The Como Alternative for Your Next Italian Lake Trip

Lake Maggiore is the strongest alternative to Lake Como for luxury travel. It offers the same grand hotels, botanical gardens, and lakeside glamour, with three Borromean Islands instead of one, a gentler Piedmontese shoreline, and considerably more room to escape the crowds. Milan Malpensa is roughly an hour from Stresa by car, and Milano Centrale connects directly by train.

Lake Como earned its fame in the early 2000s, when high-profile figures like George Clooney and Madonna put it on the collective map. Now receiving 1.4 million daytrippers per year, it’s become a victim of its own success.

Towns are considering limiting visitor numbers and introducing Venice-style tourist taxes, while discerning travelers seeking Como-style glamour without the crowds are looking elsewhere.

One alternative is Lake Maggiore: perfectly positioned between Lombardy, Piedmont, and Switzerland, it offers Alpine air, grand hotels, botanical gardens, and unique cuisine.

While no Italian lake can ever promise to be “undiscovered” (tourists have been flocking to them for centuries), Maggiore gives you more places to disappear.

Lake Maggiore: The Como Alternative for Luxury Travel

Lake Maggiore matches Como’s charm, but with fewer A-list sightings and fewer people hoping to see one, there’s more room for those who value privacy over proximity to fame. That’s not to say Maggiore is empty, but its quietest corners and best vantage points are there for those who know where to look.

Maggiore’s five-star palazzos and secluded resorts hold their own against Como’s: restricted-access beaches, lakeside infinity pools, and private docks built for slipping out to the islands unnoticed.

Then, there’s the scenery. Where Como’s shoreline is steep and tightly wound, Maggiore’s Piedmont side is gentler, with room for sprawling botanical estates, grand Italianate gardens, and lakefront promenades.

At its center sit the Borromean Islands: a three-island archipelago shaped by generations of the Borromeo family, who still have their ancestral home on Isola Bella.

The glamour extends to the table. Piedmontese cuisine, famous for mountain butter, tender beef, and hand-rolled agnolotti al plin, meets lake delicacies like alborelle fritte, small fried fish served with polenta, a squeeze of lemon, and a glass of Erbaluce di Caluso.

Lake Maggiore’s Most Charming Towns

The lake changes personality as it crosses from Lombardy into Piedmont and up toward Switzerland. These four towns, all on the Piedmontese side, range from grand resort towns to medieval fishing villages.

Stresa

With its grand palazzos, historic villas, and expansive botanical gardens, Stresa is endlessly elegant. It’s also the main port for fishing boats and ferries, and while it’s still quieter than Como, it does get busy in the summer.

Though not exactly off the beaten path, it’s worth a visit to experience the lakeside vistas that inspired Hemingway when he wrote A Farewell to Arms.

Stresa serves as the primary gateway for classic wooden water taxis heading to the islands. It’s also where you’ll find Maggiore’s answer to Como’s grand hotels:

Grand Hotel des Îles Borromées: This iconic Art Nouveau palace features expansive lakefront grounds, magnificent historic suites, three pools, and a medical spa. Its private dock and pier access ensure complete discretion for island transfers.

For an immersive experience, request Room 106 (the “Hemingway Suite”), where the author penned portions of his masterpiece, and end your evening with a martini at the hotel’s Hemingway Bar.

Villa e Palazzo Aminta: This Belle Époque resort offers a secluded sandy beach, a cave spa, and two gourmet restaurants overlooking the Borromean Gulf.

The property features its own stone pier, allowing dedicated speedboats to whisk you to Isola Bella or Isola Madre without passing through the public docks. It’s also well located for exploring nearby Baveno.

Baveno

Just minutes north of Stresa, Baveno offers a sophisticated and tranquil base away from the main resorts. This refined lakeside town is famous for its stonemasonry heritage, and its signature pink granite graces monuments worldwide.

The shoreline is dotted with magnificent waterfront estates, including Villa Henfrey-Branca, once visited by Queen Victoria. With its serene lakeside promenade and direct boat access to the Borromean Islands, it’s an idyllic setting for an unhurried escape.

Cannero Riviera

Blessed with a protected microclimate that allows citrus and olive trees to flourish, Cannero Riviera is a sun-drenched Mediterranean oasis.

Featuring a pedestrian-only waterfront promenade, perfect for evening strolls and elegant open-air dining, its biggest allure lies in the floating ruins of the Castelli di Cannero fortress islets. These historic ruins provide a romantic backdrop for twilight boat charters and lakeside escapes.

Cannobio

Further north, just a few kilometers from the Swiss border, this picturesque lakeside town balances Italian heritage and medieval charm with an active, outdoor lifestyle, and the promenade is considered one of the most beautiful on Lake Maggiore.

Public ferry service to the islands is limited here, making it a more discreet base. While popular with daytrippers, overnight visitors can enjoy boutique hotels, pristine private beaches, and sunset sailing charters.

Sitting at the intersection of a wide mountain river delta, a deep alpine valley, and the breeziest stretch of Lake Maggiore, it’s also a natural playground for watersports, hiking, and cycling.

