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villa del Balbianello garden visit

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Hello, I was hoping someone can help me out. We are taking a 4 hour private boat tour on the lake and we can have two stops, one we are going to do a lunch and the other we were thinking of doing Balbianello. We don't care about visiting the inside the villa but just wandering the gardens will be more than fine for us . My issue is, I'm getting conflicting info about visiting just the gardens and grounds. Some say you can just walk right up and it's free, other have mentioned you still have to purchase a ticket to get on the grounds and if you don't buy ahead especially during August it's sells out .

Does anyone have any recent experience visiting Balbianello? Also if you are visiting via a private boat how close does it get you to the grounds that's another area I've heard conflicting reports Some have mentioned they were dropped off and it was less than a 10 min walk to the grounds other have mentioned it's a long walk like 20 to 25 minutes

Thanks for any help.

Posted by
6568 posts

The best source of info for the garden is the website. The house tour is well done and interesting. We were just there May,2025. I can't remember if the garden tour is charged separately.

There is a 25 minute walk from the ferry stop to the Villa grounds, part of which is uphill.

However, about ten minutes from the ferry stop there are private boat "taxis" which will take you to one of the Villa's entrances. These water taxis are about 9€ RT, and you have beautiful water views of the Villa grounds. They drop you at a back entrance, at a dock, ( plan on some steps, ) where there is a guard house, which checks tickets.

Hope this helps. Have a great trip.

Posted by
22 posts

We just visited the villa via ferry. You do need to purchase a ticket for the gardens only, which we did through their website. It is definitely not free and I recommend buying the tickets online in advance because the ticket line is long and they do sell out, especially the ones for the morning slot. Check with your private boat tour company. When I researched taking the private boat tour option, some of them stated that the tickets were included in the tour.

Posted by
44 posts

thanks to you both, I will buy the garden tickets ahead of time, and fingers crossed the private boat can dock at the water taxi dock .

Posted by
6568 posts

We saw several private boats delivering/picking up passengers at the Villa's dock. You're in for a real treat! Enjoy!

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