Dukey1

In the process of looking at Lake Garda-related posts here. Will be in Verona (next year) for 3 nights and am considering renting a car for a day to explore the lake area. I realize that isn't a lot of time but could concentrate on the so-called "must sees" i suppose.

Have been to Lake Como and enjoyed that a great deal and being able to make a comparison first-hand would be nice. I'm not all that enthralled with Verona, at least not enough to spend three days of doing just that city (will be at an Arena performance each night) so the lake idea is intriguing.

Any comments, both pro and con would be appreciated and thank you in advance.

bobthenavigator

Yes, I would spend a day.
I think I would do it by taking the Autostrada north to the exit near Mori and approach the lake from the north end---stopping in Torbole to see the wind surfers---very impressive.

Then, down the east side for lunch in Malcesine and end in Sirmione if time allows. Pick a good weather day.

Dukey1

Bob, thank you for that info; sounds good.

Grassshopper

I think it's worth a day. If you don't want to rent a car, you can take the train to the Sirmione end and take a boat ride on the lake. A nice lunch or dinner in Sirmione would be good. And be sure to visit the ruins at the end of the peninsula (the Baths of Catullus).

DeborahAnn

Dukey, we got back last week from Italy. We spent the first 8 days in Verona and during our stay made 3 day trips to Lake Garda. On this 4 week trip, after Verona, we went to Venice, Florence, a week in Tuscany and a short stay in Bologna. My husband thought Verona was the nicest of the cities we visited.

He commented that it was also one of the cleanest cities and we both experience friendliness from locals who wanted to make sure we found the easiest walk through some blocked streets to a church we planned to visit.

We were in Verona during the Arena's two evening concerts by Adriano and also the Marathon was the Sunday of our stay. There was just so much "fun" happening in Verona while we visited. It completely charmed us!!

We happened to be in the area when Bardolino was having their Grape and Wine Festival. We went there the first day of the fest and enjoyed it so much stopped there on the last day. We took the car ferry across the lake after driving around from Riva del Garda. We stayed in an apartment a short walk to the Arena that still gave us easy access to leave Verona.

We visited many of the towns along Garda during our day trips. The towns we enjoyed were not always the ones others THOUGHT we would enjoy I have not been to Lake Como yet so I don't know how it compares to Garda.

I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. Deborah

HappyTrvlr

Salo on the SW side is lovely. We drove around the whole lake going and coming from the Dlomites and suggest you take a day trip there. i was pleasantly surprised.

Dukey1

Deborah,

Thank you. I am assuming you had a car, is that correct? Did you stay in Verona itself and if so and with a car how was parking/driving in the city? I have been to Verona before but only by rail.

DeborahAnn

Dukey, yes, we picked up our car at the Venice airport. We stayed in a small but convenient apartment. We parked our car for 5 euros a day at a public lot about 5 minutes from the apartment. We never drove in the city--just out of it Our Garmin GPS worked perfectly.

I've tried to include the tiny url to the apartment but I can't seem to get it to copy. I'll type it out instead:

http://tinyurl.com/bqb8vh5

Deborah

Dukey1

Thanks very much for that additional info, Deborah. And, HappyTrvlr, thank you for your recommendation as well.

flygirl

The northern end is more dramatic. We stayed in Malcesine for three nights and quite liked it. We visited Limone one morning but didn't see enough as we were in the "waiting/holding area" for the Giro riders. I would like to go back to Limone. We also didn't see enough of Riva del Garda as our one day driving the entire lakefront was a total downpour.

I was told Rovereto has a great modern art museum and we had hoped to see it, but, our free day was a Monday and it was closed.

Finally, if you have the time, a visit to the villa Il Vittoriale is well worth it - on the western side. A friend of Mussolini owned this and one of its nicknames is "Fascist Luna Park". The guy had a lot of money and was "a lot" eccentric.

Steve_James

It's easy enough by bus/boat if you want to cut the cost of car-hire

Steve

Dukey1

Steve, please tell me more about that possibility as I would be very interested. thanks.

Dukey1

Actually, I looked up the bus website as well as the one for the lake ferries.

brucej13

Can we be based in Lake Garda and visit Verona and the Dolomites from there?

bobthenavigator

Verona, yes.
The best of the Dolomites---too far.