Winter on Lake Maggiore - Lake Maggiore & Lake Orta Travel Guide

Lake Maggiore and Ticino have an almost mythical aura for Central Europeans. Lake Maggiore stands for a fascinating southern, Mediterranean landscape that opens up as soon as you cross the Alps.

Most visitors come during the summer holidays, and in some parts of the lake foreign guests then predominate.

Spring and autumn also attract many visitors.

Coach tour groups particularly like to travel around Easter and Whitsun.

Early in the year, sometimes as early as February, hellebores, mimosas and forsythias bloom, soon followed by camellias, magnolias, oleanders, broom and peach trees.

Autumn is the season of mushrooms and chestnuts, and a mild late summer often stretches well into October and November. The nights do become noticeably cooler, but during the day you can often still sit at the street cafés and watch the world go by. The clear air and often brilliant weather make a stay at this time of year an extremely pleasant and restful experience.

The fewest visitors come to Lake Maggiore in winter, but this season has its own particular charms. Admittedly, many hotels and restaurants are closed in winter, as are many museums, such as the castle and the park on Isola Bella, but at this time of year guests are courted and spoilt with personal hospitality. In the larger towns of Locarno, Ascona, Cannobio, Intra, Pallanza, Baveno, Stresa, Arona, Angera, Laveno and Luino, it is pleasant for visitors to be not just one tourist among many, but to share in local life.

Thanks to the mild winters, snow at lake level on Lake Maggiore is rare and, when it does fall, rarely lasts long. In sheltered, sunny spots you can quite often still sit outside around midday.

Around Christmas the shops are decorated for the season, many towns have beautiful Christmas lights, and you will find numerous beautifully decorated nativity scenes.

Particularly attractive for visitors is the combination of the mild lake climate and the numerous ski areas in the nearby mountains. A visitor to our travel guide has compiled an overview of the ski areas. Premeno and the Valle Vigezzo deserve special mention. From the Valle Vigezzo, with its many winter sports opportunities in the surrounding mountains, it is only a 20-30 minute drive by car over the Centovalli down to Ascona and Locarno, down the Val Cannobina to Cannobio, or via Domodossola to Stresa on Lake Maggiore.