Bellagio or Varenna ?
 

Bellagio @ Hotel Belvedere or Varenna @ Hotel De Lac for 3 nights with 9yr old in June? Please comment for me. Thank You!!

You are in a can't-lose situation. Either place is fine, though I lean towards Bellagio simply because it's a larger town and there's more to do. Varenna is charming town, but very small. Thus, especially with a child, you can do a lot more "exploring" in Bellagio.

Try doing a search for Varenna and Bellagio. There have been numerous threads on this very subject, including hotels in the last 3 months. There are some very good comments that should be helpful.

We stayed at the du Lac in Varenna last June, and loved the hotel. It's right on the lake, beautiful views, and many of the rooms have balconies over the water. Varenna was fun, and the other lake towns are easily reached via ferry, so you can still spend the day in Bellagio.

I understand that it's about 1 hour by train from Milan to Varenna. Is it possible to visit Bellagio and/or other parts of Como within the same day using the ferries?

Also does anyone know if there is direct train service from Varenna to Venice?

Thanks.

You are going to have to go through Milan to get to Venice from Varenna. The ferries fun quite often from Varenna to Bellagio but I don't know how long it took.

The ferry between Varenna and Bellagio and between Bellagio and Menaggio each take about 15 minutes.

How convenient (or inconvenient) to travel from Milan by train, take the ferry and with luggage?

Francophile, the answer depends on a couple factors:
1. The train that goes to the station in Como that is very close to the ferry/hydrofoil departure point does not leave from the main Milan station, but the other one, the name of which I forget. If you take the train from the main station in Milan, you arrive at a station in Como that is about a half mile from the ferry departure point. So, how convenient will this other station be for you in Milan?
2. Where is your hotel once you get off the ferry? In other words, is your hotel close to the lake or will you have an uphill climb?

I'm sorry I wasn't specific-I'm thinking of Hotel Belvedere in Bellagio & I don't know how far it is really from the ferry dock.

If Varenna is less of a problem to get to from Milan I wouldn't mind staying at Hotel du Lac and visit Bellagio via ferry since I heard it's about 20 mins.?

Thanks again.

The Hotel Belverdere is up a hill. We think it's worth it, but it is an uphill climb from the the shorefront.
You really can't go wrong with either hotel or location, considering the convenience of the frequent ferry trips.

Michaelpl,
We just returned from Bellagio during the past week.
Stayed at Hotel Belvedere and loved it.
However, I would not take half board or eat there--The food is between fair and lousy. Great place to stay and in my opinion, a far superior place to stay than the De Lac in Varenna. We visited the DeLac to see if we did right.
You will love the Belvedere and the town is much nicer than Varenna with more to do there with a 9yr old.

There are taxis at the ferry dock in Bellagio if you don't want to walk up the hill to the Belvedere.

Gino, can you say why Hotel du Lac in Varenna did not appeal to you?

And thanks Jean,Howard, and Ronda. It sounds like Varenna is a bit more convenient for trains and ferry service is frequent to visit Bellagio from Varenna but the hotels appear to be nicer in Bellagio. I am still undecided...

Bellagio. We stayed there in June. We had arrived by train in Varenna and walked through the town to get to the ferry for Bellagio. We were glad we stayed there. A bit more developed with shops and restaurants.

Thanks Asbury10, I guess Bellagio has a bit more to see & do.

Regarding the ferry service, you walked through Varenna to board the ferry. How far was that-I'm not sure we want to walk with suitcases. Were there available taxis outside the train station?

If you've decided to stay in Bellagio, then the easiest way to get there would be to take the train from Milano Centrale to Como, then you can either schlepp your bags down the stairs out front and through a few blocks in the town to the waterfront, OR take a taxi to the waterfront, OR take a bus from right outside the train station to Bellagio (about a 45 minute ride). From there you can take a taxi up to the Belvedere, or walk across the street if you decide to stay on the waterfront.

Thanks for the additional information Holly!

You're welcome!