Lake Como is not one place. The lake is shaped like an inverted Y — two long southern arms, west and east, meeting at the central tip of Bellagio, with the city of Como anchoring the western arm’s southern terminus and the smaller town of Lecco doing the same for the eastern. To choose where to stay on Lake Como is to choose, in effect, which lake you want — because the three shores offer materially different experiences, different atmospheres, different signatures of luxury, and different ways of being in northern Italy.
What follows is a definitive guide to each, written for travellers who have not yet decided which Como is theirs.
The Western Shore: Heritage and Hollywood
The western shore, running from Como city north through Cernobbio, Moltrasio, Laglio, Argegno, Lenno, Tremezzina, and on to Menaggio, is the lake’s most internationally famous stretch — and the one that has, since the early twentieth century, attracted the most concentrated investment in heritage hospitality. This is the shore of the grand hotels, of George Clooney’s Villa Oleandra, of the cinematic villas (Villa Balbianello, Villa Carlotta), and of the lake-road experience that most international visitors imagine when they imagine Lake Como.
The defining property here is Villa d’Este in Cernobbio, the lake’s continuously operating grande dame since 1873, and arguably one of Europe’s three or four most important hotels. Just up the shore in Moltrasio sits Passalacqua, the eighteenth-century neoclassical villa restored by the De Santis family and named the world’s best hotel by the 50 Best Hotels list in 2023. North of Argegno, in Tremezzina, the same family operates Grand Hotel Tremezzo, the pink-stucco Belle Époque property whose floating pool is among the most photographed on the lake. The newest arrival, The Lake Como EDITION in Cadenabbia, opened in March 2026 and represents the shore’s first major contemporary design statement — Ian Schrager’s brand applied to a nineteenth-century palazzo, with culinary direction from Mauro Colagreco. Our full feature on the property covers the restoration in detail.
Who the western shore suits: first-time visitors who want to experience the lake in its most classical and internationally recognisable form; couples celebrating a milestone; families staying in heritage hotels with full traditional service; travellers drawn to the cinematic Lake Como of guidebook reputation.
The trade-off: the lake road, particularly between Cernobbio and Tremezzina, can be busy in peak summer. The most desirable hotels book out a year ahead for July and August. This is the shore of established luxury, not discovery.
The Eastern Shore: Discreet Sophistication
The eastern shore — Blevio, Torno, Faggeto Lario, Nesso, Bellano, Varenna, and the wilder reaches north toward Colico — has historically attracted a different traveller. The road is narrower. The villages are smaller. The hotel infrastructure is sparser. And the social atmosphere is, by Lake Como standards, almost monastic in its quietness.
For the past two decades, the eastern shore’s most consequential property has been Mandarin Oriental Lago di Como in Blevio — set within the Villa Roccabruna estate, once home to the celebrated nineteenth-century opera singer Giuditta Pasta, and now one of the lake’s most quietly sophisticated contemporary hotels. Seventy-five rooms across multiple buildings, a subtropical garden setting, a wellness programme built around the property’s Power of Water philosophy, and the waterfront L’ARIA restaurant serving Italian cuisine with subtle Japanese influence. The brand’s signature restraint translates well to the eastern shore’s atmosphere.
Further north in Varenna, the smaller Hotel du Lac and the renovated Hotel Royal Victoria offer more modestly scaled options for travellers who want to experience the lake’s quieter villages. Varenna itself — a steep village of pastel houses rising directly from the water, connected to Bellagio by the regular ferry service — is widely considered the most picturesque small village on Lake Como, and one of the most charming towns of comparable scale anywhere in northern Italy.
Who the eastern shore suits: repeat visitors who have done the western shore and want a quieter return; couples seeking privacy over social visibility; design-led travellers drawn to Mandarin Oriental’s contemporary register; anyone who values stillness over spectacle.
The trade-off: the dining and shopping infrastructure is much thinner. Restaurants close earlier. The Bellagio ferry crossings are essential for accessing the lake’s central social life. This is the shore of slow days, not crowded evenings.
