Malpensa to Lake Como: private car or train, compared for American travellers

From Milan Malpensa (MXP) to Lake Como there are two realistic ways for a visitor: the train, with a change in Milan and often a boat at the end, or a private car straight from the arrivals hall to the hotel. The train is cheap, from €15 for the Malpensa Express plus a regional ticket. A pre-booked Elly8.net car to Bellagio and the lake towns is fixed at US$320 in a business sedan, per vehicle, and takes about 87 minutes on a clear road.

Which one makes sense depends on three things this guide takes in turn: which town on the lake you are going to, how much luggage you are carrying after an overnight flight, and how many of you there are. We book these transfers every week, and we will say plainly when the train is the better answer.

How do you get from Malpensa to Lake Como?

There is no train from the airport straight to the lake. Every rail route means at least one change in Milan, and the station you change at depends on which shore you want. The car, by contrast, has one variable: traffic on the shore road at the end.

See Lake Como prices and reserve

First, which town are you going to?

"Lake Como" covers three long arms of water and dozens of towns, and the right answer from Malpensa changes with the town. Malpensa sits north-west of Milan, on the Como side of the city, so the drive never has to cross Milan itself. The distances below are road distances and clear-road times; Como town comes from our Lake Como fact sheet, Bellagio is the reference point for our published fares, and the other towns are routed estimates from the public OSRM routing engine.

Two things stand out. Como town and Cernobbio, at the southern end of the western shore, are an easy hour by road and simple by train. Bellagio, Tremezzo and Varenna, in the middle of the lake where the three arms meet, are where the rail journey gets complicated, because the train runs down the eastern shore and the boat finishes the job.

Our published fares cover Bellagio and the lake towns: from US$320 in a business sedan, US$420 in a business SUV, US$515 in a First Class SUV, US$560 in a First Class Sedan and US$835 in an Executive Sprinter. For an address you are unsure about, such as a villa above the lake, the web booker returns a fixed price before you pay.

The train, step by step

The rail route is well run and genuinely good value. Here is what it involves, using Trenord's own published figures.

Leg one: the Malpensa Express. The airport train leaves from the station inside the terminal and runs to Milan. An adult ticket for the full Milan to Malpensa leg is €15, and a child aged 4 to 13 pays €7.50, according to the Malpensa Express ticket page. Trains run to Milano Centrale and to Milano Cadorna, and which one you pick depends on leg two.

Leg two, for Como town. From Milano Centrale, Trenord trains reach Como San Giovanni in about 40 minutes without changes, with about 17 trains a day from 06:43 to 21:43 and second-class tickets from €5.40 (Trenord, Milano Centrale to Como S. Giovanni). From Milano Cadorna, trains reach Como Lago, the station by the lakefront, in about 60 minutes, roughly every hour from 05:43 to 22:43 (Trenord, Milano Cadorna to Como).

Leg two, for the middle of the lake. From Milano Centrale, trains reach Varenna-Esino in about 64 minutes without changes, about 16 a day from 06:20 to 21:20 (Trenord, Milano Centrale to Varenna).

Leg three: the boat. From Varenna, the public operator Navigazione Laghi runs passenger boats and a car ferry across to Bellagio, Menaggio and Cadenabbia. Check the timetable and the notices before you travel: in autumn 2026 the operator suspended vehicle service at the Varenna and Menaggio piers for works, with passengers still using the terminals (Navigazione Laghi notices).

Add up the waiting between connections and a Malpensa-to-Bellagio journey by rail is a half-day affair. Miss the last useful train after a delayed flight and it becomes a problem.

The private car, step by step

The car is one transaction and one vehicle. You enter your flight number when you book, and the chauffeur tracks the landing, so an early arrival or a delay is handled without a phone call. Malpensa has two terminals, Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, and the airline decides which one you use, so tell us the terminal on your ticket.

After passport control and baggage claim, the chauffeur waits in the arrivals hall with a name board, takes the luggage and walks you to the car. Waiting after a tracked landing is complimentary, which matters at a big international airport where immigration queues vary from day to day. See meet and greet for how the meeting works, and airport transfers for what is included.

The drive itself heads north-east on the motorway towards Como, then follows the shore roads. The last stretch to Bellagio is the slow part: a winding road along the water, through villages, with buses and little room to pass. On a summer Saturday it can take far longer than the clear-road figure. Your fare does not change.

What each option costs your party

Rail tickets are per person; our fares are per vehicle. The arithmetic below is for comparison only, using the published adult and child fares above for a trip to Como town, where every leg has a published price. For Bellagio, add the boat fare from Varenna.

