Not only is Lake Garda totally worth visiting, but I think it’s the best Italian lake to visit! Yes, I do love a bold statement, but after spending time in Garda and learning just how blessed it is with activities and things to do for every kind of traveler and budget, I’m convinced.
You see, not only is Lake Garda spectacularly beautiful, with a wonderfully unhurried vibe, but it’s also family friendly, romantic, great for history lovers, foodies, and even adrenaline junkies. Just some of things I did there included pasta cooking classes in Lazise, wine tastings in Bardolino, romantic boat trips in Sirmione, outdoor activities in Riva del Garda, as well as relaxing bike rides and walks around the lake and its adorable villages.
So yeah, the sheer number of things to do in Lake Garda is mind boggling, so to make things a little easier for you I’m giving you my recommendations on what to see and do depending on your style of travel. So grab a Cornetto and your speedos, cos it’s time to get wet…
LAKE GARDA ITALY
Hold on...aren't the Italian lakes super expensive?
In case you thought the Italian lakes were out of your budget, think again. Compared with Lake Como (thanks, Clooney), or even the more reasonable Lake Maggiore, Lake Garda (perhaps because it’s Italy’s largest) is far more accessible for all types of traveler. Don’t get me wrong, I saw my fair share of mansions, private helipads, and Ferraris during my stay, but what really sets Lake Garda apart is that it also caters to the more budget conscious among us too, despite its jaw-dropping natural beauty
Furthermore, I think it makes for a great slow travel destination, as it exudes calm, connects you to nature and demands a slower pace of being. Its ridiculously blue waters will lull you into a new, phone free you, apart from when reaching for it to take yet another photo. But, anyway, enough of the adoration (for now), let’s dive in and discover what makes Lake Garda so worth visiting…
THE BASICS
Where is it?
Lake Garda, or Lago di Garda in Italian, is a glacial lake in Northern Italy. It straddles the regions of Lombardy to the west, Veneto to the east, and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol to the north. As Italy’s largest lake, it’s around 50 kilometers (30+ miles) long and 17 km (11 miles) at its widest.
Characterised by picturesque towns & villages, vineyards, and olive groves, the lake is also surrounded by mountains and hills, including the towering peaks of the Italian Alps to the north. It’s within easy reach of some of northern Italy’s most important cities, including Milan, Verona and Venice, and is popular with tourists from all over the world, but especially Germany and Austria.
Getting there
If you’re flying in, then Verona is comfortably the closest airport to Lake Garda, followed by Milan’s Linate, and the ever popular Bergamo airport.
The best way to get to Lake Garda from the nearby cities of Milan, Verona and Venice is without doubt, by train (details below). There are two train stations on the south side of the lake: Desenzano del Garda-Sirmione station at the south western corner, and Peschiera del Garda station at the south eastern corner. Onward busses or taxis to your accommodation can then be taken, or you can rent a car from Desenzano del Garda.
Here are the details for each of the most common train routes…
There are several daily train journeys from Milan to Lake Garda from either Milan Centrale station or Milan Porta Garibaldi station. Journeys from Milan Centrale stop at both Desenzano del Garda-Sirmione station, and Pechiera del Garda, while Milan Porta Garibaldi station serves only Desenzano del Garda-Sirmione. These direct trains take around 55 minutes, give or take a couple of minutes, depending on where you get on and off.
It’s a really short hop from Verona to Lake Garda. Take a direct train from Verona Puorta Nuovo station in less than 15 minutes to Peschiera del Garda, and around 20-25 minutes to Desenzano del Garda-Sirmione. Check full schedules and book you tickets in advance.
From Venice Santa Lucia and Venice Mestre there are several direct trains to Lake Garda each day. To Peschiera del Garda, these take 1 hour and 15 mins from Venice Mestre and around an hour and a half from Venice Santa Lucia, just a few minutes more to Desenzano del Garda.
This isn’t quite as straight forward, but gives you the chance to enjoy a slower train ride that takes you through the Italian countryside. First, jump on a local bus/shuttle from the airport to Bergamo train station. From there, get a train to either Brescia, Rovato, or Treviglio and then change for Desenzano or Peschiera. The Treviglio connection is usually the quickest, and will get you there in around an hour and a half from Bergamo train station.
