Getting to Riva del Garda: every route, honestly compared

The most convenient airport is Verona Villafranca: ninety kilometres, an hour and ten minutes of driving on a clear road. That is the short answer, and for most trips it is also the right one.

The two things worth knowing before you leave are different ones. First: Riva del Garda has no railway station — trains reach Rovereto, and the journey continues by bus. Second: bus tickets are not sold on board. Buy before you board, at a tobacconist, a newsagent, a ticket office or through the app.

By air.

Five airports genuinely serve Garda Trentino, and the difference between them is almost entirely the car hire or the transfer.

• Verona Villafranca (VRN) — about 90 km, an hour and ten by car. The nearest, and in summer the only one with a bus towards the lake leaving from the terminal.
• Bergamo Orio al Serio (BGY) — about 150 km, just under two hours. Well served by low-cost carriers from northern Europe.
• Milan Malpensa (MXP) — about 240 km, three hours. The one that makes sense for long-haul arrivals.
• Venice Marco Polo (VCE) — about 200 km, two and a half hours.
• Innsbruck (INN) — about 200 km, two and a quarter, coming down over the Brenner.

From Verona there is also the route without a car: the Aerobus links the terminal to Verona Porta Nuova station every twenty minutes, then a train to Rovereto and a bus to Riva. Across the three legs, roughly three hours.

By car.

From the south, leave the A22 Brenner motorway at Rovereto Sud and follow the valley for some twenty kilometres. From the north the exit is the same one, coming down from the Brenner: from Munich it is a little over four hundred kilometres, four and a quarter hours of clean driving.

The road from Verona along the Veronese shore is prettier and slower — tunnels, bends, villages. An hour and forty instead of an hour and ten, and worth doing once.

Here the car goes into our car park and you forget where it is for a few days: the old town, the square, the harbour and the exhibition centre are all within walking distance of via Negrelli.

By train.

The station to aim for is Rovereto, on the Brenner line. Trenitalia stops there and, at certain hours, so do Austrian ÖBB and German DB services: from Munich and Innsbruck you arrive with no more than one change.

From Rovereto, Trentino trasporti line 332 reaches the Riva del Garda bus station in a little over forty minutes, by way of Nago and Torbole. Buy the ticket before you board — unless you already hold the Guest Card, in which case read on.

Arriving from the south, you can also alight at Desenzano, Peschiera or Verona and take the buses that run up the Veronese shore to Torbole and Riva. It is the longest route and the most scenic.

Inside the province, transport is included.

Anyone staying here receives the Trentino Guest Card, and with it public transport across the whole province of Trento is free.

It covers the regional bus network — line 332 from Rovereto included — the urban networks of Alto Garda, Trento and Rovereto, and the Brenner railway between Borghetto and Ora. From the moment the train crosses into Trentino, and for the rest of your stay, tickets stop being something you think about.

Nothing paper gets stamped: you validate each journey through the Mio Trentino app, scanning the code on board or at the station. If you would rather not use the phone, ask at reception for the transport card, which you validate on the bus.

One caveat about arrival day: the card is handed over at check-in, so the journey to get here is on you. Everything after that is not.

The last kilometre.

Riva del Garda is a town you cover on foot. The bus station is minutes from the old town, and from the old town you are everywhere.

If you arrive by bike — many ride down the Sarca valley cycle route — there is a dry room to put it in, with what you need to set it right again in the evening.

See which dates are open