Bardolino, Court Dell Rose Reviews

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Good Points: Great weather in the summer. Very warm
Pasta
Ice-cream - as mush as you can eat and in any flavour
Amazing scenery
Iced Coffee - A must Try

Bad Points: Nothing

General comments: Lake Garda and Garda Town
Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy. It is about 31 miles long and up to 10 miles wide in places. Lake Garda has about 5 million visitors a year and it is easy to understand why. In my opinion Lake Garda is a beautiful place. It has fantastic scenery with high mountains to the north and beautiful cosmopolitan towns that lie on the shores of the lake. Lake Garda is certainly a place worth visiting if you like boats, and like exploring picturesque Italian villages as well as dining in good quality restaurants.
All the towns around Lake Garda are connected by the lake water bus system. These run at regular intervals, especially during the summer, and are a cheap and easy way to explore the Lake
The road that runs down the eastern side of Lake Garda, known as the Gardesana Orientale, connects the towns of Riva, Malcesine, Torri del Benaco, Garda, Bardolino, Lazise and Sirmione.

We stayed in Garda and visited the following towns.

. Malcesine with its high Alpine backdrop is a former fishing village. Famous for the Scaligeri Castle, built in the 13th century, Malcesine has good restaurants and shopping as well as boat hire facilities. You can take a cable car from Malcesine up the 5,643 ft. Monte Baldo and the view from the top has amazing views of the surrounding area and Lake Garda. This is well worth a visit.

. Bardolino lies at the centre of a wine region famed for its delicious reds and there are plenty of places to taste the wine for yourself at one of over 54 different vineyards in the region. The town of Bardolino itself has a lovely waterfront setting, interesting traffic free cobbled streets and a lively cosmopolitan atmosphere in the evenings. There are plenty of good quality restaurants and bars where you can sit and watch the world go by.

. Sirmione lies at the end of a 2.5 mile peninsula and is like something out of a fairytale. Sirmione is a busy little town in summer. It is probably the most popular of the Lake Garda towns as far as tourists are concerned and it is easy to understand why. If you visit lake Garda the town of Sirmione should certainly not be missed.
The road up the western shore of Lake Garda has a total of 70 tunnels and it takes about an hour to drive the 44 miles to Riva.

Our base was Garda town and I can write at a bit more on this town.

Garda is an old town situated on the lake, it has a boat service and a bus service to most of the other towns and villiages on the lake.. The boat service is very reliable and mostly on time, the buses are always late (and I mean late -sometimes upto and hour. On the lake there are opportunities to swim, water-ski, para-sail (being toed behind an speed boat.) and there are lots of places to sunbathe.

The town is very picturesque with plenty of opportunities for photographs. It has all the shops you will ever need with some designer ones thrown in.

There are a vast number of restaurants which all sell pasta and ice-cream. A must in the middle of the morning or afternoon is an iced-coffee or an iced-chocolate or for the really adventurous a hugh ice-cream. All of these are as you would expect are very refreshing, and only a little more expensive than you would pay in the UK.

There is a local bus provided free of charge which circulates around the town every half hour - just get on and off wherever you like NO COST. This is an excellent idea as some of the hotels and apartments are a good distance from the main town.

We stayed in the Court Dell Rose Apartments (See other review about these apartments) approx 2KM from the main town and the bus was needed to get up and down as it was too warm to walk. The walk was enjoyable at night after a good feed.

Close by - about 30 minutes on the bus was Gardaland which is Italys largest theme park. For 2 adults and 3 children it cost 108 euro which was good value. There is a free bus to Gardaland which leaves the bus stop in Garda at 8.30 SHARP (on of the few buses which does leave on time.

Garda is a very enjoyable town for a holiday and as long as the children have a swimming pool they are happy.

Day trip to Venice is a must. (check out my review)

The boat service is expensive if you are in a group, as we were. A short trip to Sirmione (check out my review) for 5 was 80 euros, the trip was very enjoyable and the water was calm. The boats are a good size and there is no need to stand, toilet facilities clean.

The bus is less expensive, but as mentioned earlier never on time. A trip to Malcesine, (check out my review) which is further from Garda than Sirmione was 20 euros return, the journey took you along the edge of the lake with outstanding wiews.

There is a walk along the edge of the lake to Bardolino (check out my review) approx 45 minutes. We unfortunately went early in the morning and were returning about noon - too hot to walk. If you intend to do this walk leave it to later in the day when it is not as hot. The bus and boat also go to this town.