Como the town is too often treated as a ferry stop on the way to Bellagio, which suits guests of the Palace Hotel nicely. The hotel occupies a Belle Epoque palazzo at Lungo Lario Trieste 16, directly on the lakefront promenade, with the Duomo a few minutes’ walk behind it and the ferry jetty five minutes along the water for boats to Bellagio and Varenna. The funicular up to Brunate, Como’s best cheap thrill, is around the corner.
The 94 rooms split between two wings: the grand Plinius on the lakefront and the quieter Pianella behind. Lake-view rooms in the Plinius are the reason to come, tall windows framing water and mountains; all rooms get proper air conditioning, minibars and marble bathrooms with Molton Brown toiletries, and the best add tubs alongside rain showers. It is a four-star and an honest one, polished rather than fashionable, with twice-daily housekeeping and multilingual staff who arrange boat charters without fuss.
The Ceccato garden bar’s lakeside terrace is the hotel’s social heart at aperitivo hour, and Antica Darsena, the in-house restaurant, backs its risotto and lake fish with a cellar of more than 400 wines. Breakfast is a serious buffet taken in an opulent hall. Valet parking runs 20 to 25 euros a day with EV chargers, worth knowing in a town where parking is blood sport, and at 230 to 500 euros a night this is one of the lake’s saner propositions.
