Lake Garda

So glad to hear someone is going to Lake Garda—it’s a hidden treasure! It’s been several decades since we visited Lake Garda, but we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there. Our hotel was in Riva del Garda and one day we took a scenic boat ride to Simione Castle, near where you are staying. Riva del Garda had a pretty lakeside promenade and a small, but quaint town. We were there in early May, so the weather was probably a bit warmer, and we were traveling with our 7 and 4 year old daughters, so our days were not jam packed with sight seeing.

We’ve also read that you can bike around the lake, which we plan to look into for a future trip. We haven’t been to Verona, so I can’t comment on that.

The most beautiful part of Lake Garda is the northern section. Higher mountains, more fjord like. And the prettiest towns - Malcesine, Limone, Riva del Garda. You can do it as a day trip via boat from Desenzano although it would be preferable to base in one of those towns. At the southern end of the lake is Sirmione which is charming and one of the most interesting castles. Gets very crowded with day trippers so for that it probably is best to base in Desenzano so you can get over there as early as possible before it gets crowded.

Verona is wonderful as well but you can't do everything. I guess it depends on what else your trip consists of . And do you have three full days (4 nights) or three nights - so really only two plus days - for Lake Garda.

Here's my photos of the Lake and surrounding towns. https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/p1016537666

Without a car, you'll be a little limited in what you can easily get to at Lake Garda. Probably a taxi would be the easiest way to get over to Sirmione, which is very pretty. I would definitely recommend a day to visit Verona, it's one of my favorite cities in the area. Once there, take a taxi or the bus from the train station to the city center. Both are well described by RS. The city center is very walkable and easily manageable in one day.

Lfake Garda is beautiful, especially the northern end as Isabel points out. We stayed in Malcesine but there is no train connection in that area. We were driving. We had planned trips across the lake and up the mountain, but for 2days in late April, heavy fog rolled in, so dense, the views weren’t available. In that case, a day trip to Verona would make sense! But we just hung out in the town and enjoyed our leisure time

When we are at Lake Garda (and it has been far too long now) we travel around to visit other cities using the ferries and only the ferries. Apparently there is a new app since last time: https://navigazionelaghi.wixsite.com/dreamlake?lang=en.

Even when we drive from home (Denmark) to Lake Garda, we park the car and use the ferry.

I.p. Ernerson - we’ll definitely look into that.

We hope to visit Denmark again one day. My husband studied a year of architecture there 30+ years ago 😁