Limone Sul Garda is truly one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever been. Every view, street, alley, and corner you turn is picturesque and feels so dreamy. Many people day trip to this small Italian town, but I beg you to stay at LEAST a night. We stayed 3 and honestly I could have stayed longer, I was sad to leave. This blog post is a mini guide of sorts to all of the things you can see, do, and enjoy while here. I hope it is helpful in your travels to Lake Garda.
How to get to/around Limone
Once you are in Limone Sul Garda you really don’t need a car for anything. Everything you’d want to do within the town itself is completely walkable. A car would be needed if you wanted to go on little day trips, hikes, or to special places around the lake that aren’t accessible by ferry.
By Car
We found driving in Lake Garda to be surprisingly uncomplicated. As long as you are prepared for parking at the places you need to go, driving is not difficult and is actually REALLY beautiful. Most of the time when we were driving, we were so happy enjoying the scene it felt like a tour instead of getting from one place to another.
By Ferry
There are ferries that run all over Lake Garda from the major towns. Limone is well connected to the other towns on the Lake and as long as you do your research you could easily use the ferries and get around Garda for an entire trip without a car.
Where to Stay in Limone
Hotel Castell
We absolutely loved our stay at Hotel Castell. I have to say we spent 90% of our time here just staring at the incredible views. The rooms have wonderful balcony terraces overlooking the lake and the town. We literally sat for hours out there morning and night. The pool area was also a huge perk. The pool also overlooks those same incredible views and was so refreshing mid day when we needed a break from the heat and the town was on siesta. The hotel has a really nice and large breakfast spread and had a bar as well. We also had access to a nearby parking lot and they would shuttle us to our car. They also have an onsite lot, but you need to reserve far in advance to get a spot there. Overall, this was an excellent spot for us and I do recommend it. One thing to note is that getting into town involves a significant amount of stairs, if you have any mobility issues, this would not be the place for you.
If you think this sounds like your vibe you can check it out here —–> Hotel Castell
Hotel Albergo Bella Vista
When I was trying to decide where we should stay, this was the other spot I was deciding between. It looked clean and comfortable and I loved the garden area. This spot is right down on the lake and if accessibility is an issue it would be a much better choice. There is a public parking lot nearby and you could walk to anything you wanted to in town. It is also right along the main promenade with shops, restaurants, and so much ice cream.
If you’re interested in checking this spot out you can click here —–> Albergo Bella Vista
Where to eat in Limone
Incontro
This was genuinely one of the best meals I had the ENTIRE summer and I spent 4 weeks in Italy & France. First of all, the views and chic decor can not be beat. As soon as you walk out to the terrace area you can tell you’re in a for a good experience. Everything we ate here was fantastic. The highlight for me was the cacio e pepe rigatoni with raw scallop. We also had tortellini type pasta, lamb, the steak for 2, octopus, delicious bread, and burrata with prosciutto. One of our favorite parts here was the desert! We had a desert called 100% lemon and it was DELIGHTFUL! It looked like a real lemon but when you cut into it, it was a delicious treat. We talked about this desert for the rest of the trip. Honestly, if you have the opportunity to make a reservation here, you must!
Lido 84
This was one of the most special meals of the trip. This spot is listed as one of the best restaurants in Italy as well as in Europe. We had been on a waiting list for weeks before we got notified that we’d gotten a spot. If you’re staying in Limone, you will need a car or taxi to reach this spot, but it is worth it. This was a full dining EVENT. They have a variety of different tasting menus you can choose from, we chose to do the surprise menu. This meant that we were served course after course and told what was coming as we went. We did also try their famous specialty , the cacio e pepe cooked inside a pigs bladder. Every course we had throughout this evening was fantastic, the staff were so kind and made everything super easy to understand. The place was very professional and very expensive, but when you’re getting a meal AND an experience, it’s always worth it. We loved the champagne we started with and the wine we had with dinner. Overall, again, I very highly recommend this experience if you can make time for it.
Il Cortiletto (Spritz spot)
This was the absolute cutest spot and was so perfect for lunch. You could walk right past it if you’re not paying attention, it is back in the streets of the town and is kind of a little hidden garden in the walls. They had a menu of pages and pages worth of different types of spritz. Our group of 4 tried 4 different spritz and we loved them all! They also had fantastic bruschetta and burgers. Again, we split a number of different things and loved them all! They also had some great sweet treats for desert! I was so glad we stumbled upon this place!
