Lake Como is one of the most popular places to visit in Northern Italy. And for good reason! Lake Como is one of the deepest lakes in Italy, making the water a beautiful blue. It’s also surrounded by the incredible hills of the Alps. Adding in the many incredible little Italian towns, and its truly an amazing place to visit. But with so many towns to choose from, how do you know which of the Lake Como towns to stay in?

When researching where’s best to stay around the lake, we found mixed reviews. We were deciding between the towns of the “Golden Triangle”, Bellagio, Menaggio and Varenna, as well as Como. There are also many other towns along the lake you could choose from as well. There’s just so much choice and eventually we ended up choosing Menaggio. After our stay, we’ve decided to write this post to help inform you of what each town is like and which of the Lake Como towns to stay in.

1. Como City
2. Bellagio
3. Varenna
4. Menaggio
5. How to get around the lake

Something we actually didn’t know when we planned a trip to Lake Como is that Como is the name of a town on the lake, as well as the name of the lake itself. It’s where the main train and bus stations are, so you’ll more than likely pass through it on your visit. In the town are some lovely churches, museums, gardens, town squares and lots of amazing places to eat.

The main square is Piazza Duomo and this is where the Como Cathedral is. You can visit this Cathedral every day and it’s free to enter! Some other squares worth visiting are Piazza Vittoria, Piazza San Fedele, Piazza Volta and Piazza Mazzini. Another amazing thing to do in the city is to take the funicular up to Brunate to get an incredible view down over Como and the lake. The funicular takes only 7 minutes per way and costs €6.60 return. You can see the schedule here and once in Brunate you can look around the town and do walks.

Back down in Como on the water is Piazza Cavour where you can walk along the water and enjoy the beautiful view of the surrounding hills. There’s also a great garden called Giardini del Tempio Voltiano and some cool sculptures along the water. A 20 minute walk along the water is Villa Olmo, a beautiful 19th century villa with neoclassical architecture. Unfortunately it’s closed for renovations for a couple of years as of 2024. However you can still admire it from outside and enjoy its free garden. This is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm.

Right next to the villa is Lido Villa Olmo which is a little swimming area. It’s not open all year round but when it is there are multiple places to swim and hang out as well as sunbeds to rent. Entry to the club ranges from €6.50 to €30 each depending on what you want entry to. You can find the opening hours and exact prices for everything on their website here.

While there is a decent amount of stuff to do here and is a lovely place to stay, it isn’t the most convenient base for visiting the area. Lake Como is shaped like an an upside down Y, and the towns of the “Golden Triangle” are in the three way intersection. However Como is right down the bottom at the end of one of the 2 arms. Because of this it’s actually quite far away from the main three towns, so this won’t be the top choice of the Lake Como towns to stay in. If you’re interested in staying here though, check out Booking.com or Airbnb to see your options.

Bellagio is the town in the middle of the V of the Y shape of the lake. It is a beautiful small town and is probably the most popular of the three towns. It has a famous street thats the subject of many many photos, as well as heaps of other amazing picturesque streets.

The town itself is reasonably small and has some wonderful shops, restaurants, and the Basilica of St. Giacomo. You can also find Parco di Villa Serbelloni to the north of the town and Parchetto della Punta at the end of the headland. You can walk along the water and will eventually get to Villa Melzi D’Eril, a great villa with wonderful gardens. It’s open from the end of March to the end of October and costs €10 per person for entry.

There’s enough in Bellagio to spend a day wandering around or just a couple of hours if you’re seeing multiple towns in one day and is definitely somewhere you won’t forget. However in terms of accommodation, because of its popularity, it is often more expensive. As well, because of it’s size there are less accomodation options within walking distance to the ferry terminal. Its worth a look on Booking.com or Airbnb for accommodation in Bellagio, though. However don’t feel too disheartened if you can’t find anything affordable here. There are other options for Lake Como towns to stay in!

Varenna is a cute little town on the eastern edge of the lake. There’s two parts to Verenna, one where the train and ferries get in, and one slightly away around the water.

In the first section are a small amount of restaurants and shops including a nice place to sit beside the water. Just around the corner is Passeggiata degli Innamorati (the walk of lovers). This is a few minute walk around the water to a small bay called Riva Grande. Here is where you’ll find more shops, restaurants and lots of gelato shops. It’s so picturesque, especially with the hills and other towns across the water.

From the bay, you can go up into the winding streets of the town. Here you’ll find Piazza San Giorgio with Chiesa di San Giorgio in it. You can also pay a visit to Villa Monastero and its garden that is open from the start of April until the end of October. It costs €10 to visit just the garden or €13 for entry to the garden and the villa museum. If you fancy a bit of a hike, nearby the villa further up the hill is the Castle of Vezio. This Medieval fortress is over a thousand years old and has amazing views over the lake. It’s only open on the weekends, and tickets are only €5 each.

