Walking Lake Como

Whisk yourself away to stylish Lake Como on a relaxing trip with easy to moderate walking. Spend your overnights in Cadenabbia and Menaggio and expect a warm welcome at your authentic family-run hotels, which are great bases from which to explore on foot, or jump on a ferry and wander around Como’s elegant villas and gardens.

Slower Adventures | Where walking and cycling meet easy-going exploring, our Slower Adventures are the perfect combination. Most days are filled with picturesque journeys with some free time to dive into the destination and experience the people, local food and culture as you go.

Multi Centre Walking | With a mix of loop and point-to-point walks stay 2 or 3 nights in one place which offers the chance to slow down and really explore a destination.

Solo Travellers, Families with Teens

The minimum age for this tour is: 12 Years

This tour is graded easy to moderate. The walks are all fairly short and very manageable. You will walk on footpaths, ancient mule trails and some quiet minor roads. None of the routes are technically difficult. The nature of the environment means that the trails right by the lake itself are relatively flat, but once you begin to move inland it becomes steeper as surrounding Lake Como  are hills and mountains. On this tour this is very limited and you do not venture far away from the lake. The walk up to the San Martino Chapel is short but quite steep, but you can just take your time. The Dervio to Varenna walk has about 500m loss and gain elevation wise, but again you can just take your time and enjoy the surrounding countryside. A couple of the walks even have options to shorten. From Pigra to Cadenabbia you can take a bus from Colonno to shorten the walk by about 5km and on the latter walk you can take a train from Bellano if you wish back to Varenna and that also shortens the walk by about 6km. However you may not wish to miss any of the walking!

Our Lake Como holidays include overnight accommodation in a mixture of authentic family run small hotels and guest houses. We hand-pick the accommodation to ensure you enjoy every minute of your stay. A warm welcome, traditional hospitality, and delicious local food and drink come as standard.

Alternative Accommodation

We'll always try and use the hotels shown in the accommodation information. Occasionally, because of limited availability, we may have to accommodate you in alternative hotels which aren’t listed in the description. The alternative accommodation will be of the same or better standard than those described. In case alternative accommodation needs to be booked, supplements may be payable, and we’ll advise you accordingly.

Single Rooms & Solo Walkers

This self-guided trip is available to solo walkers for a supplement and is subject to availability. If you require single rooms within your party, we'd be happy to accommodate you although there is a single room supplement payable.

Meals

Breakfast is included each morning. In Italy this is generally a light continental breakfast. Lunch and dinner aren't included but are available from your accommodation or nearby restaurants. Your accommodation may be able to provide a packed lunch on request and this can be booked on arrival. The food of the Italian Lakes and wine from Lombarby is strongly influenced by local produce and is a highlight of this tour.

Additional Nights

You may want to spend some extra nights along the route, either to rest or for those with plenty of energy to explore some of the other walking opportunities nearby.

The route is not waymarked (with the exception of some sections where you will be walking on official trails and the Greenway). Navigation is straightforward as you can use the Macs Adventure Smartphone App which has maps, GPS tracks, and daily route information. Simply download the GPS tracks for offline use and follow the route on your phone with the assurance that navigation will be simple, and you can’t get lost. You will find more information on downloading the app in your Macs Adventure Account.

Our walks usually begin and end at a central point in town (such as a church, bus stop, etc.). Access routes to your accommodation are not included in our km daily figures. However, the Macs app will guide you to your accommodation.

Recommended Reading

Although not essential, if you would like more information on the route please see our recommendation below:

• Lago di Como, Lago di Lugano, map 91 by Kompass

You can start this walking tour anytime between April and mid-October. Lake Como is very popular so it’s best to book as far in advance as you are able to. Please bear in mind that July and August can be hot for walking, however there is often an afternoon breeze.

We recommend flying to Milan, which is the closest international airport and then you can catch a train from the airport to Milan City Centre on the Malpensa Express. Most trains or buses to Como are via Milan. From Milan you can take a train to Como and the journey takes about 40 minutes. Train timetables are available at Trenitalia. 

The easiest and fastest way to get from Como to the start of your tour in Cadenabbia is by ferry, which generally takes between 40 minutes and 1 hour, depending on the time of day and type of boat. You will find ferry timetables here. You can also catch a bus but this will involve changes and is a more complicated journey. We can also provide a transfer for you at a supplement which you and you will need to give us advance notice that you require this. 

If you are staying in Tremezzo on your first night then from Como you can either get the C10 bus, which normally runs hourly or the ferry, which runs around every two hours. There are some indirect services where you would need to change boat. Details can be found here.

To return to Milan from Menaggio you can simply take a bus to Como and then a train back to Milan centre and then the Malpensa Express to the airport. Or, if you prefer you can hop on a ferry to Varenna and take a train from here, direct to Milan. 

Your luggage will be transferred from your accommodation as per your itinerary and moved onto your next overnight stay. Your booking includes transfer of 1 piece of luggage per person of up to 20 kg / 44 lbs.

At Macs Adventure, we work in partnership with many luggage transfer providers who set a limit on how many bags/suitcases they will transfer per person, and also the weight of the bag/suitcase.  It is very important that you read the luggage information specific to your tour before departure. If you do not adhere to these limits, there is a great possibility that you will be charged locally both for extra bags or if they are too heavy. This limitation can be a challenge, especially as airlines generally have limits that are higher. However, our luggage providers have reasons for these limits (usually due to the Health and Safety of their employees), which we must respect.