Lake Garda

[LiveInABox]

We would like to visit Italy next Sept (2015) starting with about a week in Lake Garda and then heading down to possibly Tuscany. We're well travelled but have never been to Italy, there will be me, DH, DD(3) and new baby approx 9 months old.

Can anyone recommend a particular town or area of the lake that would work for us? Thinking somewhere buggy friendly and maybe with a playground for DD. We usually hire a car when on holiday and enjoy the flexibility, we'd like to do day trips to Verona and Venice.

If anyone has any recommendations for things to see and do in the area, how to get around and where to stay I would be most grateful. I should mention that we are hoping to rent an apartment rather than camping!

Thanks in advance!

If you are driving from the UK via Calais or Dunkirk it'd be about 13 straight driving hours without stops from port to the Garda Autostrada turnoff at Desenzano.

I don't live in the UK, I live in a bordering country.

We're going to be near Peschiera in August. Does anyone know a good place to go swimming on the lake or in nearby rivers? Thanks!

Try to avoid driving on a weekend in either direction in August. The motorways get jammed and the lakeside road is very slow on any day of the week.