Hiking Lake Como

Whisk yourself away to stylish Lake Como on a relaxing trip with easy to moderate hiking. On this Slower Adventure, you’ll spend several nights in Cadenabbia and Menaggio. Expect a warm welcome at your authentic family-run hotels, which are great bases for exploring 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 trip is graded easy to moderate. The hikes 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 trip 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/1,640ft loss and gain elevation-wise, but again you can just take your time and enjoy the surrounding countryside. A couple of the hikes even have options to shorten. From Pigra to Cadenabbia you can take a bus from Colonno to shorten the hike by about 5km/3.1mi and on the latter hike you can take a train from Bellano if you wish back to Varenna and that also shortens the hike by about 6km/3.75mi. However, you may not wish to miss any of the hiking!

You will spend 7 nights in hand-picked accommodations. They are all authentic and family-run. Get ready for a warm Italian welcome. 

Single Rooms & Solo Hikers

This trip is available to solo hikers and a supplement is payable as some of the costs (such as transfers) are not shared. Single rooms are on request and a supplement is payable.

Meals

The lovingly prepared cuisine of the Italian Lakes and wine from Lombardy are a highlight of this trip. In order to keep things flexible, dinners and lunches are not included, as you will be spoiled for choice! You will always be close to somewhere you can buy a packed lunch or eat a traditional dinner. 

The route is not waymarked (except for some sections where you will be hiking 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 hikes usually begin and end at a central point in town (such as a church, bus stop, etc.). Routes to your accommodation are not included in our km/mi daily figures. However, the Macs app will guide you to your accommodation.

You can start this hiking tour anytime between April and mid-October. Lake Como is very popular so it’s best to book as far in advance as possible.

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 (MXP), which is the closest international airport and then you can catch a train from the airport to Milan City Center 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 40min –  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 an additional fee. Please notify us at time of booking if you are interested in this option. 

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 2 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 center 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 there, direct to Milan.

Your bags will be transferred from your accommodation as per your itinerary and moved onto your next overnight stay. We ask you to limit your luggage to one bag of up to 20kg/44lbs per person.

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.  Your booking includes transfer of 1 bag per person.  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.