When is the best time to visit Lake Garda?
Of course, the best time to visit Lake Garda is subjective, but I visited in April and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted things to have been much busier. Sirmione, Bardolino, and Garda in particular were already packed with visitors, so keep this in mind if your primary reason for coming is to enjoy the lake in relative peace and quiet. Anyway, here are some things to consider for each season:
1. Spring (Mar-May) is a lovely time to visit. The weather starts to warm up, and the landscape comes alive with blossoming flowers. The temperatures are generally mild from April onwards, making it suitable for hiking, cycling, and exploring the quaint lakeside towns without the bigger crowds that summer brings.
2. Summer (Jun-Aug) is peak tourist season, with warm temperatures and plenty of sunshine. It’s an excellent time for water sports like swimming, sailing, and windsurfing, but like pretty much everywhere worth visiting, it gets crowded – especially in July and August. Expect higher prices, and longer queues at popular attractions and your favourite gelato place.
3. Autumn (Sep-Nov) is another good time to visit Lake Garda, as the weather remains pleasant, and the crowds definitely start to thin out. September is especially nice as the summer heat starts to wane, and the water is at its warmest for swimming.
4. Winter (Dec-Feb) is much quieter and ideal for those looking to experience the lake in all its natural glory, without instagrammers stinking up the joint and ruining all the best views! Yes, the weather can get freezing, especially in the mountainous areas up north, but it’s still possible to do local wine tastings and other activities, and you get to wander around places like Sirmione without the crowds. Some towns around the lake also host Christmas markets.
HOW TO GET AROUND
Getting around by ferry
Lake Garda has a comprehensive and cheap ferry network. Most of its major towns are serviced by slow and high-speed ferries alike at various times of the day, and almost all offer free bike storage. This makes traveling around the lake via ferry and bike a feasible, green and endlessly picturesque way to get around.
You can buy your ferry tickets directly from ticket booths located at each town’s port. These are easy to find and don’t require any additional advice. Not that each ferry has limited capacity, so my advice is to arrive earlier at the port to secure your tickets in advance of your scheduled departure (rather than just before), otherwise you may not get on and have to wait until the next one.
Getting around by bike
Lake Garda is perfect for cyclists, due to the many well-maintained cycling paths around its perimeter. I was somewhat lucky in that a bike came with my accommodation, so with only a 15 minute ride to Peschiera del Garda, I found it super easy to ride into town, board a ferry and then explore further afield.
One day I took the ferry to Bardolino, walked around there for a bit, and then cycled up to Garda to explore some wineries, before taking an evening ferry back to Peschiera. Ferries & bike alone can get you to most places around the lake, although be aware that as you veer inland or further north (towards Riva del Garda), it can get pretty hilly, pretty quickly, so you’ll need a decent set of wheels. Had I been a little more ambitious with my itinerary, I would certainly have preferred a sturdier, zippier specimen between my legs!
My advice is to first check if your accommodation offers free bikes, and if they do, give it a little test ride before heading out on a longer trip as these can often be pretty old and poorly maintained. If you end up with a duffer, I’ve compiled a list of the highest rated bike rental shops around Lake Garda below.
If you’re not a cyclist at all, if you’ve got young kids, or you need to venture further around the lake, then of course, you can also hire a car from Desenzano.
Bike hire places
Garda: Bella Bici have a selection of family bikes and e-bikes, and they also offer a bike delivery service which you can arrange with them via Whatsapp.
Peschiera del Garda: Garda South Cycling – these guys are part of the Garda slow travel movement which links with other businesses in the area that promote sustainable travel.
Lazise: Velolake have a bike shuttle service, and plenty of biking itineraries for you to consider. Prices from 20 EUR for a city bike.
Desenzano del Garda: at Zebra E-bikes they do exactly what it says on the tin: E-bikes! They also offer biking tours.
THINGS TO DO IN LAKE GARDA ITALY
Exploring Sirmione
To be honest, I don’t think it really matters much where you stay or visit around Lake Garda, as it’s surrounded by picture-postcard villages. Take your pick from Sirmione, Desenzano del Garda, Peschiera del Garda, Bardolino, Riva del Garda, or Lazise. All are people watching heaven, especially from a lakeside cafe, with a gelato, cappuccino, and/or a glass of local vino in your hand.
