Dolomites and Bellagio
 

We are planning to spend a week in Northern Italy.Plan to pick-up a car in Venice, on April 24, drive to Ortisei, spend three nights at the Hotel Uhrerhof and do day trips from there. Drive to Bellagio, spend three nights at either Nuovo Hotel Metropole or Nuovo Miralago. Our final night will be at a hotel near the Malpensa airport as we have a morning flight on May 1st. Would appreciate any in-put about these hotels and suggestions for one near the airport. Thanks!

At Malpensa, Hotel Cervo in your price range. I would prefer the Du Lac or the Florence in Bellgio. Since you are driving also look at Hotel Bellavista in Menaggio. I love Ortisei, but I love Castelrotto even more--:10 away.
Look at Hotel Zum Wolf. But, it is all moot since you will have a great time wherever you stay.

We have stayed at Hotel Miralago twice and it was fine. It is a small hotel, was spotlessly clean, some rooms have a lake view, there is also private parking. Only drawback would be the walk into the centre of Bellagio, very pretty but up and down lots of steep steps, okay if you are fit! Have a great trip.

NAVBOB & PATRICIA, thank you for your reply, now to pick your brains a little more. When we get to Bellagio, we will probably use water transportation for exploring the area. Would you recommend turning our car in and using public transportation & if so, is there convenient connections to the other lakes such as Lago Lugano and Lago Maggiore?

To reach Lago di Lugano, you can cross the lake by ferry to Menaggio and take the bus to Lugano City.

To reach Lago Maggiore, you're better off keeping the car. Otherwise, you need to travel south to Milan by train, and then north again by train to Stresa.

The question is where. The only drop points are in Como or Lugano, and the latter means a drop charge. If you drop in Como, then you need to hydrofoil to Bellagio--very doable. Then you have the problem of transport back to Malpensa. Frankly, I would keep the car, day trip to Lugano one day, and then drop it at Malpensa the day before and taxi to Hotel Cervo.

I agree keep the car and do a daytrip to Lugano by crossing the lake to Managgio. No need to go back to Como, take the SS340 from Menaggio to Lugano, its a easy drive and takes about 40mins. Nice views of the lake before getting into Lugano itself. One tip, make sure you get some small change in Swiss Francs before trying to park the car, street parking and carpark buildings are all on meters.

NavBob, Patricia & GAC, thanks for all of your in-put. This is our first time to this part of Italy and , as you can see, we need all the help that we can get.
We have decided to keep our car, as it seems we will be able to do more, turn it in at Malpensa and taxi to our hotel.

We really appreciate all your suggestions.