Lake Maggiore - Stresa - Isola Pescatori or on the mainland?
 

We are spending 5 nights in the lake district and are choosing between a hotel on Isola Pescatori and a hotel located on the mainland in Stresa. We will have a car and plan to do a lot of day trips using Stresa as home base. The hotels on Isola Pescatori seem unbelievably chaming! But I'm worried that it will be a chore to get on and off the island for all of our sight-seeing. Does anyone have thoughts on this? Thanks!!

I would definitely suggest one night on Isola Pescatori. It is best when most of the visitors have gone back to the mainland. It would be a chore to go back and forth, but it is worth one or two nights.

We didn't stay on Isola Pescatori, but neither did we find it a chore to go back and forth to any of the islands. There are always inexpensive private boats for hire if you miss one of the standard boats, or at least that was our experience. And the regular boats run often.

We stayed for 3 nights on Isola Pescatori and we loved it. It was very easy to get around on the ferries - they run very frequently.

Thanks so much for your input!! Maybe we'll stay a couple of nights on the island. Thanks.

LC,

We stayed 2 nts at Hotel Verbano on Isola dei Pescatore and just loved it. Charming hotel, excellent restaurant, dead quiet at night. Our room shared a large, lake side terrace facing north with awesome views. The public boats around to all the islands were frequent and convenient.

We also took the boats to Isola Madre, Isola Bella (loved the tour of the villa and gardens) and up to Villa Tramonto (if I remember the name correctly) with the botanical gardens.

We would have loved to have 2 more nights and time to go up to Lugano via hydrofoil.

Our morning train required us to leave the island earlier than the public boats started running, so the hotel arranged for a private boat for us. Not expensive and easy.

Buon viaggio!

Dayle thanks for all the details. I'm making notes! Hotel Verbano does look beautiful. We are also considering Hotel Belvedere.

What do you do with your car if you're going to live on Isola Pescatori. Can you just leave it in Stresa?