Lake Como Ferry Tickets: Prices, Day Passes and Where to Buy

Here is the whole grid. The four right-hand columns are the reductions the operator applies to the same ticket, and the six-day column is the one nobody notices: it is priced at roughly three days for the price of the week.

When the pass beats singles

The arithmetic is simple once the grid is in front of you. On the centre-lake triangle, singles are $6.41 (€5.50) and the stretch-3 pass is $20.40 (€17.50), so the pass wins on the fourth crossing of the day. That is not a hypothetical number: a day that goes Varenna to Bellagio, Bellagio to Menaggio, Menaggio to Varenna and then back out for dinner is four crossings, and it is the normal shape of a centre-lake day.

From Como, a stretch-7 pass reaching Varenna is $34.40 (€29.50), against a $15.73 (€13.50) single each way, so the pass only wins if you break the journey twice, which the schedule from Como rarely allows.

Three limits on the pass

Two limits on the pass are worth knowing before you buy. It is personal and non-transferable, so it cannot be handed to somebody else after lunch. It is valid on a fast-service run only if you also pay the supplement, which is not included.

And it is not valid on night cruises at all. If a pass is the plan, the stretch to buy is the one that covers your furthest pier: our pick for anybody based in Varenna, Bellagio or Menaggio is stretch 3, and everything it reaches is set out on the ferry page.

The operator sells online on its own site and publishes a route-by-route fare lookup there, which is the fastest way to price a journey without reading the stretch chart. Ordinary boat and car-ferry tickets bought online are day-dated rather than time-slotted: the conditions say only valid on the day of issue, and whether an online ticket is tied to a run is not stated anywhere for the ordinary services. The fast service is the explicit exception, with its own Prenotazione Servizio Rapido channel and a reservations area in the customer account.

• Online, navigazionelaghi.it, any time, with a printed or phone ticket.
• At a staffed pier ticket office, where one exists and is open.
• From the crew on board, which adds $1.17 (€1) per passenger, per luggage item and per bicycle, but only where the departure pier's office was open.
• Through a tour or ticket operator, where the crossing is bundled with a villa entry or a guided circuit.

That third line is the one that catches people out in both directions. Travellers assume the on-board surcharge is always payable and queue unnecessarily at a staffed window; others assume it never applies and are charged. The rule is precise: the surcharge exists only where the departure pier had an open ticket office.

At a small unstaffed landing stage you board and pay the plain fare.

One thing the operator does not publish is a list of which piers are staffed and when. There is no such roster on the site, and the honest answer to somebody asking whether Lenno or Tremezzo has a window open at 08:00 is that nobody publishes it. Plan around that by buying online the night before, which also removes the only real queue on the lake, at the Como windows in July and August.

The supplement runs from $1.75 (€1.50) on stretch 1 to $6.41 (€5.50) on stretches 7 and 8, with an irreducible minimum of $2.10 (€1.80) one way and $4.19 (€3.60) return, and $1.75 (€1.50) on the special urban stretch. A senior paying the 1.20 column and a child paying the 1.50 column both pay the full supplement on top. On Como to Bellagio that turns $13.98 (€12) into $19.81 (€17); on Como to Varenna it turns $15.73 (€13.50) into $22.10 (€19).

What the money buys is time and a hard constraint. A fast ticket is valid only on that day and allows no intermediate stops at all, so a fast crossing cannot be broken. Bicycles are refused outright and larger dogs are not carried.

Our own rule is that the supplement is worth paying in exactly one situation: when a train or a flight sits at the end of the day and the ordinary boat would not make it.

A live concession was running when this page was checked: a notice of 7 September 2026 allowed boat-pass holders to use the fast run SR 113 on Menaggio to Varenna and Menaggio to Bellagio at no extra cost through 4 October 2026. That is exactly the kind of offer that is not repeated, so treat it as an example of what to look for on the operator's notices page rather than as a standing rule.

The operator's own four are worth reading against your own paperwork before you queue.

• Touring Club Italiano members and one companion: the 1.20 fare column on singles and returns, the 3.20 column on a day pass.
• Automobile Club Italiano members and one companion: the same application, on presentation of a current card.
• Happy Family: up to two children aged 4 to 11 travel free with two full-fare adult day passes.
• Conosci il tuo lago: residents of 42 lakeside comuni take the 1.20 and 3.20 columns, running to 31 December 2026.

The Trenitalia lake pass is the one to be careful with. It is a Como to Varenna day pass at $27.50 (€23.60) adult and $17.24 (€14.80) for a child aged 4 to 14, valid until 30 September 2026, bought only on trenitalia.com together with a Trenitalia ticket to Como San Giovanni and used within three days of the rail journey. The catch is printed in its own conditions: all Trenord services and international EuroCity trains are excluded.

Trenord is the operator of essentially every regional train a visitor takes to this lake, so for most travellers the qualifying ticket does not exist. The rail options are set out on getting to Lake Como from Milan.

One further pass is sometimes recommended for this lake and does not apply. Io Viaggio Ovunque in Lombardia covers all Lombardy local transport and the Como to Brunate funicular, but the only lake boats it lists are on Lake Iseo. Navigazione Lago di Como is not stated as covered either way, so treat it as not covered and price the boat separately.

An ordinary ticket is valid only on the day of issue, and within that day it is not tied to a departure, so missing a boat costs nothing: you take the next one. The operator publishes no missed-departure rule because it does not need one. A fast-service ticket and its supplement are tied to the named run, so a missed hydrofoil is a lost fare.

A refund is due in four cases: the departure ran 60 minutes or more late, it was cancelled, the authorities barred you from travelling, or there was no room aboard. Separately, you may renounce the trip within 30 minutes of the ticket being issued and take a refund with up to $3.50 (€3) deducted. Nothing else is refundable, and no partial refund is published for an unused return half.

The car ferry has one extra product with its own rules: a book of ten crossings, tied to a single number plate, with each box stamped ashore rather than on board, expiring on the 180th day. For a week's holiday it is not worth it. For anybody moving a car back and forth across the centre of the lake it is the obvious buy, and the vehicle tariff itself is set out on the ferry page.