Italy's biggest lake is one of the easiest car-free camping trips in Europe — here's how to do it.
Lake Garda sits right on a main rail line between Milan, Verona and Venice, and its shoreline towns are linked by ferry — which makes it one of the most realistic car-free camping destinations in Italy.
For general car-free camping planning tips, see our full guide →
The main railway line along the lake's southern shore runs through Desenzano del Garda-Sirmione and Peschiera del Garda, both a short bus or walk from a cluster of campsites.
Verona Villafranca Airport is close by, and once you're at the lake, a network of passenger ferries connects the shoreline towns — Sirmione, Desenzano, Salò, Bardolino, Garda and Malcesine — so you don't need a car to explore beyond your campsite either.
Fly into Verona Villafranca Airport, or Brescia Airport a little further out, then take a bus or train on to the lake.
By train, Desenzano del Garda-Sirmione and Peschiera del Garda are the two main stations on the southern shore, both served by regular trains from Milan and Verona.
Lake Garda's passenger ferries run between the main towns for most of the year, and are a genuinely pleasant way to get from your campsite to somewhere new for the day.
Local buses run along both shores too, connecting the smaller towns the ferries don't reach as often.
These are real distances from GoCastra's own transport data, not estimates — every one of these has a full station-to-site walking or bus route on its own page.
See every Lake Garda campsite, with real transport ratings and directions.
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