Scaloni 20 Bruschetteria
This spot was on our way into town from the hotel so we passed it many times. Every time we went by we loved what we saw. We actually ended up sitting here twice. Once for a late lunch and once for aperitivo and it was lovely both times. They make fantastic bruschetta here and we had delightful limoncello spritz! We sat outside both times but the interior here is so cute and charming too! They also have a little balcony and if you’re lucky enough to get that spot it’s such a cute position with a little view over the lake. This is definitely a great stop for a light lunch, snack, or drink spot!
Lemon Sorbet
One thing you’ve gotta do while you’re in Limone is make sure that you get a lemon sorbet in a lemon. Ignore the cost, it’s not that bad anyway, and just do it. Get it anywhere you can, it’s honestly FANTASTIC! It is so refreshing, such a great consistency, and has the absolute perfect lemon flavor. I will sincerely dream about it until we go back someday.
Ristorante Alla Noce
This was a lovely little spot that we walked into on a whim on our last night. It felt like a really nice mom & pop shop and we enjoyed our meal with an incredible view here. We had paccheri carbonara and mussels to share. I had a seafood paccheri pasta for dinner as well and my husband had a steak that he loved. This was a perfect spot for a nice casual meal with an incredible view over the lake.
Gelateria Qciari
We stopped in this place a number of times but my favorite was for my fruit popsicle! I got a mango one and it was delightful. We also got a number of smoothies here and they were all delicious! Of course we got gelato here too. Overall, I’d consider this a must stop when you’re wandering town. Grab something and wander the streets while you enjoy it!
Hosteria Al Buongusto
Unfortunately our schedule and the opening days of this spot didn’t align, but it looked like another wonderful option. It comes up on many of the lists of best places to eat in town, so I didn’t want to leave it out completely. If we had another day or another meal, this would have been the next spot we tried.
Things to do in Limone Sul Garda
Wander the town and shop
Limone is so charming to stroll around and you should absolutely make sure that you make enough time to do so. There are tons of boutique and souvenir shops, as well as tons of treats and ice cream stops to be made. You could easily spend a few hours popping in and out of everywhere and wandering all the little backstreets as well as the main drag. We did this numerous times during our 3 day stay and never got tired of it!
Visit the beach
You can actually walk to the beach from the center of town and enjoy a dip in the lake. There are also beaches all around the lake that you can visit for the afternoon or the day. If you have a car you have a ton of options, if you’re walking, you can still enjoy the beach from town!
Walk/run/ride the bike path
This was honestly one of my favorite parts about visiting Limone, even though it took a little effort to get to. To get to the start of the bike path from town takes about a 25-30 minute walk. The bike path that was built elevated over the lake is about 2 km long and is SO beautiful. Every morning I went there for my morning run and it was FANTASTIC. It was so beautiful to see the lake and surrounding mountains, I loved watching the sailing classes and kite surfers do their thing every morning. We also went on a group walk here and really enjoyed it. Personally, I was glad we didn’t rent bikes as this path was a little short and would have been over quickly. However, Lake Garda is HUGE for biking and if you’re confident biking on the road it would be amazing to rent bikes for this stretch and then continue on to Riva Del Garda.
Take the ferry to explore neighboring Malcesine
We loved taking the ferry across the lake to Malcesine for an afternoon. You can see the town from Limone Sul Garda so it is nice to go over and experience it. We had a lovely lunch, enjoyed the amazing clear blue water, wandered the town a bit, and then headed back. The ferry from Limone takes about 30 minutes and costs about 10 euro round trip so it was super easy. The boats run pretty much every hour so you can plan your day easily. I found the water to be so incredible on this side of the lake, you could have fooled me into thinking it was the Carribbean if you showed me pictures.
There are also a number of towns on the lake that you can ferry too. We were spending a few days in Southern Lake Garda as well so we didn’t feel the need to take the ferry there during our time in Limone. But you could essentially base yourself here and travel somewhere new each day if you wanted to.
Enjoy aperitivo
Nothing better than having a nice drink and a snack on a beautiful lake. There are so many great spots all along the water where you can enjoy a drink and watch the sunset over the lake.
Hike
We didn’t get to do as much hiking in this area as I would have liked. But there are a number of options for hikes you can do. We did do a short hike to a small waterfall close to town and it was actually really neat to see and had some lovely views! If you’re an avid hiker there are many options and if we returned I would definitely be exploring more of them.
Wrapping it up
I hope you find this to be a useful and helpful guide if you’re visiting Lake Garda. As always, feel free to reach out to me anytime at planformedani@gmail.com or planforme.dani on instagram. I am always happy to help and planning is the best part!
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