Lake Garda is the largest freshwater lake of Italy. Tourist information includes the weather at Lake Garda, the directions to get to the lake, the attractions you can find there, and when to visit.
Lake Garda is the largest freshwater lake of Italy. Tourist information includes the weather at Lake Garda, the directions to get to the lake, the attractions you can find there, and when to visit.
Lake Garda is located in the region of Veneto, in the northeast of Italy, and it's the largest freshwater lake of the Peninsula. It is around 52km long, spans up to 16km in width, and it's over 350m deep in certain spots.
Lake Garda is also probably the cleanest of the great Italian lakes, and one of the few where you can still swim. The cool mountain air that descends from the nearby Alps makes swimming only doable in high Summer when the temperature can hit up to 35 °C.
Visitors to Lake Garda will find many things to see and to do both at the lake itself and in the neighboring countryside. The landscape surrounding the lake varies from north to south: the southern tip enters the plains of Veneto and the soft undulating hills of the Bardolino wine region, one of the many DOC registered wine growing regions of Veneto. This red wine is growing in reputation each year, so while visiting the town of Bardolino on the lakeshore, take a short drive up to the hills at the back of the town and visit an evocative enoteca established by the local wine growers, where you can taste this celebrated wine.
The most famous town around Lake Garda is Sirmione, where visitors can enjoy the beauty of Rocca Scaligera castle, one of the main attractions of the lake. Built by the warlords of Verona, the Scaligeris, who dominated most of modern-day Veneto during their time prior to the mainland Venetian conquest. Enjoying a strategic position on the lake, the castle was conquered by the Milanese in the 15th century.
The Venetians retaliated with one of the most imaginative and incredible manoeuvres to regain the fortress. Instead of committing to a head-on assault from the Venetian plains to the castle, they dragged their ships across the top of the mountains to glide through the lake from the North. Taking the Milanese completely by surprise, they succeeded the feat of reacquiring the castle.
Sirmione is probably the main destination for tourists who want to visit Lake Garda. At the southern tip of the lake there are many camping sites and the water theme park of Gardaland, so our advice is to avoid this area in the summer months as there is a lot of traffic.
Lake Garda offers several water transport services with ferries operating along its shores, as well as across the lake itself. Often, the boats are the best way to visit the lake, especially in high summer or during weekends. The reason for this is that the roads around Lake Garda are narrow and winding, and ill-prepared to handle the crowd of visitors, mostly coming from Austria and Germany.
Going further to the North, the scenery is stunning. After exploring the delightful town of Malcesine, that boasts another 14th century Scaligieris castle, you can take a 5 minute cable-car ride to the top of Mt. Baldo to enjoy an incredible panorama at a height of 1850m s.l.m.
On the northern side of Lake Garda you'll find the principal town of Riva del Garda, which was a strategic town for the Venetian Republic back in the 15th century. From Riva you can visit the Varone waterfalls located a couple of miles outside of town and around 295m high. Torbole, a 10 minute boat ride from Riva, is a quaint little lakeside area that offers a break from the bigger resorts overrun by tourists. In the hills above the town, you can do a lot of beautiful hikes, because around Lake Garda there are numerous hiking trails to suit all levels of walkers.
The town of Salò on the western shores of Lake Garda has a more recent and infamous role in the history of Italy. It's the place where Mussolini continued to appear in the history books after his fall, and where he was presumed to have been executed by the partisans.
The town also boasts a marvellous mansion cum museum, once owned by Mussolini's friend and famous Italian writer Gabriele D'Annuzio. The museum houses all the personal collections of the famous writer including his slippers with phallic symbols. Salò is also the ideal place to take a swim in the lake. In 2004, Salò hit the headlines again after that an earthquake struck Lake Garda leaving many people homeless.
Besides the principal towns that are dotted along the lake's shores, you'll find many other smaller towns to visit and places to pause for idyllic views, delightful restaurants and peaceful hamlets. Close to Lake Garda there are the rich hills of the Valpolicella wine region to explore, where the famous Amarone (which means “much bitter wine”) wine comes from.
