Riva Del Garda - Spending Money

Darcy1980

Hi All,

I really should of posted this a few weeks ago to get a good response, but me and my wife to be are going to Riva Del Garda (Italy, Lake Garda) for our Honeymoon within the next couple of weeks.

We are going on a Escorted Holiday which includes trips to Venice/Verona etc. Our Breakfast and Evening Meals are included in the price of the Holiday. (but who knows they maybe not up to much)

Can anyone advise roughly how much spending money would be required for 2 people staying in the centre of Riva for a 7 day period.

Many Thanks in advance.
S

Lirin

Yes- I'm just back from a honeymoon in Riva Del Garda, in May! We were there for two weeks, I think we had £1500 in spending.

Pricewise, everything's round about the same as here- car hire for 5 days cost us 300 Euro from Autonoleggria, on the right hand side after a filling station about 1.5mile from Riva to Torbole, Viale Roverto.
There's a lot of tourist tat in Riva- which is pricier than I've seen elsewhere, but you'll likely spend far more in Venice/Verona. We chose to go without the tours, and drive ourselves, as it was a cheaper option- though Italian drivers are insane.

Verona is beautiful, though surprisingly small. The obvious attractions are Juliet’s Balcony, house and Tomb, (for a woman who never existed, the Italians definitely have squeezed all they can!), but the military building is well worth a visit. We asked a couple nicely to photograph us together on Juliet’s balcony, and returned the favour.

I'd personally recommend starting out some morning, and walk up to Bastion- a white castle visible on the mountains. 30min walk. If you're up to it, go up to the shrine, which you can see above to the left of Bastion- think it's 2,200 ft, and the view is gorgeous. The path up is rough in places though- bring plenty of water.
Piazza 3 Novembre is gorgeous in the morning, and most places are open from 0600hrs on to serve breakfast. Torre Apponale, the big church tower in the square is beautiful, and a couple of Euro’s to visit. Just behind it is a shop selling Murano Glass- there’s so much in there I’d love to buy, and I will be back.
The waterfalls at Varone are quite nice as well- only 5km walk.
We found more than a few restaurants gave us a free drink or meal when we mentioned we were honeymooners. Try the ice-cream at Flora, again on the Torbole road- they’re cheap, huge, and definitely worth it. The Kinder was my favourite.


I’d recommend a day down in Sirmione, at the Roman remains- very beautiful, and very relaxed- Le Grotte di Catullo. They’re on the south end of the lake, jutting into Lake Garda.
On the way, you’ll pass GardaLand, a huge tourist attraction with rides- similar to Alton Towers on a small scale. There’s a movie based one beside it.
Tenno Lake, is a reservoir used to supply the nearby area, and is pure- the colour is amazing. It’s on the road to Varone, north-west of Lake Garda. There’s a 6km tunnel through the mountains to reach it.

Arco/Trento are nice for a day’s shopping, and the castles there are worth a visit too.
Malcesine, Garda, and Torri de Benaco were recommended to us, but we were disappointed by them- nothing much after tourist shops and rows of deckchairs with drinkers, which spoiled the views and atmosphere for us. In Malcesine, Mont Baldo is stunning, reached by cable cars, and you can look over the whole area.

Limone is close by to the infamous accident on the Bond film, where the car was driven off into the lake by mistake. Limone is gorgeous, and a bit quieter.
A restaurant on Via Fiume, called Pizzeria Leon D'Oro</SPAN>‎ is delicious- the deer with polenta was outstanding.
You’ll find pizza dishes huge- one pizza is more than enough for two people, and they’re all perfectly cooked.
Manghen Pass, if you don’t mind heights, up in the Dolomite mountains, sitting 2047m high, is amazing- the view is breathtaking.
You’ll find the leather worth it, and most places will happily haggle.

Sorry for going off on my own for a bit, but it had such an impact on us- we are now planning to go back. There’s so much I haven’t told you, we literally saw that much that I’d have to think of everywhere we were. Please PM me if you want any info, we had such a relaxing and wonderful time there.

Darcy1980

wow, its ok i dont mind you going off on your journey

Thanks for the info, we are going to take in a tour to Dolomite Mountains which they say takes up most of one day.

Did the £1500 (is that Euro or Sterling?) did that include your Car Rental?

Thanks very much for your advice, im looking more forward to this trip than getting married lol (its only a small wedding ) Honeymoon sounds more impressive

Lirin

The 1500 we took was sterling- car hire worked out at 300 Euro for five days, and was included in our budget. We used Autonoleggrio, who take a deposit as standard against damage, returned to us when we leave the car back. She explained she wouldn't atually charge unless there was damage, as it made things simpler for her. Car hire- be cautious. Most places we found in Riva offered hire with a Km limit on it- Autonoleggrio had unlimited mileage.
Go out the road to Torbole, which is 3km from Riva, so not far, you'll pass over a bridge with the fire station on your left- shortly after that you'll see shops on both sides of the road. Flora, the fantastic ice-cream parlour is on the right in that bank. You''ll see the filling station, and just tucked in beside it is the car rental. Great place, she commented to us when we left the car back that it was unusual to get them back in one piece! Autonoleggrio translates as car hire- that was the only name we saw on the building!
Our honeymoon was fantastic, we really loved it.

Any

Hi,

We went to lake Garda last year and we were staying in lovely hotel on half board.

We found the restaurants and drinks extremely expensive - Beer easily 6 Euros and coke 3.20 euros. Restaurants serving pizza hardly ever below 10 euro a pizza.

We spent about £550 in that week - we did do a night meal out though which was quite expensive and 2 coctail nights. On the other hand we had 2 days at the lake where we just bought lunch at supermarket and had picknick.

We only did the lake ferry trip to Limone and bus trip to Malcezine, which was fun.

The area is extremely beatifull, just realise you are in tourist area and it is priced accordingly - which with current exchange rates means expesive.

Lirin

I'd agree on the food- the pizza's are huge though, we found we never ordered a side with them. We did find occasionally we paid more for a glass of Coke than a pizza, but on the whole, prices reasonable enough.
Saying that, we were there at the start of May, so possibly cheaper prices as the season hadn't kicked in.