Lake Garda, Where to stay
 

Hello Fodorites,

My husband and I are thinking of going to Lake Garda next year for 4 or 5 nights...would like to stay in one place and ferry around from that location, if possible. Wondering what area you think might be a good spot and if you have any hotel recommendations. Budget is about $300 or so a night. Would like to be in an area where we can walk to cafes and restaurants if possible. We have been to Lake Maggiore and a bit of Como and have heard wonderful things about Garda. Also, wondering what your opinion is on time of year to visit. I understand it gets very crowded in the summer,

Thanks very much.

Hotel Nazionale in Desenzano del Garda. The town has a huge Tuesday AM market.

Check it out on booking.com. Look up ferry services.

At the north end.
Either Riva del Garda, Malcesine, or Limone.
That is the pretty end.

It is prettier, but it's not so convenient if OP specifically wants to travel by ferry as stated.

I agree with bob that the northern end is more attractive.

You should think about what towns you want to visit and then peruse the ferry timetable to see what can realistically be done in a day. The winter schedule is currently posted, but you can see what towns have ferry service and how long it takes to travel from point to point. I.e., 3 hours from one end to the other. You may decide you'd rather stay at the southern end or somewhere in the middle, but, again, it's up to what you want to do.

Depending on your interests, you may enjoy taking the cable car from Malcesine to the top of Mt. Baldo. From the northern end, you could also take a day to drive into the Dolomites. Lifts/cable cars at some nearby resorts stay open into early September.

http://www.navigazionelaghi.it/g_dow...02016-2017.pdf

http://funiviedelbaldo.it/en/cable-car/

Agree with those who say the northern end is the best.

I stayed in Malcesine, at Hotel Erika which was very nice and under your budget.

With 4-5 days you could do a boat trip to the towns at the southern end - it takes a few hours but what a pleasant way to spend the day (on a ferry boat).

Here's my trip report with link to photos
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...nd-castles.cfm

i agree that the north end is very pretty but it's a long way to the other end of the lake with is also very interesting.

The advantage of staying somewhere in the middle is that you can easily get to both ends of the lake, particularly if you stay somewhere where the fast ferries stop, like Garda itself.

it has a very attractive lake front area, frequent ferry services all round the lake, and a lovely old town which comes alive at night. we spent a week there and saw not only Malcesine, but also Sirmone, and the other side of the lake as well which we liked a lot.

My husband & I asked the same question as we planned our 3-night stay at Lake Garda just this past September. We were very happy that we chose to stay mid-lake in Garda. In addition to it being an attractive town, we liked that it had a promenade along the lake shore.

We stayed at the Hotel La Vittoria in a lake-view room with a balcony - lovely! The hotel is situated at one end of the promenade. It is also just steps from the small ferry terminal. The room rate included breakfast and offered parking in a lot that was about 5-10 minute walk away from the hotel. Reception staff was very helpful.

www.hotellavittoria.it/en

One day, we took the ferry across the lake to Salo. We also drove to Sirmione ... where on second thought, we probably should have taken the ferry!

Good luck with your planning!

Most if not all of the lakeside villages offer hotels and restaurants, with the larger places obviously offering more of a choice. However, although Garda is a reasonably sized place, it's not quite mid lake and I'd offer Torri del Benaco as an alternative.

I love its small village feel, but there is a great choice of hotels around, try the Galvani, Lido or the Pace. We had a great meal in the Berengario in town.

Thank you all. Does Torri del Banco offer decent ferry service?

All the villages are linked by the ferry service, with some stops more frequented than others. However, it's well enough connected to catch a ferry in the morning after breakfast and bear in mind that you only need one ferry out and one back each day. The connection to the other villages depends on their timetable.

rubicund - the advantage of Garda is that it offers a variety of ferry services including some of the fast ones. if you're only there for a few days, that might be important.

This might help:

http://www.visitgarda.com/en/lake-gara-ferries/

Very helpful! Thank you. Would you recommend flying into Venice or Milan if we base in Garda?

Would those be direct flights (no connections) to Venice or Milan? Venice is closer, but not by much. If you have to connect somewhere before you reach Italy, Verona is the closest.

I realsie that Ann, but Torri is well worth staying at rather than Garda, IMO it's a much nicer place. Unfortunately the timetables for next year don't seem to be up and running yet.

Mikster, also bear in mind that the lakeside buses operate between all the main towns and Torri to Riva is around an hour. You can of course get off anywhere you want to visit along the lake.

http://lakegarda.gardasee.de/bus-public-transport

The northern half of Lake Garda is a fjord which cuts deep into the mountains. The coastline there is as dramatic as on the Amalfi Coast.

On the western shore, the fjordlike section starts north of Salo, on the eastern shore north of Garda.

The southern half of Lake Garda is surrounded by flat country and pretty boring. The only exception is Sirmione which is a historical village.

I personally find Limone the prettiest town on Lake Garda, followed by Malcesine. Gardone Riviera is a beach town with lots of grand hotels, however the scenery is not as dramatic as further north.

Be aware that Lake Garda is very large. The regular ferry from Limone to Sirmione takes almost 4 hours and the fast ferry still 2 1/2 hours. You cannot compare the ferry service on Lake Garda with the short-distance ferries on Lake Como or Lago Maggiore. Here is the winter timetable (in summer, ferries are more frequent):

http://www.navigazionelaghi.it/g_dow...02016-2017.pdf

Consider renting a car. The coastal roads of Lake Garda are extremely scenic and you can drive into the mountains. It is really different from Lake Como where a car is useless and the ferries are more convenient.