30 minutes from Lake Garda is Verona, the city of Romeo & Juliet and the arena that hosts the famous opera's season. Further afield the beautiful Dolomites' mountain range calls to you for one day or overnight trips. In the city of Bolzano, in the north of Lake Garda, you can't miss the remains of the “Iceman”, the Bronze-Age man found preserved in a glacier. Typical of Italy, Lake Garda has more than enough to satisfy all types of tourist and the above information should help you plan your next trip to Lake Garda.
When to Visit Lake Garda
Lake Garda is located in the northeast of Italy and borders the plains of Veneto in the south which invite, in summer months, the warm winds originating from Africa and the Sahara region. Its northern shore faces the Dolomites and South Tyrol, while the valleys carved by previous glaciers in winter act like wind tunnels bringing down the cold air in the form of heavy winds that can make the waters of Lake Garda rise up like the waters of an open sea.
The economy of Lake Garda, apart from the production of wine, fine cheeses and the new artisan workshops rests on the tourism. In the winter months everything closes down, so it's not the ideal period to visit the lake. In spring and fall the climate is perfect, the clear blue sky creates the ideal visibility and the flora of Lake Garda is at its best. Apart from the weekends, you'll find Lake Garda relatively tranquil, especially in this season, which is the ideal period to venture off the well-trodden paths to hike and walk amongst the hills and mountains surrounding the lake.
In the summer, the climate of Lake Garda can be very hot and humid, and often in these months the high pressure of southern air clashing with the colder mountain air can create thunderstorms on a regular basis. In addition, the roads around the lake can be overrun by Italian and German tourists making it hard to reach your chosen destination. If you visit Lake Garda during the summer, use the water transport services to avoid delays caused by the traffic and plan to stay at the north of the lake, as the southern shores are more easily accessible from nearby Italian cities via the main highway that runs between Venice and Milan.
Tourist Offices at Lake Garda
Main Tourist Office
Viale Marconi, 2
Sirmione, Lake Garda
Telephone: 030 916245 or 030 916114
Other tourist offices at Lake Garda that provide free maps and information for tourists include Malcesine Tourist Office, Via Capitanato del Porto, 6 (Telephone: 045 400555); and Riva Del Garda Tourist Office, Giardini di Porta Orientale, 8 (Telephone: 0464 554444).
How to Get to Lake Garda
Special Transfer Tours
Easy to reach from everywhere, below you'll find how to get to Lake Garda. Along with direct transfers between Lake Garda and other destinations or arrival points in Italy, we also arrange special transfer tours that allow you to make the most of your time in Italy. We also arrange transfers that combine tours of cities or places en route to your final destination. Some transfers between Venice and Lake Garda pause along the way to enjoy a guided tour of Verona, or also for lunch or wine tasting in the Valpolicella wine region. Contact us for more details on how we can customize your vacation and which of our guided tours of Lake Garda is the best suited for you.
By Car
Access to Lake Garda by car is quite simple: you should take the A4 highway that connects Venice and Milan, and exit at Peschiera. The journey takes approximately 90 minutes from Venice and around the same time and distance from Milan to the southern tip of the lake. Depending on the period of the year, particularly during the summer months, if you're heading to the northern side of the lake you might want to follow indications for Brenna and take the highway towards North until the exit of Riva del Garda. For those staying near Verona, we recommend to take the scenic route towards Lake Garda, following the Valpolicella wine road through the vineyards, and just after St. Ambrosia you can connect with Lake Garda by passing through the hills and vineyards of the Bardolino wine region. To circumnavigate the lake you need to take the S572 road to drive along the western and southern shores of Lake Garda, and the S45b for the opposite sides of the lake.
By Train
The train service to Lake Garda is frequent and efficient as the lake is located on the main Milan to Venice railway, approximately one and a half hours from both Venice and Milan, and 20 minutes from Verona. The station serving Lake Garda is Desenzano del Garda – Sirmione. A large number of trains stop every hour of the day from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. If you are planning to reach Lake Garda from northern Europe you can change trains at Verona and for a quick connection to Lake Garda.
By Air
The nearest airports to Lake Garda are the smaller Verona and Brescia international airports that are well served by low cost airlines like RyanAir and EasyJet, making Lake Garda a convenient destination for a weekend visit. For people coming from even more far away, the nearest major airports are located near Venice and Milan; from here, to reach the lake you should use the main railway train service in the respective cities, or hire a car, or perhaps consider taking one of our custom transfer tours to your final destination.
