Holiday Homes at Lake Orta

Tell me about... getting there

Location for Online Maps

To find the location of the holiday homes on sites such as www.multimap.com or www.viamichelin.com, enter the country as Italy, and the location as follows.

Holiday Home	Location
Casa Bella, Casa Miralago	Vacciago
Villa Gelsomina	Lortallo
Casa sul Lago, Darsena, Villa Giovanetti, La Calla, Orchidea, Azalea	Orta San Giulio
Casa Fiori	Pella
Casa Bartula	Bolzano Novarese

The closest airport to arrive at is Milan Malpensa airport, as it is just 24 miles (40 km) from the holiday apartments, but three others, Milan Linate airport, Milan Bergamo (Orio al Serio) airport and Turin Caselle airport are all within 90 minutes drive. For full details of scheduled and low cost flights from the UK, Ireland, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Sweden and Finland, see our table of flights to Lake Orta.

You can then pick up a hire car at the airport. Bookings can be made online, see our page with links to the main car hire companies.

Arriving by public transport from any of the airports is possible, but slow and needs several changes. A hire car is recommended, and can be cheaper than return taxi fares, and it will help you get more out of the area, even if you don't use the hire car on some days.

Arriving by Car

The holiday homes are very easily reached by road, and detailed directions are supplied in your location pack.

You may find the directions available from the Michelin online route finder useful. Wherever you are driving from, a choice of routes is available, and as well as an overall map, the itinerary now shows smaller maps for each junction and even the speed cameras! Enter the destination location as detailed above.

Travelling by Car from the UK

Lake Orta is just 670 miles from Calais (just two thirds of the distance to Tuscany) so it's an easy two day drive.

We have two route suggestions:

via the Gotthard Pass, as follows: Calais - Rheims - Strasbourg - Colmar - Basle - Luzern - Gotthardpass - Bellinzona - Locarno - Verbania - Omegna. We used to recommended only this route, as it is almost entirely motorway (excepting the very beautiful stretch along the west side of Lake Maggiore), however the Gotthardpass now frequently suffers heavy delays, especially on summer weekends, while lorry and car traffic is separated out (you can check the tunnel's website for any planned closures).
via the Kandersteg-Goppenstein train tunnel and the Simplon Pass. This train service, a surprisingly little known route, is remarkably efficient, and the Simplon Pass is wonderfully scenic. This route is: Calais - Rheims - Strasbourg - Colmar - Basle - Bern - Spiez - Kandersteg - Loetschberger Tunnel - Goppenstein - Brig - Simplon Pass - Domodossola - Gravellona Toce - Omegna.

If you take an early morning ferry across the channel and follow either of the above routes, a wonderful hotel to break the drive is Husseren Les Chateux in Alsace. It's about 6 hours drive from Calais, and 5 hours from Lake Orta.

Travelling by Train

You can arrive at the main-line station of Arona and take a taxi (about 40 euros).

There is also a branch-line between Domodossola and Novara, with 5 or 6 trains a day in each direction. The closest station is Orta-Miasino (2 miles). Taking advantage of the Eurostar service through the Channel Tunnel, the journey time from St. Pancras International to Orta-Miasino, including changes (Paris, Lausanne, Domodossola, or Paris, Novara) is 10 to 12 hours for day trains, longer for sleepers.

There are now several web sites with Italian and European train timetables online including www.trenitalia.it and Deutsche Bahn (bahn.hafas.de) (tip: make sure you type in the station Orta-Miasino with a hyphen!).

Travelling by Bus

The local bus company is Comazzi, their web site www.comazzibus.com lists a number of local services. Phone number 0322-844862 (+39-0322-844862 from outside Italy).

Chaffeur

For a hire car or minibus with driver, contact Gilardetti at Borgomanero. Telephone +39-0322-844.744 Web site www.gilardetti.net