The vehicle sizes come from our fleet: a Business Sedan or First Class Sedan takes three passengers and two large bags, a Business SUV or First Class SUV six passengers and six bags, and an Executive Sprinter twelve passengers and twelve bags. A family of four with four suitcases does not fit in a sedan, which is why the SUV is the honest comparison for them. Browse the fleet for photos.

The luggage reality

This is the part travel guides tend to skip. On the rail route, every suitcase is lifted onto the Malpensa Express, off it in Milan, through a busy station, onto a regional train, off again at Como or Varenna, and, for Bellagio, onto a boat and up from the pier to the hotel. Nobody does it for you. For one traveller with a carry-on, that is a pleasant way to arrive. For two people with two large checked cases each after a night flight from New York or Toronto, it is a long morning.

Families feel it most. Children's car seats are another reason to take a car: ask for child or booster seats when you book, give the children's ages, and the partner fits them before pickup.

When the train is the better choice

We would tell a friend to take the train in these cases:

• You are travelling alone or as a couple with light bags, and staying in Como town or near Varenna station.
• You land in the morning on a weekday with plenty of connections ahead of you and no fixed appointment.
• The budget matters more than the time, and a half day of travel is part of the adventure.
• You want the boat arrival into Bellagio, which is a lovely way to see the lake for the first time if your bags are small.

If that is you, the train is the right call, and nothing on this page should talk you out of it.

When the private car wins

A pre-booked car wins clearly when:

• Your flight lands late, close to the last trains, or when a delay could strand you in Milan.
• You have children, car seats, a stroller or more than one large case each.
• You are a group, where one Business SUV or one Sprinter at a fixed price costs less per person than it first appears.
• You are going to Bellagio, Tremezzo or a villa that is awkward by train and boat.
• You want a fixed price in US dollars, agreed before you fly, with taxes, standard gratuity and meet and greet included; tolls and parking are billed at cost.
• You are arriving for a wedding, a retreat or a meeting and need to be at the hotel by a certain time.

For a detailed look at Bellagio arrivals from every airport, see our guide to the Lake Como airport transfer for North American travellers.

What about a taxi or an app from Malpensa?

Milan's taxis follow one official tariff set by the Comune di Milano, with fixed fares on a handful of routes such as Malpensa to any address in Milan and Malpensa to Varese (Comune di Milano, taxi service). There is no fixed taxi fare from Malpensa to Lake Como, so a taxi to the lake runs on the meter, with motorway tolls on top. It avoids the train changes, but you only learn the total at the hotel door.

App rides at Malpensa are premium licensed cars priced by demand at the moment you request them, so the price is not fixed in advance either. Compare the categories on chauffeur vs taxi and chauffeur vs Uber and Lyft.

Going back to Malpensa

The same fare applies in the other direction: Bellagio and the lake towns to Malpensa is US$320 in a business sedan up to US$835 in a Sprinter, and a round trip booked together costs from US$610 in a business sedan to US$1,590 in a Sprinter. For the departure, plan backwards from your airline's recommended arrival time and add a generous margin for the shore road; the desk will suggest a pickup time when you book. A departure from Linate, for a European connection, starts at US$315 from the lake.

If you are spending a few days in Milan first, the drive is different again; see Milan to Lake Como by private car, and our Milan car service for the city itself.

How to book a Malpensa to Lake Como transfer

1. Pickup and drop-off. Enter Malpensa with your flight number and terminal, and your hotel or villa on the lake.
2. Vehicle. Choose the class that fits your passengers and bags, using the capacities above.
3. Reserve. Press Reserve now on the Lake Como fares for a published route and pay by card in US$, or use the web booker for any other address. Confirmation comes by email.

Rides on Lake Como are operated by licensed, commercially insured local chauffeur partners vetted through the Limousine Worldwide network; Elly8.net takes the booking, fixes the price and runs the 24/7 desk. Cancellation is free more than 72 hours before pickup, 10% at 72 hours or less, 50% at 48 hours or less, and 100% at 24 hours or less or for a no-show, with refunds to the original card; see the cancellation policy.

Book any address

Planning several moves around the lake? Our explainer on Lake Como transfers for first-time visitors covers hotel-to-hotel moves, piers and onward trips to Switzerland. Elly8.net is a member of LimousineWorldwide.Directory, LimousineAssociation.International, HotelsWorldwide.Directory and VacationsWorldwide.Directory.