Visiting the Borromean Islands

While Como offers just one tiny island, Maggiore boasts three. These architectural marvels draw large numbers of visitors, especially in peak season, but you can build your visit around asymmetrical timing and chartered water travel to bypass the midday day-trippers and large group tours.

Isola Bella

Isola Bella is a masterclass in Baroque theatrics. It features ten-tiered terraced gardens, Palazzo Borromeo with its masterpieces by Van Dyck, Titian, and Rubens, and a flock of white peacocks.

This is the most popular of the three islands, and after-hours visits offer the most exclusivity. Arrange for your captain to dock later in the afternoon so you can marvel at the shell-encrusted stone grottoes and contemplate the Borromeo family’s art collection in near-silence.

Isola Madre

The largest of the three islands, Isola Madre is an exercise in sophisticated restraint. With an understated 16th-century palace (confusingly, also called Palazzo Borromeo) surrounded by an English-style botanical park with an ancient Kashmir cypress tree and free-roaming silver pheasants, Gustave Flaubert declared it “the most voluptuous place in the world.”

Because Isola Madre lacks a commercial village center, it naturally repels the standard tourist rush. Midday is the perfect time to visit, when you can dedicate a few unhurried hours to wandering the bamboo groves and cypress avenues. Ask your guide to highlight the Hall of Puppets inside the palace, offering a fascinating glimpse into the historical private entertainment of the Italian nobility.

Isola dei Pescatori

The only permanently inhabited island in the archipelago, this ancient fishing village is a labyrinth of narrow, sun-dappled stone alleys and historic cottages.

During the day, Pescatori is saturated with souvenir shoppers, but after the final public ferry leaves, the island returns to its quiet, atmospheric self.

Have your hotel arrange a water taxi to collect you as the sun sets, and dine at Ristorante Casabella or Il Verbano. Here, over a local wine and a plate of freshly caught lake fish, you will have the entire illuminated theater of the Borromean Gulf (almost) to yourself.

Authentic Experiences Around Lake Maggiore

Maggiore rewards travelers who go looking for more than the view, whether that means an afternoon behind the wheel or an evening with a local winemaker.

Luxury Activities & Experiences

Private Boat Tour of the Borromean Islands

Step aboard a vintage wooden Riva speedboat or a modern yacht, departing from your hotel’s dedicated dock. This is the definitive way to bypass the public hydrofoil traffic and take in the lake’s aristocratic grandeur in seclusion. Italy Charme arranges private island access as part of our Three Italian Lakes journey.

Vintage & Classic Car Experiences

The winding Alpine roads and panoramic lakeside vistas offer a spectacular backdrop for an afternoon behind the wheel of a chauffeured or self-drive vintage car, such as an Alfa Romeo, Fiat 500, or MG.

Follow the scenic routes winding through the historic Ghemme wine-country estates, or opt for a loop around the pristine waters of neighboring Lake Mergozzo.

Food & Wine

The lake district rewards a slower, food-led approach, which is why we built our Italian Lake District Gourmet Tour around producers rather than landmarks.

Masterclass in Affinamento at Luigi Guffanti 1876

Luigi Guffanti 1876 is famous for perfecting the historic art of cheese maturation (affinamento). This five-generation family institution acts as a “cheese bank”.

Cheese refiners (affinatori) source small-batch artisanal cheeses from farmers across Italy and Europe, and age them to peak complexity.

A visit to the subterranean vaults culminates in a sommelier-style tasting of rare regional cheeses paired with fine Piedmontese wines.

Visit the Hidden Vineyards of Ossola Valley

Just north of the lake, the Ossola Valley has a winemaking history stretching back 700 years. The DOC here, Valli Ossolane, is small enough that you won’t find it on supermarket shelves outside northern Italy.

The best way to taste it is in the company of the winemakers themselves, who will tell you how the mountain terrain and alpine cold shape a wine that tastes like no other in Italy. For travelers who want to go deeper into the region’s wine, our private Barolo winery visits sit within easy reach to the south.

Private Cooking Class with a Local Chef

Arrange an intimate, hands-on culinary lesson with a local chef inside the kitchen of a historic lakeside villa, and learn Piedmontese techniques like rolling the perfect agnolotti al plin.

Getting to Lake Maggiore

While traveling to the northern reaches of Lakes Como or Garda often involves narrow, congested mountain passes, arriving at Maggiore is relatively frictionless, making it a great choice if you prefer to avoid all those winding roads.

A self-driven or chauffeured car will get you from Milan Malpensa airport to Stresa in around an hour, while Milan Linate is about an hour and a half away.

Milano Centrale connects directly to Stresa by train, a scenic ride that hugs the lake’s western shore and takes around an hour.

Get Away From It All at Lake Maggiore

Lake Maggiore is where you go for a nightcap in the room where Hemingway wrote, an after-hours walk through Isola Bella’s grottoes, and high-altitude wine poured by the winemaker who made it.

If that sounds like your version of the dream Italian holiday, let Italy Charme make it a reality. We’ll introduce you to the places, artisans, and producers you won’t find on Google, and build your itinerary based on your interests and needs. Italy Charme handles the planning so you can enjoy the disappearing.