Spending Three Days at the Grand Hotel Victoria Lake Como
Curated By
Jeff Goldstein
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Lake Como
Italy
Luxury Travel
Nature Escapes
Spa
Relaxation
Romantic
Curator’s statement
The Grand Hotel Victoria Concept and Spa is a new five-star plus luxury hotel in the small town of Menaggio, centrally located on Lake Como. It features the Erre Spa, a 1200 sq/m underground spa including treatment rooms, a 20 m indoor swimming pool, a steam bath, Finnish or infrared saunas and spacious relaxation areas. We stayed in the new part of the hotel with beautiful mountain views and the large pool area. The restaurant is innovative and the service impeccable. It was a great base to explore the lake with ferry service nearby.
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Insider knowledge
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Where to stay
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Menaggio is about an hour from Milan (MXP) Malpensa airport. It a smaller town on the eastern side of Lake Como and quite a bit less crowded than nearby Bellagio and Varenna, albeit the town has fewer shops and restaurants. There is frequent ferry service to most of towns on the lake. The Grand Hotel Victoria was fully renovated and expanded from an older building, so it blends the beautiful architecture with modern facilities. The underground spa is the most opulent facility I have ever seen! There are numerous shower types, water features, saunas and steam rooms, along with the personalized treatments. The spa facility is open to all hotel guests although the custom services are additional. The front of the hotel is on the lakefront, with a private dock, and beautiful lawn to enjoy alfresco dining and drinks while watching the activity passing by.
The town is a five-minute walk with small restaurants and shops. Reservations should be made for the nicer restaurants as they fill up quickly. We used a local DMC ICBellagio to help plan a few local tours including an amazing 30km e-bike tour with Bike-IT Bellagio from the hotel through the shoreside towns up to Domasso where we had a wonderful lunch at the Winery. This is the only producing winery on the lake. Thankfully Bike-IT provided a van escort that drove us back to the hotel! The next day we had a guided tour to Bellagio with some local food tastings and then a private luxury boat tour past many of the towns and stopped for a private tour at Villa del Balbianello. An amazing villa dating back to the 18th century and used for some scenes of several Star Wars movies.
Need to Know
Menaggio is not as big or popular as Bellagio or some of the other well-known villages, but the hotel proved to be a very comfortable luxury hotel and a great base to explore all that Lake Como offers with nearby ferry service, at slightly lower price point than similar properties in the more popular villages.
This trip report is part of our ongoing series on travel to Italy. In need of further inspiration? Check out Gina Gaytan’s guide, 48-Hours in Verona, Italy.
Travel Advisor
Jeff Goldstein
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