When I started researching where to stay and visit around Lake Garda, I was intimidated. Yes, me. Intimidated by a very popular, very well-touristed region of a very easy country to travel; a country that I am very familiar with myself.
Back when I looked at Lake Como, I instantly marked out recognisable names like Como town itself, Bellagio, and after a quick spot of research, Varenna. Within an hour, I had an itinerary of highlights. What did catch me out, though, was the frequency of the ferries, and so this time I was careful to plan a stay somewhere that would be easy to explore the highlights from.
Looking at Garda, I recognised nothing. With no starting point, I was planning a trip for somewhere I truly knew nothing about, which was quite exciting – but even after some research, I still had no clue where to begin. And the ferries? Only a couple a day end-to-end, taking nearly a whopping five hours to traverse the length of the lake*. So which area would be best to be close to?
This post contains affiliate links. Please note if you buy or book anything through my links, I may earn a little commission that helps keep this site running, at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!
*Turns out I wasn’t searching for the fast ferries, but these still take a long time and are very infrequent!
It seemed that we could spend a week on Lake Garda exploring different areas each day, but although we were spending a week there, we didn’t want it to be action-packed, so we wanted to maximise the days we’d be out on the lake.
And when you start looking, you find there’s almost too much to do nearby as well. After all, Lake Garda is a popular stop-off point between Milan, Verona and Venice. The Dolomites are really a stone’s throw away, but one look at the area overwhelmed me again, because there are so many different regions to explore. Best saved for another trip, we decided. I find this is always the issue with planning northern Italy – everywhere is so close together that it’s too easy to say “let’s add on a day here” and then you realise you’ve said that about ten different places.
So – we had to narrow it down.
The south of the lake is the obvious choice – easily accessible from Verona, with popular towns fringing the edge of the lake, and a good transport network. But as we researched more, we kept reading the same thing: the north of the lake is far more spectacular. On top of being less busy than places like Sirmione, we voted for a more relaxing trip, with a day trip or two south.
Enter: Riva del Garda.
This ended up being the PERFECT choice for us. It might not be for everyone; if you’re not doing a package holiday with transfers included, it’s not the easiest place to get to, and it’s as far away as you can possibly get from Sirmione, which is ironic given our initial research into finding a town that was accessible for the rest of the lake. On the flipside, it felt much less touristy and more like somewhere Europeans come to either chill out or for an adventure holiday. The place was full of windsurfers and cyclists, and yet it was very easy to do neither.
We did two day trips: one to the south of the lake, and a shorter day out to two nearby towns under an hour away. We also popped up to Trento, which I’ll write about separately.
If, like me, you’re struggling to know where to start, here are five towns on Lake Garda that I highly recommend visiting.
Riva del Garda
Starting off with where we stayed, Riva is incredibly underrated compared to the southern towns. Yet it has the colour and character of the more popular towns, with the added bonus that it’s *surrounded* by mountains. Being at a much narrower part of the lake really adds a wow-factor to the scenery.
We absolutely loved Riva. The town itself is nice, with a very down-to-earth feel and plenty of historic buildings. But that wasn’t what won us over.
It was the views, the relaxed vibe, and feeling like we weren’t in a town at all.
Our hotel was around a 20 minute walk to the centre of town, but it was one of the best daily walks we’ve ever had on holiday! Just unbelievably beautiful, past beaches and benches of people sitting taking it all in. Families enjoying the lake, windsurfers rushing past (hundreds of them on a couple of the days we were there!), dogs splashing around in the lake, ducks quacking furiously (not usually at the dogs). This is my idea of a holiday.
Oh, and let’s not forget the food. We went to three different excellent sandwich places:
- Panem (regional sandwiches and our favourite of the 3! Could have gone here every day)
- Bar Roma (felt very local and was both excellent and cheap)
- La Piadineria (a bit more fast food-y, but their flatbread crepes are delicious if you need something quick and cheap)
Our hotel actually included dinner, which I was a little hesitant about given that I want to eat everything possible in Italy. A couple of places I read good things about in Riva were Pizzeria Fenice and Ristorante Pizzeria Mediterraneo.
Most of the towns we visited had a couple of attractions, and Riva is no exception. The main one is the Bastione, perched above the town on the hillside, a striking tower overlooking the town. A steep funicular runs up to it, and it’s absolutely worth the ride! The views from the upper part of the Bastione are incredible.
After we’d done that, we didn’t really feel the need to climb the Torre Apponale, but this gives a great vantage point over the town centre and only costs a couple of euros.
