my wife and I are trying to decide what lake to stay at for 2 nights: como, lugano, maggiore, or orta. We would prefer a quieter place, less touristy, that doesn't feel super developed. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I am planning to go back to the lakes this fall. I stayed in Stresa last time, and loved the lake, but it wasn't especially quiet. This time I've reading about another lake, Iseo, that looks like it may be quieter - I was thinking of putting up a post asking about visiting it by public transport. There's also a valley at the north end (Camonica) with prehistoric rock carvings. But two nights isn't very long!

orta is very small and should be quiet.

Maggiore should be fairly quiet, but it depends on the time of year.

We'll be on Lakes Como and Lugano in early June, and I'll try to remember to report back.

I have done all of the 5 major lakes multiple times and love that region. If you are driving, I would stay at Orta and day trip one day to Maggiore. Also, Orta is an easy drive to MXP. Orta is a special place !

FWIW and my two cents:

Have visited and stayed at/on five lakes Como (Como and Varenna), Naggiore (Stresa and Cannobio), Orta (Orta San Giulio), Garda (Garda and Desenzano) and Lugano (Lugano.)

The quietest and with less tourists was Orta but very enjoyable, especially for 2 days. (Thanks Bobthenav.) My favorite town was Cannobio as a base to tour southern Switzerland. Had a car for use at all of them. Como and Maggiore offer great non-car travel alternatives.

Here are some images at both Orta and Maggiore that may help:

http://www.slowphotos.com/photo/show...y.php?cat=4173

Another smaller lake is Iseo.

Bob suggested staying at Orta and visiting Maggiore. Iseo could be a base to visit Lake Garda.

On the other hand all the big lakes - Maggiore, Como and Garda - still have zones which are quieter than the most popular areas with accomodation which is far cheaper than, say, Stresa, Bellagio and Salo.

Garda and staying at Sirmione.

pariswat - I would hardly say that Sirmione is "a quieter place, less touristy" as requested by the OP

Hi architect 30 - did you ever make it to Lake Iseo? I am planning a trip there this summer - any suggestions for public transportation from Milan? places to stay? places to eat? thank you.

I forgot to report back about our trip; seeing this resurrected post reminded me.

We ended up having to curtail our trip about, so we subtracted one day from Lugano and one from Bellagio. We spent only one night in Lugano, so I don't feel I can say much about it, other than it seemed a nice town and a nice lake.

Lake Como was pretty, but had by no means the most spectacular lake scenery I've seen. Bellagio was about the most boring town I've ever stayed in. There are some nice lakeside villas, but the gardens interested me much more than the villas, and since most of the plantings were azaleas, rhododenrons, and camellias, by June they were all past their prime.

The thing that astonished me was the predominance of foreign tourists there, especially English speakers, with a smattering of Germans, French, and Spaniards. I asked the owner of our hotel, and she said that they really didn't see Italian tourists except in August, and not many even then. We ordered something at a lakeside bar, and the waitress asked us if we could speak English!

Within 24 hours, we had visited two villas, and taken all the boat trips possible (covering some legs twice). Varenna was a bit more interesting than Bellagio, and we did see some Italian residents there, and we visited a somewhat interesting church. Practically the only other thing to do in these towns was shop, and there certainly was plenty of shopping.

I don't know if it's normal, or if some kind of a rally was going on, but each night we were awakened several times by really loud motorcycles going at full throttle up and down the hills.

Here's an idea for next time: go to Maggiore and stay ON one of the islands IN the lake. It'll be quiet alright.

Only at night. I just did that (see: https://mytimetotravel.wordpress.com...-on-an-island/ ) and it was tourist central during the day. Not many eating options in the evening.