Hello,
We (family of 4, used to walking alot) are spending several days in Lake Como next summer and are considering Varenna and Bellano. Both look to be on the train line, and we found some beautiful VRBOs in both areas. Previous threads mention that Bellano has less ferry service than Varenna.
I would prefer no car, but if Bellano is more remote than Varenna, would we need one? How easy is it to get around the area with no car? Thank you!
We have stayed for up to two weeks on Lake Como without a car, using the ferries to get around. This is the only place in Europe we didn’t rent a car except for large cities like Tom’s, Paris etc. But we always have stayed in Bellagio with frequent ferry service. I would look closely at Bellano’s ferry schedule before you make your decision. Bella no sounds nice.
I'd stay ]Bellagio as we found Varenna a little sleepy. Take the train to Varenna and the ferry to Bellagio.
Make sure you spell the name correctly. It’s Bellano,
Bellano is famous for the Orrido (Gorge), which is certainly a place to consider visiting regardless of which town you choose to stay in.
What you mentioned is correct. The boat service to Bellano is not as frequent. In the midlake Menaggio, Bellagio have the absolute most frequent boat service, followed by Varenna which is not as frequent but much more frequent than Bellano. All three towns also have the car ferry, which adds more choices, even though you may not have a car. Basically most boat runs from the south start from Como and stop as far north as Varenna (without reaching Bellano) while the ones from Colico, which also stop in Bellano, are few. Both Bellano and Varenna have train service as well.
From a logistics standpoint, I would stay in one of the 3 towns I mentioned: Bellagio, Menaggio, Varenna. Which of the 3 is up to you. Varenna is quaint and small. Bellagio is quaint and a not as small, but also the most crowded, being the most famous. Menaggio is quaint and a bit larger.
Thanks. It sounds like a car isn’t necessary due to the trains and abundant ferries. Is it hard to get around town in Varenna if we stay there? Some of the rentals seem to be outside the central area.
We loved Varenna. Easy by train and ferry. We had a lake view staying at the Hotel du Lac. Also did a great cooking class in the town of Lecco, a short train ride away. Great restaurants in Varenna.
We stayed in Varenna for 3 nights in October would recommend it. (We travelled around N Italy by train or bus for 3 weeks.) One day we got a mid-lake day pass and used it to go down to Bellagio for a few hours then went across to the other (west) side of the lake. For seniors it was €12 pp. For the other day we walked / hiked to Bellano and walked around that town and had lunch there. There weren’t many ferries servicing Bellano so we walked to the train station and caught a train back to Varenna, €3 for 2 of us. There were lots of trains between the 2 towns.
Just on a side note: one of the most popular writers in Italy (4 million books sold) is Andrea Vitali, that for 25 years was general practitioner in Bellano. He said that he got ideas for almost all his novels by just sitting on a bench in a Bellano park and listening people talk around him.
We spent 5 nights in an air Bnb in Bellano in August 2021. There were 7 of us.
We loved the town. It wasn’t as touristy as many and there were three grocery stores. The ferry did not come here as often as to Varenna which is a disadvantage. I don’t think however that a car would have helped us very much. We stayed above the town and walked into town. So a car could have made that and grocery shopping easier (we just carried our groceries and went to the store every day).
One day we were in Bellagio and realized that we were going to miss the last regular ferry to Bellano. There was another one but it was quite a bit more expensive and there were 7 of us. So we took the ferry to Varenna, ate dinner there, and then took the train to Bellano. So it is an advantage to be on train line.
The management company we rented the air Bnb through picked us up at the train station and took us back to the train station which was convenient.
We found that many of the larger rentals near Varenna were too far to walk and would have required a car. You have a smaller group so you might be able to find something in town. But in general be careful about location on Lake Como. My sister in law and family rented a place and had to also rent a car to be able to reasonably get to the ferry.
Thanks Beth! This was super helpful. It sounds like it’s a pretty walkable town. We’re trying to get a rental close enough to avoid a car. Thanks!