We actually had the Trentino guest card because we were staying within the Trentino region, so both of those attractions were free for us!
Getting to Riva del Garda: on the fast ferries, it’s a 2-3 hour trip from Sirmione. There’s also a bus which takes around two hours and passes through towns like Garda and Malcesine. From Verona, it’s best to take a train to Rovereto and then jump on a bus from there.
Sirmione
You can’t really visit Lake Garda without seeing Sirmione, so we made a day trip down to the opposite end of the lake.
Sirmione is gorgeous, and I can totally see why it’s the star of Lake Garda. The castle is spectacular!
Sirmione is like a finger sticking out into the lake, and the top part of the peninsula (the fingertip, if you like) is a Roman fortress with access to a great beach. We decided not to do this, which may have been a mistake – who knows? There’s also a very popular thermal spa.
The streets are packed with character, and beaches provide epic views across the lake. There’s a cute little “kiss please” sign for a fun photo opportunity, right next to a “beach” which leads to a waterfront path taking you around the whole outside of the town.
The town is very touristy, but from my sheer volume of photos, I think evidently it’s also the prettiest, or at the very least the most striking. It’s definitely a must-see, in my opinion – but more importantly, not the only town you should visit on Lake Garda, as I don’t think it showcases the best of the lake.
One of my colleagues asked me if I really found Limone to be busier than Sirmione. And the answer is yes, because I managed to get photos like this with barely anyone in! You’ll see in a moment that I have no street photos of Limone, because it was packed.
What made Sirmione feel busier than it was, wasn’t actually the people – it was the cars. Walking past the castle, we were constantly having to dodge traffic. At one point, we were on a really narrow alleyway (one that I am surprised a car could even fit down) and hovered in a doorway to let a car past. Another car then came UP the alleyway, and the first one had to reverse, extremely carefully, all the way back up the street. We were stuck in that doorway for ages!
It honestly amazed me that traffic was even allowed in the old town, especially as there’s a car park near the castle.
My one tip for Sirmione: don’t visit on a Wednesday! SO MANY of the restaurants were shut. I had been focused on whether to avoid or embrace the markets (we decided to avoid) and had completely missed any information about Wednesdays. You can tell it’s a tourist town because almost all of the restaurants are either rated well under 4/5 on Google, or they’re mega expensive (sometimes both…). It’s rare that I’ve ever found so many rated under 3/5 in such a small place… and it pains me to settle for a mediocre meal in Italy!
Therefore I’d earmarked somewhere for lunch… not noticing that it was shut on Wednesdays. Every other place that I found rated over 4/5 (all three of them, I think…) was also closed apart from one which said on Google that it was open, but when we turned up it was ALSO shut. I found a 3.8/5 that said it was open. Nope – also shut. In the end, we had to settle for a 3.6/5 (Alla Scala) – and that was seriously the best I could find in the entire town. And it was good, to be honest.
Getting to Sirmione: take the train from Verona in just 15 minutes, or Milan or Venice. From the north of the lake, we took the early fast ferry which took 3 hours (the 2 hour one is at lunchtime), then went back via another ferry to Bardolino (just under an hour) and the bus back from there.
Bardolino
Having found a decent lunch, we hopped on a ferry to another beautiful town in the southern part of the lake, Bardolino.
This was the perfect pairing with Sirmione, both vibes wise and transport wise.
Where Sirmione was very touristy, we loved how laid back Bardolino is. After gawping at the gorgeous colours of the harbour and the wonky castle-looking building, we wandered the streets until we came to a little wine bar. I ordered a Hugo and we literally sat and people-watched until it was time to jump on a bus back to Riva.
I basically only have the one photo of Bardolino, which goes to show how different this part of the day was, but it was the perfect way to spend an afternoon.
Getting to Bardolino: an easy bus or ferry from Sirmione. We took a five minute bus to Garda and then another bus back to Riva which took just over an hour. A very easy journey as it cuts out the southern corner of the lake.
Limone sul Garda
Further north, Limone is hands down one of the most beautiful towns on Lake Garda. Unfortunately it appears everyone knows this, so it had the crowds to match.
Where in Sirmione we were able to get away from the crowds pretty easily, Limone is full of narrow alleyways with bottleneck points. This is the only reason it’s not our favourite town of all, to be honest, because it’s absolutely gorgeous.
It was therefore somewhere to focus on the details, like the flowers adorning lots of the buildings, and these wonderful painted lemon tiles on all the streets and many of the shopfronts.