You are right, in Juli and August, Lake Garda is very crowded. The best times to be there are May, June and September. But April and October may be fine, too (however greater chance of rainy days). For swimming in the lake, September is better than June. May will be too cold.

Thanks very much. We will rent a car and have decided to stay in Garda. I really appreciate all of the wonderful information.

I realsie that Ann, but Torri is well worth staying at rather than Garda, IMO it's a much nicer place. Unfortunately the timetables for next year don't seem to be up and running yet.>>

I know it's difficult to choose the best place to stay, Rubicund. You may be right about Torre being a nicer place to stay and I agree about the buses, we used them a couple of times. But Garda's pretty good place to stay too!

Mikster - I don't know if you have an interest in history but if you do, you could get the ferry across to Gardone Riviera and walk up to il Vittoria degil Italiani which was once the home of Gabriele d'Annunzio, one-time soldier, poet and fascist. there is also a nice botanical garden on the way which makes a good stopping off point on the way down [or up!!]

The other trip that we greatly enjoyed was getting the ferry up to Malcesine and then the cable car to the top of Monte Baldo where there is an alpine garden and several nice mountain inns where you can get lunch.

hope you enjoy Garda!

That sounds great. We also booked Hotel La Vittoria which sounds perfect for us.

This one?

http://www.hotellavittoria.it/en/

it looks lovely and right next to the ferry landing station.

We stayed a little way way in the town in the hotel Garda, but it does't seem to exist any more. The old town with its little streets and restaurants is just along the prom I seem to remember. Hard to go wrong, really.

PS - we flew into and out of Verona which is closer to Garda than Venice or Milan.

Yes annhig. That's the one.

Il Castello in Malcesine and Hotel Bellerive in Saló were both good choices for us.

We had two excellent dinners at Di Vino on Via S. Bernardo in Garda. One evening we chose the tasting menu. It was so good that we returned the next evening to try things from the regular menu! We had the Hotel La Vittoria call ahead to make a reservation for us.

Enjoy your stay in Garda, mikster!

That sounds great. We will try it!

I'm wondering now if we really do need a car at all...it sounds like end of June/early July will be very busy with traffic so aside from getting to and from Malpensa I'm wondering if it's really that necessary...any thoughts?

Thank you.

mikster - we were there for a week and didn't have a car. Most of the time we used ferries and once or twice [particularly to get to the water park, which i suspect will not interest you, ] we got the bus.

Hi mikster,

I spent a week in Malcesine without a car. I took the ferry to Limone and the bus up to Riva and back again, and both were fine & great.

However, I found that the busses only ran every 2 hours and were on average 10 minutes late. And if I wanted to go farther than, say, Garda or Riva, it would require a change of bus. I wanted to see the archeological museum at Desenzano, and that was just too far. It would have required two bus changes, and with the busses running 10 minutes late and running so infrequently, I might have gotten stuck somewhere for 2 hours. I investigated taking the ferries, but the regular ferries would have taken 4h in each direction; the fast ferries were only 2h, but they cost around 40€ each way.

I think you'll have better connection at Garda, which is nicely centrally located. I, personally, don't drive when there is good public transport, so I didn't seriously consider driving. I think if I were to return to Lake Garda, I would also stay at Garda for its location. I chose Malcesine because I thought it would be more scenic because of the dramatic mountains.

I guess my advice to you would be to determine in advance where you're likely to want to go, and then study the bus schedules (using the link Rubicund provided). If you can manage without a car, then I would do that.

Have fun as you plan!

s

You don't need a car as has been pointed out several times, but it is lovely to have one to get up into the mountains and seek out little villages and their tiny cafes, often with terraces teetering on the edge of the mountain with some truly world=beating views down onto the lake.

hmmmm....that is a going point RM67. We almost always take a car and will have to give that some good consideration. Any idea how long the drive is from Malpensa to Garda?

ooops...meant to say "good point"...thanks.

I'm not sure as I got the train. I would guess at a couple of hours to the lower part of the lake but hopefully someone will come along who has actually driven that journey. From Verona (if you picked a car up there instead) to the lake is only about 30-40 mins.

we loved this place. not sure what the price is now but we were happy we splurged here at villa fiordaliso in the gardone riviera area


http://www.villafiordaliso.it

.oh I see you already have your lodging. We had a car and found it wonderful for zipping around up and down the coast. Do pay detailed attention to the parking and no parking zones and times..

May I ask what time of year you went lincasanova? Just wondering how busy it will be end of June for traffic. And I assume we can't rent a car in Garda?

I think it was April, around easter or even earlier. We had a car from the Milan airport and stopped to see all the lovely towns along the way.. Verona.. and then Sirmione and up the lake coast on our way to Venice.

I wouldn't worry so much about traffic. These are short distances from town to town.

We were back another time but I don't remember when.. weather was warmer but we didn't stay in Lago di Garda, just showed some friends a few places.

ttt

Have you checked the logistics & travel options of getting from Malpensa to Garda? You can check driving routes here as a start.

www.viamichelin.com

Thank you. Would you say Verona is a must see?

What is a 'must-see' for one person can be very different for another, depending on one's interests & preferences.

Initially, my husband & I considered staying in Verona but decided to go to Cremona after 3 days in Garda. Being a student of the cello, Cremona was a must-see for me with its Stradivari connection & the Violin Museum.

A suggestion: Find out more about Verona to see if there is something to draw you there. You can come back here with specific questions that may come up.

Good luck with your plans!