Lake Como is shaped like an upside-down Y, which sounds like trivia and is actually the single most useful thing to know about it. Everything about a trip here, where you stay, how long a journey takes, which ferry you need and why the road is a bad idea, follows from that shape. It is a narrow, deep, steep-sided lake with villages pressed between the water and the mountains, and it is as good as the photographs suggest as long as you do not spend the whole visit in a car.
The shape of the lake
Three arms. The lake splits at its middle into two southern legs, with the town of Como at the foot of one and Lecco at the foot of the other, and a single northern arm above the junction.
The junction is the centre, and the three towns around it, Bellagio on the promontory, Varenna on the eastern shore and Menaggio on the western, are minutes apart by boat and a very long way apart by road.
The north is wider, quieter, cheaper and windier, and is where the water sports happen.
Como town is at the southern end, is a real town with shops and a cathedral, and has the best transport connections.
Which town to base in
Varenna is small, steep, beautiful and has the railway station on the direct line from Milan, which makes it the easiest arrival by train.
Bellagio sits on the point where the arms meet, is the most famous name on the lake and is correspondingly busy and expensive, and it is genuinely lovely early and late.
Menaggio is the western option, better value, with a good waterfront and easy ferries.
Como is the practical base if you want evenings, shops and connections rather than a village.
Anywhere north is quieter and cheaper, at the cost of longer ferry rides to the postcard towns.
What to do
Take the ferry simply as an activity, since crossing between the central towns is one of the great cheap experiences in Italy.
Visit a villa garden. Several of the great lakeside estates open their terraced gardens seasonally, and the planting, the statues and the views are the point rather than the interiors. Opening is seasonal, so check before you build a day around one.
Ride the funicular up from Como town for the view down the arm, which is the best free-ish view on the lake.
Walk. There are old mule paths and lakeside footpaths between villages, and a shoreline walk between two towns is a better hour than a drive.
Swim. The water is cold, clean and swimmable in summer, with lidos in several towns.
Eat lake fish, which is the local speciality and appears on menus everywhere in versions that are worth ordering.
Practical notes
Getting here. Direct trains from Milan reach both Como and Varenna in around an hour, which is why the lake works as an extension to a city stay. Our guide to Milan and the lakes covers how to structure both halves.
Season matters. Ferries, villas and many hotels run from roughly Easter to October, and the lake in winter is beautiful, quiet and largely shut.
Parking is the problem, not the driving, and it is worse than you expect in the central villages.
Weather turns fast off the mountains, so a warm afternoon can end in rain.
Steps everywhere. These are vertical villages and luggage is a real consideration.
Como against the alternatives
Como is the scenic one, and it is not automatically the right one.
For a bigger lake with beaches, a wide southern basin, family resorts and wind sports at the top, our guide to Lake Garda covers the option that suits swimming and children better.
And if what draws you here is mountains rather than water, the ranges further east are a different order of scenery altogether, covered in our guide to the Dolomites.
The short version
Base yourself in one of the three central towns, or a cheaper neighbour, and treat the ferry as your transport rather than the road. Give the lake two nights minimum, since a day trip from Milan buys you one town and a train journey. Visit one villa garden, ride the funicular above Como, walk a shoreline path and eat lake fish. Book a room a street back from the water rather than on it unless the balcony is the whole point of the trip. And check the last ferry before you sit down to dinner across the water.
