Lake Como - best way to see it by public transport in a day?

[SirChenjins]

Heading there in a couple of weeks as a day trip by train from Milan. Has anyone else done that? If so, what's the best/easiest way to see as much of it as possible in a day?

Go to Como and take a boat. The buses are rather bumpy!

One easy obvious way to do a day trip would be to get the direct train down the east of the lake (going from Milano Centrale to Colico, Sondrio or Tirano) and get off at Varenna. Walk around the cutesy village and go up to Castello di Vezio or visit one of the gorgeous lakeside botanical gardens there, then get a ferry (maybe prebook?) across to Bellagio, and, er, do the same thing again (wander around, go for pretty walk).

The big catch? Everyone else is doing the same thing. I was there a few years back in late October and the station and town were rammed full with international daytrippers - luckily I was going back in the opposite direction so avoided the crowds.

If you carry on further down the lake on the same train to Colico, it's way less cutesy but also less crowded, and mainly Italians desperate to get away from the foreigners :-). The train to Como town is also an option, but I think that goes from Garibaldi station in Milan.

That's great - thanks! We're going on a Monday, so in my naivety thought it would be quietish - probably not, from the sounds of it!

Daft question, but if we were to take a boat do we have to book? Or is it a jump on/off type thing?

We did it last year at start of August.Stayed in Milan and got the train to Varenna. It was incredibly easy, you can buy tickets on Trainline as well.
We actually bought the train/Ferry tickets together on a website so when we got to Varenna we just walked to the front of the huge queue. Then got ferry to Bellagio and Mennagio. Whole place is beautiful…a distinct lack of toilets though!
We also did Lake Como the same way.

Second train to Varenna, ferry to Bellagio. If you have time you can get ferry across the lake from there to Tremezzo, Villa Carlotta or maybe to Villa Balbianello - which is amazing.

So we’ve booked the train to Varenna and plan to go to Bellagio. Do we just pay on the ferry or book tickets before we go?

You can buy tickets on the day.

Thanks