Cycling in Lake District between Italy and Switzerland
Lake Maggiore, Varese, Lugano, Como Cycling climbs Road cycling routesA cycling holiday destination
At LNI BT, our goal is to help you to make your cycling experience easy, smooth and adventurous in the Italian and Swiss Lake District through offering of group bike tours, private tours and rides on your own.
LNI BT is the ONLY one who puts together on Google Maps:
road cycling routes good for riding,
to make a cyclist's life easier.
The Lake District offers pleasant cycling terrains especially for intermediete and advanced roadies in search of more challenging cycling adventures. It has a network of rides ready to blow your mind.
The Lakes are best enjoyed from April through to June and from mid-August through to October, but here the climate makes it possible to go cycling almost all year round.
We are located on the border between Southern Switzerland and Northern Italy at the foot of the Alps. It's a perfect location for a cycling holiday due to a huge number of roads suitable for cyclists and a climate that’s mild most of the year round.
The four most important lakes are Lake Maggiore, Lake Lugano, Lake Varese and Lake Como. Between and around there are several minor lakes such as Lake Orta, West of Maggiore, Lake Monate and Lake Comabbio, South Varese, and Lake Ganna, Lake Ghirla and Lake Brinzio midway between Varese and Lugano.
Guided tours, private rides and rides on your own
We love to give you the opportunity to experience the valleys in many aspects, the pictoresque villages, the lakes, mountains and the hidden roads along the way. Thanks to the vastness and diversity of territory, you will easily ride along the shore of the lakes and the banks, or you will toil to climb the valleys of our territory. Lago Maggiore, Lugano and Como have steep shores which are studded with pastel villages and villas with beautiful gardens.
It's a playground for cyclists.
We love to ride by bike for fun without forgetting to enjoy what the Northern Italian Lakes have to offer: narrow climbs, fast downhills, ancient villas, parks, churches and hermitages which were built from Sixteenth Century to the Nineteenth Century, exibitions, history, art, culture.
Not only biking here during your cycling holiday.
Learn more about the best tourist attractions around
Take on the climbs
The roads following the lakes can get a little busy in the height of summer but there are many easy to access climbs that take you away from the shoreline and deliver a double opportunity of views and seclusion. You’ve probably never heard of them, but there’s some massive and excellent climbs in the area.
Find out the toughest 10 climbs around, hoping that one day you will have the opportunity to climb up them and coast down them.
You might think that this is not the place for gentle and slow cycling. However, we also planned cycling tours where you can avoid any big hills and medium sized hills too.
We are adept at avoiding as many as possible main busy roads during your cycling holidays.
Have a look at our guided tours below.
Who are our rides for
Our rides are for:
- who loves climbing up and down the roads each day, searching for the views over the lakes.
If you ever have the chance to make these rides around either of these lakes, you really should jump at the chance. It’s such an attractive area that will find it hard to keep your eyes on the road rather than the view. - who enjoys days of adventure-cycling in the midst of extensive forests, hills and mountains.
The region is a fantastic base for exploring the surrounding mountains and forests as getting off the beaten track and into the wilderness doesn’t take long at all. The roads following the lakes can get a little busy in the height of summer but there are many easy to access climbs that take you away from the shoreline and deliver views and seclusion. - who wants experiencing an equipped, enjoyable and flexible road cycling area suited for a pro cyclist. A good number of pro road cyclists have made their home here. Vincenzo Nibali, Filippo Ganna, Fabio Aru, Diego Ulissi, Domenico Pozzovivo, Alberto Bettiol, Enrico Gasparotto, Oscar Freire, Michael Rogers, Candel Evans, the team BikeExchange when in Europe....
It’s virtually impossible to make a 100 km ride on back roads with less than 1,000 - 1,500 metres climbing.
We often get asked info regarding:
- how is car traffic around the lakes,
- if cyclists are respected on the road.
The Lakes are beautiful. But they are really busy, so much traffic on the main roads and on several lakeside roads.
The lakes are lovely, but they do get busy. There's barely anyone up the side valleys.
90% of the traffic is on the main roads, once you turn off you can go hours without encountering another vehicle.
Only a few minutes out of the front door and you can be at the foot of 5-10 kilometres climbs.
We think the key to it, if you're going to come here cycling is just ride up passes away from the lakes. And then you get to see even more stuff. Some of the hidden gems are off the beaten track and less well-known ones as well.
It's gorgeous up the hills, we'd totally recommend it. The roads are quieter.
The Italian and Swiss drivers are used to see many cyclists here and generally they are patient. You can bump into many different groups of cyclists out for a ride: some looking like pros, some who seemed to be pros and people of all ages.
However we warmly recommend that you don't ride side by side with other cyclists, but in a row especially when there are cars.
The drivers can become angry.
Photographer: Lakes Northern Italy Bike Tours
Copyright: Lakes Northern Italy Bike Tours
Credit: Lakes Northern Italy Bike Tours