Suggestions Needed for the Lake Region
 

Don't need car to get around lakes or any of those regions. Trains go everywhere and buses pick up slack - lots of wine tours from cities with train service. Bergamo to Lake Garda - two railheads on southern tip of lake with boats everywhere. Cinque Terre all five villages served by trains - for lots about Italian trains check Acquista il biglietto con le nostre offerte - Trenitalia - Italian State Railways site - www.seat61.com; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com. Most of your trains will be regional trains that are best bought at stations - no discount pre-booking and seat reservations not even possible.

I second Palen.
A list of all train and bus lines between the Lakes (Lake Maggiore, Lake Orta, Lake Lugano, Lake Como, Lake Iseo, Lake Garda) would be endless.
Threre are (for example) 4 different itineraries between Lake Maggiore - Lake Lugano - Lake Como, most of them with trains resp buses every hr.
The 2 railway stations at lake Garda can be reached every hr too (via Milan). From there you can go by boat up to the Northern end of th lake (Riva) . Buses from Brescia to Riva (Western shore) or from Peschiera to Riva (Eastern shore) as well as from Riva to the Brenner railway line (Rovereto, Trento) are frequent too.
Trains from MXP airport to Lake Lugano and Como every hr; irregular shuttles from MXP to Arona - Stresa. In addition train connections with train change at Gallarate.
Trains from Milan to 5Terre every hr.

Thank you both for this information, it will make planning so much easier. Any suggestions about which City/Lake to home base in would be great. Do you think 2 weeks is too much for the region? Perhaps we should do a week or bit more in the Lake Region and then some time in Venice? Any thoughts would be welcome. Thanks.

Venice would be a natural place to end your northern Italian trip (I'd forget Cinque Terre as it's a outlier over a nice slow-moving tour from Milan via Lakes to Venice. Verona would also be a nice city to spend some time in on that route.

Hello Neverenoughtravel,
If you really love lakes and will be returning to Italy one day then two weeks will ensure you see lots (we love Maggiore and there are great day trips by train). However, if you haven't been to Venice I agree with PalenQ that it is a really special way to end your holiday. We have spent a week based at Stresa and then spent a week exploring Venice and surrounding towns.

Cinque Terre is a fantastic place to visit, especially for great food and wine and beautiful scenery. We enjoy train travel so we once did 10 days in the lakes region (we find this to be enough of lakes) and then caught an early morning train to Vernazza for 3 days (excluding the train travel time) before getting train back to Milan for our flight home. For us the time on the train was worth it to see the wonderful Cinque Terre area.

If spending 5 hours on a train is too much I really think that the idea of spending time in Venice and Verona would give you some difference from lake scenery.

I am a huge fan of Lago Maggiore and Lago Orta. I always stay in Stresa. A week there will not be wasted. I've done it with and without a car, and liked both. A week in and around Venice afterward makes for the perfect vacation, IMO.

If you end up in Stresa do not miss a chance to visit La Cambusa, one of the best little food stores in the whole world.

Dohn't forget lake Lugano. Half of the lake belongs to Italy, the other half to Switzerland.
Many border crossing boat and bus lines, along Lake Lugano as well as to Lake Maggiore and Lake Como.

another enthusiastic vote for Stresa and Lake Maggiore - nice smaller town but lively - and the three Borromean Islands just off shore a delight to explore - different delight on each one - frequent boats and Lake Maggiore also extends up to Switzerland - can take boats to Locarno for a Swiss treat day out. Lake Como gets all the pub here it seems but don't neglect Lake Maggiore.

Thank you all so much for these wonderful suggestions. I believe we'll start in Venice (since we can fly direct) spend 2-3 nights, then head to the Lakes and do a week (plus an extra day or 2) there and then head to Milan for a night or 2 before heading home. Your suggestions have been very helpful. If you have any favorite hotels, tour companies (especially wine tour) or, eateries, we'd love to hear about them. Thank you all again!

We spent a week in Milano last year in this place, which we thought was just exemplary, especially for the price:

https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/coo...al&type=total&

I don't know if they'd rent for just a couple of nights, though.

We love, love, love Milan, especially because no one else does. The Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci is absolutely brilliant.

