What Lake Como Costs

A day pass is issued for the band you name, between the ports you name, not for a named area of the lake. So a pass bought for the centre-lake triangle does not carry you down to Como, and a pass bought Como to Varenna covers a great deal more than most people use. The tariff below has been in force since 1 April 2026, and it turns over on 1 April every year; it is published on the operator's own rates page for Lake Como.

Prices are the operator's euro figures with our dollar conversion beside them.

Which band your crossing actually is

Read off the operator's complete chart of stretches: Como to Bellagio is band 6, Como to Menaggio band 6, Como to Varenna band 7, Como to Colico band 8. Across the middle of the lake, Bellagio to Varenna, Bellagio to Menaggio, Varenna to Menaggio and Bellagio to Tremezzo, Villa Carlotta or Cadenabbia are all band 3. Bellagio to San Giovanni is the special urban band U at 1.50 euro. Varenna to Bellano is band 1.

Worked through: a single Como to Bellagio on the slow boat is $13.98 (€12.00), or $19.81 (€17.00) if you take the fast one and pay the band-6 supplement. Bellagio to Varenna is $6.41 (€5.50). A day pass covering the whole centre-lake triangle is $20.40 (€17.50), which pays for itself on the third crossing, and one reaching Varenna from Como is $34.40 (€29.50).

The three services, and why the supplement matters

The battello is the ordinary ship and the base fare. The servizio rapido is the hydrofoil or catamaran: the same fare plus that fixed supplement, and the supplement takes no reduction of any kind, not for children, not for seniors, not for disabled passengers. A day pass is valid on a fast run only if you buy the supplement for it. Fast-service tickets are valid the day of issue only, allow no intermediate stops, and carry no bicycles.

The traghetto is the car ferry and it runs Cadenabbia to Bellagio to Menaggio to Varenna and nowhere else on the lake. A car under 3.50 m crosses for $5.36 (€4.60) as a vehicle alone or $11.77 (€10.10) with the driver aboard, on the vehicle tariff also in force from 1 April 2026; passengers riding inside pay the band-3 passenger fare. Which service reaches which town is set out on the ferry page.

Reductions, and the surcharge that catches people

Under-fours travel free if they do not occupy a seat and are accompanied, one adult per three children. Children from 4 to under 12 take a reduced fare with a seat. Over-65s take the reduced tariff on singles, returns and the one-day pass, but Monday to Friday only, with Saturdays and public holidays excluded, on production of identification. Passengers with 70 to 100 per cent disability take the reduced tariff, an accompanying carer travels free where one is required, and under-12s in those categories are exempt; the fast-service supplement is still due.

The surcharge to know about is 1.00 euro per passenger, per bag or per vehicle for buying on board at a pier whose ticket office is working. Refunds exist only if the departure was 60 minutes or more late or was cancelled, or if you renounce the trip within 30 minutes of issue, with a penalty of up to 3.00 euro. Dogs under 50 cm at the withers are free; larger ones pay the reduced tariff and are not carried on hydrofoils at all.

It is paid per person per night to the accommodation, which remits it to the comune, and it is almost never included in the price you booked. The figures below were read off each comune's own tariff sheet or delibera. They stay in euro, because that is what you hand over at the desk.

The rules that differ more than the rates

Bellagio caps the tax at seven consecutive nights and charges it only from 1 March to 30 November, so a December, January or February night carries none at all. Menaggio runs the same March to November window with the same seven-night cap. Varenna charges from 1 January to 31 December with a seven-night cap. Como caps at four nights and publishes one year-round schedule. Lecco caps at five and also runs year round, and its 2026 tariff act simply reprints the schedule in force since 1 June 2023.

Tremezzina is the odd one out and it is worth knowing before you argue with a hotel. The comune's own service page contradicts itself: one section says the tax applies from 1 January to 31 December, another says the taxable stay is between 1 March and 30 November. Both sentences sit on the same page. Ask the comune rather than the property if it matters to you.

Exemptions differ too, and they are worth reading if you are travelling with children. Bellagio, Menaggio and Tremezzina exempt minors up to and including their eleventh year. Varenna exempts children under 7, and then charges a maximum of four family members however large the family is. Lecco exempts under-14s. Como exempts none of them by age at all, and instead exempts out-of-town students under 26 enrolled at Como universities. This is a real difference in a family budget, and it is set out again on Lake Como with kids.

