10 Best Hotels on Lake Como: Bellagio & Varenna (2026)

Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni has anchored the tip of Bellagio since 1873 — a five-storey Belle Époque landmark so closely tied to Lake Como that its ochre facade shows up on half the postcards. All 94 rooms are dressed in Italian silk, hand-carved furniture and marble floors, and the property still scores 9.4/10 on Booking.com after 150-plus years. Two pools (one indoor, one lakeside outdoor), a full spa with sauna and a 24-hour gym mean you never have to leave the grounds. The headline draw is the food: Mistral and La Goletta, both under Michelin-starred chef Ettore Bocchia, who builds menus around Lombardy produce and lake fish. Rates open around $570 a night and climb past $1,500 for the top suites — this is a special-occasion stay, not a casual one.

Hotel Belvedere Bellagio has been run by four generations of the same family since 1880, and that continuity shows in the warm, hands-on service guests keep flagging. It holds a 9.6/10 review score on Hotels.com — one of the highest in Bellagio — earned on spotless lake-view rooms, private gardens that bloom from spring through summer, and a new spa with a Turkish bath, sauna and relaxation room. The outdoor pool is guests-only, the in-house kitchen plates honest Lombardy cooking, and there is free parking on site, which is genuinely rare in a village that bans private cars in much of the centre. Rooms start around $430 a night and climb to roughly $1,000 in peak summer. It sits about a 15-minute walk from the ferry pier — far enough to feel calm, close enough to walk in.

Hotel Du Lac Bellagio sits right on the lakefront and ranks #1 in Bellagio on TripAdvisor — a 3-star boutique that guests keep describing as six-star service at a three-star price. Its big draw is the top-floor rooftop bar, where the whole sweep of Lake Como and the surrounding Alps opens up over an Aperol Spritz. Beyond the view, you get a steam room, jacuzzi and sauna built into the rate — a wellness setup most 3-star hotels skip entirely. Rooms run clean and modern, the family-run team earns praise in nearly every review, and the ferry pier is just a few steps away, so day trips to Varenna, Menaggio and Como town are effortless. Rates start around $170 a night, which is roughly a third of what the grand 5-stars next door charge. For couples or solo travelers who want the prime Bellagio location without the luxury bill, this is the first place to look.

Hotel Florence Bellagio sits on Piazza Giuseppe Mazzini, the central square that opens straight onto Lake Como, with the ferry pier directly out front. The look inside is clean and contemporary — cream and soft-brown tones — which plays nicely against the old Italian village outside. More than 1,600 reviews land it at 9.2/10, high for a 3-star, and most guests single out the same three things: a varied home-made breakfast that mixes Lombardy and international dishes, a front desk that actually helps you plan boat days, and a small Turkish bath and sauna in the building that you rarely get at this price. From the door you can hop a ferry to Varenna in 15 minutes or walk the cobbled lanes to Gelateria del Borgo in two. Rates start around $170 a night, which is why it reads as over-delivering in nearly every review.

Hotel Suisse Bellagio is the lowest-priced way to wake up on the water in Bellagio, the village that sits where Lake Como splits into two arms. There are only 7 rooms, all large and open, all looking straight at the lake, and all wrapped in genuine shabby chic — worn furniture, tall shutters, the feel of an old Italian house rather than a tourist hotel. Guests score it 7.6/10, marking the view and the central location well above everything else. The real draw downstairs is Ristorante La Pisana, a Lombardy kitchen locals actually eat at, where the lake fish and risotto cost less than the waterfront competition. Rooms start around $150 a night, roughly half what the bigger names on the promenade charge. It suits travelers who will trade a pool and a spa for the address, the food, and that water 50 metres away.

Hotel Olivedo Varenna has been run by the same Italian family since 1896, and 130-odd years on it still feels lived-in rather than staged. The overall score sits at 9.0/10, but couples push the location rating to 9.8/10 — the highest in Varenna. The white stone building sits straight on Lake Como, with many rooms opening onto private balconies over the water and the Alps behind. The talked-about feature is the home-made breakfast: fresh-baked croissants, Parma ham, Lombardy cheese, boiled eggs and free-flowing cappuccino that reviewers call the best meal of their whole trip. Rates start around $230 a night. The Varenna ferry pier is 200 m away, the Varenna-Perledo train station with direct trains to Milan Centrale is a short walk, and the lakeside Lovers Walk begins at the door.

Villa Torretta Varenna is a 6-room B&B in a 19th-century villa, set right on the lane down to the ferry — just 80 m from the Varenna pier. What sets it apart from the other places nearby isn't the amenities, it's Laura, the owner: Booking.com guests score it 8.9/10 and single her out as "knowledgeable about everything in Varenna and beyond." Several balconies look straight onto Lake Como, breakfast is served with that view, and rooms run larger than the price suggests. Rates start around $157 a night, which makes this one of the cheaper lake-view entries in Varenna. It's a genuine boutique stay for travelers who want a real Italian villa and a host who treats them like family — not a polished hotel with a checklist of facilities. Note that not every room has air-con and the Wi-Fi can wobble.

Villa Varenna was built in 1895 and stands directly opposite the Varenna-Perledo train station on the quieter eastern shore of Lake Como. It runs as a 6-room family B&B with a Superb rating across more than 624 reviews, and guests keep flagging the same things: rooms that feel larger than you'd expect at this price, a full breakfast laid out with Lombardy cheeses, cured meats and seasonal fruit, and a terrace that looks straight at the lake and the hilltop Castello di Vezio. The owners are the draw as much as the building — they live the operation, point you to the right ferries and trails, and keep the late-19th-century Lombard stone villa feeling like a home rather than a hotel. Rates start around $155 a night, which makes it one of the best-value beds in Varenna for anyone arriving by rail from Milan — the city is a single direct hour away on the same line that stops at the door.

Residenza Luigina Varenna sits on the Perledo hillside just above Varenna, and it's the rare modern apartment building in a zone full of century-old hotels. The draw is a combination you almost never get for the money: bright, genuinely clean rooms with private balconies framing Lake Como and the Alps, a small kitchen and fridge for longer stays, a building lift so nobody hauls bags up stairs, and an outdoor pool positioned to look straight out over the water. The Varenna-Perledo train station is 350 m downhill, with direct trains to Milan Centrale in about an hour — easy for day trips. Reviewers score it 9.1/10 and repeatedly call the view the best in the area. Rooms run from roughly $150 a night, climbing to about $270 in summer. The trade-off is the 7-minute uphill walk back from the village, but parking on site makes it a strong pick for anyone arriving by car from Milan.

Hotel Beretta Varenna is the best-value bed on Lake Como, full stop. Rates start around $90 a night, yet the guest score sits at 8.9/10 — higher than plenty of 3- and 4-star places charging double. The pull is the private lake-view balconies, the feature roughly 9 in 10 reviews mention first: morning coffee over the water with the Alps behind, for a fraction of the usual lakefront price. The location does the rest. Varenna-Perledo station is just 50 m away, with direct trains to Milan Centrale in about an hour, and the lake itself is only 100 m down the hill. Breakfast earns steady praise — Italian-style with cheese, cold cuts, fruit, pastries and coffee — and the front desk gets singled out for being friendly. There's no pool or spa, but the Varenna Lovers Walk and the village restaurants are a 5-minute stroll. For backpackers and budget travelers who refuse to skip the view, this is the one.