Lake Maggiore with Kids Travel Blog

Lake Maggiore is a brilliant family travel destination…and makes a great alternative to its, slightly more popular, neighbouring lakes of Lake Como and Lake Garda. There are loads of great things to do around Lake Maggiore with kids including mountains, beaches, treks, public lidos, zoo/petting farms, stunning architecture, islands to explore, cycling and plenty of famous Italian pizzas and gelatos to name but a few. It has all the things that a good family holiday needs, but best of all you don’t need to hire a car to get there, or to visit the lake’s many attractions, which is always a bonus if you ask me.

The Italian Lake District is in Northern Italy and is made up of 5 major lakes. Lake Maggiore is the second largest lake in Italy and its northern tip extends all the way up into Switzerland. The main tourist town of Stresa is only around 55 miles from Milan and 32 miles from Milan Malpensa airport, which makes it extremely accessible.

Things to do around Lake Maggiore with Kids

There are absolutely tonnes of things to do in and around Stresa and Lake Maggiore with kids. Below are some of our favourites:

Beaches and Lidos

There are lots of free lake beaches to relax on in Stresa and the other towns around the lake. Most of the beaches are stony, but there is a lovely sandy beach in Feriolo town, which is great for building sandcastles. Feriolo is accessible by bus from Stresa. The journey takes 20 mins and costs around 5 euros.

You can swim in the many lidos around the lake. Some of the lidos are public, and therefore free, but a few you have to pay a small entrance fee for.

La Baia Rosa is a café restaurant with a swimming pool in Stresa. It is located near the cable car station in Carciano which is a 10-15 minute walk from the centre of Stresa town. The swimming pool was closed for repairs when we were there but we heard good reviews about it. You can check out their website here: https://www.labaiarosastresa.it/

We carried our swim stuff and travel towels everywhere with us, so that the kids could cool off at every opportunity. See our reviews on our favourite Microfibre Travel Towels.

Mottarone Cable Car

Take a ride up to the top of Mottarone (1491m) on the Stresa – Mottarone cable car. The cable car station is next to the Carciano ferry terminal. It can get quite busy on weekends and in peak season so get there as early as possible to avoid the queue. The cable car takes you to the halfway point where you get off and can visit some lovely alpine gardens, before it goes on to the final station just below the top. There is a chair lift from this station which takes you up to the very top, or you can walk. Once on the top there are plenty of viewpoints and walks you can take. There is also a fun toboggan ride back down to the top cable car station which my eldest daughter loved. Check out the website here: http://www.stresa-mottarone.it/

Parco Pallavicino

One of the best things to do with kids around Stresa,Lake Maggiore is a trip to Parco Pallavicino, which is located just under 1km south east of Stresa’s town centre, near the Luv Lounge Beach cafe. It is a beautiful place to spend the day with botanical style gardens to wander round, children’s play area and a farm/zoo with deer, goats and peacocks roaming free. There are also flamingos, rabbits, horses, wild boar, skunks, zebras in enclosures. Check out the website here: https://www.isoleborromee.it/eng/pallavicino.html

The nearby Luv Lounge Luv Lounge Beach cafe has a lido, sandy play area and mini golf, which is great for an ice cream and quick dip on the way back into town.

Baveno

Baveno is the next town round the lake from Stresa, approximately a 10 minute ride by bus, train or ferry. It is great to wander around as it has a lovely promenade, quieter stony beaches, a picturesque church, a brilliant Carrefour Express supermarket and lots of relaxing kid friendly cafes and restaurants.

The best beach we found in Baveno is at Villa Fedora, a 10-15 minute walk from the centre of Baveno town. It is free to enter, has public toilets and is nice and shaded so perfect for a super, hot day. There is also a very laid back beach café, Cafe Rustica. Check out the website here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/chioscovillafedora/photos/?ref=page_internal

Baveno Lido Beach Club looked good too, but we ran out of time and days to experience it properly ourselves. Check out the website here: http://www.lidobaveno.it/

There is also an Aquapark public pool near Baveno with flumes and water slides. It looked great fun when we walked past it, but we didn’t end up going in. My kids are more than happy splashing around in the lake.

Ferry trips and Islands

The 3 Borromeon Islands look stunningly beautiful and sit enticingly in the middle of the lake, directly opposite Stresa. Two of the islands, Isola Madra and Isola Bella, have grand Italian residences on them. The houses are quite expensive to enter, but you can get a combined ticket which gives you entry to 2 or 3 of the houses for a discounted price.