Peck is by far and away the most amazing food store I have ever set foot in in my life.

I don't think of the area as being wine country, but maybe I'm just clueless.

" We love, love, love Milan, especially because no one else does. The Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci is absolutely brilliant"
You are not alone, St. Cirq.
BTW: MUDEC has often good exhibitons too and the restaurants along the Naviglio nearby are fine also.

Lake Como is the most beautiful of the Italian Lakes, mountains coming down to the water. It is lined with beautiful villas. “Touristy” may be in some small areas but mostly it is beautiful, and classy.
”A Month at the Lake” will give you a look at it. Lake Maggiore and Lake Garda are also beautiful; all three of these lakes are different looking due to proximity of the mountains. There are many different towns and villages on each lake to choose from. Once you arrive, use ferries to travel around.
The only lake that disappointed us was Lake Orta but we didn’t like our hotel at all so that contributed to the feeling.

Umh - beauty in eye of beholder but after visiting all three major lakes I though Garda to be the most beautiful - especially fjord-like northern tip which has a definite Austrian atmosphere about it. But yes all are difference and May early June should still not be mobbed as in July and August.

Hi neverenoughtravel,

I spent about 5 nights at Malcesine on Lake Garda a few years ago without a car. At that time, I didn't get to do all I wanted to do because the busses only ran about every other hour and were unpredictable. Once I would have needed to connect with another bus, and the busses were always 10 or so minutes late, so I feared being stuck in the middle of nowhere for a few hours. The cheap ferries take a long time (for instance, from Malcesine to Desanzano), and the quick ferries cost a fortune. So I stayed in the immediate area.

Since that time, I've read that the bus lines are much improved going up & down the lake, so it may be better today.

However, because of those problems, I thought staying in the middle of the lake would make transport easier, so I've thought about staying in Garda for any future trips because it's a nice transport hub. But if you want to stay in Malcesine (very pretty town), I can recommend the Villa Sopri, where I stayed. It is affiliated with the hotel next door, the Beach Hotel Du Lac. Both are directly on the lake, and you can walk into town along the lake in about 10 minutes.

Have fun as you plan!

s

Maybe I've misread things on this thread but please don't get the impression that it's easy to day trip between the lakes, at least by public transport. In the summer season, you can catch a bus to Lake Orta (3 per day) from Lake Maggiore and you can take a bus from Menaggio to Lugano and a few other journeys but by and large Como, Garda and Maggiore are too far apart to day trip between. That may be completely obvious, but just in case it's not... A single 'base' isn't practical.

Buses between Intra (Lake Maggioere) - Pallanza (Lake Maggiore) and Omegna (Lake Orta) run at least every hr
Bus Luino (Lake Maggiore) - Ponte Tresa (Lake Lugano) at least every hr (direct and via Ghirla)
Train from Locarno (Lake Maggiore) to Lugano (Lake Lugano) every 30 minutes
Train from Laveno (Lake Maggiore to Como every hr
Train Lugano - Como about every 30 min
Bus Lugano - Menaggio (Lake Como) every 1-2 hrs
Train Arona (Lake Maggiore) - Como at least every hr
etc. etc.....

We visited Lake Como, Lake Iseo (a day trip) and Lake Garda last fall. We have a 2-part trip report: https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...tober-1649643/ and https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...tober-1649644/

We split the trip up with visits to Milan, Turin and Bergamo since rail service is so good. We loved Bergamo; Milan not so much. We based ourselves in magical Varenna for Como and in Peschiera del Garda for Lake Garda. Have you noticed the new elevated bikeway they are building around Lake Garda? Excited to go back for that!

This fall we are staying in Lake Orta, with plans to return to Lake Maggiore (the last time we were there, it was a dreary Thanksgiving). We will base in Orta San Giulio.

So, to do it all, two weeks is not necessarily too much.

Thank you all! My head is spinning with the details - but that's the best part of planning the trip - so many wonderful things to choose from.
Neckervd - thanks for the transport details. I don't see mention of transport to Lake Iseo. Is that more difficult to get to from Maggiore where we are currently planning to base ourselves?

https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Lake-Iseo/Stresa

rome2rio.com is one source for this type of info.