sunlover

We are doing a honeymoon in Italy with 3 destinations one of which is the Lake District. We are truly interested in seeing Stresa while there and thought of staying on Lake Maggiore but have heard how beautiful Bellagio is so may change our home base for our 3 nights in the Lakes. If we choose Bellagio, can we do a day trip to Stresa for some Swiss shopping? If so how? Would you go by car or by train? Would you attempting driving this yourself in a rental or would you hire a driver or take soem type of guided excursion?

Pleae help! Also we would stay at Grand Hotel Des Iles Borromees
if we stay on Lake Maggiore and are thinking of Villa Serbellini or Grand Hotel Termezzo if Como/Bellagio. Any thoughts?

ekscrunchy

You can do the driving yourself.

I stayed recently in Menaggio (Grand Hotel Victoria) and did the very easy drive (rental car) from there to Mendrisio, Switzerland for shopping.

The shopping is wonderful at the Foxtown outlet mall; they have many, many designer names:



http://www.foxtown.ch/info.php?lingu...ntro=mendrisio



The Grand Hotel Tremezzo is not in Bellagio, but on the west shore of Lake Como. It certainly looks lovely from the outside! (I did not go inside)

http://www.grandhoteltremezzo.com/

janestuart

We loved Bellagio. We stayed in Hotel Bellagio and loved it. There are quite a few stairs from the lake shore, but they will help you with your luggage. Fabulous views - ask for view room. I would also very highly recommend their sister hotel, Hotel du Lac. It's a little more expensive, but if we went back I would consider paying more. Take the 9A Como Sud exit and then follow directions to Menaggio/Cadenabbia. Take the ferry from Cadenabbia to Bellagio. It's a wonderful way to approach that enchanting town. We were heading east from there and, missing our town, drove down to Como. That is a very narrow curvy road - you might want to avoid it. Otherwise driving is fine - just don't get too big a car. We were upgraded from the Mercedes A series that I wanted and given a Volvo that was just too big for many Italian roads.

bobthenavigator

Stresa is too far for a day trip---about 2.5 hours driving. However, from Menaggio on the west shore the lovely Swiss city of Lugano makes a great day trip by postal bus or by car. I feel the Grand Hotel Menaggio is the best location on the west shore, but Bellagio is special. We will be spending a week in Bellagio again in Oct. but not for a honeymoon--it will be our 50th anniversary.

DAX

We enjoyed staying at the Des Iles Borromees for the view and luxury level of accomodation. Our standard rooms were large with equally grand marble bathrooms. The price was also less than Serbelloni.

You must have a car to enjoy the lake district fully. There are a lot more to do around Stressa: visit the Borromean islands, Italian garden Villa Taranto near Pallanzo, and visit the numerous lake front towns around Lago Maggiore. You can also drive to Sacro Monte for a wonderful lunch above lake Orta, and visit the island inside lake Orta.

If you stay in Bellagio, then you should consider the better rooms of Grand Serbelloni. We drove our car onto the ferry and drove on through Mennagio to Lugano & Ponte Tresa and parked our car in Luino. From Luino we boarded the ferry to visit the Borromean islands but didn't have time to visit Stressa which we have visited twice in previous trips. In my opinion the Italian side of the lake region is better than the swiss side so I wouldn't bother exploring the large city of Lugano. Lugano is great if you're coming from the north because it has a touch of Italy, but not if you come from Italy IMHO. In any case, we had no problem enjoying lago Maggiore from Bellagio. I suppose staying in Tremezzo will save you a bit of time from the Como ferry crossing if you want to enjoy Lago Maggiore. We think the drive from Lugano to Mennagio is more scenic than in the other direction because we get to view lake Como from above as we descend down the mountain road. You'll pass a picturesque mountain village with a small river near the Santa Croce church.

sunlover

So the drive is 2.5 hours each way? IS ther eanother way to get between the two cities that may be faster? If not would the 5 hours of driving be worth it? In other words if we got up early in the morning, left by 8 am and go there by 10:30 am stent 5 hours seeing some sights, left at 4:30 pm to get back to Bellagio and stopped along the way somewhere for dinner making it back to our hotel before midnight, would the scenic drive along the way make the trip worthwhile? We will have 3 full days in the Lake district so I guess this woudl be our day to drive around and see the scenery . . .

Any thoughts???? Bob???

DAX

To us it was worth the drive as it was scenic and we made short stops for pictures and food. Mind you we have already been to the lakes twice before this last trip so we had no fixed agenda except to visit the Borromean island for our friends' sake. There is a huge public parking lot in Luino right by the lake ferry landing.

Alternatively you an stay 2 nights in one place and move for the last night to the other lake to avoid the return 2 hour drive (that's how long it took us to return without stopping). Grand Hotel Des Iles Borromees is a better hotel if compared to the Grand Villa Serbelloni (in terms of room quality and luxury amenities). Both of them are not quite 5 star, Borromees probably 4.5 while Serbelloni 4 star.

bobthenavigator

There are 2 ways to get there. One is by a boat/bus tour from Lugano via Luino--2 boats and a bus. Not sure what it costs, but weather would be a factor and it is not cheap.
With a car, the drive is worth it if you have the time. Take the scenic route via Lugano, Locarno, and down the west shore of Maggiore. A plus is a stop at the Villa Taranto gardens near Pallanza. It is a long day but a very good day---go for it. Get an early start and try to be in Stresa by 10:30 to allow 3 hours at the islands. Lunch at the Hotel Verbano on Isola Pescatori is always a bonus. Of course, this all assumes you staying on the west shore of Como to make it feasible.

ekscrunchy

ViaMichelin gives the time between Menaggio and Stresa as just under 2 hours.

bobthenavigator

Yes, under 2 hours is correct, if you like autostradas and Milan traffic. However, if you want to see the scenery you came to see then the north route via Locarno takes 2:52 plus stops. I would plan to go one way and home the other. Try to miss morning traffic in Milan.

DAX

Absolutely avoid taking the freeways around Milan, just drive directly from Menaggio to Luino via Lugano and take the Maggiorre ferry from Luino(2 hour drive). Or drive north toward Locarno like Bob mentioned but that would add an extra hour before you get on the ferry.

sunlover

Thanks for the fantastic advice as always. We are pretty adventurous so I think staying on Como Bellagio/Mennaggio wil lwork for us with the long scenic daytrip to Stresa!

Robespierre

The general answer to queries of this type is to go to maps.google.com and type in <b>stresa to bellagio</b>.