Will fly into Milan in May 06 and was thinking of spending four nights on either Lake Como or Lake Lugano before heading to Venice and then to Rome.

Interested in boat rides, easy hiking, mountain views, scenic train and bus rides, poking around old mansions and gardens.... .

Thinking of taking some combination of the Bernina Express, Palm Express Post bus ride and Centovalli train, while in the area.

Is ease of access and travel time about the same from Malpensa to Lugano and Varrena?

Is four days too long in say Lugano or should I spend two nights in each location?

ttt

For easy access to your train/bus scenic tours, Lugano would be perfect. There are also some nice mountain views and easy hiking in the area. A few nice gardens too.

However, Varenna probably has more grand old mansions and Como lake is beautiful.

With your interests, I'd stay in Lugano and make day trips to Varenna, etc. It would be a better base.

Thanks schuler, I'm leaning towards Lugano. Any thoughts on the Bernina Express, Palm Express or Centovalli train?

Sorry. I haven't been on any of them. (We used to do motorcycle tours and now we just use the car.)

Here's a great thread that might help you: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=2

I would suggest Varenna. It is easy to take the ferry or the train to other areas. For a nice hike there is the Castle of Vezio up the mt. from the lake. There are lovely gardens around the lake, Villa Ci[pressi and Villa Monastero. There is a beautiful river that runs down from the Mt. through Varenna. We were there two years ago May and plan to return again this May.

"Interested in boat rides, easy hiking, mountain views, scenic train and bus rides, poking around old mansions and gardens...."

I'm not that familiar with Lugano, but you can do all of that on Lake Como, certainly. Getting from one to the other is not totally easy, though I think there's a bus that goes through Porlezza. Make sure you carry passports with you - that's an international, non-EU border.

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Deirdré Straughan

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Appreciate the inputs.

I would suggest you stay in Lugano. While I must say that Lugano itself is a relatively big town and not as charming as Varenna I think it is the better hub for the day trips you want to take.

To do the Centovalli train ride involves too many changes and is practically not doable from Varenna.

The Palm Express starts in Lugano - your best option would be to stay overnight in the Engadin and take the Bernina Express next day back to Lugano.

Four days is definitely not enough to do all the day trips AND do justice to the area itself. There is Monte San Salvatore, Monte Bre, Gandria, Morcote and Lugano with old town - not to speak of Monte Generoso, Meride, and some more ...

Hi Cato. A strong vote here for Varenna and Lake Como over Lugano. For me, four days in Lugano would be too much and four days in Lake Como would not be enough.

Thanks for the feedback. Tough choice for sure.

I have not been to Lugano, but know that Varrena is very nice. Looks like you can stay in Varrena and easily do a daytrip to Lugano.

Either choice is a winner, so whichever you pick, don't think you made a mistake by not going the other way.
I would probably pick Lugano because I have been there before and really enjoyed it and can think of several things I would have fun doing over four days. On Lake Como, I stayed in Bellagio (in May 04) rather than Varenna and loved it and could easily fill four days there as well.
I usually stayed in Lugano, but might try staying in Morcote the next time (Morcote appealed more to me than Gandria).
I think it depends on whether you'd rather be immersed in a truly Italian atmosphere or a unique Swiss/Italian mix (one note: do you speak Italian? I found that on Lake Como the default second language was English; in the Swiss Ticino, the default second language was German).

Lake Como, the scenery is fantastic. For a visual of the scenery, try http://www.arcellaschi.com/. There is a button in the lower right that leads to their photo offerings (it is a commercial site). All from the Lake Como Lake Lugano area.

Admittedly, I have not been to Lake Lugano but Lake Como is stupendous. (When movie producer Goerge Lucas needed a setting that looked more beautiful than Earth, he shot that sequence at Lake Como.)

Thanks for the aditional inputs.

Anybody else want to add something?

There are some photos and links on my site, since I live on Lake Como - start from http://beginningwithi.com/italy/travel/lake_como.htm

ps There are also videos of Lake Como scattered throughout my videoblog, starts on http://beginningwithi.com/vlog/index.html