Help with Lake Garda, Italy!

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We love Malcescine near the northern end of the lake, and we’re going to spend 3 nights there on our way to the Dolomites this September, until British Airways canceled our flight to Italy and we had to change our plans.

It is a lovely small town with a picturesque ruined castle, a cobbled old town area, a number of waterfront hotels, and a mountain with cablecar ride up rising above the town.

https://lakegardatravel.net/malcesine-italy/

It is not served by train but the ferry will take you there. Or many hotels will pick you up at the Pescheria or Rovereto train station. We were going to arrive by ferry from Desanzano, then have the total arrange a taxi to the Rovereto train station which has good easy connections to the Dolomites area. This is the hotel we had booked but had to cancel ( they were very gracious about that):

https://www.hotelvenezia-malcesine.it/en

Also look at Hotel Castello, which gets great reviews. It sits just below the castle on a nice sandy beach.

Northern end is the more scenic end and much closer to the Dolomites, look at Malcesine, Limone, Riva del Garda (I'm sure there are others I'm overlooking). We spent 4 nights in Riva in June and absolutely loved it. We stayed at Du Lac et Du Parc resort, which was not cheap but I thought a decent value for a fabulous hotel with amazing lakefront grounds. Just a short walk along the lovely lakefront path to the historic center of town. There are perfectly good less-pricey options in town.

Whether you stay in Malcesine or not I recommend taking the gondola up to the top of Monte Baldo for the views.

I wish we had more time to explore the west side of the lake, but that's what the next trip is for. :)

Another Malcesine recommendation. I lived in Germany a few years and a friend recommended the village. Made 3 trips there and loved each.

Malcesine, Hotel Erika. No view but terrific place with a caring owner.

We stayed in two different towns on Lake Garda, going and coming from the Dolomites. Italian friends recommended Saló on the SW coast. It is a lovely town with a waterfront promenade. The town was nicely upscale. I think we were the only Americans there, visitors were Europeans, mostly German. Hotel Bellerive offered excellent service and rooms.
On our return from the Dolomites we stayed at Il Castello in the NE part of lake. The hotel has it’s own beach. However the town was much more touristy and crowded than Saló. However the mountain views were beautiful.

hey hey daniel
few years back, stayed in bardolino during their festa dell uva festival end of sept/first of October. a customer of mine told me about it, we were in Venice for a week for Greek island cruise. booked hotel nettuno and rental car at piazzale Roma and off we went to lago de Garda
absolutely loved it and this gorgeous lake, wish we had more time to explore small villages on the lake. we stopped at pescheira del garda for lunch before headed back to Venice.
if you are driving a car, get your IDP from AAA. No hassles, heard rental car company ask, just be prepared.
gardaitaly.com
Italyheaven.com
type in any city of Italy and read about it
rossiwrites.com
lake garda, read up about the towns/villages, things to do and see.
saturnio Madonna Della corona
church built in the hillside rock wall
getyouguide.com
lake garda activity to go on a 3 seater trike ride on the lake ( duetigarage.com)
wine tour and tasting in bardolino
get a good map of the cities/villages around the lake and which one has ferries/boats cruising up the lake
lakegardatravel.net
lots of info about lake, cities, transportation
go have fun and enjoy
aloha