It’s a great spot to spend a day or can even be seen in a couple of hours. In terms of accommodation Varenna seems to be on par with Bellagio for price. As the town is quite small and cramped, as well as being very popular, it is more on the expensive side. If you can find something reasonable here it’d be great so do have a look for places in Varenna on Booking.com or Airbnb.
While it has good ferry links to the rest of the lake as well as a train station, getting here from Como is trickier so it does depends where you’ll be arriving from.

Menaggio is a slightly bigger town on the western shore of the lake that you can see from both Bellagio and Verenna. The only youth hostel on Lake Como is in Menaggio, and there are other hotels and airbnbs available. The town differs from the other two because there’s more space and it’s more flat, making it easier for visitors with reduced mobility.

There’s a town square called Piazza Garibaldi where you’ll find shops and restaurants. There’s also two churches in the town you can visit, the Church of Santa Marta and the Church of Santo Stefano. However one of the best things to do is walk along the waterfront which is one of the longer waterfront walks on Lake Como. From the ferry stop past the town to a little beach called Spiaggia Lerai on the other side of town is about a 20 minute walk. You can also do longer walks to a couple of small nearby towns called Loveno, Croce and Nobiallo.

In terms of accommodation, this is the cheapest place we found out of the three main towns. We ended up staying here. Because of the size of the town and the fact it stretches further along the lake, there are many more walkable accommodation options. It’s also nice and quiet during the day and even quieter in the mornings and evenings. The ferry links to the other towns as well as Como city from here are also super easy so definitely see what you can find in Menaggio on Booking.com or Airbnb.

Firstly we’ll look at getting to Lake Como. Como City has a train station called Como San Giovanni, where most trains will get in. This is also where Flixbuses get in, and then it’s a 15 minute walk into the city. Another option is that the town of Varenna has a train station called Varenna Esino. This train line goes completely along the east side of the lake so you can travel to different cities along that side easily. There’s also a train to Milan that takes only 1 hour and 10 minutes. You can find and compare the trains on Trainline.

Once in Como, if you’re staying in another town along the lake there are a couple of ways to get there.

If you’re staying in a town in the middle of the Y or on the west side such as Belaggio or Menaggio, you can take the bus. These buses go from Como San Giovanni train station and take around 1 hour and 15 minutes. They cost around €4.50 each way, and tickets can be bought at the station. If you’re staying in Varenna or another town on the east, you’ll need to either catch a ferry from Como or catch a bus to Bellagio or Menaggio and then catch a ferry from there. Information for the buses around Como can be found here.

The other way to get around Lake Como is by ferry. There are heaps of ferry routes that run the whole length of the lake. We took ferries from Menaggio to Bellagio, Bellagio to Varenna and then Varenna back to Menaggio. Each ferry cost €4.60 per ride per person when we did it in 2023 and each journey is roughly 15-20 minutes. If you’re staying in Como City, there are ferries up to these towns that cost around €10.40 each way and take between 1-2 hours. You can find exact prices and routes on this website.

Keep in mind that the ferries don’t run all night, so make sure to check the time of the last ferry. It can change seasonally, and if you get stuck in a town where you don’t have accommodation, it could be pricey to book something last minute.

Of course if you’re not travelling on a budget, you can also pay for private boats. These companies will advertise around the towns and you can also just Google to find them. There’s also lots of Get Your Guide tours available where you can book private or small group boat trips around. There’s also heaps of tours on their website that go from Milan too so if you don’t have time to spend the night on Lake Como, you can still visit!

Lake Como is an amazing place to visit and has so many beautiful towns along it to explore. Como City is likely where you’ll arrive and has lots of great things to do. However because of it’s location on the lake, it isn’t the most convenient place to stay as a base to explore some of the other towns. The best place would be in one of the three towns in the “Golden Triangle”, Bellagio, Menaggio and Varenna. Bellagio and Varenna have some amazing picturesque streets and Menaggio has a wonderful lake walk. Plus all three have cute shops to look through, lots of delicious food and great views of the lake.

So what do we recommend for which of the Lake Como Towns to stay in? We personally found Menaggio to be cheaper as it’s bigger and less touristy than the other two, so ended up staying there. You could also look into any other number of towns on the lake, but for the best connections, the Golden Triangle really is the place to be. Wherever you stay, it will sure to be one of the most beautiful places you’ve seen in a while and you will have an amazing time. Be sure to let us know where you end up staying and what you thought!

Are you ready to start your accommodation search?

If you want to see what we got up to, check out our vlog from our time visiting Lake Como:

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