Best time to visit Lake Como
Italy · Europe
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
The year in Lake Como
Tap a month for its page
- JanJLake Como in January: ok
- FebFLake Como in February: ok
- MarMLake Como in March: ok
- AprALake Como in April: sweet spot
- MayMLake Como in May: good
- JunJLake Como in June: sweet spot, busy
- JulJLake Como in July: sweet spot, busy
- AugALake Como in August: sweet spot, busy
- SepSLake Como in September: ok, busy
- OctOLake Como in October: good
- NovNLake Como in November: ok
- DecDLake Como in December: ok
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Plan this trip
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Flights from
Flights
Your city is a guess from your time zone. Choose your city
Where are you flying from? Choose your city for its flights and fares.
Book with the airline
Where to stay
Book direct
Luxury
Things to do
Car hire
Rent direct
Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
If the trip needs a visa, the travel agent or visa centre usually sells the cover it asks for.
Mobile data (eSIM)
Your own plan's EU roaming may already cover this.
Renting a pocket Wi-Fi is the other common way to stay connected.
These are sites people in book with. Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.
Things to do in Lake Como
- Villa Balbianello Villa in Lenno, Italy
- Madonna del Ghisallo Church building in Magreglio, Italy
- Como Cathedral Master cathedral in Como
- Casa del Fascio Rationalist building located in Como…
- Villa Carlotta Building in Tremezzina, Italy
- Villa La Gaeta Villa on Como lake
- Monza Cathedral Cathedral church of Monza, Italy
Tours and tickets in Lake Como
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank
Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.
Month by month
No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 10° | 6d | 73% | 6.7h | ok | 10C max, 6 rainy days |
| Feb | 12° | 6d | 73% | 7.1h | ok | 12C max, 6 rainy days |
| Mar | 14° | 9d | 69% | 8.2h | ok | 14C max, 9 rainy days |
| Apr | 18° | 10d | 68% | 9.8h | sweet spot | 18C max, 10 rainy days |
| May | 21° | 15d | 73% | 10.4h | good | 21C max, 15 rainy days |
| Jun | 26° | 11d | 72% | 12.7h | sweet spot busy | busier than usual |
| Jul | 28° | 8d | 70% | 13.2h | sweet spot busy | busier than usual |
| Aug | 28° | 8d | 71% | 11.6h | sweet spot busy | busier than usual |
| Sep | 23° | 10d | 75% | 9.7h | okbusy | busier than usual |
| Oct | 19° | 10d | 79% | 7.3h | good | 19C max, 10 rainy days |
| Nov | 13° | 11d | 79% | 6.0h | ok | 13C max, 11 rainy days |
| Dec | 10° | 7d | 78% | 5.8h | ok | 10C max, 7 rainy days |
Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.
Weather read at Bellagio: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
How busy it gets
Then and now
Lake Como's February days now average 11.8°C, 4.1°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 11 of 12 months are clearly warmer.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–90 | 7.1° | 7.6° | 11.2° | 14.7° | 19.1° | 23.0° | 26.4° | 25.3° | 22.5° | 17.7° | 11.4° | 8.1° |
| 2017–26 | 9.6° | 11.8° | 14.0° | 17.6° | 20.7° | 26.2° | 28.2° | 28.0° | 23.2° | 19.2° | 13.5° | 10.5° |
| Change | +2.5° | +4.1° | +2.8° | +2.9° | +1.6° | +3.3° | +1.8° | +2.7° | +0.7° | +1.4° | +2.1° | +2.4° |
The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.
Getting there
Fly into Ferno (VA) (MXP), then drive. The flights under Where to book are to Ferno (VA).
The drive from each airport is the road's, from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT: typical, not a schedule.
How far Lake Como is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
- from Munich
- from Frankfurt
- from Rome
- from Prague
- from Vienna
- from Paris
- from Brussels
- from Barcelona
Open in Rome2rio for every way from to Lake Como, flying or not.
Before you go
Type C and F and L plugs at 230 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Euro. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Global Affairs Canada: Exercise a high degree of caution. US State Department: Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution. Everything for Italy: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
Being there
On arrival
- Paying — By law, shops, cafés and bars must take a card payment of any amount, and refusing one is fined. Carry a little cash for tips.
- UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
- Tipping — Not customary; restaurants outside Rome often add a cover charge (coperto). Leaving the change in cafés and taxis is common.
Getting around Lake Como
From Malpensa, Flibco buses run to Como, and ASF bus C130 runs on from Como to Bellagio: tap a contactless bank card or phone on the green validator on board for a flat €4.40 a trip. Navigazione Laghi boats and car ferries link Bellagio with Varenna, Menaggio and Cadenabbia (€5.50 a ride) and with Como. Buy at the ticket office by the pier, as a ticket bought on board costs €1 more where an office is open; tickets are good only on the day of issue.
- Apps — Rides: FreeNow, itTaxi, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WhatsApp. In Rome these apps book licensed taxis; Uber also offers the dearer Uber Black.
Frequent buses run up the Western Shore from Como to Menaggio. A few then continue on to Colico. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Lake Como, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Help
- Emergency — police 112 · ambulance 118 · fire 115.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.
Your embassy — : how to reach your embassy or consulate abroad. A guess from your city, : a city is not a passport.
Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.
Sources (105)
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Lake Como in pictures
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Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Olgierd Rudak, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Lake Como is like
Lake Como (Lago di Como; also called: Lario) is in the provinces of Como and Lecco in Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is part of the Italian Lake District. It has been popular with visitors since the early 20th century for its combination of fresh air, water, mountains and good weather. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth seeing
- Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo offers great views of the lake from its large impressive gardens which are famous for the wide varieties of plants. The villa is also a museum containing a number of sculptures and artworks. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth doing
- Take a boat trip. The most popular tourist towns seem to be Bellagio, Menaggio, and Varenna. More on Wikivoyage
- Getting in
- The main access to the lake is from Milan and Bergamo. It is also possible to cross the border from Lugano (Switzerland), and arriving at the lake at Menaggio. More on Wikivoyage
- Staying safe
- Beware of wild boars in the forests surrounding the lake. Expect motorcyclists to overtake in a seemingly suicidal manner. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Lake Como, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.
Around Lake Como
Also in Italy
- Bologna best Apr, Jun, Sep
- Cinque Terre best Jun, Jul, Aug
- Florence best Apr, Jun, Oct
- Genoa best Jun, Jul, Aug
- Milan best Apr, Jun, Aug
- Naples best May, Jun, Oct
- Palermo best Apr, May, Jun
- Rome best May, Jun, Jul
- Sardinia best May, Jun, Oct
- Sicily best May, Jun, Jul
- The Amalfi Coast best Jun, Jul, Aug
- The Dolomites best May, Jul, Oct
- Trieste best Jun, Jul, Aug
- Turin best Apr, Jun, Jul
- Tuscany best Apr, Jun, Sep
- Venice best Jun, Jul, Aug
Nearby
- Zermatt Switzerland · 116 km
- St. Anton Austria · 149 km
- Zurich Switzerland · 172 km
- Chamonix France · 184 km
Kind of place
Lake Como is in Italy, Europe. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
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