Lake Garda recommendations

We stayed for 2 nights on an RS tour. We spent a whole day taking boats to each stop around the lake, walked around each village/town. We bought a 1 day pass for the boats - great day. we didn't do any hiking, but LOVED Lake Garda.

Alexandra,

Peschiera del Garda is a great "home base" location as easy access to the trains and it's only about a 15 minute walk from the station to the boat docks. Which hotel were you planning to use?

One of the towns you want to spend a day visiting is Malcesine, which is just across from Limone sul Garda (another picturesque town). This website provides more information - http://www.italyheaven.co.uk/veneto/malcesine.html .

Given the amount of activities available there, you might want to book more time - http://www.visitgarda.com/en/active-holiday-lake-garda/ .

Malcesine. Take the cable car to the top. There are many good walks up there.

How did you choose those two towns? From Malcescine, there is great hiking and mountain biking on Monte Baldo ( with a ride up or down in the gondola if you like) and windsurfing for water sports.

Frankly I don’t see the need to split your stay into 2 locations. Changing hotels is time consuming. Malcesine is a great choice. It can be reached via bus from Verona (I believe one bus change is required in the town of Garda) or by ferry from Peschiera or Desenzano.
In the south side the most popular tourist destination is Sirmione. You can visit it on a day trip from Malcesine via boat. Sirmione gets really crowded at peak season, so avoid visiting it on weekends, if you can.
On the north side Malcesine, Limone are a must. Riva and Torbole are nice too.
The lake is one of the most important windsurf venue around, due to the high winds coming down from the Dolomites. Parasailing from the top of Mt. Baldo is also popular.
GardaLand is also a popular aquatic theme park. If you have a car there is the Natura Viva Park where you can have an autosafari. Convertible cars are not allowed, although the lions and the tigers love to eat canned humans.

Thank you so much for your recommendations - Malcesine it is!

I loved Lake Garda. Roberto above gave great advice.

Here’s the ferry schedule to get around the Lake
http://www.navigazionelaghi.it/eng/

We also spent a day took the ferry to Bardolino and hiked outside of town on streets to 2 wineries for the local wine. We also walked the coast from there to Garda and hiked up La Rocca on the way. The path is flat on the water between them. You can bike those.

Actually they are working on a bike path that will wrap around the full lake on the water and up in the cliffs but it won’t be ready for a while. You can view a sample here for a return visit. Which i already want to do. https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/lake-garda-floating-cycle-path-italy-drone-video-att-salo-a8317746.html

You can go Canyoning around the northern part of the lake by Riva. https://lakegarda.gardasee.de/canyoning. Here’s a few others for outdoors around the lake
https://www.mmove.net/en-us

We stayed in bardolino for their annual wine festival. It was great, very pretty along the lake with a path to walk, walk thru the cute town, have a glass of bardolino wine and enjoy. You’ll love the beauty there. Happy travel
Aloha