Lake Garda - August

woody252506

Hello all.

My fiance has booked a week away for my 30th to Lake Garda in August!:D

Can anyone recommend any nice restaurants/bars to eat/drink in?

Also are there any good places that do a range of english type food. My girlfriend isnt the most adventurous when eating lol.

We are going to go on a day trip to Venice as Thomas Cook have told us you can book these when you get there via your rep.

Thanks!

Lirin

I did a thread on here a while ago- we honeymooned in Lake Garda, at a place called Riva, on the north shore.

There are so many restaurants, and the lake is big enough- 160km round it I think- it would depend on where you're staying. If it's one of the more touristy areas there's plenty of variation and English-styled food.
You can book plenty of day-trips to Venice, Verona etc independently or via rep, but when we'd worked out costs, we settled for hiring a car and driving there ourselves- the tours are massively hiked on price from everyone we looked at. Look at the Bus station in each town- they offer discount return rates for tours, which are also quite cheap.

woody252506

Lirin wrote: »

I did a thread on here a while ago- we honeymooned in Lake Garda, at a place called Riva, on the north shore.

There are so many restaurants, and the lake is big enough- 160km round it I think- it would depend on where you're staying. If it's one of the more touristy areas there's plenty of variation and English-styled food.
You can book plenty of day-trips to Venice, Verona etc independently or via rep, but when we'd worked out costs, we settled for hiring a car and driving there ourselves- the tours are massively hiked on price from everyone we looked at. Look at the Bus station in each town- they offer discount return rates for tours, which are also quite cheap.

Thanks very much for that.

We are staying in Riva too!:T

Its a hotel called the Antico Borgo and we are staying Bed and Breakfast. Was the parking expensive in Venice with you hiring a car?

s_b

woody252506 wrote: »

Thanks very much for that.

We are staying in Riva too!:T

Its a hotel called the Antico Borgo and we are staying Bed and Breakfast. Was the parking expensive in Venice with you hiring a car?

we parked in st marks square there was lots of room:D

why not go on the train? to venice,park at say verona
italian trains are cheap and efficient its just the off the main lines trains that are a bit quirky
i stayed in riva,found it a bit boring after 2 days,got itchy feet,you could drive up the dolomites quite easily from riva theres even a new motorway to make it easier:)

Lirin

Antico Borgo isn't the one we stayed in, but it looked quite nice....

Parking- didn't find it expensive in the least. Will advise if you rent a car to check the brakes/handbrakes- they appeared to be fairly optional in Riva!
We chose Riva because it wasn't a touristy destination (not in May, anyway), and we could relax without rows of deckchairs out across the lakefront. It's close enough to the Dolomites- we dove up to Manghen Pass which I think was around an hour's drive? It's also in driving range of several countries (didn't impress our rep, she was panicking over our plans). Arco and Trento are on the way- the castle in Trento is worth visiting.
I'd recommend driving to the south end of the lake and visiting the ruins in Sirmione, though beware as shop prices are astronomical. Go down the lake on the east side, and just outside Garda itself is a theme park called Gardaland. Not bad for a visit.
There's cable-car trips in Bardolino, and plenty of mountain tours. Shopping most way around the lake is the same sort of stuff- the market basically travels in a circuit around the lake, so is easy to find.
Lago di Tenno (Lake Tenno) is a few km's north-west of Riva, and is reached by a 6km travel through the mountain tunnel roads. It's absolutely gorgeous, and picture-postcard perfect. On the way to it, just before the tunnels, is an underground cavern waterfall which is refreshing.
Leon D'oro in Riva is a fantastic restaurant- we loved going to it, the deer and polenta was amazing!
If you look up onto the mountains from Riva's shore, you will see a small building- the mini-castle Bastione. It's a half-hour walk, and there's a further walk leading to Santa Barbera shrine (1.5hr)- look up high to the left. The path is steep in places.
I sound like I'm writing a tourist brochure for the place!

Mands

woody252506 wrote: »

Was the parking expensive in Venice with you hiring a car?

There is a big car park at Pizzale Roma in Venice. It's about 20€ - 30€ per day depending on the time of year and the size of car.

According to the Visit Venice website it's cheaper to park at Marco Polo airport and then get the bus over.

Happy planning,
Mands

Rachie_B

Malcesine is where the cable cars are,stunning location (very cobbled streets though so flat shoes def needed!)

Lake Garda is gorgeous have a fab time

woody252506

Thanks for all your replies you've been a big help

poet123

I would get the train to Venice, much easier, and the station is right slap bang on the Grand Canal.

always_poor_2

Hiya, we've been a few times, trips to Venice work out quite expensive - but you can get a train from Desenzano (at the south of the lake), i'm not sure if you can also from further up north, we've only ever really been to the south. Sirmione is nice for a day trip. The first time we went, we didn't have a car so used the ferry on the lake - this can get pretty expensive - we found it much cheaper to hire a car for the week. Everything seemed well sign posted so we didn't get lost - managed to find out way from Milan!!! Not sure what you're into, but i think there's a ferrarri museum somewhere around!!! Have a lovely time x