The third island, Isola Pescartori, is free to enter. It has an old fisherman’s village with a touristy market, nice beaches and jetties, which the kids loved playing on. You can walk round the island in 20 mins.

Another easy ferry trip is over to Santa Caterina, an old church built into the cliff. The view of the church as you approach is stunning. The kids loved exploring all the staircases, hallways and courtyards. It made a nice morning outing and hop on hop off ferry trip.

Pallanza

Pallanza is another nice town to walk around, with a lovely long promenade and a playground near the ferry terminal. The nearby Suna Beach Pool and Lounge Bar is a brilliant restaurant bar with a pubic swimming pool. There is a main pool, baby pool, sun beds, changing rooms, toilets, restaurant bar and a little kiosk selling ice creams, drinks and snacks. It is just under 1km from the ferry terminal, and there is a bus stop close by too.  The entrance fee was around 18 Euros for all 4 of us and under 3’s get in free.

Hotel Swimming Pools

A few of the big hotels would let you use their pool for the day, but only if they had a room spare (as you get the room for the day too). Hotel Della Torre charges around 30 euros per day for room. There were other grander hotels offering this too but they would be a tad more expensive!

Other Things To Do with Kids around Lake Maggiore

There were loads of things we didn’t get time to do too. A few that I earmarked were the Botanical Gardens of Villa Taranto, the Statue of San Carlone in Arona (apparently you can climb up and look out of his nostrils – great one for the family album!), and visiting Cannabio with its sandy beach and weekly market.

Getting to Lake Maggiore

By Plane

The closest airport to Lake Maggiore is Milan Malpensa. Budget airlines, such as Easyjet and Ryanair, have several flights a day here from London and most other European Capital Cities. To make the most of the cheap fares you need to book as quickly as possible when the flights are released or subscribe to airlines’ newsletters for sale alerts. We generally use skyscanner to check for cheap fares.
Easyjet flights from London Luton to Milan Malpensa cost us approximately £250 for 2 adults, 2 children and baggage.

From the Airport

There is an Alibus minibus from the bus depot right outside Milan Malpensa’s arrival terminal building. The minibus is large and spacious with room for luggage. The journey takes around 1 hour to Stresa, but also drops passengers off at various towns along Lake Maggiore. You must pre-book seats by filling in the form online 48 hours in advance, but you have to pay in cash on the bus so make sure you have some Euros on you. It costs 10 euros one way per person.

Alibus website:
https://www.safduemila.com/linee/alibus-malpensa-lago-maggiore/

Online booking form:
https://www.safprenotazioni.com/SafAlibus2000/

Getting around Lake Maggiore without a hire car

Bus is the cheapest way to travel up and down the lake. There is an hourly bus in each direction around the lake. It runs pretty much on time too. The train is another good option and has a service south to Milan and north to Switzerland. The ferries were great fun but more expensive than the buses or trains. There are plenty of taxis around and their fares started from 9 euros.

Ferry Timetable:
https://www.navigazionelaghi.it/home.aspx

Bus timetable:
https://www.safduemila.com/linee/verbania-stresa-arona-milano/

Train timetable
https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

Where to Stay around Lake Maggiore

Stresa is the main tourist town on Lake Maggiore and a great place to base yourself. There is lots to do in Stresa. It has many restaurants, bars and shops, and a lovely long promenade to walk along. There are very easy bus, train and ferry links for days out. Baveno is another good town to base yourself and is a little quieter than Stresa. There is also a lovely marked walk between the two towns.

We stayed just outside the main town of Stresa in a lovely, quiet area near to the Carciano ferry port, a bus stop, the station, the cable car and a lido. We would definitely recommend it. It is a 20 minute downhill walk into Stresa town centre but there is an hourly bus that does the route too.

We stayed in one of the Sirena Apartments, a two bed apartment which could sleep 5. The lady who owned it is lovely, speaks good English and is generally always somewhere around the neighbourhood if we needed anything. There is a local supermarket 2 mins walk away and a great family restaurant with a play area 5 mins walk away too, which came in handy. The walk into town takes around 20 minutes along the promenade and it is a good 5-10 minutes uphill walk from the nearest bus drop off. A bit of a hill helps to work off all the gelatos.

Click here to book the Sirena Apartments

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