Milan, Italy!

What time of year?
How long is the trip?
Where else are you going?

I haven't spent enough time on Lake Como to be helpful with specific destinations, but I recall earlier comments to the point that the way to see places on the lake is to hop on a boat. Apparently the road(s) around the lake don't generally provide good lake views. So maybe wait until after you've done most or all of your lakeside sightseeing before you pick up a rental car.

I think Rick has good coverage of Lake Como in his guide to Italy.

@ joe32F

We are heading there on the the 15th of this month. We are only spending 3 days by Milan. Then we are headed towards the Alps for the rest of our trip.

@acraven

Thank you for your input. We will still need the rental car as we are headed to the Alps after Como. The only change I would do based on your input is that instead of driving all across, we will just park the car in Como and explore the rest by boat.

Don’t stay in Como. Drive to Menaggio and stay in Menaggio. Menaggio is in the mid lake but car friendly (there are several parking lots). From there you might use the car to drive to Lugano (Switzerland), which is nice and near Menaggio (45 min drive), but otherwise to visit the towns on the lake use the ferries. Menaggio, Varenna, and Bellagio (less than 10 min across from one another via boat) are the nicest towns that are also well served by frequent boats. If you are interested in seeing the Gorge of Bellano (Orrido di Bellano), it’s just north of Varenna and also reachable by boat.

I don’t know where in the Alps you plan to go, but a nice drive is to drive through the Valtellina to Bormio and from there to the Stelvio Pass all the way to Trafoi and then Merano. Along the way, before Bormio there is also Tirano if you are interested in the Bernina Express train to Switzerland.

@ Roberto da Firenze

Perfect. I appreciate that. So I will park at Menaggio then take a few boat rides around. As far as the Alps trip go, I was planning to head towards Innsbruck via St. Moritz, Bormio, Trafoi, Merano, and Bolzano. That should be a great scenic road-trip with a few light hikes whenever possible.

You can also consider Varenna on the eastern shore. Just not much free parking (if at all) compared to Menaggio and if you plan to visit Lugano, then it won't work well because you'd need to ferry the car across. It's up to you. I don't know if there are hotels in Varenna that offer parking. In any case don't choose Bellagio. It's nice but not car friendly and to go where you need to go later (Alps) you need to ferry the car.

We stayed in Como and it worked for us. Our room overlooked the ferry terminal and it was delightful. The town is big enough to explore, flat and the hotel had a parking garage. Given the number of motorcyclists visiting Como, it must be well-connected on the road system. We traveled around the lake by ferry which was beautiful but slow. I liked Bellagio a lot but I think parking in any of the towns must take a lot of planning.

We had a car in Bellagio once. It's a perfectly easy drive there from Milan and parking is okay if you have it at your hotel. But you won't use the car in Bellagio proper at all; you'll just walk in the town and it's faster to take the ferry to the other nearby towns on the water. We did a day trip in the car to Bergamo which was lovely.

Like others, I wouldn't recommend having a car in Lake Como ordinarily. But sometimes it makes sense when included with a larger itinerary.