Lake Como
Italy
A Y-shaped lake under the Alps, with villas, ferries and villages stacked up the mountainsides
Photo by Jesper Brouwers on Unsplash
Photos by Nirmal Rajendharkumar, Nirmal Rajendharkumar, Nirmal Rajendharkumar and Nirmal Rajendharkumar on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Italy
May to June, and September — the high summer packs the ferries and the lake road becomes one long queue
Climate month by month
The next sixteen days in BellagioOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 190mm in May
Where it is
45.98°N, 9.26°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Weeks of it- Buy a day ferry ticket and get off wherever looks good
- Stay in Varenna rather than Bellagio and take the boat
- Walk up to the Castello di Vezio for the view
- Visit Balbianello by boat, which is how it is meant to be reached
- Eat one street back from the water
Lake Como travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Italy
Good valueCards are accepted by law for any amount and a few places still grumble. Keep coins for the coffee standing at the bar, which costs a third of what the table costs.
ATMs & cards
Use a bank machine — Intesa, UniCredit, BPER. Avoid Euronet, which is everywhere in the tourist centres and gives one of the worst rates in Europe.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- the machines on the Bellagio waterfront
Use these instead
- Intesa Sanpaolo
- UniCredit
- Credit Agricole Italia
The ferry ticket offices take cards; the smaller village bars do not always, and the mountain rifugi never do.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Italy
Very safeVery safe. The lake road is narrow, busy and has a wall on one side; driving it in August is the mistake most visitors make when the ferries exist. The water is cold and deep a metre from the shore.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (8 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the lake road in season — narrow, walled and jammed; the ferries exist for a reason
- swimming off the villages — the water is deep and cold a metre from the shore
- the high paths in cloud — they are mountain paths despite starting at a café
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Italy visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Italy
Excellent and cheapRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment. Pharmacies handle a lot of minor problems directly and are the fastest route to advice.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodLake fish — perch with risotto, missoltini dried in the sun — and pizzoccheri from the valleys above, buckwheat pasta with cabbage and cheese. The lakeside restaurants price the view; one street back costs half.
Getting around
WorkableNo ride-hailing on the lake. The ferries are the transport and they are frequent; a water taxi is the extravagance, at €100 or more for a short hop.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Rome — 6 hours ahead of you
2 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–11:00 your time, 15:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 03:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 03:00–11:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Italy
Why these are Italy's numbers and not Lake Como's
Home broadband — Good. Comfortable for two people working, streaming in the evening, large downloads. Broadband here runs at 84% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fair. Maps, calls and streaming; tethering a laptop works for an hour, not a day. Mobile runs at 78% of the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Lake Como, so these are medians for all of Italy. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Italy, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Italian
- HelloBuongiornobwon-JOR-no
- PleasePer favoreper fa-VO-reh
- Thank youGrazieGRAT-tsyeh
- Yes / NoSì / Nosee / no
4 more phrases
- Excuse meScusiSKOO-zee
- How much is it?Quanto costa?KWAN-to KOS-ta
- The bill, pleaseIl conto, per favoreeel KON-to
- Cheers!Salute! / Cin cin!sa-LOO-teh / chin chin
Ciao is for people you know. With shopkeepers and waiters, buongiorno until evening, then buonasera.
Religion
Catholic
The Vatican is a sovereign state inside Rome. Dress codes are enforced at St Peter’s and most major churches: shoulders and knees covered, and they will turn you away.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Say buongiorno rather than ciao to anyone you do not know
- Drink cappuccino only before about 11:00; after a meal it is an espresso
- Cover shoulders and knees to enter churches, including the major basilicas
- Validate regional train tickets before boarding or risk a fine
Don't
- Do not ask for parmesan on seafood pasta — it is a genuine culinary offence here
- Do not sit on monument steps in Rome or Florence; both cities fine it
- Do not order a coffee "to go" and expect it to be normal
- Do not tip beyond rounding up; coperto already covers the cover charge
Where to stay in Lake Como
No Holistay rentals in Lake Como yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Lake Como on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Milan Malpensa MXP
1h 30mfrom the airport· 57 km as the crow flies
1h30 by road to the lake.
Also worth pricing: Bergamo BGY — 1h30, and the cheap flights land here.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
