Best Luxury Hotels In Lake Como, Italy For A Scenic Italian Getaway

Lake Como is a place of soft light, quiet water, and grand old villas. Choosing where to stay here is not just about a bed for the night. It is about which piece of this beautiful lake you wake up to.

From Bollywood royalty to Hollywood icons, Lake Como in Italy has become the destination of choice for celebrity weddings, with Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh exchanging vows at Villa del Balbianello, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen celebrating at Villa Pizzo, and Emily Blunt and John Krasinski marrying at the iconic Villa d'Este, each adding to the lake's enduring reputation as one of the world's most coveted wedding destinations. The reantal costs for these can go as high as approximately Rs. 3.5 lakhs per day (excluding VAT).

How To Decide

With regard to us, before choosing a luxury hotel, it's better to plan your trip around the season. Lake Como is at its liveliest between April and October, when ferries run frequently and hotels, restaurants and shops are fully open. During the quieter winter months in Italy, many properties and attractions close, making Como town the best base for a year-round stay.

Think about how long you are staying too. If you're visiting for a few days, choose well-connected towns such as Como, Bellagio or Varenna to make exploring the lake easier. For a longer escape, a quieter property with a pool, private beach or expansive lake views may be a better fit.

Getting around is another consideration. In summer, ferries are the easiest and most scenic way to travel between towns, while driving can be slow due to narrow roads and seasonal traffic. Travelling by car gives you greater flexibility, but it's worth checking whether your hotel offers parking.

Finally, look beyond the location. Amenities such as air conditioning, lake views, a swimming pool and on-site parking can make a significant difference to your stay. If you're choosing a more secluded property, it's also worth checking whether there are restaurants nearby.

With that in mind, here are five exceptional Lake Como hotels including Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni and Mandarin Oriental, each offering its own distinct perspective on Italy's most celebrated lake.

Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio

This hotel is like the grand old lady of Lake Como. It is the only five-star hotel in Bellagio, the village most people fall in love with first. The hotel opens from April to November and in that time, its gardens and lounges feel like a step back into another century. Every room here is different. Some have welcomed famous guests over the hotel's long history, and the old furniture still fills the rooms with a quiet sense of style. Big windows in every room look out over the lake, the gardens, or the village below. It is the only Relais & Châteaux hotel on the lake, and it has its own beach club, a large spa, and both indoor and outdoor pools. Guests staying in the Royal Suite get two balconies, both facing the water, dressed in fine Italian fabric that feels fit for a king. Room prices for top tier suits go upto approximately Rs. 4 lakhs per night.

Grand Hotel Tremezzo

This Art Nouveau hotel has floor-to-ceiling windows looking straight over the water, with Bellagio sitting quietly in the distance. A floating pool sits right on the lake itself, and small water taxis glide past all day long. Guests can also choose to stay next door in Villa Sola Cabiati, an eighteenth-century noble house filled with fine Italian art. Inside, the colours are bold and full of life. The hotel has been run by the same family since it opened in 1910, and it holds eighty-four rooms and suites, five restaurants, three pools, and the T Spa. Some of its dining has been shaped by the legendary chef Gualtiero Marchesi. It sits beside the famous gardens of Villa Carlotta, roughly an hour's drive from Milan, and it closes each winter, from mid-November to late March, for a gentle refresh, ready for the next summer of guests. Room prices at the Grand Hotel Tremezzo start at approximately Rs. 7 lakhs per night for peak season.

Mandarin Oriental, Lago di Como, Blevio

This resort sits inside a nineteenth-century botanical estate in the village of Blevio, spread across nine elegant Neoclassical villas with seventy-five rooms and suites between them. At its heart stands Villa Roccabruna, once the home of the opera singer Giuditta Pasta. It was here that the composer Vincenzo Bellini wrote some of his most famous works, and that history still gives the estate its quiet, artistic feel. For dining, guests can choose the fine Italian cooking of L'ARIA, or something more relaxed at CO.MO Bar & Bistrot. The spa is one of the largest in the region, mixing East Asian wellness traditions with Western treatments, and the estate's floating infinity pool, suspended right on the surface of the lake, has become one of its most photographed spots. The estate is about forty-five minutes from Milan by car, and it has its own private pier for arriving by water, as well as complimentary shuttles into central Como. Specialty Suites here can cost upto Rs. 8.5 lakhs for a single night.

Passalacqua, Moltrasio

Passalacqua is smaller and even more private, sitting in the steep, terraced village of Moltrasio, just fifteen minutes from Como town and about forty-five minutes from Milan Malpensa Airport. It has just twenty-four rooms, spread across three buildings, the Main Villa, the Palazzo, and Casa al Lago, all set within a grand eighteenth-century estate built in 1787 for Count Andrea Lucini Passalacqua. This house has held onto some remarkable history. Napoleon Bonaparte and Winston Churchill both stayed here, and the composer Vincenzo Bellini lived and worked within these walls, writing operas such as Norma and La Sonnambula. For rest and quiet, there is a spa carved into an underground tunnel, a lakefront pool, a solarium, an open-air gym, and a bright orange vintage Fiat, known as a Spiaggina. Moltrasio itself feels like a real village, with grey stone houses climbing the hillside, the eleventh-century Sant'Agata church watching over the water, and small trattorias and the well-loved gelateria Le Giuggiole, giving the whole place a homely charm. Grand Junior Suites here are priced at approximately Rs. 5.5 lakhs per night.

Palazzo Venezia Hotel, Como

Palazzo Venezia sits right on the waterfront in central Como, in the lively Piazza Cavour with the lake close enough to touch. It was built in 1870 on what was once the town's old port, and its neo-Gothic front, tall vertical windows, and a clock dating from 1904 still carry the feel of that century, even though the inside has been made fresh and modern. For dining, the hotel is home to Altariva, a restaurant serving seasonal, local cooking with a modern touch, all enjoyed with the lake right there in view. Guests also get a complimentary breakfast along with an on-site bar, room service, laundry facilities, and an airport shuttle to make arriving and settling in easy. The hotel is entirely smoke-free, welcomes pets, and is fully accessible by wheelchair. The hotel sits just two minutes from the Brunate funicular, and close to the town's old streets and shops. For anyone who wants to stay somewhere central, with the lake on one side and the city on the other, this is a fine and simple choice. At Palazzo Venezia Hotel Premium executive categorie rooms can cost upto Rs. 2.5 Lakhs approximately.

Whether you choose a grand old villa or a quiet modern room, the water is always the same colour and it is always worth the trip.