What the other six charge, including the highest rate on the lake

Six more comuni publish rates that took some finding, and one of them matters to anybody comparing a grand-hotel night. Cernobbio charges €7.00 a night at a five-star or five-star luxury, the highest rate on this lake and two euro above the €5.00 that Bellagio, Como, Menaggio, Tremezzina and Varenna top out at; its scale runs €1.00 at a one-star to €4.00 at a four-star, €3.00 for a B&B or holiday flat and €5.00 for a listed villa, capped at seven nights and charged only from 1 April to 31 December. Brunate charges €3.00 for one to three stars and for a B&B or flat, €4.00 at a four-star and €5.00 above that, capped at the first fifteen nights. Colico is the cheapest verified rate on the lake at €1.50 for three to five stars and €1.00 for everything else, with campsites at €0.50 and a cap of fifteen nights. Laglio runs €2.00 to €5.00 by class, capped at seven nights in the same place in a calendar year. Nesso has the simplest tariff here, a flat €2.00 for everything, charged only from 1 April to 31 October. Bellano is the one to watch: its 2026 act charges €3.00 for a B&B, a flat, a short let or a one or two-star hotel and €6.00 at a five-star, and it removed the night cap entirely, so a fortnight there is taxed for all fourteen nights.

The practical reading: the tax is worth checking before a long stay rather than a short one, because the caps do more work than the rates. Where to stay sets the same figures beside what each base is actually good for.

There is no lake-wide pass and no combined villa ticket sold by anyone. Each garden sells its own, and two of them sell combinations with a neighbour that you cannot buy online.

Where the money goes further

Villa Monastero is the best-value garden on the lake on the published numbers: 15.00 euro opens both the botanical garden and a furnished house museum, children to 14 are free, and it is the one central-lake villa open all twelve months. Villa Melzi at 10.00 euro is the cheapest of the famous gardens and the only one selling a two-day ticket, which is a real saving if you are staying in Bellagio rather than passing through.

Three discounts most people miss. Villa Carlotta gives a desk discount on a same-day ASF bus ticket or a Trenord rail ticket to Villa Carlotta, so keep the ticket you arrived on. Villa Monastero halves the price for holders of a Viandante via Lago ticket. The Orrido di Bellano cuts its adult entry from 8.00 to 5.00 euro on production of a train ticket or a Navigazione Laghi boat ticket, which is one of the better transport discounts anywhere on the lake.

For the two Como civic sights, the ladder is identical because they sell from one system: the Cathedral and the Tempio Voltiano both charge $6.99 (€6.00) adult, $4.66 (€4.00) reduced, $3.50 (€3.00) for children 6 to 18, and $17.48 (€15.00) for a family pass covering one family unit with a maximum of two adults. Entering the Duomo to pray is free, and there is a free ticketless tourist route through the minor naves for anyone who does not want to pay.

A Lake Como lido day is not a single published number, and that is the finding rather than a gap in the research. The Lido di Bellagio, the most visible beach club on the lake, publishes no per-person admission at all. Access is by booking a setup: a box at 50.00 euro gives two sunbeds, one sunshade and two towels, and a gazebo at 200.00 euro gives two beds, a little table with two lounge sofas, two towels and two small bottles of water, both quoted for June to September. That works out at $29.10 (€25.00) a head for two people on the box, which is a fair comparison with a villa ticket, and it is the only lido on the lake for which we could confirm a current published price.

The rest of the list is worse. The Lido di Menaggio's old domain no longer resolves, and the site is reported to have been taken over and reopened under another name selling per-setup day rates, which we could not verify on any operator or comune page. The Lido di Villa Olmo in Como could not be fetched at all because its certificate does not match its host, and its 2026 concession was reported as unrenewed as of February 2026, which we could likewise not confirm against a comune act. The Lido di Cernobbio publishes a proper annual tariff PDF, the best official lido price lead on the lake, but the 2026 edition was not located. The Comune di Colico's own tourism page describes its beach in detail, with volleyball, football and tennis courts, windsurfing and kitesurfing, a restaurant and a bar, and publishes no admission price and no statement of whether it is free.

So the honest budget line for a beach day is: 50.00 euro for two at Bellagio if you want a bed with your name on it, and unknown everywhere else until you ask on the day. The swimming and beaches page goes through which of these are actually usable and how the water is monitored.

Trenord's Lombardy regional fare has been a kilometre band since 1 September 2026. The named journeys below are the operator's own kilometre figures looked up in that band table.

The funicular fare that rose on 1 September 2026

The Como to Brunate funicular is run by ATM under the Consorzio Mobilità Funicolare & Bus, not by ASF, and three fare documents for it are online at once. The one in force is the operator's own sheet headed Tariffe dal 01/09/2026, which gives $4.31 (€3.70) single and $8.62 (€7.40) return and states that the Agenzia per il Trasporto Pubblico Locale of the Como, Lecco and Varese basin sets the prices. ATM's undated PDF still shows the 3.60 and 7.20 euro it replaced, and funicolarecomo.it still hosts a 2022 sheet at 3.30 and 6.10 euro. Children up to 4 travel free and a youth single to age 12 is $2.91 (€2.50). The full picture is on the funicular page.

