We started a 6 week trip to Italy by making a 5 day stop in Lake Como. We decided to stop by Lake Como as we wanted a stop over to make our drive from Geneva, Switzerland to Florence, Italy easier. Lake Como turned out to be such an unexpected and gorgeous place that we wanted to share all of it with you.
In this post, we share our itinerary as well as how much we spent. If you plan to go to Northern Italy, you should REALLY consider making a stop in this beautiful region which is also where George Cloney has one of his secondary residences for the summer! We are definitely planning on coming back for a much longer stay next time, it has definitely won us over.
How much time do you need to spend in Lake Como?
We recommend a minimum of three days and two nights to enjoy the area. You can easily stay an entire week there (As we did) or make it your summer vacation since it has a TON to offer. We arrived on Monday and left on Friday so we could avoid the weekend crowds (which is one of the few advantages of slow travel). But even though we were in Lake Como in early June (the beginning of the summer season in Europe), it was starting to get busy so we can’t imagine how popular this place can be in the hot months of July and August! We were glad we went on a cooler month so that we could enjoy the hikes in comfort but would probably do more swimming if we were there during the warmer months.
What did we do?
We picked a place which was actually a bit away from the more popular towns (in Colico) but still not too remote as it took us about a 30-45 minutes drive to access most of our hikes or landmarks we wanted to visit. We did a LOT of hiking to explore most of the towns around the lake. We also enjoyed our free rental bikes to explore the surrounding area and stopped at some of the main touristy highlights during our stay.
We soon discovered that the public ferry transportation is quite good, developed and affordable. When we return to Lake Como, we will try to pick a place next to a ferry line so that we would not need to use our car as much and figure out parking every day. Plus, the ferry rides are a great way to enjoy the views on the lake.
Here is a daily summary of our week in Lake Como:
| Day | What did we do? |
| 0 (Monday) | We left Lausanne in the late morning and drove most of the day to get to Lake Como (a 5h drive for about 400 km | 250 miles). We got to enjoy a stop at Lucerne for lunch and then arrived at our apartment in the early evening. We had a nice dinner at home and then I took one of the free rental bikes that came with our place to go scout the area and got some really nice views on the lake and also had to conquer a few hills while biking 🙂 |
| 1 (Tuesday) | After running some errands and enjoying a nice lunch at home, the highlight for the day was an afternoon bike ride exploring a monastery and the beach of the nearby town of Dorio. Total biking: 20km | 12.5 miles, 1hr 45 minutes. |
| 2 (Wednesday) | For our second day, we did a long day of hiking that started from the town of Gera Lario and ended in the town of Domaso. Total hiking (incl. ferry ride): 28km | 17.4 miles, 5 hours. |
| 3 (Thursday) | On our third day, we felt fancy and wanted to explore trendy places. So we started from the town of Tremezzo, then visited the gorgeous Villa del Balbianello (where movies like Star Wars were filmed). We had a picnic lunch there before continuing to Sala Comacina where we took a ferry to head back and made a stop by the beautiful town of Bellagio. Total hiking (incl. ferry ride): 32 km | 20 miles, 4 hours. |
| 4 (Friday) | On our fourth and last day, we squeezed in a morning hike from Bellano all the way to Fiumelatte. We had lunch at Varenna, which was probably one of our favorite towns around the lake. We then took our car and continued our journey towards Florence, where we stayed for a month. Total hiking: 12 km | 7.46 miles, 2 hrs 30 minutes. |
The map below captures all the sites we’ve stopped at as well as the places we stayed at.
Day 1 – From Colico to Dorio
Since our apartment came with 2 bikes, we decided to make good use of them and explore our neighborhood. We made our first stop at the Cistercian Abbey of St. Mary of Piona. It is quite a hill to get up there especially with our single gear bikes but it was worth the ride. We took a few shots at this lovely monastery that reminded me of Mont Saint Michel Cloister garden in France.
We then biked down to lake level and continued our journey all the way to Dorio. Since we biked in the evening, we got to enjoy a nice view of the town and stop near the beaches. You could swim at these beaches if you’d like or just enjoy the scenery. It is quite bucolic.
Here are details about our itinerary including maps and elevation profile:
Total biking: 20km | 12.5 miles, 1hr 45 minutes.
Day 2 – From Gera Lario to Dongo (Via Domassa & Gravedora)
On our second day, we packed a lot of water, had our picnic and started to explore the area on the Western side of the lake.
