Santa Margherita to Lake Como
 

Hello,
We cant figure out where to spend our last night in Italy. We are leaving from Milan early in the morning, so considering staying in Como for last night.
Does this sound reasonable? Any recs on whether we should do 2 nights in SML and 2 nights in the Lake Como area or leave as is?

So our itinerary is as follows:

Nice, France - 1 night
Rapallo - 2 nights
Santa Margherita - 3 nights
Lake Como - 1 night

Thanks!

Hi ILT - Is there any particular reason for changing hotel between Rapallo and S. Margherita? They're only 10 mins apart - so there's really no point. I'd say choose one or the other (- my choice would be S. Margherita).

Have you been to Lake Como before? If not, then I'd say spend 2 nights minimum there.

So I'd suggest -

S. Margherita - 3/4 nights
Lake Como - 2/3 nights

Hope this helps ...

Steve

I agree! Stay in SML--it is much nicer than Rapallo. And stay 2 nights in Lake Como. We drove from SML to Menaggio (west shore of Lake Como) last fall..easy drive. How early is your flight from Milan? Will you drive to Malpensa from Como?

If you are thinking of staying in the town of Como, which is at the bottom of the lake, you will need some considerable time to get to the airport for an early flight. You will need even more time if you are thinking of staying farther up the lake. If you are driving on a weekday you will face Milan traffic which is unpredictable. By train, you need to get to the San Giovanni station in Como, and then take a 40 minute train ride to Milan and connect with the Malpensa express which is another 40 minutes or so. Coupled with the need to be at the airport at least 2 hours before a US flight, I think it is very difficult and stressful to stay in Como. Also, the lakefront in Como is undergoing reconstruction and there are fences, cranes, ect. Como is a great city for sightseeing, shopping and dining but I would consider staying closer to the airport. Many people end their trip in Stresa, on Lake Maggiore. By car, you are 45-60 minutes from Malpensa Terminal 1, with most of the trip on Autostrada. You can get up at 6, leave Stresa at 6:30, return a rental car, and comfortably make a 10:00 am flight to the US, even on a weekday. Stresa is very scenic with a large hotel selections and some decent restaurants.

We drove from Menaggio to Malpensa (9/08) in time for an 11:50am flight. We thought the drive was easy; it took us 90 minutes including a brief stop in Cernobbio. Perhaps we were lucky in that we did not encounter any terrible traffic near the airport.

Another option is a taxi, but this is pricey--we were quote 160 euro from Menaggio.

If your flight to the US is a 11:35 or later, I agree you could stay in Como and drive to Malpensa. I have always taken a 10:00 or 10:35 flight and I think the extra hour would allow for heavy traffic. For the train, leaving from Como S.Giovanni station would usually take you to Milan Central where you would connect with the Malpensa Shuttle- an express bus that leaves every 20 minutes. To connect to the Malpensa Express train I believe you would need to leave Como from the Lago station. I don't know exactly where that is but the S.Giovanni station is about a 3 minute cab ride from the lakefront hotels.

Hi everyone - thanks so much for responding. Our flight is at 10AM from Malpensa so sounds like it would be a bit of a risk staying in Como. I will definitely look into Stresa.