We are based in Rovaniemi, just under the Arctic Circle, and our default holiday muscle memory is forests, lakes, and grey gravel roads. Lake Como is the opposite of all of that — pastel villas stacked into green mountains, water so blue it almost looks fake, the kind of place every Italian on Instagram says you have to see at least once. After 21 countries together, we finally booked the boat trip we had been promising ourselves and went out on the water with Salimar Boat Tour.

If you are wondering whether a private boat tour on Lake Como is worth it, or how the day actually plays out start to finish, this is the post we wished we had read before we booked.

Why we chose a private boat tour on Lake Como

We had been to Como twice before — first as a quick stop on a longer Italian trip, then for a day-trip out of Milan. Both times we did what most travellers do: walked the lakefront in Como town, ate pasta with a view, took the funicular up to Brunate, and went home thinking “nice, but the lake itself is the point and we never actually got on it.”

Lake Como is essentially a long, narrow body of water with mountains on both sides and the most beautiful villas in Europe lined up along the shore. From the promenade you see maybe ten percent of it. From a boat you see the actual point.

Shared vs. private — why we went private

Salimar offers both. The shared one-hour tour is the cheapest way to get on the lake (around €58 per person at time of writing) and it is genuinely fine if you just want to tick the experience off. We splurged on the two-hour private boat tour for three reasons:

• Time on the water. Two hours instead of one means you actually get up the lake far enough to see the proper villa stretch, not just the Como bay.
• Stops on your terms. The skipper slows down, idles, or even cuts the engine when you ask. We spent ten minutes parked in front of Villa d’Este just because the light was perfect.
• Conversation. On a shared tour you get the rehearsed version. On a private one you get the actual stories — which villas have changed hands, where the locals swim, what the lake looked like the morning after the storm in 2025.

Booking Salimar Boat Tour: how it works

The booking itself was painless. Salimar uses an online calendar where you pick a date, a slot, and the tour you want. We booked our private two-hour the night before — yes, the night before — and got a confirmation email within minutes.

What is included in the private tour

• Up to six people on the boat. We were two, which felt almost extravagant.
• A skipper who is also your guide. Salimar has a small team — Sebastian, Alessandro, Uriele, Boris — all locals who clearly know each villa and inlet by heart.
• A prosecco aperitif served on the water. This is not a token gesture — it is real prosecco, properly chilled, with snacks. They open the bottle when you ask, not on a fixed schedule.
• Pickup at the Como boat dock, about ten minutes’ walk from the train station.

What it costs

The two-hour private boat tour with prosecco was about €529 for the whole boat (up to six people), so per couple it is on the splurge side of a Como day-out but per person spread across friends or family it becomes very reasonable. The one-hour private is roughly half that. There are also shared options around €58 per person and a sunset aperitivo cruise that we will book next time.

What to bring

• Layers. Even on a sunny May day the lake breeze is noticeably cooler than the shore — Alla put on a light jacket within the first ten minutes.
• Sunscreen and sunglasses. The reflection off the water is real, even in spring.
• A phone or camera you don’t mind holding outside the boat. Most of the best shots are taken leaning slightly over the edge.
• A small cash tip for the skipper if you enjoy yourselves. Not expected but very appreciated.

What we saw on the water

The route is not a fixed loop — it depends on weather, wind, and what you tell the skipper you want to see. Ours started from the Como city marina, headed up the western shore past the most famous villas, crossed to the eastern shore near Cernobbio, and came back along the coast we had walked the day before but had never properly seen.

The villas — what they actually look like from the water

• Villa Geno — the first landmark you pass leaving Como. We had walked here the day before and not realised how dramatically it sits when you look at it from the lake side.
• Villa d’Este — the famous one, with the floating pool in front. The hotel grounds are huge. The pool was empty in May but the building itself is exactly as stupidly grand as it looks on Instagram, just bigger.
• Villa Erba — Visconti’s old place, now an events venue. Smaller than d’Este but somehow more romantic from the boat.
• Villa Versace — the late designer’s former residence. The garden alone is theatre. The skipper had a story about every owner.
• Cernobbio — small lakeside village we now want to come back and stay in. From the boat you see the harbour, the church, the line of cypress trees behind the promenade. We probably waved at people having lunch we will never meet.