One pass genuinely covers the funicular: Io Viaggio Ovunque in Lombardia, at $21.00 (€18.00) for one day, $35.00 (€30.00) for two, $41.40 (€35.50) for three and $55.30 (€47.50) for seven. It covers all Lombardy local transport, regional trains in both classes, the funicular and the Argegno to Pigra cable car. It does not cover Navigazione Lago di Como boats. The only lake boats on it are on Lake Iseo, so treat the lake crossings as a separate budget line.

Driving, parking and the costs that are not published

Como is one of only two of the main towns that publishes a parking tariff, the other being Lecco. On-street parking is paid 08:00 to 19:00 with a maximum stay of 11 hours, at $1.17 (€1.00) an hour in the outer zones and $2.33 (€2.00) an hour centrally, and the lakefront belt along Viale Puecher, Geno, Vittorio Veneto, Sinigaglia and Via Cantoni doubles to 2.00 euro an hour on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. From 1 May to 30 September, on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, payment runs to midnight at Viale Geno, Piazzetta Baratelli and Piazza Croggi. The Autosilo on Via Castelnuovo charges $0.58 (€0.50) for the first half hour then 1.00 euro an hour, capped at 3.00 euro in each of three daily windows, with a flat 2.00 euro on Sundays.

Bellagio, Varenna, Menaggio and Tremezzina publish no visitor parking tariff at all. All four publish resident permit forms and nothing else. Nor does any comune on this lake publish a euro fine for a plain restricted-zone violation; only Menaggio publishes a range, 25 to 500 euro, and only for conduct the highway code does not already cover. The figures you will read for a Bellagio zone fine appear on no comune page we could open. Driving and parking has the zone hours themselves, which are the part that actually catches people.

The free list here is unusually strong, because the lake's best landscape is not behind a gate. The Orrido di Nesso is free access with no ticket and no published hours, seen from Piazza Castello or from the medieval Ponte della Civera on the shore; Leonardo noted it in the Codex Atlanticus. The Greenway del Lago di Como is a free marked public route of 11.2 kilometres through seven villages, with 221 metres of climbing and 257 of descent, quoted by the route's own technical box at three and a half hours. Villa Olmo's park in Como is a public park, and the visit to the villa itself is free when it is open, although it is currently closed for restoration with no reopening date published.

Add the things that are free because they are churches: the interior of Como Cathedral for anyone entering to pray, with a signed ticketless route through the minor naves for tourists who do not want to buy in, and the Sacro Monte di Ossuccio, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2003 with fourteen chapels and around two hundred and thirty statues along its path. Add every lakefront promenade, every pier and the view from the top of the Bellagio promontory that you reach by walking rather than by paying.

The honest counterweight: the funicular is not free, the villas are not free, and the boat is the one cost you cannot design out of a Lake Como trip, because the towns face each other across water and the roads between them are slow. A day pass at $20.40 (€17.50) is not a luxury on this lake, it is the ticket that makes the geography work. Free things to do has the full list.

Buying the boat ticket on board. One euro per passenger, per bag and per vehicle wherever the departure pier has a working ticket office. On a family of four that is four euro for standing in the wrong place.

Buying the bus ticket from the driver. ASF charges 1.40 euro extra on extraurban lines and 0.50 euro on urban ones, cash only, exact amount, and the driver may refuse in heavy traffic. Tapping a contactless card on the green Swipe on Lake validator costs nothing extra, but a red light on the validator means you have no ticket.

Travelling without a valid rail ticket. Trenord's published tiers are 35 euro plus 12 euro costs within five days, 50 plus 12 within sixty days, and 150 plus 12 by injunction. Buying on board is allowed only if you go promptly to the staff, and it is free of surcharge only where the station had no open sales channel within 350 metres and no working machine; otherwise it is 4.50 euro plus the ticket.

Travelling without a valid bus ticket. ASF's tiers, in force from 1 January 2025, are 25 euro paid to the inspector on the spot, 40 euro within five days, 60 plus 15 costs within sixty days, and 150 plus 15 after that.

Oversized luggage on the boat. One item per passenger travels free up to 60 cm on its longest side and 40 cubic decimetres. Anything larger, and every additional item whatever its size, pays the published baggage tariff. This is the rule that catches people arriving from Milan with a week's suitcases on the Varenna crossing.