Sirmione Transportation Tips by SabrinaSummerville Top 5 Page for this destination

Motor free - is it possible??

It is only as we arrived at the town of Sirmione that we realised there were pretty considerable traffic restrictions. A coach took us from the airport but had to stop outside the walls of the castle where we disembarked and had to get a taxi into the old town. It would have been fine if the taxi driver was nice, but he wasn't! he grumbled and mumbled and threw our suitcases around, then left us several metres from where we were supposed to be even though one of us was disabled!

Anyway, back to the thrust of the tip. The streets of the old town are very narrow and cobbled and many of them are covered by low stone arches. This is why buses simply cannot get through!

Cars and some other vehicles are allowed in, but they cannot travel at more than two miles an hour - when you see the streets thick with tourists you will see why!

Big big word of warning - some of the cars don't observe the speed limit, don't stop at red traffic lights, and the bigger SUV's shouldn't really be allowed in at all as they are way too wide for the narrow streets (but they pass the rules so they get in).

Mode: AROUND

Type: Other

Take the Mini Train

As you will read in another tip, the streets inside the old walled town of Sirmione are incredibly narrow and they are closed to use by buses. Cars and some other vehicles are allowed inside, but you don't really see a taxi service as such (exceot to bring people from the bus station to their hotels).

The most popular and very quaint mode of transport around this town is by mini train. You can catch the train at Aquaria and it goes all the way around town making several stops.

The train costs just about a euro and it's lovely to use if just for the fun of it.

Mode: AROUND

Type: Train

Ferry Across the lake

There is a wonderful ferry service which takes passengers to and from the various beautiful towns around the lake.

A rather complicated free timetable is available at the reception of all hotels, and also at the brown ticket office located beside the ferry terminal. There are three types of ferry - the fast one, the normal (slow) one, and a vehicular or commercial ferry and the times for all three are on the timetable.

It's great for tourists to use to travel from one port to another close by, but if you want to travel from, say, Sirmione to Riva keep in mind that the slow ferry takes four hours in either directioon so you might be better off taking a bus for long lake distances.

I really strongly recomment taking the ferry at some stage of your trip - we travelled from Garda to Riva and back four years ago and this time we took the shorter trip from Riva to Limone. Bring your camera and watch out for spectacular scenery.

In Sirmione the ferry dock is situated just inside the entrance to the walled old town beside the hotel Sirmione in the Piazza Carducci.

Mode: AROUND

Type: Ship/Boat