Lake Garda - Todo?
Discussion
Hi,
Lago de Garda is a lovely place, I've stayed in Desanzano about 40-50 times (I used to work for a company based near there, so was out there two - three times a month!) lovely restaurants and bars, sirmione is also nice and has a lovely market for a wander round. They are both at the southern end of the lake. Riva oop north is nice, and to be honest all these places have loads of lovely, Italian restaurants! (Would struggle to get any other kind of restaurants in this area to be honest, almost all places are local Italian!) you can about easily on the lake with the water taxis and they are a nice easy way of travelling, and I would recommend using them.
Verona for a day trip is great, lovely walled city with some very touristy bits - Juliet's balcony etc!
You'll love it there!
Lago de Garda is a lovely place, I've stayed in Desanzano about 40-50 times (I used to work for a company based near there, so was out there two - three times a month!) lovely restaurants and bars, sirmione is also nice and has a lovely market for a wander round. They are both at the southern end of the lake. Riva oop north is nice, and to be honest all these places have loads of lovely, Italian restaurants! (Would struggle to get any other kind of restaurants in this area to be honest, almost all places are local Italian!) you can about easily on the lake with the water taxis and they are a nice easy way of travelling, and I would recommend using them.
Verona for a day trip is great, lovely walled city with some very touristy bits - Juliet's balcony etc!
You'll love it there!
Thanks Griff Boy.
We're staying in Riva, sounds like we picked well!
We fly to/from Verona, so will probably take the last day in the town before our evening flight. We've looked and Venice and Milan aren't too far, so may well do one of them too. Unlikely to have a weekend break to either, so good to visit while we can! We'll have a car for the week, but the taxi's sound good. I also think the hotel does shuttle runs to some towns close by.
Italian food and drink is why were going, so no problems there.
We're staying in Riva, sounds like we picked well!
We fly to/from Verona, so will probably take the last day in the town before our evening flight. We've looked and Venice and Milan aren't too far, so may well do one of them too. Unlikely to have a weekend break to either, so good to visit while we can! We'll have a car for the week, but the taxi's sound good. I also think the hotel does shuttle runs to some towns close by.
Italian food and drink is why were going, so no problems there.
Stelvio is a fair drive from Garda and likely to be closed pretty soon if it's not already. I was in Milan a couple of weeks back and there was a significant snow fall on the alps in the distance.
A couple of less obvious things below:
The ferries around Garda are a good way to travel around. This place is well worth a look, Il Vittoriale degli Italiani, http://www.vittoriale.it/. It's a very odd house/gardens (with a ship in the garden!) and grounds on the west side of the lake.
Try this restaurant if you can, it's an old fort with great views and lovely traditional food. https://www.facebook.com/alfortinonago. The brothers that own it are very friendly and can tell a lot about the history of the area.
Enjoy!
A couple of less obvious things below:
The ferries around Garda are a good way to travel around. This place is well worth a look, Il Vittoriale degli Italiani, http://www.vittoriale.it/. It's a very odd house/gardens (with a ship in the garden!) and grounds on the west side of the lake.
Try this restaurant if you can, it's an old fort with great views and lovely traditional food. https://www.facebook.com/alfortinonago. The brothers that own it are very friendly and can tell a lot about the history of the area.
Enjoy!
illmonkey said:
Off to Lake Garda in the next few weeks, so after some ideas of what to do.
After some suggestions of things to do, be it drives, places to visit, restaurants etc. Any advice please.
I'm hangering after a Stelvio pass drive, but its over 2 hours each way!
The weather has started to deteriorate now, so expect rain. Weather in the Italian lakes is changeable even in the summer but at this time of year the sunny days become fewer and the rainy ones more plentiful.After some suggestions of things to do, be it drives, places to visit, restaurants etc. Any advice please.
I'm hangering after a Stelvio pass drive, but its over 2 hours each way!
If you get a nice clear day go up Monte Baldo in Malcesine. There's a cable car up and the views are lovely.
Malcesine below is perhaps the busiest of the towns at the northern end of the lake with quaint narrow streets and some wonderful restaurants. The best pizza I've ever had was from a random hole in the wall pizza takeaway that sold by the slice. On the other side of the wall may well have been someone's home kitchen, it was that informal a place.
Salo is worth a visit - it's further down the lake. It has designer shops and a good feel to it.
I second the use of the water taxi, but plan your journeys wisely. It takes a long time from Riva to the south of the lake and the timetables tend to be such that not all destinations are possible as a return trip on the same day.
We went to malsecine for the weekend at the end of September. Lovely place. Weather was still really nice when we were there. Bit chilly in the mornings, and on top of mount Baldo. When we went up we were in the clouds looking over the lake, but the other side of the mountain was perfectly clear. Cable car is a couple of Euros cheaper after 3pm.
Food was great and I'm the worlds fussiest eater so that's saying a lot. There's a restaurant just down the road from the cable car, next to a crazy golf place, best spaghetti I've ever had.