We parked our car near the Church of San Vincent (Chiesa di San Vincenzo) and started a big climb that led us to cherry trees and the church in the town of Trezzone. We kept going, enjoying some cherries before reaching some great view points on the lake.
We then crossed another town with cobblestone streets and houses made of stone. Really really lovely!
We kept going all the way down to Domasso where we had our lunch by the beach. Fully recharged, we then kept going towards Dongo via Gravedona.
Once we arrived in Dongo we took the public ferry to come back to Domasso and made our way back to our car by following the lake this time.
Here are details about our itinerary including maps and elevation profile:
Total hiking (incl. ferry ride): 28km | 17.4 miles, 5 hours.
Day 3 – From Tremezzo to Sala Comacina (via Villa Del Balbianello)
Pretty happy with the hike the day before, we decided to double down and keep exploring other towns of Lake Como that way. We started by parking our car at the free parking spot near Tremezzo. We walked along the lake until Bonzanigo gave us a warm up climb all the way to the town of Mezzegra. After enjoying nice views of the lake, we walked our way down to the lake and started heading towards the world famous Villa del Balbianello.
This wonderful place has been used as the setting for several movies, including Casino Royale and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
Pro-tip: If you get to go to Villa Del Balbianello, make sure you have a top notch outfit as the pictures looks really good. Our hiking gear did not make the cut 🙂
Since the setting was pretty magical, we decided to stop there to enjoy our lunch. We had views of the lake in a beautiful villa with a great garden. What else could you want?
We then kept hiking to the town of Ossuccio, all the way to Sala Comacina where we picked up a ferry to bring us to the town of Bellagio after making a couple of stops via the boat on the lake.
Bellagio is a pretty famous town in Italy that you might know from the hotel in Las Vegas that has the same name. We didn’t have much time to explore but we can confirm that the gelato there is delicious! Our first gelato stop of many in Italy! OMG!
We then took the ferry to make our way back to our car. What another great day in Lake Como!
Here are details about our itinerary including maps and elevation profile:
Total hiking (incl. ferry ride): 32 km | 20 miles, 4 hours.
Day 4 – From Bellano to Fiumelatte (via Varenna)
For our last day, we had to check out and commute to our next stop in Tuscany. We managed to squeeze in a short hike to check towns on the Southern East side of the lake. We parked our car at the Bellano train station and started our hike. This was quite an uphill start so be prepared. Though there was plenty of shade to make the hike doable.
We followed the “Vie Del Viandante” which is a 200 km long network of trails. We left the trail near Fiumelatte where we took the train to commute back to our car.
On our hike, we enjoyed lovely scenery with many viewpoints on the lake, and some great views of the town of Varenna which the trail led us to. Varenna is probably the place we would consider staying next time because of its central location, ferry stop and lovely village feel. It feels lively, lovely and has great restaurants.
Here are details about our itinerary including maps and elevation profile:
Total hiking: 12 km |7.46 miles, 2 hrs 30 minutes.
What NOT to do?
- Visiting during the weekend in the summer – We were surprised to see very few people on our hikes in Lake Como. Weekdays are a bit less crowded than weekends since you usually avoid those that have to work, popular weddings and people that come to the Lake for the weekend.
- Do not drive a big car – The roads are quite small around the Lake so better to rent a small car to avoid unnecessary parking challenges and stress while crossing other vehicles
Where to stay?
As we had to spend a lot of time on the road for this trip, we only needed a place to sleep. While we usually like to use AirBnB for long stays to save close to 50% on accommodation cost, on very short (less than a week) stays AirBnB doesn’t always offer the best deals (partly due to the cleaning fee that can be as high as the nightly rate). This is when we also look to Booking.com which has a lot of options on what we were looking for.
Note: Links to the accommodations below are affiliate links, meaning that if you click and purchase any of them, Nomad Numbers may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. For more information please review our disclaimer page.
| Day | Accommodation / Location | Nomad Numbers Rating |
| 0 (Monday) | La casa del ciodo | 4 out of 5 – Great but a bit off center This was a really nice apartment with a fully equipped kitchen and a nice living space. The place came with two free rental bikes though they were not mountain bikes, so good only for a stroll around the beach. It was not in the main towns but it can make for a great place for a longer stay and we like that it was in a very quiet and cute area of Lake Como (8.6 score on booking.com) |
How to get there?
One way to visit Lake Como is to start/fly to Milan and then pick up a rental car. We had a car for our entire trip to Italy and this definitely made a difference. You can probably rent a car for $25-30 a day from Milan.
