Where to stay on Lake Garda: the best towns and hotels

Sirmione pokes a long, slender finger out into the southern lake, and you enter its old town over a drawbridge, through the turreted Scaliger Castle, a 13th-century fortress rising straight out of the water. At the far tip lie the Grotte di Catullo, the ruins of a vast Roman villa, and in between are lanes of gelato shops, cafés and lakeside terraces.

Sirmione is also a spa town, with warm sulphurous springs that rise from the lake bed and feed several hotel spas and pools. It gets very busy with day-trippers in summer, so stay the night and enjoy it once they've gone. The old town is largely closed to traffic, so check how your hotel handles arrivals and parking.

Desenzano is the biggest town on Lake Garda and the liveliest, with a pretty old harbour, a castle on the hill, a Roman villa with fine mosaics and a promenade of bars and restaurants that stays busy late into the night. It's the lake's unofficial nightlife capital.

Its station on the Milan–Venice railway makes it the easiest base without a car, and boats leave from the harbour for towns all around the lake. Hotels range from lakeside resorts among ancient olive trees to a glamping-style village with its own beach and modern spa hotels.

Peschiera sits inside massive Venetian fortress walls, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with canals running through the old centre where the lake drains into the River Mincio. It's charming in its own right, but most families come for its neighbour: Gardaland, Italy's biggest theme park, is a few minutes' drive away, with the famous Sigurtà gardens not much further.

Peschiera also has a station on the Milan–Venice line, and Verona is a short hop away. Hotels lean family-friendly, from a big resort with seven outdoor pools, three restaurants and a games room to golf and spa hotels out among the vineyards. Evenings strolling the ramparts and canals of the old town make a pleasant antidote to a day of rollercoasters.

Lazise is one of the most attractive towns on the eastern shore: a medieval village still ringed by its walls and towers, with a little harbour, a castle and a lakefront promenade lined with cafés. It's calmer than Peschiera but close to the same attractions, with Movieland and the Caneva water park on its southern edge and Gardaland just beyond.

Hotels range from apartment-style residences in the hills above the village, with kitchens and covered terraces looking over the lake, to spa hotels with romantic suites and whirlpool baths. It suits families who want the theme parks close by without sleeping next to them, and couples who'd rather end the day with dinner inside the old walls.

Bardolino gives its name to the light red wine made on the hills behind it, and wine is the town's great pleasure, with cellars, tasting rooms, a wine museum and a festival every autumn. The café-lined lakefront promenade carries on along the shore to the neighbouring town of Garda.

Garda, the town that gave the lake its name, is a pretty harbour tucked into a bay beneath a wooded headland, and just beyond it Punta San Vigilio is one of the loveliest spots on the shore. Hotels in both towns range from romantic hillside suites to a five-star golf and spa resort in a converted 15th-century palace.

Malcesine is many people's favourite town on Lake Garda: a tangle of cobbled lanes and pastel houses around a castle perched on a rock above the water. Behind it rises Monte Baldo, and a cable car with rotating cabins whisks you up from town to mountain trails, meadows and enormous views over the lake.

Hotels here have the lake and the mountains on the doorstep, from an adults-only hideaway in its own little bay to relaxed places with pools and private beaches along the shore. To the south, the villages of Brenzone sul Garda are quieter still, a string of tiny harbours and olive groves at the foot of the mountain.

At the northern tip of the lake, Riva del Garda feels more Alpine than Mediterranean. Cliffs and mountains rise straight from the water, the old town clusters around a clock tower and a moated castle, and the lakefront is lined with grand early 20th-century hotels and gardens.

The north of the lake is famous for its dependable winds, which make it one of Europe's great spots for windsurfing and sailing, and the mountains around are laced with cycling and hiking routes. Hotels suit active types, from lakefront spa hotels with pools to apartments in the pedestrianised old town.

Limone sul Garda is squeezed onto a narrow ledge between sheer cliffs and the lake on the western shore. Its terraced limonaie, the old lemon houses with their tall stone pillars, climb the hillside behind a pretty harbour, and its cycle path, bolted to the cliff face above the water, is one of the most photographed rides in Italy.

Hotels are mostly a short walk or shuttle ride from the village, many set in gardens with indoor and outdoor pools and spas, and a couple of seriously luxurious five-stars look out over the lake. The village fills with day-trippers arriving by boat, but the evenings are peaceful.