The Lake Garda itinerary you’ll love: how to see the best of this stunning lake

At the end, I have also added some possible amendments depending on the feel you prefer for your stay. If you have kids and want to get additional ideas about what you can do in the area with additional time, I recommend you look up our guide to Lake Garda with kids here.

Good to know: we wanted to experience different towns so we stayed one night in Desenzano and moved to Lazise for the following nights.

You can easily follow this itinerary without changing accommodation or also picking a different town in the south of Lake Garda: Peschiera, Bardolino and Garda would all work well.

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On this occasion, we visited Lake Garda without a car and relied entirely on public transport which turned out to be easy to use and reliable. Our day by day itinerary looked like this.

Day 1 – Desenzano and Sirmione

Day one: this was travel day for us. We took the fast train from Rome to Verona (a few hours, very comfortable) and then changed to the local one, which got us to Desenzano in a matter of minutes. Leaving Rome in the morning, we got to Desenzano at lunchtime.

Desenzano station is walking distance to the town center (about 10 minutes) and about 15/20 mins walk from our hotel.

We walked this distance and had a lunch stop on the way at the lovely Spritz and Burger, which was delicious and a great places to rest for a while (Burgers, chips, pub style food, filling and nice!).

Should this not be manageable for your party, I recommend you ask your hotel the the number of the local taxi company or if there is a bus hat gets to them as taxis are not necessarily stationed outside the station at all times.

We settled in the hotel and headed to the port, where we took the ferry to Sirmione for a quick visit.

The idea to visit Sirimone on this day was a last minute decision led by how frequent the ferries are and how close the town is to Desenzano.

It was a great decision. Getting to Sirmione later in the day meant we got it at a right time crowds-wise, and it also allowed us to enjoy lovely view of the lake while on the ferry: later in the afternoon in summer, the day was still bright yet the sun was that little lower on the horizon to allow not to melt in the heat and to take nice photos.

In Sirmione, we visited the town, admired the castle, looked at souvenirs shops and had a refrshing drink lakeside. You can find our photos and essential travel guide to Sirmione here.

We then headed back to Desenzano for dinner: we ate at the lovely Gattolardo restaurant, which has indoor and outdoors tables and a nice local menu.

This restaurant is in an alley in the center and doesn’t have lake views but came recommended by our hotel and has excellent reviews (deserved). We felt it was a great choice; we enjoyed lake views from our walk along the lake and from the hotel room which overlooked the lake anyway!

Day 2 Desenzano and Lazise

We spent day 2 taking it easy.

In the morning, we took a stroll around Desenzano: we went to the castle, explored the center a little more and took in the pretty views of the lake from the promenade.

We didn’t feel like swimming, but the beach of Desenzanino is lovely so it would be very easy to fill a morning this way too. You can find here >>> my travel guide to Desenzano, with all the best things to see.

Mid morning we went to the port and got the ferry to Lazise, which was easy and rewarding as the views over the Sirmione promontory are stunning form the boat!

On the day we arrived, Lazise had its weekly market and this was both a fun thing to see and a bit of a nightmare! I explain.

These weekly markets take over the whole center of the village and become THE thing that happens that day: they are pervasive, as stalls take several streets and between the space they occupy and the number of people visiting, you cannot get away from it if you try.

So basically if you go on market day you need to go for the market, not despite it – if you want to avoid overcrowded areas, I recommend you delay your arrival to the later part of the day, after the market is over.

Since we were moving hotel to one in Lazise, we just went to settle and spend the rest of the day poolside: it was bliss!

In the evening, we went for a walk and aperitivo in Lazise town center (bar del porto, lovely!), which by that time was quiet and wonderful and then had dinner in a lovely pizzeria close to out hotels called Ristorante Pizzeria Bengio – we loved it and went back two nights in a row for they pizza and meat especially!

You can find here >> my practical travel guide do Lazise with all our best finds.

Day 3 – Nothtern shore day: Riva del Garda, Limone, Malcesine

Day three was our favorite day of our whole stay and one that I was worried may not work logistically, but really did!

My son really wanted to see Riva but it is quite a way from Lazise and required taking two buses which worried me as a potentially very tiring endeavour. It wasn’t!

We left Lazise in the morning and took a bus to Garda. We got off at the local bus stop, had a little bit of a walk around the center while waiting for the next bus and hopped on the one to Riva, which departed soon after our arrival, from the same bus station. Super easy.

The bus was comfortable and the drive stunning: we sat towards the front to the bus and enjoyed the beautiful view.

Once in Riva, we just walked round, explored the town center and had lunch.

Riva is a lovely small town in a great location: the lake here is at its narrowest and has a high coastline, so you are very close to the cliffs that plunge into the water. Also, the town itself has a beautiful Austrian style architecture which is great to experience and makes it unique.

Visiting the town is as easy as taking a stroll in the pedestrian area and along the lake shore, you do not need an itinerary for it.

