Day trip or stay at Lake Como

[ddavis539]

We're taking a 12 day cruise from Barcelona to Venice in early June. After we leave the ship, we're planning on heading to Milan for a couple of days, since my wife and traveling companions have never been there. We will be arriving on a Friday afternoon and fly from Malpensa to Barcelona Sunday night ahead of a Monday morning flight home. We have tickets for the last supper that evening, and I figure we can see the Duomo, Scala that afternoon or evening, freeing up Saturday to do an excursion.

 

After weighing my options, I'm really leaning towards taking the train north to Varenna to see Lake Como, and cross over to see Bellagio as well. It seems that this could be done as a day trip, returning to Milan that evening, but maybe it would be better to modify our reservations to check out on Saturday and spend the night in Varenna instead? It seems like that would be much more relaxing than spending more time in Milan.

 

Are there other places near Milan that might be more interesting than Lake Como/Bellagio. I had thought about trying to get up to the lake (Resia) that has the sunken village with the church tower sticking out of it, but that appears to be a long way away across the mountains, and only accessible by car.

 

Is it possible to get to Malpensa from Varenna without going all the way into Milan again? Our flight leaves at 9:00pm, and we plan on being at the airport before 7:00pm. The shuttle schedule wouldn't work since it gets to the airport too late, and I don't know if they operate on Sundays.

[nibird2]

We have been to both areas. You can easily see the highlights of Milan in one day. Scala, the Duomo, the Supper and shopping are all located within walking distance of each other. By the way, for THE VERY BEST gelato ANYWHERE seek out CHOCOLAT geleteria while in Milan.

 

You can do Bellagio/Verena in a day trip. Verena is small and has a beautiful promonade along the lake. Bellagio is a sensational town. The boat ride between the two is short and the Alps are available for viewing. By all means do this! Would also agree with staying overnight along the lake, unless you crave more time in Milan. That city is architecturally uninteresting , and once you see the majors there is not much else.

 

One other option would be a day trip to Lake Maggiore. There is a beautiful village and villa on an island in the lake . In addition , there is a popular resort town nearby that is worthwhile spending an hour or so.

 

Might be more convenient to rent a vehicle to provide flexibility and the opportunity to drive to the airport directly from either lake.

 

Hope this helps. You can't go wrong, but in my opinion Lake Como is the way to go.

 

Dennis

[Cymro1953]

Having stayed at all of the "BIg Three" Italian lakes, I'd say Como is lovely but Lake Maggiore is beautiful.

I can't help with travel times but if i had the chance to go back I'd vote for Maggiore.

 

OR

 

have you considered staying at Verona ? It's close to Venice and a beautiful city and you could visit resorts on Lake Garda

 

Berwyn

[agabbymama]

Another vote for Lake Maggiore. Stresa or Beligrate are two lovely reseort towns there. And there are three islands (I think Isola Bella is the largest). I believe the train goes from Milan to Stresa too.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Maggiore

 

 

The Lake District is absolutely beautiful, you can't go wrong whichever one you go to.

[macaroni]

Oh my god, we just got back from lake como yesterday, staying in Varenna and Bellagio. It was incredible...I loved it much better than Lake Maggiore. I can't wait to go back. Hotel prices in Bellagio were much better than Varenna.

[JNB]

Hi ddavis,

 

I agree that staying at a lake is "better" than remaining in Milan. One thing of note is that Lake Como is a weekend trip for the Milanese and the streets are crowded and there is much traffic. If you are already there you will not be affected. It is quite interesting to join the crowd and people watch.

 

On our land trip 2 years ago we stayed at Hotel Terminus on Lake Como because it was easy. We took the train in and out and staying in Como while less scenic than other spots gave us 15 minute taxi access to the train station. I enjoyed this hotel with its central access, one caveat is that our room looked over the square and with the window open itwas a bit noisy until late--- (note that I am hypersensitive and with the window closed it was only a "bit").

 

From the hotel we took a private boat ride for 1 hour and later the ferry trip to the remaining towns on the lake. By far the best was Bellagio. Although this is the end of the trip, save money for clothes shopping if you are of a mind. We found the best bargains on clothes in Como/Bellagio (other cities included Rome and Venice for us).

 

We took the slow ferry on the way up and the fast ferry on the way back. I would take the fast ferry both ways to give more time to spend at the stops. It is a hop on/hop off ferry.

[Hambagahle]

Having been (often) to both lakes I would urge you to go to Stresa and spend the day on Maggiore. You can take a day ticket on the boat and visit the three islands - Isola Bella with its palace and formal gardens, Isola Madre with its botanical garden and Isola dei Pescatori (Fishermen's island) with great fish restaurants. You could also visit the Villa Taranto across the lake - it has one of the most wonderful gardens I have ever seen which was created by a Scot in the '30's.

 

If you spent the night in Stresa or Baveno (Hotel Dino is great and right on the lake) you could then take the train back to Gallarate, get off and take the bus over to Malpensa, thus not having to go back into Milano.