San Felice, Portese & Salò: Our Local Guide

For guests who want a quieter side of Lake Garda without feeling cut off from everything, San Felice and Portese are two of our favourite places to be based.

This part of the western shore feels a little more off the beaten track than some of Lake Garda’s better-known resorts. There are visitors, of course, especially during the summer, but everyday life carries on around them. San Felice and Portese are small, peaceful and surrounded by countryside, while Salò — one of the main towns on this part of the lake — is close enough for shopping, evenings out and exploring further afield.

It’s that combination that we really like. You can spend the morning at the villa, wander down to the lake for a coffee, have lunch somewhere local and then head into Salò for the evening.

You don’t need to fill every day with sightseeing to enjoy being here.

In this guide

• Getting your bearings
• Why stay around San Felice & Portese?
• Some of our favourite ways to spend time here
• Three good days out from San Felice
• Eating & evenings
• If we had a week here…
• Getting around
• Staying around San Felice, Portese & Salò

Getting your bearings

San Felice, Portese and Salò are close neighbours, but each has quite a different feel.

San Felice del Benaco

San Felice itself is very small and very local. There’s a small supermarket, butcher, baker and bar, together with a handful of good restaurants.

It’s not somewhere designed around tourism, and that’s really part of its appeal.

It’s also a year-round village. Come outside the main summer season and you’ll still find people having their morning coffee, shopping locally and eating in the restaurants.

For us, San Felice works less as somewhere you go for a long list of attractions and more as a place to enjoy the rhythm of everyday Lake Garda life.

Portese

Portese feels almost like a small lakeside extension of San Felice. Again, it’s tiny, but it gives you something San Felice itself doesn’t: the lake, a beach, a small harbour and ferry access.

There are a handful of restaurants and places for a coffee or something to eat, including places popular with local residents outside the main season.

If we were staying at Villa Preone, we’d use Portese exactly like this — walk down for a coffee by the lake, spend some time at the beach, have dinner locally or catch the ferry.

Salò is only around five minutes across the bay by ferry, and from there you can connect with services travelling further around Lake Garda.

Salò

Salò gives you the other side of the equation.

It’s a much larger and livelier town, with shops, supermarkets, restaurants, cafés, bars and gelaterias, together with a beautiful lakefront promenade stretching for almost 3 km from one side of the town to the other.

It attracts plenty of visitors, but it still feels like a real working Italian town. Local people live, shop and socialise here throughout the year, which gives Salò a different atmosphere from some of Lake Garda’s more tourism-led resorts.

For guests staying around San Felice and Portese, we don’t really think of Salò as a separate day trip. It’s part of the area you’re staying in.

You might go for dinner one evening, return for the Saturday market, spend another morning shopping or having coffee, and use its ferry connections when you want to explore more of the lake.

Our view: why stay around San Felice & Portese?

We think this area works for a surprisingly wide range of guests: couples, families and first-time visitors to Lake Garda, as well as people who already know the lake and want somewhere a little quieter.

Its strength is the balance.

There’s countryside, small beaches and a peaceful local feel around San Felice and Portese, but you’re not far from everything Salò offers. The southern lake is relatively accessible too, while Brescia gives you the option of a completely different day away from the lake.

There is a trade-off.

If much of your holiday is going to be spent exploring the far north of Lake Garda, the road north from Salò can become busy during the summer. Malcesine and the eastern shore also require more travelling.

But Lake Garda is much larger than many first-time visitors expect, so wherever you choose to stay there will always be parts of the lake that take longer to reach.

Some of our favourite ways to spend time here

Porto di San Felice

One of the places we’d make a point of discovering early in the holiday is Porto di San Felice.

It’s a small, relaxed spot by the lake and somewhere that still feels very local. There are shallow beach areas nearby where you can swim and spend time beside the water, while Caffè del Porto is a lovely place to stop for coffee, lunch, aperitivo or dinner.

It’s somewhere you can return to several times during a stay rather than somewhere you simply tick off a sightseeing list.

For guests at Villa Albero, it’s especially useful because you can walk there.

Baia del Vento

For a slightly more serviced day beside the lake, we’d head to Baia del Vento.

Popular with Italians as well as visitors, it sits somewhere between a public beach and a traditional beach club, with a restaurant, sun loungers and the option of getting out on a SUP.

