Lake Region / Lake Como

Varenna is recommended for those without cars. With a car and needing overnight parking, you may want to focus on selecting a hotel that clearly tells you: yes, they will provide secure overnight parking. If you can find that in Varenna, stay there--look there first. But if not, let the location of the hotel that can provide parking dictate your sleeping accommodations. Hopefully that would be either Varenna, Bellagio, or Menaggio--but I've never had a car at Lake Como (it is so easy to reach by train and a car does you no good while you're at the Lake) so I'm just guessing. I say this because few of the towns have what an American would call "easy access" by car or easy overnight parking. Hopefully someone who has driven a car there will give you a more specific answer to your question.

A few years ago, we drove from Milan to Bellagio. It was a pretty easy drive, despite the narrow roads.

If you're staying for a week, I would recommend Residence L'Ulivo, which is a small set of apartments on the grounds of the Grand Hotel Serbelloni, a 5-star hotel/resort. While the hotel is absurdly expensive, the apartments, while very plain, have their own parking lot and lobby. Plus, they have access to everything that the guests of the hotel have: small beach, indoor pool, outdoor pool, restaurants, tennis courts, health club, gardens, etc.

I think that Bellagio and the Lakes Region is one of the most beautiful and relaxing places I have ever been.

Some days, we hiked, others we drove, and others we just chilled. We enjoyed having the car. One day, we took the car on the ferry, and then drove to Lugano, Switzerland for the day, took a funicular to the top of a mountain, had lunch, and then headed back.

Enjoy!

We drove to Varrenna last Oct. and stayed at Hotel Olivedo.They provided parking for us.Olivedo is a nice place that in the summer requires dinner be eaten.The meals there are very good and worth it.(I think Steves also advises eating there).