There are plenty of options for a meal too. In this occasion we chose a place called Ristorante Sud which had Neapolitan cuisine; while I know it may sounds strange in this location, we felt like a change from local fare and the quality was excellent so this was definitely a good choice!

You can find here >> my guide to Riva del Garda

In the early afternoon, well fed and satisfied after our walk and meal, we took the ferry to Limone and the cruising was fantastic: my very favorite bit of the day!

The boat here is huge and comfortable, very stable and welcoming. Thehe views are out of this world: you can sit inside or out, the boat is spotless and the cruise so peaceful, it soothes your soul.

Of this whole beautiful day, this stretch of cruising was my favorite part!

The boat arrived to Limone, where we got off, while worryingly observing the masses of people looking to get on after us.

Limone is a lovely and pretty town on the northern shore of the lake and I think before tourism discovered it, it was one of the most peasant places you could visit.

Now, Limone is still exceptionally pretty but wow it is busy!

In my previous experience, the Southern shore of the lake was always the busisest and I guess I wasn’t expecting Limone to be this full (Riva and Malcesine weren’t).

This wasn’t enough to ruin our visit but meant out afternoon here was a little more tiring than expected and we did find ourselves happy to have some down time on the ferry soon after and escape the crowds that way.

After the ferry dropped us in Malcesine, we were ready for a quiet stroll and a snack and Malcesine was perfect for it!

The town is still on the northern shore of Lake Garda, so it has lovely views of the mountains, and it has a pretty center with colorful houses, pretty lanes, flowery balconies and cafes.

Enjoying Malcesine is as easy as taking stroll and we found lovely cafe terraces to sit and watch life pass by before getting get bus back to Lazise.

Alternative idea! Malcesine is the starting point of the cable car up Monte Baldo which offers stunning views over the lake. This can be a lovely alternative to the visit to Limone, should you prefer a more more nature oriented day

Day 4 – Bardolino to Garda cycle day

The southern shore of lake Garda has a low lying coastline which is perfect for cycling.

Several years ago, they organised the lake shore with a pedestrian and cyclist lane which is well maintained and a real pleasure to experience!

The cycling lane is a flat and well marked path that connects several towns along the southern shore of Lake Garda: we joined dit in Lazise and we leisurely followed the easy path along the lakes to the town of Bardolino first and Garda next.

The cycle is easy, short and offers several opportunities to stop and rest: along the route you will find playgrounds, rocky ‘beaches’, lidos with boat rentals, playgrounds for kids, beach cafes and then, of course, you have the towns, with all the amenities they have to offer

The cycle itself is short and this means you can easily stop and enjoy both Bardolino and Garda.

In our case, we headed for Garda for lunch and then explore Bardolino in the afternoon.

Good to know: some of the ferries from Garda can carry bikes. A good options should you find the idea of cycling back daunting

How to get around following this lake Garda itinerary

As I mentioned above, we didn’t have a car and relied on public transport. Specifically we used:

Trenitalia high speed train from Rome to Verona Porta Nuova booked form the trenitaia app – all levels of fares are comfortable and you can select seats. Highly recommended, pleasurable journey. I recommend booking ahead for the best price.

Local rain Verona to Desenzano booked on the trenitalia app (you can also use their website trenitalia.com, it works the same. This is a local train and you do not prebook seats. You can get tickets ahead or on the spot, the price doesn’t change.

For the ferries, ee got ferry tickets there and then in person at the kiosk and via the website navigazionedeilaghi (in one occasion, there was a bit of a line at the kiosk and I quickly did it online instead – it made not difference either way)

We purchased bus tickets o the bus itself when boarding. We found this to the be the easiest thing for us as the app they recommend ATV Verona was temperamental to say the least and we preferred not to run any risks. In Garda, since we had a bit of time in between buses, we were able to get tickets from the ticket kiosk at the station too, which I believe resulted in a small saving vs buying on the bus.

We found the buses to be comfortable and on time

Additional tips for visiting Lake Garda

Some observations and tips about visiting this area:

In restaurants, we found the coperto charge (not a service charge as such, but similar to it) to always be added and to be potentially significant: it is always, by law, stated on the menu so it is never hidden but do pay attention, especially if coming from area were coperto doesn’t exist.

Weather here is changeable and, in summer, it can go from scorching hot to torrential rain – this is very much not a ‘guaranteed good weather’ destination.

We found all the towns to be a clean and well kept, this is a very easy ‘first approach to Italy’ type of destination, it will ease you gently into Italy.

The towns all have a family friendly feel. Lazise is campsite central and you have many families, especially from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands: massive camper vans are ubiquitous here! You can however easily have a different type of stay, like we did, should this not be your style.

We found public transport easy and reliable for the itinerary we took. For a much longer stay however, I would recommend to choose two different basis, one in the south and one in the north to explore at best.

I hope you enjoyed this Lake Garda itinerary and it helped you plan your own. Safe travels!