Travelling to lake Garda

Darren. The route…I would go to Basel, across Switzerland and then turn left at Milan, but others would cross Germany to Innsbruck in Austria and approach Lake Garda from there. I will leave you to pore over paper maps. It’s about 700 miles so allow three days. But I doubt if you will find many other five year olds when you get there - they mostly go to the seaside somewhere.

@Darren Whenever we have travelled to Italy with Garda on our itinerary we have tended to travel down through France and head for Metz before joining the German autobahn system. From here we have headed south to Fussen and then over the Fern and Brenner Passes into Italy. (before we realised that the Fern Pass was relatively easy we headed for Munich and then Innsbruck but is is a bit out of your way and is subject to delays around Munich) The Brenner motorway will take you down the East of Lake Garda. There are sites all around the lake. Given that you are going in the school holidays it might be worth booking via the Club? Pitches in Italy are not renown for being generous so perhaps read the site details carefully. Depending on what you want to do whilst you are there but would suggest the campsites at the south end of the Lake give you more options.

David

@Darren Wouldn't worry too much about tolls unless you are travelling more widely. No tolls in Holland, Belgium and Germany. You need a vignette for Austria if you use the motorways, best option. You can get them in advance if you wish. I think they may have changed to digital since we last went. In Italy you take a ticket on entry to the motorway and pay when you exit, so fairly straightforward. There are electronic tags available but I am not sure they will be worth the bother for your trip. One thing you might want to research are LEZ stickers for the various countries. Generally they are not an issue unless you enter large towns and cities. When you have settled on your route I am sure we could help on that point.

David

I am with @DavidKlyne on this and would head for Germany across the Netherlands via Eindhoven and down to Innsbruck and up the Brenner motorway. Going via Eindhoven avoids Antwerp where it can be very very busy. It also avoids tolls other than in Austria and Italy and apart from the easy Fern Pass, you can use the motorways. For information on tolls and vignettes have a look at >this web site< For information on low emission zones check >this site< out.

peedee

30 years ago, we put our car on to the motorail service from Calais to Milan (sadly no longer running) and took our 5 year old son and 8 year old daughter to Camping Fornella on the western shore of Lake Garda.

The kids loved it and often remind us of the brilliant time we spent there.

It's a large, first class site with a kids club, outdoor pools, a very popular on-site restaurant and a well stocked shop. It also has a small sand/gravel beach and access to the lake, but you will need beach shoes to cross the pebbles and boulders.

We revisited the site with our motorhome in September 2019 and had a great time again. Happy memories 🌞

Hi Darren,

The Italian lakes are our favourite holiday location and we have travelled there using many routes, including from Hook Of Holland, and also often with children, the youngest being 2 yrs 4 moths when we left home.

Our holidays were always just under 5 weeks, including three weeks on the main site and a leisurely return leg.

We always look for sites with a good pool rather than a great beach, having both is a plus, as a "trip to the beach" can be quite fraught, especially in July temps and our go to site was Bella Italia at Peschiera Del Garda..

Based on the info you have given I would go with the Germany/Austria route-not via the Brenner but via Landeck and Prutz IF you are comfortable on those types of road with a van your size-ours is 7.3 shipping and it was no problem. An added bonus to the route via Landeck is that so long as you dont use the Lanndecker tunnel its toll free-or at least it was when we did it.

If you do take that route you could have a night or two at Camping Aktiv in Prutz and take a ride up the Kaunertal Glacier-especially appealing alternative tou your beach outing!

We tended to travel a good distance each day-300+ miles-and always knew where we would be stopping/staying. I would try to plan stops for fuel with a break in the driving to maximize the time and checked all routes, site approaches and stops with Google Street View.

Whilst many sites in the Camping Card-ACSI-scheme won't be available to you in July the main ACSI Eurocampings site will help in locating sites suitable for both you main stays and enroute.

Having a twin axle may be an issue but certainly a van of 8.3 m will mean that many pitches, if not sites, may be a challenge and for that reason I think contacting those that make your initial possibles list would be advisable. We have also found that sites will sometimes have a deal ,that may better ACSI rates, available.

Our last visit was in July 2022 and on arrival we found our favourite site, Camping Bella Italia, full but we have also found this in mid May! The site has changed over the years, becoming less family feel to more corporate, but its location and facilities are still hard to beat being handy for sightseeing if that's what you want or just chill with plenty to keep children occupied.

A trip on the lake is a must and a ride on the cable car up Monte Baldo is something different, and a great day out including a stroll around Malcesine.

Whichever way and whatever place you go, I hope that you have a great time!!

Thanks for that suggestion of the AgriCamping near Verona. It looks to be a good alternative to mass camping by Lake Garda. We looked at a lakeside site with 1000 pitches one summer and quickly decided we didn’t want to be in there with 4000 people. We fled.