Tip: When picking your car, try to pick a car that is fuel efficient (better hybrid or fully electric :D) so you can save on gas. A car rental in Lake Como seems to cost around $30 per day.
If this is too expensive, look into taking the train to Lake Como and then either use the great ferry system or hire a taxi to get to your apartment hotel. You do not need a car if your accommodation is next to a ferry line as these let you visit most of the towns.
How much did we spend?
This 5 day trip in Lake Como was excellent and we got to see a lot at a very affordable cost. Picking our accommodation slightly away from the main town was definitely a great way to save since it was our biggest expense on the trip. We also used affordable public transportation, found free parking spaces and did a bunch of hiking which did not cost much in the end. Packing our picnic lunch instead of going to a restaurant helped keep our spending reasonable and we truly enjoy our own food while hiking. It is not only practical (as we can stop anywhere) it is also really yummy. That being said, we did splurge on gelato 🙂
TL;DR; As a couple we spent a total of 348 USD for this trip. Note: this budget is as a couple so if you travel solo, your budget might differ.
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| Category | Total Cost USD | Comments |
| Accommodation | $198.60 | Four nights at a quaint Airbnb with a fully equipped kitchen and everything we needed. |
| Local Transportation | $59.16 | This is for the gas for our car, ferry tickets and parking tickets. Note: This does not include the car rental as we borrowed the car from Mr NN’s parents. So probably add $30 per day for a car rental in Italy. |
| Groceries /Snacks | $57.95 | This covered all of our meals since we exclusively cooked at home and made picnic lunches while outside. |
| Entertainment | $23.25 | This covered entrance fees to the Villa we visited |
| Eating Out | $5.26 | This covered a small snack on our way |
| Snacks | $3.71 | Some gelato because we are in Italy! |
| TOTAL | $348.03 | At $34.80 per day for two people, this 5 day trip to Lake Como was quite affordable. Keep in mind that we did not pay for the car, which could have easily doubled that budget. |
Others tips?
Here are our tips for anyone that is planning to visit Lake Como and wants to save time and money while having the best possible experience:
- Pack water – The area can get really hot in the summer, especially if you like hiking. Make sure to pack plenty of water and stay hydrated.
- Enjoy hiking – There are a lot of beautiful hiking trails around the lake that provides stunning views of the region. We love hiking and would rather hike than drive around to see the sights. Your mileage might vary.
- Drive slow and with caution – The roads in Lake Como can be super narrow and also windy. On top of that, some of these roads go through some old towns so PLEASE drive slowly. There are actually quite an impressive number of speed radars around the lake so you probably don’t want to get that fine during your trip.
What do you think about Lake Como? Did you know about it? Would you like to spend a few days there and enjoy everything the gorgeous region has to offer?
3 Comments
Margot Haliday Knight · January 10, 2023 at 8:11 pm
This was such a trip down memory lane for me. We spent September through November of 2021 in Laglio without a car. Via bus and ferry we visited and hiked around 24 of the 70+ cities that border Lake Como. We also took a few 2-3 night getaways to Monza (for the Grand Prix), Milan, Lugano, Bellagio and Tirano to take the Bernina Express to St. Moritz.
I recommended the place we stayed on the GWL accommodation sticky if you want to check it out for a longer stay. It wasn’t fancy but it was perfect for us, and it comes with a parking spot though we never used it. We loved that the Via Verde, a walking trail was right at our doorstep.
Thanks for your comprehensive review. You can check out my Life in Italy album on Facebook to see some of the same places you enjoyed, but in the fall it was quiet and a lot of places were closed, but it was glorious.
Enthusiastic Extranjero · January 19, 2023 at 3:15 am
This flashes me back to the summer of 2007, when I visited Colo with a road bike. I had been living in the French Alpes, working on my cycling, French and wine and cheese awareness. A bucket list item was to ride the Ruta de Madanna di Ghisallo, patron saint of cyclists. It was epic, and I got absolutely spanked by 80 year old Italian men on bikes older than me, whose carved walnut muscles ruined me on the 28% climbs. What a wonderful place. And the coffee! SO incredible. Must get back someday. Off to Patagonia in three weeks, so likely not this year.
Mr. Nomad Numbers · January 20, 2023 at 1:24 am
Thank you for sharing your experience in Como with your road bike. Sounds like this place is also amazing for cyclists enthusiasts like you then! From hiking there a bunch I’m sure the views were amazing for you as well. On a side note, which part of Patagonia are you going to visit?