The most well-known of the Lake Garda towns, however, is Sirmione. This tiny enclave at the end of a narrow peninsula which juts out far into the lake, has a wonderfully dramatic entrance via a moat crossing of the 14th century Scaligero Castle. Sirmione itself is sandwiched between this and the Grotto of Catullus, a former roman villa (now a ruin) dating from around 150AD. Under these ruins on the lake bed, thermal waters were discovered by a local diver back in 1889, so Sirmione has also become somewhat of a mecca for spa lovers. The peninsula was also home of legendary opera singer Maria Callas in the 1950’s.
For those of you who love a guided walking tour, with a boat ride and an exploration of the Grotto of Catullus inlcuded, then you may want to consider this 3.5 hour walking tour of Sirmione for a complete picture of the town.
Pasta making class in Lazise
In the charming village of Lazise on the south-eastern side of the lake, I tried out a very fun pasta making workshop. The class, operated by two lovely brothers, Ivan and Mirco, runs from March til October every year. After a brief introduction from Ivan, we moved straight into mixing and kneading our pre-measured portions of flour and egg, and I was surprised at how quickly these turned into legitimate looking lumps of pasta dough.
Much like being back in primary school, we were then given the choice of mixing in a bit of optional charcoal powder for colour, before being shown how to fold little pockets of ravioli, as well as the considerably more forgiving tagliatelle strands. I found the ravioli pretty fiddly for my sausage fingers, so I appreciated having the more industrial option of tagliatelle to fall back on!
We then moved on to the ridiculously simple task of making gnocchi, which assuming you have the right type of spud, is surely one of the easiest fancy meals to knock up from scratch. The brothers then cooked up our little bundles of joy and serve them to us with a wonderful sage butter sauce, and a typical Italian tomato sauce.
I was completely stuffed by the end of it, and with the class coming to an end, I was trying really hard to convince myself to buy a pasta roller. Were it not for the lack of space, it would be proudly adorning my kitchen worktop now (most likely unused), such was the quality of the local wine. I did however leave with an apron.
Overall, the pasta making class was brilliant for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the vino (included in the price) was flowing throughout, and it was excellent – sourced from the vineyards and hills located just a few hundred meters east of Lazise. Italy really does farm-to-table produce amazingly well.
Secondly: I felt like I was back at school (in a good way). As I looked around the class, looking at some beautifully crimped raviolis from the pasta boffins, only to then look down at my own sorry plate of inconsistent mess, I couldn’t help but chuckle. In fact, the tipsy laughing fits that our feeble efforts provoked were worth the admission fee alone.
So yeah, sore cheeks, applied knowledge of pasta making, and a renewed understanding and appreciation of the simplicity of Italian cuisine = a great evening. Classes run every day of the week (apart from Sundays), from mid-March until the end of October, at either 10am or 5pm. Book your class here.
Lake Garda Wine tours & tastings
Visit a Bardolino winery
The south eastern side of Lake Garda around the towns of Lazise, Bardolino, and Peschiera del Garda is home to the Bardolino and Custoza wine region. If you have an interest in wine this is an area that you’ll probably want to visit.
In the hills above Lazise, the family owned and operated Bardolino winery Bergamini Vini offer 2 hour winery tours and tastings, with at least 6 different local wines, including all the big hitters from the region (Bardolino, Custoza & Chiaretto). You get to wander the vineyards, the cellar, and then back to the tasting room, where they also hit you with a charcuterie board (that’s cold cuts, not a medieval Italian torture technique), local cheeses, bread and home grown olive oil to complement the wines.
It’s FANTASTIC value, but they’re only open a couple of days a week, even during peak summer season. But fear not, because if they’re closed during your visit, join the equally highly-rated Lazise wine tasting at Marco Ruffato’s Le Ginestre estate, just around the corner. These tours operate til the end of October and are offered daily!
