Milan, Dolomites, Venice Itinerary Guidance

Since most flights out of Venice to the states depart very early (around 6:00), I would fly into Venice and of Milan. Picking up a car on the way to the Dolomites and dropping it off on the way to Milan. Find a rental near the train line. Since there will be 4 of you, I would only consider and Airbnb (I do not work, for them in any capacity), that way you are getting a home rather than a bedroom. Have a wonderful trip. J

Fly into Venice and out of Milan. Departures from Venice are generally very early in the morning.
We usually stay in Milan two nights and have stayed in Bellagio, Lake Como from four nights up to two weeks. We love Bellagio and have visited there four or five times.
We stay in Ortisei in the Dolomites at Hotel Grones and recommend it highly.

The drive between Milan-Dolomites-Venice is about 3.5-4 hours. You definitely do not want a car IN Milan or Venice (there are no cars in Venice). Como, Lecce, Maggiore, are not close enough to Milan to make side trips worth your time. These are separate towns about an hour away by train. You would spend so much time traveling to and from places that you wouldnt get to enjoy the place. I think 2 nights in Milan is enough to see what you want. That gives you one full day. You can see the Duomo and Last Supper in one day, plus walk around the center pretty extensively. In the Dolomites, I would stay in one place and drive to others that you want to see. We stayed near Ortesei. There are many beautiful spots, so maybe pick a few hikes you are interested in, or pick the village you are most interested in wandering in the evenings, and stay close to those/that. We prefer to pick up and drop off cars in outlying areas from major cities, so when we rented a car in Venice, we actually took the train out of Venice one stop to Venezia Mestre. If I remember correctly, it was cheaper and there were more cars available. As for neighborhoods to stay in, we like to stay just a little removed from the main center, which I find too obnoxiously touristy. In Milan we stayed just west of the Milan Codorna train station and really liked that. In Venice, Ive stayed in the Rialto area and found it way too crowded, and also dont like the San Marco area for the same reason., This time we stayed in what I thought would be an out of the way area (and thought it could potentially be too 'far' from everything), but we loved it! Not too far at all. I dont know what the area is called but the street was Barbaria de le Tole (near the hospital on the east side of the city). We really liked walking around the Cannaregio area and might stay there next time. I encourage you to remember less is more! I dont think there are major advantages one way or the other, however, I think arriving in Venice by water taxi is pretty romantic and exciting (and you avoid the crush of arriving by train), and part of the reason we stayed in the area of Milan we did is that trains departed from the Milan Codorna train station for MPX, so we were able to walk easily from our lodging to the train, and go straight to the airport.

I highly recommend that you stay at one location in the Dolomites. Ortisei is a good choice. Make sure your hotel offers parking.

It sounds like you need 4 hotels -- Venice, Ortisei (or other Dolomites), Lake Como, and Milan -- unless you limit Lake Como to a day trip while staying in Milan.

Although you may prefer a car regardless, you don't really need a car for your destinations if you are staying in one place in Ortisei. Most if not all lodging provides a free bus pass for getting between towns near Ortisei which also means you can combine bus rides one way with hikes and lifts the other way for some hikes. Many hotels in the dolomites also provide free hiking poles for guests to use; if you choose an airbnb, you might want to check what they provide.

Look at flights before deciding where to fly into. We flew into Milan and out of Venice in 2021 and it worked well. We did not spend any nights in Milan but checked our luggage at the train station and went to the duomo. We later took the train to Lake Como. I think you are going to have to decide with just 9 nights what to shortchange-you can't do Milan, Lake Como, Venice and Dolomites in 9 nights. You might prefer to stay in Milan and do a day trip to Lake Como over what we did.

Our flight from Venice left at 11 or 11:30 am. There were 7 of us so a water taxi was economical and fun. I would do it again.

We are planning to go to the Dolomites this next year and doing it without a car. You could do the same if you stay in Ortesei or other towns in the valley.

Thank you all so much for your feedback! We would not stay in hotels in both Milan and Como, just one or the other. So my question is, with 2 full days, is it better to stay in Como and possibly take a day trip to Milan or stay in Milan and possibly take a day trip to Como. And if we are considering alternate bases, how would you compare Como to Lecco, Maggiore, Lugano, etc.? Are any of these locations on the way to the Dolomites?

Como is a city on Lake Como. It's not where most tourists choose to stay, as far as I know. It is quite far from the mid-lake area.

So maybe it would make sense to fly into Milan and take the train right to Varenna? I feel badly about skipping The Last Supper and Duomo but our time is limited and we prefer to stay outside of the city. For our first visit, do you think it is better to stay in Varenna or Bellagio? Do you typically prefer hotels or air bnbs in this area? Again, it is myself, my husband and our 14 year old twins. Thank you!

You can’t do everything on one trip. I would stay in Varenna because you have a short trip and that is where the train goes. Staying in Bellagio will add a ferry ride. You can take a ferry and go visit Bellagio.

We usually stay in hotels for stays of 1-2 nights as easier to coordinate with than air bnbs. I have found that there are very few lock boxes used in Europe and generally meet up with a person. But with four of you, it may be hard to find one hotel room. I would see if can find hotel room that will work for the four of you. If not, you will have to have 2 and air bnbs may be considerably cheaper. Be careful with location. Make sure it is walkable to Varenna as places in general area will come up in a search too. .

