Isola del Garda: the Borghese Island, Tickets and Tours

The Guided Landing Visit

This is the only way onto Isola del Garda. The Cavazza family lives on the island all year and sells one product: a guided tour with boat transfer from a mainland port. Prices run per person from $25.70 (€23) for a child from a Range 1 port up to $54.74 (€49) for an adult from Desenzano or Lazise, and cover the return boat, a guided visit of about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 and a welcome drink.

Tours run 29 March to October, closed Saturdays and Mondays, and cannot be booked by phone. Book on the family's own site, then fill the rest of your trip with more things to do at Lake Garda.

A Boat That Circles the Island

If the timetable or the price does not work, several tours show you the island from the water. The private 1.5-hour boat tour around the island by Bertoldi Boats costs $496.04 per boat, carries a bottle of Prosecco and passes Sirmione, the Rocca di Manerba and San Biagio island before circling Garda Island. It does not land. Cheaper options, like the 4-hour guided cruise with a stop in Sirmione at $61 per person, give you the same views of the neo-Gothic villa from the lake.

Compare all of them on the Lake Garda tours page.

From Sirmione

Sirmione sits in price Range 2, so an adult pays $51.39 (€46), a reduced ticket $46.92 (€42) and a child $33.52 (€30). The boat leaves on Tuesdays at 11:00 and on Thursdays at 11:00, and the crossing takes 25-30 minutes each way. You stay on the island about 2 hours 15-30 minutes either way, so the outing takes roughly half a day (our estimate).

If you are staying in Sirmione, this is the simplest way to combine the island with the castle and the Grottoes of Catullus on other days.

From the East Shore

Bardolino, Garda and Torri del Benaco are Range 2 ports at $51.39 (€46) for an adult. Bardolino boats leave Wednesday at 9:30, Friday at 8:45 and Sunday at 11:20. Garda leaves Wednesday at 9:45 and Friday at 9:00, and Torri del Benaco on Tuesday at 11:30.

Bardolino, Garda and Torri take 25-30 minutes each way. Lazise is Range 3, the most expensive at $54.74 (€49) for an adult, with a Sunday 11:00 departure and a 50-60 minute crossing. From Bardolino you can taste local wine afterwards, see Bardolino wine.

The Harbour and the Lechi Boat House

The island's little port is where every guided group lands, and the guided boats arrive together for the start of the tour even when they come from different ports. Count Luigi Lechi, who bought the island in 1817, had the architect Rodolfo Vantini build a boat house and a turret at the port from 1830. Boarding and leaving the boat needs a few steps you can manage on your own, and the boatmen help anyone who struggles.

Strollers stay outside the villa later, so a light folding one is best. The whole stay lasts about 2 hours 15-30 minutes, depending on group size.

The Neo-Gothic Villa

The villa is Venetian neo-Gothic, designed by Luigi Rovelli and built between 1890 and 1903 for Duke Gaetano de Ferrari and his wife Maria Annenkova. Inside, the tour shows only a few rooms, one of which holds an 18th-century canvas by Carlo Carloni. The visit here is short compared with the gardens,.

There are three staircases of about 25 steps each, so anyone with limited mobility should tell the family when booking.

The Italian Garden

The central terrace is a formal Italian garden with clipped hedges shaped into figures, including the Borghese family emblem. The family opened the gardens to visitors in 2001, and the soil under all this planting was carried onto the island by its owners, since the island is barely 70 m wide at its broadest. Guests who cannot manage the stairs can be taken by golf cart to the upper terrace, but two lower terraces are then visible only from above.

Give the hedge work a few minutes before moving on. The English garden follows next on the route.

The English Garden

Lady Charlotte Chetwynd-Talbot, eldest daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, married Camillo Cavazza and moved to the island in 1965. Over the years she turned the old lakeside orchard into an English garden, a corner of her own homeland, with flower beds set around the existing box hedges. It is a looser style than the clipped Italian terrace above, and the old fruit trees are still in it.

Canary Island palms stand near the villa, and paths run on into the island's natural park, part of the visit. This is the calmest part of the tour. Keep dogs on a lead throughout: only small carried dogs enter the villa, others wait outside for 15-20 minutes.