If you don’t need the facilities, there are simpler public beach areas around San Felice and Salò. But Baia del Vento works well when you want to settle in for a few hours, have lunch and make a day of being beside the lake.

See Lake Garda from the water

However you do it, we’d try to spend some time on Lake Garda rather than only looking at it.

The ferries are the easiest place to start. Portese has its own ferry stop, with Salò just across the bay, while Salò’s connections make it possible to explore much further without taking the car.

For something more special, a private boat charter gives you a completely different day: explore with your own captain, stop for a swim and perhaps have lunch somewhere around the lake.

There are also opportunities nearby for SUP, self-drive boat hire and other water activities.

Isola del Garda & local wine

Just offshore sits Isola del Garda, one of the landmarks of this part of the lake.

Organised visits operate from the mainland, while many private boat trips also pass the island, giving you a chance to see it from the water.

Back on land, this is wine and olive-growing country. Le Chiusure in Portese is exactly the kind of local vineyard we like: small, close by and a good option if you’d like a local wine experience without making it a major excursion.

Rocca di Manerba

If you’d like to do something more active, nearby Rocca di Manerba gives you walking, nature, historic ruins and some wonderful views across Lake Garda.

There are also plenty of opportunities to head into the countryside and hills behind this part of the western shore if walking and hiking are part of your holiday.

Three good days out from San Felice

Lake Garda is much larger than it first appears, so we don’t think you need to try to see all of it in one holiday.

From San Felice and Portese, these are three days we’d put high on our own list.

Sirmione — and consider going by boat

Sirmione is one of Lake Garda’s best-known towns and, despite being busy during the summer, we think it’s worth seeing.
Its position on a narrow peninsula at the southern end of the lake is spectacular, with the Scaliger Castle at the entrance to the historic centre and the Roman remains at the Grotte di Catullo beyond.

By car, Sirmione is relatively easy to reach from San Felice, but one of our favourite ways to visit is from the water. Arriving by boat gives you a completely different view of the peninsula and removes the worry about driving and parking when the town is busy.

Once there, we’d keep the day fairly unstructured: wander through the old streets, visit the castle or Roman ruins if they interest you, have lunch and, almost certainly, stop for a gelato.

Take the western shore north to Limone

For a completely different day, we’d drive north from Salò towards Limone sul Garda.

The journey is part of the experience. The western shore becomes increasingly dramatic as you travel north, with the road following the lake beneath the mountains.

Rather than racing straight to Limone, there’s plenty of scope to stop along the way. Toscolano-Maderno and Gargnano both make good places to break the journey for coffee, a wander or lunch before continuing north.

Limone itself is one of Lake Garda’s best-known villages. It can be busy in summer, but its setting between the mountains and lake makes it worth the journey.

Malcesine & Monte Baldo

This is the longest of our three trips, but also one of the most memorable.

Rather than driving all the way around Lake Garda, we’d consider heading to Toscolano-Maderno and taking the car ferry across the lake before continuing north along the eastern shore towards Malcesine.

The ferry breaks up the journey and makes crossing the lake part of the day.

Malcesine itself deserves some time, with its castle, narrow streets and plenty of places for lunch, coffee or gelato.

From there, the cable car climbs Monte Baldo.

On a clear day, the views are extraordinary. You can walk or hike once you’re at the top, but you don’t need to plan a serious mountain day to enjoy it. We quite like simply walking, finding somewhere to sit and taking in the view.

And if the conditions are right, you may see the paragliders launching from the mountain — something we can happily sit and watch for quite a while.

Eating & evenings: places we return to

There are plenty of places to eat around San Felice, Portese and Salò, but rather than trying to list them all, these are some of the places we know well and return to ourselves.

Gran Fausto

Right in the small port at Portese, Gran Fausto is one of those easy places we return to again and again.

It’s a relaxed pizzeria and restaurant by the lake, popular with local residents as well as visitors, and somewhere we’ve eaten many times.

We’d choose it for an informal lunch or dinner when you want good food without making a big occasion of going out.

Ristorante Bella

Also by the lake at Portese, Ristorante Bella at Hotel Bella is a step up when you’re looking for something more special.

The cooking is more refined, with a tasting menu available, and we’d choose it for a more considered dining experience without travelling far from San Felice or Portese.

Cantina de la Mirleta

Hidden away in Cisano di San Felice, Cantina de la Mirleta is tiny and quite different from the larger restaurants around the lake.

