Italy with young children - Drive or Train???

[cjsausie]

We are camping in Lake Garda end of June for 2 weeks and i was wondering if anyone has had any experience of public transport in Italy with young children? We fly into Milan Malpensa to go to a campsite near Salo on West edge of lake garda. Ds 6 is fine in the car dd1 4 gets car sick and dd2 2 just gets grumpy! Have heard horror stories about italian roads esp the Milan ringroad and wonder if we really need a car as some days we will not leave the campsite and i know there are good rail and boat trips from there. So basically just getting to and from airport... any views would be much appreciated. thanks

Hi. We've been to Lake Garda a few times - we have hired a car since we have had the DSes but in the old days we flew then just relied on public transport. From what I recall, trains are pretty limited - I think that you can get to Peschiera (spelling!)in Lake Garda by train from the main cities, but after that you will probably have to rely on the local buses. We flew to Milan this time with Ryan Air and can't remember which airport it was - if it the same one as you, we didn't have to go anywhere near the ringroad. I would however advise that you have satnav if you hire a car - we once spend hours and hours getting lost outside Verona as the roads just suddenly split and if you're not sure exactly where you are heading, you can end up miles in the oppposite direction and no idea how to get back Have a great hol - I'd love to go back but cheap camping holiday at home this year!

THANKS FATZAK - think its easyjet and malpensa is way west of milan...think for convenience will do the car thing just panicjing about cost - should have stayed at home too i think! but we did spend an awful wet cold and windy weekend up north last year and living in west of scotland feeling desperate for sun ! think the kids will suffer shock that they can go swimming without wetsuits on!
Hope your holiday great too

hi just read your question. salo is lovely i went 3 years ago. it is really beautiful although you might need a car to get to the site. we drove from the other airport near verona and it took a good hour! there is a fab market on a wed , we ate our way round it. we also got on the ferry to malecine ( pronounced malchesnie) and went up the cable car. the views are fab, im jealous, have a lovely time, you can swim in the lake also and gardakland is well worth a visit