The Fruit Terrace and the Welcome Drink

The lower terrace carries the island's orchard: lemons, pomegranates, persimmons, pears, oranges, grapefruit, prickly pears, jujubes, olives and capers, all grown in soil the owners brought over. The tour ends with the welcome drink included in every ticket, a glass of local wine, water or juice, plus a taste of DOP Garda Bresciano olive oil. Guides speak Italian, English and German.

After the drink the boat returns you to your departure port, from 10-15 minutes away from Barbarano, Portese, Gardone Riviera, San Felice or Porto Torchio.

Saint Francis to the Lechi Family

Carloman gave the island to the monks of San Zeno of Verona in 879. In 1221 Biemino di Manerba handed it to Saint Francis, whose followers built a hermitage in the caves facing north. Dante mentioned the place in the Inferno, canto XX lines 67-69, written around 1304.

In the 1420s Bernardino of Siena raised a convent. Napoleon's campaign brought expropriation in 1797, and Count Luigi Lechi bought the island in 1817, adding the boat house and port turret by Rodolfo Vantini in 1830. It was expropriated again from 1860 to 1866 for its border position.

The Borghese and the Cavazza

Duke Gaetano de Ferrari and his wife Maria Annenkova bought the island in 1869 and commissioned Luigi Rovelli's neo-Gothic villa, built between 1890 and 1903. Their daughter Anna Maria married Prince Scipione Borghese in 1895, the prince who later won the 1907 Peking-Paris raid, and the Borghese name stuck to the island. The Cavazza family, the current owners, lives there all year and opened the gardens to visitors in 2001.

That is why access is controlled: you tour a private home, not a state museum, and every visit goes through their booking system.

The visit is not hard, but it is not flat. To board the boat you must be able to take a few steps on your own, and the boatmen help where needed. On the island there are three staircases of about 25 steps each: two between the garden terraces and one in the villa.

A guest who cannot climb them can be taken by golf cart to the refreshment area on the upper terrace, but then sees two lower terraces only from above and misses part of the villa. Wheelchairs are possible, electric wheelchairs are not, and there are accessible toilets. Tell the family about any need when you book, because the accompanying person pays the reduced price and disability card holders pay the child price.

Children, Strollers and Dogs

The visit is not designed for children, but the family says most manage it, and the guided part lasts about 1 hour to 1 hour 15. Bring a light folding stroller rather than a heavy one: the paths are narrow in places and strollers stay outside the villa. Children under 5 go free, ages 5-12 pay the child price.

Dogs are welcome on a lead for the whole visit. Only small dogs carried in a bag or in your arms enter the villa, and medium or large dogs wait outside with someone for the 15-20 minutes indoors. The walk is not recommended in hot months for anyone with heart conditions, and there is seating along the way.

Book online on the family's own site at least the day before, and at least 4 days ahead in high season. Phone bookings are not taken: the numbers on the site belong to the guides, who answer questions when they can and also reply on WhatsApp. Guides are assigned the day before by language, so a same-day booking needs a message first to check your language is covered.

You can also book online and pay on the day, but then a no-show or a late cancellation costs the full price. Cancel by email at least 24 hours ahead.

Weather and Refunds

Tickets are non-refundable, with one exception: if the family or the boat company cancels for bad weather, you get your money back. Otherwise you can move the date or take a voucher valid for 2 years. Rain alone does not stop the tour, so bring an umbrella or a waterproof.

In the low season, March to late April and October, a departure can be cancelled the day before if too few people booked. Once you buy, you receive a map of your departure port and a photo of your boat. Plan the rest of your days of Lake Garda tours around that one fixed slot.

• There are no tours on Saturdays as well as Mondays, so a weekend visit means a Sunday boat (Isola del Garda).
• The soil for the gardens was carried onto the island by its owners, because the island was originally rock (Wikipedia).
• Dante is thought to refer to the island in Inferno canto XX, lines 67-69, as the place where three bishops could all give a blessing (Isola del Garda).
• Scipione Borghese, who married into the island in 1895, won the Peking-Paris motor raid of 1907 in an Itala car that is now in Turin's automobile museum (Isola del Garda).
• In 1917 Princess Anna Maria Borghese took in eighteen young Armenian refugees on the island (Isola del Garda).