The prosecco moment

Roughly an hour in, the skipper killed the engine in a quiet bay and opened the prosecco. There is something specific about sitting in a small boat on still water with a glass in your hand and the Alps in the distance that does not happen on the shore. We spent maybe fifteen minutes there. We took zero good photos because we forgot to.

The skipper made the trip

This is the part we want to be honest about: a private boat tour stands or falls on the person driving the boat. The villas are the villas — they look the same whether your guide is fantastic or phoning it in. The day becomes memorable when the skipper is.

Ours was. Without naming him personally (Salimar has several excellent local skippers and you will likely get one of them: Sebastian, Alessandro, Uriele, or Boris) — what made the day was that he treated the boat like his own living room and us like guests, not customers. He pointed things out we would have missed: a small chapel almost hidden behind cypresses; the exact angle from which Villa d’Este is most photographed; the way the morning light hits Cernobbio between 11 and noon.

He also knew when to shut up. There were stretches of the tour, especially when the wind dropped and the lake went completely flat, where we just sat in silence and watched the shore go past. A good guide reads that and lets it happen. Ours did.

Practical tips for booking your own

Best time of day

We went mid-morning on a Sunday and the lake traffic was light. By early afternoon you start to see more day-trippers from Milan and the busier passenger ferries cross the same lines. If you want quiet water and good light, book the earliest slot you can stomach.

Best month

May is a sweet spot. The lake was warm enough to look at without freezing, the villa gardens were properly green, and the summer crowds had not arrived yet. June and September are similar. July and August are objectively beautiful but louder, hotter, and harder to book last-minute.

How to get to the dock

The Como boat dock is about a ten-minute walk from Como S. Giovanni train station, which is the main station served by direct trains from Milano Centrale (around 35 minutes). Salimar lists the dock’s plus-code on their site.

Combine with the funicular

If you have a full day in Como, do the boat tour in the morning and the Brunate funicular in the late afternoon when the light turns gold over the lake. We did the opposite order on our first visit and regretted it — the boat is the headline; everything else is a warm-up or wind-down.

What we’d do differently next time

Almost nothing. But because we always promise to be honest on this site, here is the short list:

• Book the sunset aperitivo cruise as well. Salimar offers a sunset prosecco cruise we did not do this trip because we had a train back to Milan. Two hours in the daytime light, two hours at golden hour — those would be two completely different lakes.
• Bring a real camera, not just phones. The phone shots came out fine but a couple of moments — the light on Villa d’Este around 11:15am, the cypresses behind Cernobbio when the wind dropped — would have rewarded a proper lens.
• Eat lunch BEFORE the boat, not after. We were hungrier than we expected by the end of the tour. The prosecco helps, the snacks help, but two hours on water in the sun does build an appetite.
• Stay over in Como instead of day-tripping from Milan. Getting on the lake in the morning is so much better than the afternoon, and the morning train from Milan barely gets you there in time for the 10:00am slot. Next time we stay a night.

Frequently asked questions

A final word from Rovaniemi

Living above the Arctic Circle, we measure trips by how strongly they stick. We have been on a lot of boats — in Norwegian fjords, in the Stockholm archipelago, in Reykjavík harbour with whales — and Lake Como held its own surprisingly well. The Alps as a backdrop, the villas at sea level, the sound of nothing but a slow Italian engine and water against the hull. It is not a Nordic experience. That is the entire point.

If you are planning a trip to Italy and Lake Como is on the list, do not just walk the promenade. Get on the water. Book a private slot if your budget allows it. Tip your skipper. And if you go in May like we did, plan for the kind of sunny, slow afternoon that you will accidentally talk about for the rest of the year.

Thank you, Salimar Boat Tour — we will book again. noleggiogommonicodacavallo.it

— Joona & Alla, writing from Rovaniemi, Finland