Southern Lake Garda 2-Hour Boat Tour from Peschiera with Sirmione

Peschiera del Garda: the fortress town

Peschiera del Garda sits at the south-eastern corner of the lake, exactly where the Mincio river flows out of it. Its old town is enclosed by massive five-sided walls built by the Republic of Venice in the sixteenth century and surrounded entirely by water, making it feel like an island fortress. Since 2017 these walls have been part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site dedicated to Venetian defence works.

How to get to Peschiera del Garda? It has a station on the Milan to Venice railway, about 15 minutes by train from Verona, and lake boats link it with the other towns. Before or after your cruise, walk across the bridges and along the canals of the old town; the lakefront where you board is just a few minutes away from the station.

Lazise and Bardolino on the eastern shore

Heading north along the eastern shore, the boat passes Lazise, one of the most charming small towns on the lake. Its medieval walls and towers are still complete, a castle rises behind the harbour, and the old Venetian customs house stands right on the water, a reminder of the days when Lazise controlled trade on the lake.

Next comes Bardolino, with its long lakeside promenade, palm trees and colourful houses facing the water, and small Romanesque churches hidden in its lanes. From the boat you appreciate how the gentle hills of the eastern shore, covered in olive groves and cypresses, roll down to the lake. Your skipper slows down where the view is best so you can take photos.

Garda, Punta San Vigilio and the Baia delle Sirene

The town of Garda, which gives the lake its name, curves around a sheltered bay below the rocky hill of La Rocca. Its harbour is lined with arcaded houses and old palaces, and it is one of the liveliest stops of the public boats. Just beyond it, the shore rises into the wooded headland of Punta San Vigilio, one of the most romantic spots of the whole lake.

On the headland a sixteenth-century villa, a tiny harbour and an avenue of cypresses sit among olive trees, a scene that seems unchanged for centuries. Next to it lies the Baia delle Sirene, a bay of clear water and olive groves whose name means the Bay of the Mermaids. Seen from the water, with Monte Baldo rising behind, this is many visitors' favourite moment of the tour.

Isola del Garda

The boat then crosses the lake to Isola del Garda, the largest island on the lake, about 1 km long and covered in gardens and tall trees. In the Middle Ages it held a small monastery; today it is crowned by an elegant villa in Venetian neo-Gothic style, completed in the early twentieth century, with terraced Italian gardens running down to the water.

The island is privately owned and visited only on special tours, so a passing boat is the perfect way to admire it. Is Isola del Garda worth seeing? From the water its pale facade, balustrades and garden terraces reflected in the lake make one of the most photographed views of Lake Garda. The skipper circles slowly along its shore before heading south.

The Sirmione peninsula

The last part of the loop follows the long Sirmione peninsula, the jewel of the southern lake. From the water you see the Scaliger Castle, a thirteenth-century fortress whose walls and towers rise straight from the lake, and the elegant villas half-hidden among olive and cypress trees along the shore.

At the tip of the peninsula the remains of a vast Roman villa, the Grottoes of Catullus, overlook flat slabs of white limestone where the shallow water turns turquoise. The boat passes close enough for great photos before returning to Peschiera. The best time to visit Sirmione and the southern lake by boat is from April to October; afternoon light is warm and the water at its most colourful.