Lake Como – the world’s most beautiful lake

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wildebeest migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
10
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
7
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
6
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling local market
6
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
9
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
8
Overall TE Score
The overall travel experiences score:  fun factor + avoid the crowds + (best of nature or culture) + (best of world famous or unique). Then convert into a score out of 100
77 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site, based on the travel experience (te) score
71st/454
Top 20%
continent
Europe
country
Italy
Length of time
1-2 days
Typical daily price
This gives you a rough idea of the daily price based on 2 people travelling where they can split costs like accommodation. It excludes travel there and back, and factors in inflation the numbers in brackets show the price range for the full time of the experience (so not necessarily daily). It is a range to reflect different budget vs higher end
$170 ($100-$500 in 2023 prices)
Time of year visited
September
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
Lakes Local villages Mountains
All Tags
Christian site Ferry Forests Gardens Hiking Restaurant recommendations UNESCO world heritage site
Wow Factor
The wow factor reflects just how much you’re likely to say “wow”. As there’s a lot of experiences in the world, and a lot of wows, i’ve gone with a simple ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️ score, and a separate category for the truly "gash"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Summary

It’s a big shout when people say somewhere is the most beautiful place in the world, but Lake Como wins it.  Picture-perfect Italian villages punctuating luscious forests as they meet the lake’s crystal clear waters, and all against the stunning dramatic backdrop of the Alps.  It’s hard not to just stop and gorp at it over, and over again.

 

Naturally in such a beautiful place, it comes with a huge demand from others wanting to visit and, especially in summer, the costs go through the roof.  The cost is hard to avoid, but it’s actually relatively easy to avoid the crowds with a few simple tips that will allow you to enjoy what makes Lake Como such a world famous destination and a maximum Wow-factor score of ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .

 

2 days by beautiful Lake Como - the gardens and secluded lakeshore of Villa del Balbianello

Table of Contents

Lake Como Highlights

LAke Como - #1 Hiking up to Sassa San Martino for stunning views of the lake and distant mountains, all to yourself. A truly world class experience

#1 Hiking up to Sassa San Martino for stunning views of the lake and distant mountains, all to yourself. A truly world class experience

Lake Como - #2 Soaking up Bellagio. A achingly beautiful Italian village in arguably one of the world’s most beautiful settings

#2 Soaking up Bellagio. A achingly beautiful Italian village in arguably one of the world’s most beautiful settings

Lake Como - #3 Feeling like James Bond as you wander through the uber-refined Villa del Balbianello by the secluded lakeshore

#3 Feeling like James Bond as you wander through the uber-refined Villa del Balbianello by the secluded lakeshore

Lake Como - #4 Taking one of the many ferries across the lakes for the world-beating views

#4 Taking one of the many ferries across the lakes for the world-beating views

Lake Como - #5 Getting lost in any of the picturesque small lakeside towns

#5 Getting lost in any of the picturesque small lakeside towns

Lake Como - #6 Spending a lazy afternoon in one of the many lakeside parks, taking a swim or watching as the light lake traffic goes by with the mountains as the backdrop

#6 Spending a lazy afternoon in one of the many lakeside parks, taking a swim or watching as the light lake traffic goes by with the mountains as the backdrop

Lake Como - #7 Treating yourself for a sunset dinner at the Grand Hotel Tremezzo

#7 Treating yourself for a sunset dinner at the Grand Hotel Tremezzo

Lake Como - #8 Taking a swim in the Lake. Not the warmest, but super clear and needs to be done

#8 Taking a swim in the Lake. Not the warmest, but super clear and needs to be done

Itinerary for 2 days by Lake Como

 

Day 1 – spend your day seeing the ultimate in elegance by heading to Villa del Balbianello in the morning and then take the ferry to Bellagio for the afternoon. For Bellagio, wander around the beautiful centre, followed by the small side village of Pescallo and then Villa Melzi d’Eril to avoid some of the crowds.  Have dinner in Bellagio to watch the sunset.

 

Day 2 – start off in Tremezzo (potentially see Villa Carlotta, but if pressed for time I’d give it a miss) and hike up to the world class Sassa San Martino viewing point.  Snake back down the steep face via the Chiesa di San Martino back to the lake shore and for dinner at the Grand Tremezzo Hotel.

 

Lake Como Travel Tips

 

Costs

I said back in 2025 that a 2 days Lake Como trip price range would be something like between €80-€400 / US$100 – US$500 per day, but the reality is that the uber-high end European summer destinations like Sorrento (see The Sorrento Peninsula – avoiding the crowds travel entry for tips), Santorini (Santorini), Ibiza (Hitting both sides of Ibiza) and Lake Como don’t really have a hard upper limit.  First year I looked, I found a place for €28,000 a night.

 

Ferries are cheap, food can be reasonable, but accommodation is where costs explode.

