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We almost skipped Lake Maggiore, and that would have been one of our bigger travel mistakes. Everyone talks about Como, so that is where the crowds go, and meanwhile Maggiore sits one valley west with baroque island palaces rising straight out of the water, Alpine peaks stacked behind palm-lined promenades, and ferry docks where you can actually find a seat at a café. It took us about two hours on Isola Bella to understand: this is the lake the crowds forgot, and it never got the memo to become ordinary.
Why Lake Maggiore Is Worth the Trip
Maggiore is Italy’s second largest lake, a 40-mile ribbon of water that starts near Milan and runs north across the Swiss border. The southern and central shores are pure Italian lake country: pastel villages, terraced gardens, grand belle époque hotels from the era when European aristocracy summered here. The northern end turns Swiss and dramatic, with steeper mountains and a different accent to everything.
The headline act is the Borromean Islands, three tiny islands off Stresa that the Borromeo family spent four centuries turning into showpieces. But the reason we would go back is the overall pace. Como has become a scene. Garda has the theme parks and tour buses, as we found in our Lake Garda travel guide. Maggiore just gets on with being beautiful.
It is also ridiculously easy to reach: about an hour by train from Milan, which makes it either a doable day trip or, better, the calm base you retreat to after the city. We covered the city side in our Milan, Italy travel guide.
Best Time to Visit Lake Maggiore
April through June is prime time. The gardens the lake is famous for hit peak bloom (the camellias and azaleas in April and May are absurd), temperatures sit in the comfortable 60s and 70s, and summer crowds have not arrived.
July and August bring warm swimming water, long evenings, and the busiest promenades. It never gets Como-crowded, but book ahead and expect Italian holiday energy in August.
September and early October might be the sweet spot for us: warm lake, golden light, wine-harvest menus, and hotel rates that start sliding.
November through March is the quiet season. Many island attractions and grand hotels close (the Borromean palaces generally shut from late October to mid-March), so winter visits are really about misty lakefront walks and having the promenades to yourself.
Things to Do at Lake Maggiore
Isola Bella
The Borromeo family took a rocky fishing island and built a baroque palace with ten terraces of gardens descending to the water like a wedding cake. White peacocks strut the lawns, the grotto rooms downstairs are lined floor to ceiling with shells and black marble, and the whole thing is gloriously, unapologetically too much. Go early; the palace opens at 10am and the first hour is dramatically quieter.
Isola dei Pescatori
The neighboring fishermen’s island is the counterpoint: a village of narrow lanes, laundry strung between houses, and about 25 year-round residents. It is touristy at lunch (every building is basically a fish restaurant) and magical before 11am and after 5pm. If you want the move, stay for dinner and catch a late ferry back while the lake goes pink.
Isola Madre
The largest and least visited island is essentially one huge English-style botanical garden wrapped around a quieter villa. Cypress, citrus, wisteria tunnels, and more strutting peacocks. Garden people should not miss it; everyone else can be content with Bella and Pescatori.
Ride the Mottarone Cable Car or Drive Up
The mountain behind Stresa tops out at 4,892 feet with a view that stacks seven lakes and the Monte Rosa massif into one panorama. On a clear day you can trace Maggiore’s entire length. There are easy summit trails, a family alpine coaster, and picnic spots we had nearly to ourselves on a June weekday.
Villa Taranto’s Gardens
Across the bay in Verbania, a Scottish captain spent the 1930s building one of Europe’s great botanical gardens: 40 acres of terraces, fountains, lotus ponds, and a dahlia maze that peaks in late summer. Pair it with lunch in Pallanza, Verbania’s mellow lakefront quarter, which locals treat as the lake’s best-kept secret.
Head North to Cannobio and the Swiss End
The last Italian town before Switzerland, Cannobio has a Sunday market that takes over the entire lakefront, a beautiful old core, and the wild Cannobina valley behind it (the Orrido di Sant’Anna gorge is a five-minute detour that looks Photoshopped). Push on into Switzerland and you hit Ascona and Locarno, palm trees and all.
Walk the Belle Époque Waterfront in Stresa
Stresa’s lakefront promenade is a time capsule from the era when Queen Victoria, Dickens, and half of Europe’s aristocracy summered here. Hemingway set part of A Farewell to Arms at the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromées after recovering there in 1918, and the hotel leans into it with a Hemingway suite. You do not need a room to enjoy the scene: walk the flower-lined promenade at golden hour, islands floating offshore, and have an aperitivo at one of the grand hotel bars. A spritz costs less than you would guess for the view attached to it.
A Perfect Two-Day Lake Maggiore Itinerary
Day 1: The islands. First ferry from Stresa to Isola Bella and straight into the palace at opening. Gardens until late morning, then hop to Isola dei Pescatori for a long fish lunch on a terrace. Digest with a slow lap of the village lanes, ferry to Isola Madre for the botanical gardens if you have the energy, and be back in Stresa for a promenade aperitivo.