Food was great and I'm the worlds fussiest eater so that's saying a lot. There's a restaurant just down the road from the cable car, next to a crazy golf place, best spaghetti I've ever had.
sjj84 said:
We went to malsecine for the weekend at the end of September. Lovely place. Weather was still really nice when we were there. Bit chilly in the mornings, and on top of mount Baldo. When we went up we were in the clouds looking over the lake, but the other side of the mountain was perfectly clear. Cable car is a couple of Euros cheaper after 3pm.
Food was great and I'm the worlds fussiest eater so that's saying a lot. There's a restaurant just down the road from the cable car, next to a crazy golf place, best spaghetti I've ever had.
I'd say that Malcesine is one of my favourite places in the world.Food was great and I'm the worlds fussiest eater so that's saying a lot. There's a restaurant just down the road from the cable car, next to a crazy golf place, best spaghetti I've ever had.
I believe the ferry prices have gone up and the timetable has been cut back in the past year or two, we went last spring and the prices and regularity of the ferries meant we didn't do as much travelling round the lake. People who'd been a year or so before us sounded like they'd be all over the lake for not a lot of money.
I was there in late Nov last year, staying in Riva. It was very quiet and the ferries and cable car at Malcesine was over for the season. But the weather was fantastic, blue skies and not a cloud for days. Took trips to Bolzano and Venice; from now is a great time of year to go there if you like to escape the crowds.
Ghisallo said:
I was there in late Nov last year, staying in Riva. It was very quiet and the ferries and cable car at Malcesine was over for the season. But the weather was fantastic, blue skies and not a cloud for days. Took trips to Bolzano and Venice; from now is a great time of year to go there if you like to escape the crowds.
Guessing you were lucky with the weather. Many restaurants open?illmonkey said:
Italian food and drink is why were going, so no problems there.
Interested to hear what you think of the food.We spent a week in Malcesine earlier in the year and were massively disappointed with the restaurants. We're huge foodies and spent a chunk of time researching where to eat. Apart from the fact the restaurants are all too similar, the quality was mediocre at best. At worst it was just awful, with some really lazy touristy cuisine. A real shame as it's a beautiful area.
Guffy said:
illmonkey said:
Italian food and drink is why were going, so no problems there.
Interested to hear what you think of the food.We spent a week in Malcesine earlier in the year and were massively disappointed with the restaurants. We're huge foodies and spent a chunk of time researching where to eat. Apart from the fact the restaurants are all too similar, the quality was mediocre at best. At worst it was just awful, with some really lazy touristy cuisine. A real shame as it's a beautiful area.
My experience is if you want excellent pasta, pizza, salads and ice cream you'll be on a winner. I'd have, though, that if you hoped to find more sophisticated fare you'd have struggled.
Mrs Perec likes fish and I don't recall her being in raptures about the quality. There's a lot of "Lake Fish" on offer and I have my suspicions that anything fishy that comes out the lake is subject to that nomenclature.
Guffy said:
Interested to hear what you think of the food.
We spent a week in Malcesine earlier in the year and were massively disappointed with the restaurants. We're huge foodies and spent a chunk of time researching where to eat. Apart from the fact the restaurants are all too similar, the quality was mediocre at best. At worst it was just awful, with some really lazy touristy cuisine. A real shame as it's a beautiful area.
We have just got back from the area. We spent a week in Malcesine earlier in the year and were massively disappointed with the restaurants. We're huge foodies and spent a chunk of time researching where to eat. Apart from the fact the restaurants are all too similar, the quality was mediocre at best. At worst it was just awful, with some really lazy touristy cuisine. A real shame as it's a beautiful area.
We ate at a different place for lunch and dinner every day and they were all ok, but not fantastic.
The biggest part I was looking forward to on this holiday was the food and it was slightly disappointing.
Last year we stayed in Massa Lubrense on the Amalfi coast and the food was so amazing that we couldn't stop ourselves and have been craving amazing buffalo mozzarella, amazing fish, amazing pizzas and pastas ever since.
I am guessing its because of the German influences in the lake garda area.
We couldn't find an italian beer on draught anywhere.
Every 'italian' restaurant and pizzeria had schnitzel on the menu.
Other than that, the scenery was fantastic, especially the view from mint baldo.
We stayed in Riva and bisected most of the nearby lakes and some towns.
Wasn't impressed by Limone or Salo, but Sirmione and Malsecine were lovely,
We also spent the day at Verona which was nice, and there was a very interesting classic car museum nearby which we enjoyed
I would go back to Amalfi area over Lake Garda next time
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Ilikebeaver said:
Guffy said:
Interested to hear what you think of the food.
We spent a week in Malcesine earlier in the year and were massively disappointed with the restaurants. We're huge foodies and spent a chunk of time researching where to eat. Apart from the fact the restaurants are all too similar, the quality was mediocre at best. At worst it was just awful, with some really lazy touristy cuisine. A real shame as it's a beautiful area.
I would go back to Amalfi area over Lake Garda next timeWe spent a week in Malcesine earlier in the year and were massively disappointed with the restaurants. We're huge foodies and spent a chunk of time researching where to eat. Apart from the fact the restaurants are all too similar, the quality was mediocre at best. At worst it was just awful, with some really lazy touristy cuisine. A real shame as it's a beautiful area.
.
If there was just one fine dining restaurant in Malcesine, it would be a gold mine!
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