If, on the other hand, seeing the vines and the cellar aren’t as important to you compared with the convenience of staying in the village center, then you can take a Lazise wine tasting tour instead. Located at the ZF4 cellar, expect a minimum of 6 wines, including white, rose and reds, cold cuts, cheeses, bread, and locally produced olive oil. Tours run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
My preference is always to see where the grapes actually grow, and as my arrival didn’t match with any local tours operating at that time, I did my own DIY bike/wine tour into the hills around Bardolino. One place I visited was Guerrieri Rizzardi, which I found to be a little stuffy and more akin to a museum. I missed learning about the terroir and the connection with local nature, so I’d recommend you to join one of the above or below tours instead.
If you’re looking for a particularly romantic wine tasting, the small village of Pastrengo plays host to a restored Austrian fortress from the 1800’s, with panoramic views over the lake. Here you can join an intimate wine tasting, featuring exclusively organic wines, paired with artisanal Foccacia breads and the usual meats, cheeses & olive oils. Tours run most days through spring and summer.
Valpolicella wine tours
The Valpolicella hills are located just east of the lake, around half an hour by car from either Bardolino, Lazise, or Peschiera del Garda. Valpolicella is the home of Amarone wine – the legendary tipple made from semi-dried grapes that have been left to concentrate their flavour for months before being pressed. The Valpolicella method is so rare in the wine making world, that most with an interest in viticulture will want to visit at least one local winery.
My personal favourite is the wonderfully named ‘Tenuta Santa Maria Valverde winery‘ (phew!), who not only offer an Amarone wine tasting experience, but also a truffle hunting experience through local forests, with a dog, a guided truffle & pasta tasting, home-grown wines, cheeses, and meats, all included!
It’s hard to imagine a tour that better connects people with nature, while promoting farm-to-table local produce than this. It’s ideal for families and also dog lovers, so in case you’ve been missing your pooch while away, check them out directly here…
For those of you staying in Verona with a laser focus on the wines, then check out this Valpolicella tour from Verona, which visits three different wineries, and includes lunch in a traditional wine cellar, and plenty of Amarone and Recioto to enjoy.
Lake Garda boat trips
Once you’ve seen the amazing blue water, a boat trip will seem like the most obvious thing to do. In Sirmione, you’ll find operators perched on the lake edge selling tickets directly to the public. Taking about 40 minutes, these short aquatic sojourns provide a unique vantage point of the old Roman ruins, and who doesn’t love being on a boat. Most also provide a little background history (although not a great deal).
If you prefer having everything planned beforehand, my recommendation is either this 45 minute sunset tour with a cheeky glass of Prosecco, or a private boat tour of Isola del Garda, a beautiful, tiny island just off the western lake shore.
If you want to be a little more active out on the water then consider taking a sunset kayak tour from Garda or a 2 hour stand-up paddling tour around the calm waters of Peschiera del Garda instead.
Outdoor activities in Lake Garda
Lake Garda is the perfect destination for adrenaline junkies and outdoor activity enthusiasts…
You could try canyoning as a great way to explore the mountain gorges and pools around the lake. There are two areas to choose from, canyoning around Tignale on the western side of the lake or canyoning in the Rio Palvico gorge close to Riva del Garda, to the north.
Family-friendly activities around Lake Garda include rafting trips on the Adige River, and a family friendly canyoning trip.
For climbers and those not afraid of heights, then check out the half-day via ferrata climb, which starts close to Riva del Garda at the northern tip of the lake, or for something totally unique, try a tandem paragliding flight for breathtaking views over the region.
IS LAKE GARDA WORTH VISITING? OUTRO
Lake Garda Italy has so many pretty villages, a host of worthwhile outdoor activities and a food culture that is hard to match. So whether you’re a wino, a foodie, an adrenaline junkie, a cyclist, or a people watcher, I hope to have given you some fresh ideas of things to do here.
Your tolerance for both people and weather, and the availability of things to do will also determine the best time to visit Lake Garda for you. I personally found spring to be lovely, and not too crowded, although some of the wineries that I had planned to visit were closed, which somehwat limited my last-minute planning. As a result I’d recommend booking your activities way in advance for Lake Garda, as despite the popularity of the region, many locations do not operate daily tours, and competition for spots in summer time is fierce!
No matter when you decide to visit and what you decide to do though, like few other places I have visited, just being there and doing nothing really is enough. I therefore hope you fall in love with the Lake Garda, just as I did.
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