We spent 4 days in beautiful Lake Como, where you can travel between resort towns by boat across the Y-shaped lake with stunning mountain backdrops thanks to its location at the base on the Alps. We started the trip with a day in Como City, but since we went for a wedding, we spent the bulk of our time was spent in the central area of Bellagio with day trips to Tremezzo, Menaggio, Lenno and Varenna. These are arguably the most gorgeous parts of Lake Como, though you definitely pay a premium in some of these areas. You can jump ahead to read the best things to do in each of these towns, from dining at restaurants inside world-famous hotels and touring elaborate villas. But first, it’s important to know about how to get around.
Tips on taking the ferry
The public ferry lets you cross the lake easily for just over 4 euros while taking in the stunning backdrops. As long as you have a ticket for the route & day that you want, you can take that route any time that you want. You can buy ferry tickets online to save time waiting in line at the ticket counters as it’s the exact same price, though if online tickets are sold out you can always still buy tickets from the in-person booths. Just make sure to always try to be near the front of the line during peak season, especially for the Como-Colicco ferry which is often full since it loops around the entire lake and is the primary way to get to/from Lenno for Villa Balbianello (more on that later)
In addition to regular passenger ferries, there are also car ferries (traghetto) which connect Bellagio, Cadenabbia, Varenna, and Menaggio (denoted by the car icons in the map above). So when searching for ferry times, be sure to add these routes to your search, like Bellagio (Traghetto) to Varenna (Traghetto), or check the full timetables to check every ferry time available, as the car ferries run much later into the night than the passenger ferries.
I rented most of the dresses I wore in Lake Como, including the pink mini dress and yellow midi dress pictured above from Style Carousel, a designer rental service in Hong Kong and Singapore. You can get 10% off a Stylepass or Trialpass to try it out with my discount affiliate code INDULGENTEATS10.
Top Restaurants & Things to do in Lake Como
Dispensa 63
This charming restaurant on an alleyway in Bellagio easily served the best meal we had in all of Lake Como. The menu is small but incredibly well thought-out and balanced—our group of 6 ordered the entire menu and cleaned up every plate of creative, seasonal, artfully presented food. Everything was delicious, but you can’t miss the anchovies with whipped butter and toast, tomatoes three ways, trofie al pesto and filet mignon.
Villa del Balbianello
This famous villa (as shown at the top of this guide) has been featured in Hollywood movies like Casino Royale and in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. As the most popular tourist attraction in Lake Como, you can expect crowds at the popular photo spots, though you’ll still be able to get some gorgeous photos as long as you’re patient. Regardless of your attachment to the movies, it’s an absolutely breathtaking place that I’d recommend visiting.
Check out details and more photos (including comparisons to the film locations) in my dedicated Villa del Balbianello post.
After your visit to the villa, you can check out the markets around the Lenno ferry pier and also make a stop for some seriously delicious gelato at La Fabricca del Gelato. They also have a cart on the grounds of Villa Balbianello if you want to enjoy your gelato in the gardens, though we got it from their actual shop on the promenade so we had a full choice of flavors.
Bar Pasticceria Rossi
Old school cafe with ornate wooden furniture and a wide outdoor patio right across from the ferry pier. They have tasty pastries and fresh squeezed orange juice, plus a pretty good ham and cheese omelette. We came here for a cappuccino every morning as this spot also has hyper fast wifi, which was critical since our hotel wifi was terrible. They also serve booze if you want to grab a spritz before your ferry.
Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni
This stunning hotel in Bellagio has one of most beautiful hotel pools I’ve ever seen. Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni was actually just recently voted the #5 hotel in all of Europe in Travel & Leisure’s Reader’s Choice Awards for 2023. Even if you’re not staying here, you can check out their restaurants and bars including Terraza Darsena, the hotel’s stunning terrace that’s perfect for apertivo. Of course, it’s overpriced here but we happily paid 21 euro for an Aperol Spritz paired with a giant bowl of potato chips, some fat castelvetrano olives and roasted almonds to enjoy with the most beautiful views and truly impeccable service. Our friends also tried Mistral, their fine dining restaurant and really enjoyed it.
Grand Hotel Tremezzo
Basically the Villa Serbelloni of the Tremezzo side of Lake Como, with its own unbelievably beautiful pool plus a second pool that floats in the middle of the lake for more mindblowing beauty.
The pools are reserved for hotel guests, but since rooms here are insanely expensive, you can also visit the hotel to dine at their restaurants which include T Beach, their “beachside” patio restaurant and bar and T Pizza, which I absolutely recommend. Located through their gardens overlooking the pool, T Pizza is a shaded outdoor spot serving up high quality pizzas in a truly magical setting. The prices are obviously higher than other places in Italy, but honestly not too far off Neapolitan pizzerias in cities like New York and Hong Kong so we found it to absolutely be worth it. Definitely try their signature Tremezzino pizza with puffy crusts and a decadent combination of smoked provola cheese, ricotta, zucchini blossoms, anchovies and fresh herbs.
You can also try La Terraza Gualtiero Marchesi, their fine dining restaurant with impeccable views, however we found the food very hit or miss and the service was just fine considering the steep prices with dishes starting at 40 euro. The views are incredible though so if you decide to try it, I would go for their lobster cannelloni, spaghetti with clams, spaghetti with caviar, signature veal fillet with foie gras, and crepes Suzette and skip everything else 😬
Varenna and Villa Monastero
Varenna is the most colorful of the Lake Como villages with buildings in more vibrant hues of yellow, orange and red. There’s a path that hugs the coastline for particularly scenic views, with a couple of good not great gelato shops along the way since the path gets quite hot without any shade.
You can also cool off at a popular swimming spot outside of Hotel Royal Victoria. It’s on the way to Villa Monastero, a former monastery converted into an opulent villa and botanical garden with beautiful viewpoints and photo spots. I think this would be most worth visiting in the spring when all the flowers are in bloom, as there were areas where the flowers were already dying in the heat of summer 🥲 though we still got some nice photos.
We would’ve finished the day at Bar Il Molo, a popular apertivo spot here with tables right in the water but we were so tired we headed home and passed out without even having dinner that night 😂 Instead we just picked up some delicious pistachio pastries from Al Barilott down the street from Villa Monastero. If you have time for dinner, make a reservation for Osteria Quatro Pass, which came highly recommended by the groom’s parents who have spent every summer in Lake Como for 15 years.
Check out my guide to Como City for more ideas on things to do around Lake Como, along with my other guides on traveling around Italy.