It isn’t somewhere we’d suggest for a big group, but for a couple or small party wanting somewhere genuinely local, it’s one of those little places worth knowing about.

Caffè del Porto

Right beside the lake at Porto di San Felice, Caffè del Porto is somewhere you can use throughout the day: breakfast or morning coffee, lunch by the water, aperitivo or dinner.

It’s relaxed, beautifully positioned and very useful if you’re staying close enough to walk there.

Ristorante Sogno

At Hotel Ristorante Sogno in Porto di San Felice, Ristorante Sogno is one of our favourite restaurants in the area.

Its terrace opens towards the lake and the food is more fine dining, making this one we’d choose for a special dinner rather than simply somewhere to grab something to eat.

Da Rino

A little further away, at the small harbour in Manerba, Ristorante Da Rino is another favourite.

The food is excellent, the service is warm and the setting by the little port makes it a lovely place for lunch or dinner. Visitors certainly find it, but it’s also somewhere well known locally.

Eating out in Salò

And then there’s Salò.

The town gives you a much wider choice, from cafés and pizzerias through to more ambitious restaurants and Michelin-starred dining.

Rather than sending you there with an enormous restaurant list, we’d choose according to the kind of evening you want. Part of the pleasure is walking the waterfront, stopping for an aperitivo and deciding where you fancy eating.

If we had a week here…

We wouldn’t spend every day travelling around Lake Garda.

One of the reasons we like staying around San Felice and Portese is that it’s an easy place to slow down and enjoy where you’re staying.

We’d make sure there was plenty of time around the villa — mornings by the pool, a walk down to the lake, coffee at the port, a few hours at the beach and dinner somewhere nearby.

These aren’t the days between the “proper” days out. They’re part of the holiday.

We’d probably spend one day on the water, either with a private boat and captain or using the ferries to explore. And we wouldn’t necessarily make it a full day. A morning on the lake followed by a lazy afternoon back at the villa and a swim in the pool is a pretty good Lake Garda day as far as we’re concerned.

We’d choose Sirmione for one day, taking time to explore rather than trying to combine it with too much else.

On another day, we’d follow the western shore towards Limone, stopping somewhere such as Toscolano-Maderno or Gargnano along the way.

If we wanted one bigger adventure, we’d cross the lake and head for Malcesine and Monte Baldo.

For something active closer to home, we’d walk around Rocca di Manerba or head into the surrounding countryside.

And we’d leave at least one day completely unplanned.

Stay by the pool. Go back to the beach. Return to the restaurant you discovered earlier in the week. Follow a recommendation somebody gave you over coffee. Or simply don’t leave the villa.

Lake Garda rewards exploring, but you don’t need to spend your holiday trying to complete it.

Getting around

Walking

Choose the right villa and it’s quite possible to have days when you don’t use the car at all.

From Portese, coffee, restaurants, the lake and ferry are all within easy walking distance.

Around Porto di San Felice it’s similar. From Villa Albero, for example, you can walk down towards the lake, beach, Caffè del Porto and Ristorante Sogno. San Felice village itself is around a 15-minute walk away, so you can wander in for bread, coffee or simply a little everyday village life.

Cycling

Cycling is another lovely way to explore locally.

There isn’t a continuous network of dedicated cycle paths, but there are quiet lanes and routes through the countryside connecting San Felice, Portese and the surrounding area.

For shorter journeys, it’s a good alternative to automatically getting into the car.

Ferries

The ferries aren’t always the cheapest way of travelling around Lake Garda, but they’re part of the experience — and sometimes leaving the car behind is worth it.

Portese has its own ferry stop, with Salò only around five minutes across the bay. From Salò you can connect with services travelling much further around the lake.

If you’re staying elsewhere around San Felice, you can also drive to Portese, park and continue by ferry.

Driving & Parking

A car is very useful for exploring further afield, but during the main summer season we’d think carefully about when to use it.

Sunday is the day we’d be most inclined to leave the car at the villa. It’s a popular day for Italians themselves to head out and enjoy the lake, so roads and parking can become considerably busier.

If you have the option of a pool day, beach day, walking locally or taking the ferry instead, Sunday is a very good day to do it.

White parking bays generally indicate free parking, while blue bays are paid parking. During the busiest summer weeks, parking in the popular towns can still take some patience.

Explore more of Lake Garda

Staying around San Felice, Portese & Salò