2-3 Wks in Lake Como area. First hand Villa/apart' recommendations needed.
 

We will be in Europe (mainly Italy & France) for 3.5 months. We've decided we want to base in The Lakes area for 2-3 weeks to just 'chill out', enjoy the scenery, walk and do days trips. We will have a car.

The choices seem endless for apartments etc. I'd love to hear your recommendations for great Lake front places. We'd need a 1 bedroom place, c/w kitchen, laundry facilities etc. and would love to have breakfast and afternoon drinks on a patio looking at the lake. We don't need to be in a major town, in fact would prefer an off the main path kind of place, with small local restaurants for dining. Fresh food markets an absolute plus, its all about the 'food'! ;-)

We leave at the end of July and will be in the Lakes area mid September.
Thanks in advance
AD

With the exception of the towns of Como and Lecco, these towns are small. Probably too small to support multiple fresh food markets. If the town is big enough to have a boat stop, then will have some restaurant choices.

Mid-september should be slightly off season which will help with apartment availability. Having a rental car opens up the entire lake area.

How luxurious and well decorated are you looking for?
Does 'lake front' mean 'an apartment directly on the lake' or in a lake-front town and with a lake view?
Any price expectations?

We've stayed here

http://www.lakecomoapartment.com

a few time and love it....the building is 15 foot form the lake edge. However you do have to walk down a lot of steps to the apartment as cars can't drive through the bottom part of the village.

Not sure if this will change things, our daughter 22 and her friend are going to take 2-3 weeks off work and join us. Is Lake Como a good base that they can do day or o/night trips to major cities and sites using trains? I think it is, but would love to hear your thoughts. It would be good if they can go off and do their own thing as well.

Obviously that now has us looking at 2 bedroom apartments.

I actually don't think Lago di Como is a good base for trips to major cities and sights using public transportation. It gets a little more doable if you stay close enough to the city of Como to have easy access to the train line. From the city of Como it is about one hour to Milano Centrale, which then offers fast trains to a number of major destinations. But still, you are looking 4-5 hour commutes from door-to-door to get cities like Verona or Firenze or Bologna.

Here's an attractive apartment in Blevio:

http://www.flipkey.com/properties/vi...+of+lake+como/

If your daughter and friend want to see the sights, they will be doing lots of overnights, not day trips, from Lago di Como. The lake towns are fun if they want to hike and take boat trips, but not if they want interesting evenings.

I don't think any of the lakes are ideally situated to be a base for seeing major sights in Italy. Perhaps the young people should either spend a week or more touring on their own and then join you, or you should consider picking a different spot with better train connections to famous destinations (and better food than the lakes!) and then spending a week together on the lakes.

PS: What might work as a combination of relaxation for you and major sightseeing for the young people is an apartment in Fiesole, above Firenze. It would be 15 minute bus ride to the Firenze train station -- which means from there they could catch trains to Pisa, Lucca, Siena, Bologna, Rome -- even Venice becomes doable as an overnight. They could also spend some evenings in Firenze itself, and a taxi ride home would not be too much of a splurge.

One or two of these apartments are located steps from the bus line into Firenze:

http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/fie...fa/find.squery

After some time there, you could move up to the lakes, en masse.

And look at www.slowtrav.com for first-hand reviews of rental villas/apartments and rental agencies.

We've never traveled for 3.5 months at a time. My mind boggles. But we used to schedule in rest stops, but DH would get bored. He got bored after 3 days in Bellagio. Now we just add more time to certain stops -- stretch things out.

you might look at parkervillas.com - they specialize in Italian villa accommodations and give excellent advice and information. They know all their villas and have local people available in case of any problems. They are located in Boston and Italy. I have no connection with them, but my daughter has used them several times.

Thank you all so much, lots to think about. Mimar, my mind is 'boggled' but its fun.

For your daughter, with three weeks for a first trip to Italy, I would not spend all 3 weeks based at Lake Como. (but I might do 50/50 or 60/40).

Rome and nearby - 4 or 5 full days
Venice - 2 or 3 full days
Bologna is a nice town and a good rail hub
Tuscany - general consensus is that Tuscany is better with a rental car, which might stretch her budget too much.

With a rental car, there are several day trips from Lake Como but these are non-major destinations (Soglio, Lugano, Bellinzona, The Engadine valley, Bergamo, and some others).

Shes now thinking they may stay with us a week or so and then do a contiki/geko type tour of Greece. She has been to Roma, London & Paris, so is looking for something a bit different. We will have a car and can do trips with them and 'drop' them at stations etc.