rather not spend the night in Milan, but I don't know how to plan accordingly, since we fly out at 10:30 am.

THANKS TO ALL WHO REPLY!!!

TuckH

Why not work it the other way around i.e. from Milan, train to Venice and, when ready, rent the car from there and drive back to Milan via the Lakes?

jessicam40

Very smart, I was just thinking of that. Thanks for the reply. I am just wondering if the drive from Venice to Lake Como is really only a couple hours?

And, do you think I should do 3 nights Lake Como, 2 nights Lake Maggiore, or the other way around?

Traveler863

Thats probably not a bad idea to go straight to Venice via train. The drive from Venice back to Milan area is more like 2.5 hours and thats at a good clip. Factor another half hour to reach Como area or perhaps more depending on where you go. So yes you are looking at a good 3+ hour trip. Do Lake Maggiore last as that is closest to MXP (assuming you are flying out of MXP) a good place for last nights is Stresa, 3 nights is better.

bobthenavigator

It depends where on Como. If on the west side--or Bellagio---then I would plan 4 hours. The west side is better with a car. Yes, I would start in venice and try to sleep on the train. Then, get your car and drive back to Como, and finally transition to Maggiore. I would plan on 3-3-2.
Fron Como to Maggiore I prefer the north route via Lugano and Locarno--much more scenic. Hope this helps.

jessicam40

thanks bobthenavigator, great suggestions. Now, I just need to figure out where we are staying and where to rent the car outside Venice.

Any suggestions on where to rent the car outside Venice? And how to get to the car rental agency? Thanks.

Steve_James

Jessica - If you want to rent from Venice itself the main rental agencies are at Piazzale Roma - which is very convenient.

Alternatively you could pick up the car anywhere en route, e.g Verona, Vicenza, Padova ...

Hope this helps ...

Steve

TuckH

Since you'd be whizzing right by it, you might want to consider a stop (if you have the time) in wonderful Verona.

Another idea would be to not waste valuable daylight hours going from Venice (and/or Verona) to Como on the very UNscenic Autostrada.

jessicam40

Thanks for the info - I was thinking about doing a stop in Verona.

Does anyone have suggestions for accommodations in
Venice/Stresa/Bellagio (I would like to spend around 120-150 Euros/nt)? And would you recommend staying at another town than Bellagio on Lake Como?

Thanks so much for the help with our trip!!!