The Central Tip: Bellagio
The promontory village of Bellagio, occupying the exact junction where Lake Como’s two southern arms meet, is its own geographic category — neither quite western shore nor eastern, but the architectural and social centre of the lake. The village has been described as the most beautifully positioned small town in Italy, and the description is hard to argue with: the lake extends to the south, west, and north from a single elevated point, with Alpine peaks visible in clear weather to the north.
Bellagio’s defining property is Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, the Belle Époque grande dame that has presided over the village since 1873. Frescoed ceilings, marble staircases, a Michelin-starred restaurant, and the lake’s finest position for evening light. Smaller heritage hotels — Hotel Belvedere, Hotel Florence, Hotel du Lac — offer more modestly scaled village stays. The village itself, with its stone staircases, designer boutiques, and concentration of restaurants and bars within a few hundred metres, provides a degree of nightlife and walking-distance amenity that neither the western nor eastern shore can match.
Who Bellagio suits: first-time visitors who want to be in the centre of everything; travellers who prefer walking to driving; couples and groups who value evening social life; anyone who wants the geometric centre of the lake as their base for ferry-based exploration.
The trade-off: Bellagio in peak season is busy. The village absorbs significant day-tripper traffic from the ferry services. Some travellers find the concentration of activity overwhelming after a few days.
Como City and the Southern Lake
The southernmost section of the lake — Como city itself and the immediately adjacent villages — is the most urban stretch of the lake’s hospitality landscape, and an option that international visitors often overlook. Como is a working Italian city of approximately 80,000, with its own cathedral, its own historic centre, its own restaurant culture, its own architectural and silk-trade history. The proximity to Milan (about forty minutes by train) makes the southern lake the most logistically accessible base for travellers combining Lake Como with Milan visits.
Hilton Lake Como, opened in 2018, brought a contemporary urban hotel to Como city — an unusual proposition on a lake otherwise dominated by historic villas. The Vista Palazzo Lago di Como, a smaller and more design-led boutique property on Piazza Cavour, provides a more intimate alternative. Both offer easy access to Como’s restaurants and the city’s daily ferry departures north along the lake.
New 2026 additions — including Hotel San Gottardo (Radisson Collection) in the historic centre and Mama Shelter Lake Como near Como San Giovanni station — extend the city’s hotel offer further. These are not the grand villas of Cernobbio or Bellagio, but they answer a different question: where to stay if your Lake Como week is also a Milan week.
Who Como city suits: travellers combining Lake Como with Milan; design-led visitors interested in contemporary hotels rather than historic villas; anyone with restricted time who values logistical efficiency over total immersion in the lake’s classical atmosphere.
The trade-off: Como city is a city. The lakefront views exist but they share the experience with traffic, commuter rail, and urban infrastructure. This is not the Lake Como of the guidebook covers.
How to choose
The honest answer is that most first-time visitors should stay on the western shore — Cernobbio, Moltrasio, or Tremezzina — because the heritage hotel infrastructure is unmatched and because the postcard Lake Como experience genuinely lives there. The Bellagio option is the second-best first-time choice, offering the central position and the village atmosphere that the western shore’s resort-style hotels do not.
Repeat visitors increasingly choose the eastern shore for its quieter rhythm and the Mandarin Oriental’s specific virtues. Travellers combining the lake with Milan should consider Como city. Families and groups seeking maximum privacy with full villa staff should look at Villa Balbiano or the De Santis family’s Villa Sola Cabiati rather than at hotels at all — the private-villa option is its own category, deserving of its own consideration.
The lake will reward you wherever you stay. But the lake you experience will differ meaningfully depending on which shore you choose. For more on the lake’s hospitality renaissance, including the recent surge of new openings and the broader 2026 hotel landscape, our piece on Italy’s luxury hotel renaissance provides further context.
Source of the image: passalacqua.it