 

Accommodation

This will be your biggest expense in Lake Como, but, in hindsight, I don’t think it really matters where you stay as long as you either have a car, or stay close enough to one of the towns so you can access the regular ferries and buses.

 

I’ve stayed twice in Tremezzo and would really recommend that area – first at Hotel La Perla, which a classic hotel a bit further up the hill but with stunning views; and secondly at Casa Lumaca, which was more a family-run traditional place that gave you a wonderfully warm Italian welcome.

 

The views from the balcony of Hotel La Perla, just up the hill from Tremezzo, Lake Como

The views from the balcony of Hotel La Perla, just up the hill from Tremezzo, Lake Como

 

But, I could easily have stayed somewhere far cheaper and simply walked out into the many many glorious spots by the water or up a bit in the hills.  If I was to return, I would aim for one of the places maybe a 1km walk outside of Bellagio – it is simply stunning round there and, at 1km out, there looked to be some more affordable but no less beautiful spots that you could easily walk into town from.

 

Transport

Getting around Lake Como is actually more of a pain than you would think.  For example, Como (the main town of the lake) to Tremezzo, which is only around halfway up the lake, takes an hour by bus or ferry.  In addition, taxis are expensive – around €80 for half the distance of the lake  – and there are no Ubers.

 

It just means that you need to be aware of the times of the buses (for the west side of the lake you want the C10, which leaves roughly every hour or so) or ferries (more frequent). When deciding where to stay / go, it’s worth checking the timetables online or you can find them at every stop.

 

One of the quick ferries zipping along the western shore of Lake Como

One of the quick ferries zipping along the western shore of Lake Como

 

Where to go

The lake itself is huge, so there are no end of places to see and heaps small lakeside towns with world class views, so I don’t think you can really miss out. The places I really enjoyed were in particular Bellagio and Villa del Balbianello, but my highlight was the walk up to Sassa San Martino:

 

  • Bellagio – when I heard the name, I immediately thought of the casino and realised there’s a reason they named the place in Vegas after this small town.  Its location in the middle of the “Y” of the lake is incredible and the town itself is beyond cute.  It can be a little busy, so my tip is to get outside the centre and you’ll quickly find the number of people dropping.  The tourist centre provide a map for doing a 2 hour walking route that gets you outside the small centre, but it’s a little long and maybe half of it walking on open road. Instead, I’d suggest walking over to the little fishing village Pescallo, and then getting lost on your way to Villa Melzi D’Eril (€10 entry) where you will find beautiful grounds and, of course, views of the lake.

 

Wandering the tight, cobble-stoned lanes of Bellagio, Lake Como

Wandering the tight, cobble-stoned lanes of Bellagio 

 

  • Villa del Balbianello (€10) – famous for being the filming location for some of the beautiful scenes in James Bond Casino Royale and Star Wars Attack of the Clones, this was somewhere I’d always associated with Lake Como and it didn’t disappoint.  The 20-30min walk through the forest to reach it is also very nice.

 

Lake Como - The Gardens of Villa del Balbianello

The Gardens of Villa del Balbianello

 

  • Sassa San Martino – MY BIGGEST TIP.  If a reasonable fitness, hike up the ridge in between Menaggio and Tremezzo that you can see very clearly when looking from the water.  The views are insane and almost deserted (I saw 2 people in the whole 3-4 hours) – a really world class experience.  I walked the loop from Tremezzo to Sassa San Martino, then down via Chiesa di San Martino back to Tremezzo, but you could easily start from Menaggio to shorten the distance.

For the route ,and to get an idea of the distances, type into google maps Hotel La Perla to Sassa San Martino to Hotel Britannia Excelsior – or type in Sassa San Martino into AllTrails (link here – All Trails – menaggio) for the various options.  For the full loop, total distance was around 13km, 19,000 steps, equivalent to 250 flights climbed, and I walked the full distance in an afternoon in 3.5 hours, which included stops.  But, again, you can reduce this by starting in Menaggio.

 

Walking route up to the incredible viewing point of Sasso San Martino

 

 

  • Treat yourself at the Grand Hotel Tremezzo for a sunset meal quite literally on the lake.  Pricey though.

 

 

Getting there

Fairly straightforward from Milan. Try to aim for the Como S Giovanni station (rather than Como Lago) as the trains take less than an hour vs 2 hours for the normal station.

 

I wish I’d . . .

To add to the overall experience, I wish I’d either rented a boat or a paddleboard to cruise along the water, which could have been a different experience to simply taking the ferries.

 

Experiences Nearby

The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences

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Score Detail

The scores above are the real point of this site.

Over 20+ years and 100+ countries, I’ve tried to rank the world’s best travel experiences — from genuinely mind-blowing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to the properly gash.

Every one of the 500+ places on this site has both a Wow Factor rating and a more analytical Travel Experience (TE) score based on the things that actually make travel memorable.

If you're curious about the thinking behind it, head to the About page.

Otherwise, explore the map above or on the Home page and see which places truly deliver maximum wow.

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