Yes, but that's my taste, maybe your parents like big and busy. And Enzian and Ingo certainly know more about the area then I do.

Where we stayed east of Lugano was a beautiful spot on the lake, but at night Lugano just lit up the whole end of the at lake. It was just much larger than I had thought it would be.

There are a lot of threads just on the Lakes region if you do a search.

Don't know how far it is from Lugano to Bellagio or Varenna, the bus trip from Tirano was about 4 hrs. Traffic was awful once we got to the Lake, the bus had to stop probably 2 dozen times to get traffic coming from the other direction to stop so he could negotiate a corner or some impossibly narrow section of the road. He got a huge round of appalause when we arrived!

cheryllj---If you want to head to Varenna from the Bernine Express, it is very easy, and you get to skip both Lugano and the boring bus ride. Just take the train directly to Varenna from Tirano---the end of the train part of the Bernina Express.

You'll be there in 1 hour 26 minutes from Tirano.

Hi enzian and wrenwood! Glad to see y'all posting.

Enzian, good choice for hotel. The views from Castagnola are very beautiful with Monte San Salvatore in the distance. And it is quiet there.

Wrenwood, must check out your trip report. Hurry with posting, I am starving :-)

Ingo---that is great to know! If it's not too hot we'll hike up Monte Bre. And if it's hot, we'll just go for a swim in the lake.

I hope cheryllj sees this so she knows not to get on the bus to Lugano if she really wants to end up in Varenna!

Thanks for the tip re: getting to Varenna!

If the bus trip is that boring, then I don't see any reason to go to Lugano if we end up choosing to stay in Lake Como.

cheryllj we were told it was "scenic" we did not think so, don't know if anyone else thought it was scenic. It is one of the few things we've done on our 2 Switzerland trips that we would not do again or recommend to friends.

is your itinerary coming together?

i would say that the Lugano to Tirano Bernina Express bus is not all that scenic - except when it skirts Lake Como. But there is a spectacularly scenic IMO bus from Lugano to St Moritz - the Majola Pass service - it parallels the Bernina Express Bus along Lake Como but then instead of continuing thru Italy goes up the Majola Pass - a hairpin twisting road thru tall forests, etc. - i was awed by the scenery on this bus.