We arrived by ferry into Limone multipiano which was actually preferable to Limone centro, where we took the ferry out. The “centro” port is so busy, whereas “multipiano” is a little further along, so it makes for a lovely five minute walk into town along the waterfront, instead of immediately being pushed into human traffic in the alleyways.
The upside of Limone, if you will, is that it’s very steep. Other than the one street alongside the water, the entire town is on a hill, and so the further up you go, the more you lose the crowds. But the town is also so small that it’s hard to shake them off entirely. We did manage to find a lovely café on a terrace, La Bottega Dei Sapori, and grabbed a peaceful table overlooking an alleyway. I was going to grab a limoncello spritz (because when in Limone) but my attention was caught by an intriguing item on the menu: a cactus spritz. So obviously I had that instead.
We had decided by this point that we would have lunch in Malcesine instead, but the sandwiches here looked very, very good. One thing I really liked about it is they had an attached shop, and every ingredient they serve in the café is available to buy in the shop.
There is also a pizzeria just outside the main part of town which looks perfect for views over the lake, called Ristorante Pizzeria Del Bigaröla, which has great reviews and was on my list if we had decided to have lunch in Limone.
I recommend picking up a hand-painted bottle of limoncello from Limone sul Garda for a great souvenir, or you can buy blank lemon tiles. They also have famous lemon ice creams served INSIDE a lemon! I’m not enough of a lemon fan to try it.
Despite the crowds, this was actually my favourite place for souvenir shopping!
Getting to Limone sul Garda: You can get the bus to Limone, but I think arriving by water is much better. From Riva, it takes 50 minutes on the ferry and only costs 6€, which is actually a bargain compared to most of the Lake Garda ferries! In fact, Limone to Malcesine, which is little more than 10 minutes, cost more than that!
Malcesine
And saving our favourite for last, Malcesine is just opposite Limone and only takes about 10-15 minutes on the ferry to cross the lake.
This delightful town is host to one of Lake Garda’s biggest attractions: Monte Baldo. You can take a revolving (!) cable car up to the top. Ash hates that type of thing, so we didn’t actually do that, therefore our entire opinion is based on the town at ground level rather than the area.
(As an aside, there is another way to get up the mountain from a more off-beat town… by taking a kind of chair lift that you STAND in! It holds up to two people at a time. It looks EPIC. No, there’s no way that Ash will ever do that, but I absolutely will!! Unfortunately we needed a car to get there.)
Despite this being such a popular place, it did not feel touristy at all. It was also nowhere near as busy as Limone, but it’s also much bigger so it might not have been so much the number of people as simply that they were more spread out.
It felt like somewhere to slow down and browse, rather than aiming for an attraction and having to ignore all the tourist traps on the way. There were a few quirky shops and silly things and we really enjoyed the vibe.
Before doing that, we made a beeline to Bar Pizzeria da Pedro, a friendly restaurant split across a couple of alleyways all the way down to the water. It’s not a fancy terrace, but we decided to sit by the water, which led to possibly our most memorable moment of the trip…
…when a SWAN joined us for lunch!
I had a delicious pizza with gorgonzola, and Ash had his favourite carbonara of the trip (not quite beating the one he had in Bologna, which he still maintains is the best meal he’s had in his life). The swan had nothing, although the young waitress had to walkie-talkie the restaurant for assistance in coaxing it back into the water…!
This was a great choice for food, and far from the only one. We stumbled across a much better lake view which was lined with a couple of bars and restaurants with loads of outdoor seating. Where you can guarantee these would have been rated 2.5 in Sirmione, they actually had very good reviews!
In fact, there were so many great looking restaurants that I would happily go back to Malcesine for a week and eat in different places for lunch and dinner every day of the trip. Other ones that I had on my list were Trattoria da Nonna Pina and Osteria Santo Cielo.
Getting to Malcesine: easily accessible by bus or ferry, and it’s well positioned on the lake so close enough for a visit from both the north and south within an hour or two. From Riva, it’s just under an hour.
Getting around Lake Garda
I’ve outlined how we got to the different towns above, but I thought I’d do a quick section on transport in general because it can be a little confusing when researching online and I know I found the same with Lake Como. I found it all a lot easier once we were there.
When I first looked up ferries and discovered it would take nearly five hours from Riva to Sirmione, we decided we’d probably take the bus. In actual fact, there are also three fast ferries a day which take 2-3 hours, so we ended up doing that one way.
We then took a ferry to Bardolino, cutting out a huge chunk of the bus journey, which meant it took little more than an hour to get back to Riva on the bus, and as a bonus it stopped close to our hotel as well, meaning we didn’t need to walk back from town after a long day out. The bus was far cheaper too, costing 5.70€ as opposed to 21.50€.