You probably won't be at your destination in the Dolomites until the afternoon on the first day so that will leave at most 3 days for hikes and so on. You might want to focus on just one part of the Dolomites. On our trip this year we just stayed in Ortisei and did hikes from there (there are 3 lifts based in the town). This worked out well by bus, took the train into Bolzano and then the bus to Ortisei.

If you want to stay in several locations over a short stay of 3-4 nites then make a detailed plan for each day, literally hour-by-hour, to see if it works. My guess is you'll find its more moving to and fro and seeing the countryside out a car or bus window, less time in nature and hiking.

I think you need to do more research before deciding what is right for your trip,. Read thru a guidebook or two and decide what you want to do in the Dolomites which is quite large. One book I'd recommend is "Walking in Italy's Val Gardena" by Laurel Barton who also posts on the forum.

I think you need to do more study on “Como”. You have asked about Menaggio and Lugano as possible Como locations but those and actually different lakes ( Lugano is also a city, on the lake). Neither one is on your way between Dolomites and Milan. Neither is Lake Como, but at least it is not as far out of the way.

Varenna is a very small town on Lake Como, an hour by train from Milan. It has limited lodging—a few small hotels and a number of holiday apartments but you need a car for many of those. It is very popular ( and crowded) and people in this forum are already stressing about getting a hotel reservation there. The main things to do there are gaze at the lake or ride around on lake boats to see it all from the lake.

Varenna is not a good place to spend the night before a flight out of Milan. Bellaggio would be even worse as you need to add a ferry ride to the 2 train journeys.

Stresa on Lago Maggiore is a better place choice if you want to avoid moving to a Milan hotel the night before your flight. At least if you are flying from Malpensa. There is a direct bus taking about 1 hour.

Thank you all so much! I am researching as much and as quickly as possible so I can start making reservations!

We love beautiful nature (open meadows with roaming animals and crystalline waters), hiking and incredible food, as well as some culture and history. We will have a total of 9 nights and we figured we would stay in 3 different hotels in Milan/Como, Dolomites and Venice.

It sounds like you have chosen Venice for history and culture, Lake Como for crystalline water, and the Dolomites for the open meadows with roaming animals. That can work, but it is a lot to fit in to 9 nights, and you will find Venice and Lake Como particularly crowded.

If you follow the above recommendations to fly into Venice and out from Milan (which I agree with), I have the following random comments:

For Venice, you should stay in the city itself, not in nearby Treviso or other city (especially not Mestre). That way you will be IN Venice in the early morning and through the evenings, and these are the best times to experience the magic of Venice, without all the crowds of day-trippers. People here can suggest less-busy areas to stay; I have my favorites and others have theirs. Think about what you want to see and do in Venice, as 2 nights in that hot and crowded city might be enough. And keep your expectations for wonderful food fairly low, as Venice is better known for its history and unique setting than for great restaurants.

If you spend 2 nights in Venice you can add a night to the Dolomites, which is a good thing.

For the Dolomites, it sounds like you are thinking of driving around to “take it all in”. Do you really want to see the Dolomites from the car? Yes, you will see a lot of beautiful rocky peaks out the windows, but after a while they will all look the same. And what you won’t see is the beautiful open meadow of Alpe di Siusi, because you cannot drive there—-the road is closed to car traffic during the daytime, from 9 am to 5 pm. To actually experience this meadow, you need to ride up on a cablecar from Ortesei or Seis and hike around, or rent bikes and cycle. Or stay in a hotel up there to have more time. And yes, there are cows here and there, and also horses, mostly Tyrolian Haflingers.

https://www.seiseralm.it/en/holiday-dolomites/seiser-alm.html

If you stay in Ortesei, you can spend a day on Alpe di Siusi and another day riding a lift up to the meadows and trails on the other side of the valley. You can see what that area looks like, together with a hike description, on lots of blogs (google “Seceda ridge hike”. This one has good summer photos:

https://hungariandreamers.com/seceda-ridgeline-hike/

For your lake time, I think you need to choose the location carefully if you want to avoid spending a final night in Milan for access to the airport. I agree with Sasha that Varenna would not be the best choice, unless maybe you have a flight out of Linate instead of Malpensa (Linate is a short taxi ride from Milano Centrale train station). But it still would have to be an afternoon flight, to allow travel time from Varenna.

If your flight is from Malpensa, then Stresa on Lago Maggiore might indeed be a better choice than Varenna. There are more hotels in Stresa, and they are large, classic ones, with swimming pools. And some lovely islands nearby to visit by boat. The town itself is not as picturesque as Varenna, but there is pleasant hiking in the hills above the town, in chestnut forests.

https://www.visitstresa.com/Walks.htm

Stresa is one hour by train from Milano Centrale, just like Varenna, but in the opposite direction, and ona different lake. The advantage over Varenna is that it is only an hour from Malpensa airport by Alibus. Here is the summer schedule:

https://www.safduemila.com/linee/alibus-malpensa-lago-maggiore/

Here is what others are saying about lodging in Varenna this summer:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/hotel-du-lac-closing-reopening-as-casa-du-lac-april-1-2025