Lago di Como advise?

[Red Red Wine]

Seeking Lago di Como advise:
Opinions on must-see places? I will be with 2 friends and we may consider an airbnb place so we can have kitchen use. Will be there 4 nights. And I will see what's available in Varenna and Bellagio. Plan to do paddle boarding and maybe drive up the mountains for a hike. Want to also visit one of the gardens and see some of the cute towns, which means we probably should rent a car, yes? Any advise for hikes, and for which gardens to visit? And off the beaten path suggestions? THANKS!

 

[VictoriaJZ]

We stayed in the area last year and had a great time...I'll try to find my notes on the trip and give you more useful information. Yes, get a car because you can visit a number of interesting places in the lakes area, going beyond Como to Maggiore [we stayed there for 3 nights at the first part of our trip]. And we found good lodging with kitchen etc. easily [HomeAway or AirBNB works fine] - as I said, I'll get more precise information and update this. When are you going?

 

[Red Red Wine]

We stayed in the area last year and had a great time...I'll try to find my notes on the trip and give you more useful information. Yes, get a car because you can visit a number of interesting places in the lakes area, going beyond Como to Maggiore [we stayed there for 3 nights at the first part of our trip]. And we found good lodging with kitchen etc. easily [HomeAway or AirBNB works fine] - as I said, I'll get more precise information and update this. When are you going?

Thanks!

 

[Giulia da Urbino]

Just a note about finding and booking accommodation from the innkeeper point of view: look for the accommodation website through Google and book directly... Usually you get better rates and surely better attention... The booking websites offer ease of use but take away personal contact (messages are filtered), freedom (every year we are pushed to having less control over our bookings and properties) and a sound guest/owner relationship (for instance implying in their marketing that accommodation owners will likely be scammers or thieves).
In my opinion Slow Travel also includes a good relationship with the service providers that you use when you travel...
And of course, rely on real honest advice from places like SlowEurope!
Just food for thoughts, nothing terrible about booking through Airbnb etc.
(Pauline, feel free to erase if you feel that this is off topic and/or inappropriate)

 

[VictoriaJZ]

Here is my reconstruction of our visit [we had 8 days in the area]:
We flew into Milan and stayed a few days then drove to Lake Maggiore and stayed in a condo in Stresa. After a few days we left and drove to Lake Garda and stayed in Sirmione, also in a B&B type place. I found helpful information on the Lakes region at: http://www.tripsavvy.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.insightguides.com, among other websites.

We really enjoyed Stresa and were able to get to Orta and saw The Sacred Mount. We took the ferry from Stresa out to Isola Superiore o dei Pescatori, one of three islands in Lake Maggiore. If you like gardens, there’s evidently a wonderful one on Isole Borromeo, but we didn’t visit it. We also drove part way around Lake Lugano, although the traffic was slow at times. Then we went to Sirmione and from there visited Verona for a day.

If you want an interesting hike back in history, you can go to Valcamonica and visit its prehistoric rock sites. [https://www.wanderingitaly.com/a/valcamonica-map.htm] This was the first Italian site which joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979. There are a number of rock art sites to visit. You won’t have time to do them all or even most of them.

Hope this helps. [I notice I haven't uploaded any pictures from that trip to my gallery site....probably because I was too busy planning for and enjoying Cuba....I'll see if I can find some which will be representative of the area.]

 

[Red Red Wine]

Here is my reconstruction of our visit [we had 8 days in the area]:
We flew into Milan and stayed a few days then drove to Lake Maggiore and stayed in a condo in Stresa. After a few days we left and drove to Lake Garda and stayed in Sirmione, also in a B&B type place. I found helpful information on the Lakes region at: http://www.tripsavvy.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.insightguides.com, among other websites.

Thank you! we won't have time to do Lago Maggiore or Garda. We will focus on Como. (A very long time ago I lived in Lugano for a year. )