This was a perfect day out, because we got the experience of being on the lake (and the full length of it, at that!), and saved a bunch of time and money getting back. Not to mention the bus journey is also incredibly scenic.
Limone and Malcesine were also very easy to visit together in a day. Riva to Limone was 6€, Limone to Malcesine was a disproportionate 7.50€, and Malcesine back to Riva was 11.50€. I’d probably take the bus back if I were to do it again.
For ferries, you need a ticket in advance. You can either buy tickets online or at the ticket offices. We bought all of ours at ticket offices and rarely needed to queue. Obviously this was shoulder season, but it was a far cry from my experience at Lake Como at a similar time of year, where I had to queue for an hour!
For buses, you could either pay on the bus or get a ticket from a machine, so this was super easy.
Where to stay on Lake Garda
Ah, the problem we struggled with in the first place.
Most people flock to places like Sirmione and Peschiera del Garda. I would argue that you can easily see Sirmione in less than a day and we honestly didn’t feel like we wished we had longer to savour it. We didn’t visit Peschiera, but I can see its attraction – it looks like a lovely town with a bit more going on, and there’s easy access to the whole of the southern end of the lake, Verona, and the theme parks. (Yep, Garda is a theme park destination too! Believe it or not we didn’t visit them.)
For accessibility, I’d probably recommend there. For something quieter, my manager at work highly recommends Lazise.
However, my personal choice far and away would be the north end of the lake. While I think it’s easy to just spend a couple of nights in the south as either a quick break or as part of a longer northern Italy trip, the north begs for longer. We spent a week in Riva – a week in the same hotel, which is unheard of for us – and we don’t regret a second.
Nearby Torbole has a lot of amenities so this would be a good place to stay as well, but our walks along the lakefront made Riva a winner for us. (And that’s something you might miss if you’re just visiting Riva by boat!)
Malcesine would be my second choice, as it’s perfectly positioned for exploring anywhere on the lake with bus connections just as good as the ferry routes, and it’s a fantastic town in itself with plenty to do and still has great scenery. In fact, we’d probably do that next time!
One bonus of staying in Riva is that it’s part of the Trentino region, which means you can get a guest card that provides FREE public transport within the region. Lake Garda is split between Veneto and Lombardy, with only a small part of Trentino at the top, so this doesn’t help much with the lake – but it DOES mean you can visit places like Trento for free (which we did!). The guest card also offers free entry to various attractions and discounts on tours and activities.
Anyway, both ends of the lake have their merits and it totally depends what type of trip you want and whether it’s part of a larger trip (i.e. which other destinations you’re also visiting might dictate the best area for you).
We stayed in the Hotel Savoy Palace, which is a bit nicer than the hotels we normally stay in (but not budget-busting!) because it was an anniversary trip. The view from our balcony, pictured above, was AMAZING. The pool area is really lovely as it feels more like a garden than just a purpose-built resort pool, and the bar staff were always really friendly and fun. And our waiter, Luca, was an absolute gem – we decided to go half board, and we had the same table and waiter every night.
It’s about a twenty minute walk from the centre of Riva, but I honestly think this made our trip even better, because the walk along the lakefront was one of our favourite parts of the day.
Oh, and the flowers! Flowers everywhere! That was actually Riva in general, but our hotel was so pretty.
As you can probably tell, we LOVED Lake Garda. Along with Madeira, it’s a place I can see us returning to time and time again. Not even because there’s loads that we feel we missed (apart from the basket lift!), but because it really was a perfect holiday: charming towns, superb scenery, and of course sensational Italian food. A holiday where you can seamlessly combine activities, culture and relaxation.
So – when can we go back?
If you enjoyed this post, you might be interested in some other Italy posts:
⭐ Milan & Lake Como: Two Days In Northern Italy
⭐ Photo Friday: Scenes From Lake Como
⭐ Highlights Of Venice – On & Off The Beaten Path
⭐ A Day Trip Guide: San Marino From Bologna
⭐ Glacier Express vs Bernina Express: Which Swiss Panoramic Train Is Better?
Discover more from An Orcadian Abroad
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I’ve been to Lake Como and its surrounding villages as a day trip from Milan, and I agree with you that it takes a lot of planning and timing with the ferries from village to village. Haven’t been to Lake Garda, but I’ve heard spectacular things about it, and it seems like the planning is similar to Lake Como’s. All the same, the views and food look fantastic, and I’m glad you had a lovely stay there! Can’t wait to see you return sooner than later!