Day 2: The mountain and the gardens. Morning up Mottarone for the seven-lakes panorama, down by early afternoon, then around the bay to Villa Taranto’s gardens and a wander through Pallanza’s lakefront. If you have a third day, give it to Cannobio and the Orrido di Sant’Anna, or cross into Switzerland for lunch in Ascona just because you can.
Time a Visit Around the Music
Two festivals are worth planning around. Stresa Festival brings world-class classical and jazz performances to villas, churches, and even the islands from late July through early September; hearing chamber music in Isola Bella’s palace is the kind of memory that outlasts any museum ticket. Across the Swiss border, Locarno’s famous film festival takes over the town every August, projecting films onto a giant open-air screen in the Piazza Grande for 8,000 people a night. Both sell tickets online well in advance, and both give an evening on the lake a completely different flavor from the usual passeggiata.
Where to Stay at Lake Maggiore
Stresa is the classic base: ferry hub for the islands, grand hotels on the promenade, train station on the Milan line. Verbania/Pallanza is quieter and more local, with great mid-range value. Baveno splits the difference just north of Stresa. Cannobio suits second visits and travelers who want the lake mostly to themselves. If you are doing the islands hard, stay in Stresa; the first morning ferry is worth more than any hotel amenity.
What and Where to Eat
This is Piedmont-meets-Lombardy cooking, which is a very good place for a menu to live: lake fish (perch with butter and sage over risotto is the signature plate), gorgonzola from the nearby valleys, and Piedmontese wines like Nebbiolo and Gattinara that rarely make it onto US lists at these prices. On Isola dei Pescatori, lunch on grilled lavarello with a carafe of white wine and the water lapping under the terrace was one of our favorite meals in Italy. In Stresa, skip the promenade tourist menus and walk two streets uphill to the trattorias where the menus are handwritten.
Where to Book
- Hotels: Booking.com’s Lake Maggiore listings cover Stresa, Baveno, Verbania, and Cannobio; filter for lake-view rooms, which often cost only slightly more and completely change the stay.
- Tours and activities: Maggiore day trips run constantly from Milan, so browse Viator’s Lake Maggiore and Milan listings for island-hopping boat tours, Borromean palace tickets, and combos that pair the lake with Como or the Piedmont wine country.
- Travel insurance: if your Italy trip chains trains, ferries, and prepaid palace tickets, one strike or storm can domino. See our guide to the best travel insurance for Europe.
Practical Tips
- Getting there: trains from Milano Centrale reach Stresa in about an hour on the Domodossola line; sit on the right side heading north for the lake views. Coming from Malpensa airport, you are only 40 minutes away by car, making Maggiore a genius first or last stop on an Italy trip (better jet-lag landing than Milan itself).
- Ferries: the public Navigazione Laghi boats connect everything; buy the day pass for the Stresa-islands zone if you are visiting two or more islands. Last boats leave earlier than you expect, so check the evening schedule.
- Island tickets: a combined Isola Bella + Isola Madre ticket saves money, and booking online skips a real line in high season.
- How long: two nights covers the islands and Mottarone. Three or four lets you add Villa Taranto, Cannobio, and a lazy day you will not regret.
- Planning the bigger trip: our How to Plan a Trip to Italy guide covers the trains, timing, and route-building that make a multi-stop Italy itinerary actually relax you.
Lake Maggiore With Kids
The lake is quietly great for families. The ferries are half the fun for small kids, Isola Bella’s white peacocks and shell grottoes play like a fantasy set, and the Mottarone alpine coaster burns off whatever energy the gelato added. Rocca di Angera, a genuinely imposing medieval castle at the lake’s southern tip, houses a surprisingly wonderful Museum of Dolls and Toys inside its halls, and the ramparts are made for storming. Stresa’s promenade playgrounds and pebble beaches handle the low-key hours. Compared with Como’s narrow, traffic-squeezed lanes, Maggiore’s flat waterfronts and car-free islands are simply easier with a stroller.
Our Honest Take
Lake Como has the fame, the celebrities, and the crowds to match. Lake Maggiore has 80 percent of the scenery, half the prices, a fraction of the elbows, and the single best set piece of any Italian lake in Isola Bella. If it is your first Italian lakes trip and you want the famous name, go to Como and enjoy it. If you want the version where you linger over a second espresso watching ferries cross to a baroque island, and the waiter is in no hurry either, Maggiore is your lake. We know which one we are going back to.
Heading to northern Italy? Start with our Milan, Italy travel guide for the gateway city, add the walled hilltop charm in our Bergamo, Italy travel guide, or compare lakes with our Lake Garda travel guide.