Modern Chinese-American Woman: Navigating the Lake Como Ferry System

Getting on and off the lake Como ferry system was not only expensive, but stressful. Note, note, attention, attention. If possible do not take the local ferry. Only take the express ferry. It is called a fast boat. Once you get on the ferry, you’ll say oh my God this is so beautiful, take 1 million pictures of the quaint little towns in the mountains. After 20 minutes you are bored to tears and roasting in the heat if you did not fight all the other tourists & race for a seat upstairs, outside under the shade, not out in the open. Halfway into the trip there were all these grown men coming out of the snack bar with a glass of wine or beer in both hands. Do you know what’s coming next?

Luckily our hotel Metropole Swiss hotel was literally across the street from the ferry dock. Hotel Metropole SwissWe could see the ticket office from our balcony. When we went to buy tickets one day, all of the fast boats were sold out.

We thought we could buy ferry tickets for the following day, so I was diligently there at 7:30, after looking out my window. Good, 1 person on line, let me be 1 of the first and get the fast boat. Unfortunately you can only buy tickets the day of. So again the next day, get up early, look out the window, when you see someone online run like hell to get in line and buy the tickets. I did it! Success! Five tickets to Bellagio on the express boat! Only problem is you can only buy the upgrade to the express boat return when you get to your destination. By the time you get to your last destination they are all sold out. Lots of juggling to get ferry tickets synced up to the time of your attraction visit ticket

Here are the places we visited:

Villa Carlotta (Cernobbio)
Villa del Balbianello (Tremezzo)
Bellagio

Not visited: Villa D’Este because they were snobs & said we had to have a reservation to go to the poolside restaurant (not true according to a friend who’s been). They just didn’t like our appearance.

Villa Carlotta

Has its own ferry stop, beautiful gardens. We took the short walk but wish we had budgeted time for the longer walk (~1 1/2 hours). Inside just as interesting.

Villa del Balbianello

Warning, it’s a 20 minute walk from ferry stop to entrance -lovely walk, but we had an entrance ticket for 11am and felt rushed. The kids stayed behind to buy the fast ferry upgrade from Tremezzo to Bellagio, our afternoon visit. The guy at the counter said he needed to go to the bank, 20 minutes later he never came back and the kids gave up. Quite an old fashion system.

Another warning- buy tickets in advance online. Museum is really cool & often sold out.