A Review of Italy’s Recently Opened “Bike Path” on Lake Garda

When an article appeared online about a bike path opening up along Lake Garda (Lago di Garda), I was all for taking the following Sunday to head up there and enjoy a nice day by the lake. The article, which I won’t name specifically for obvious reasons, considers this bike path one of the most spectacular in Europe. It goes on to say that it’s a 2 km stretch (although I wasn’t sure that could be correct), took 2 years and 7 million € to complete. That’s a lot of time and a lot of money. It’s gotta be worth it, right?! Well, let’s find out!

On Sunday, we loaded up the bikes from our home in Vicenza and instead of taking the autostrada (toll) route, we took the backroads through Schio and Mt. Pasubio to end up north of Lake Garda in the popular town Riva del Garda. The drive was absolutely beautiful! I’ve never been to 52 tunnels, which is one of the most popular hikes around the Veneto region, but it was packed and for good reason. The mountains we drove through were lush and looked so inviting. I mentally put this on my to-do list for later in the year. Anyways, the no-toll route only took 20 minutes longer than the autostrada route would have been and we saved around 30 € round trip in tolls.

Related post: Top 6 Hiking Trails in the Dolomites

We reached Riva del Garda, at the very north of the lake, and continued along towards Limone sul Garda – the starting point for the bike path. It’s almost August here in Italy, so of course, it’s super crowded as everyone begins their summer holiday. When we reached the starting point of the path, which could technically be either end, there was absolutely no parking anywhere. People were parked in the SOS pull-offs, on the side of the road… everywhere. We pulled into parking across the lake behind some other cars and I’m pretty sure it was hotel parking and we weren’t allowed to park there…considering there were tow signs posted. But where else were we supposed to park, amiright?!

There’s not a crosswalk to get to the bike path and it’s on a curve so you can sort of see the cars coming, but you kind of just hold your breath and run across.

Here are the approximate coordinates with the “Benvenuti” (Welcome) sign where the path started:  45°49’27.2″N 10°48’39.1″E  or click here

The perks of this path: you can see all the way to the other side of the lake, it’s sturdy and you’ll feel safe, the views are stunning, and it’s a breath of fresh air not having to worry about cars.

Here’s the real truth about this path though: I can confirm it is 2 km and it took me 21 minutes to bike from one end to the other and back. The title of the article that we read online was SO misleading because it called it a bike path. Pedestrians and bicycles are both, in fact, allowed. The ratio of people walking to people riding their bikes was about 4:1. There was not a “right of way”. Zero respect for cyclists. Many times I had to get off my bike and walk because the couple in front of me and the couple walking towards me wouldn’t allow any room for me to ride through. Also, a guy on a bike – who I thought was taking a video – was actually taking a selfie and almost hit me head on. Another time I was inches away from running a lady over as she was flipping her hair and doing some weird dance pose for her boyfriend to take her picture, and she jumped out in front of me. Stephen almost ran over a family with their dog.

All in the span of 2 km…I can’t make this stuff up, people. The path may be 2.5 meters wide but in July in the summertime with bicycles and people and dogs, it ain’t happening.

I will add this…if I was already visiting Lake Garda, I would for sure drive and WALK this path because it is pretty neat. But it is not Europe’s most spectacular, by any means. I’ve been on some pretty unimaginable hikes and climbs, like this one in Alpe di Siusi. I wouldn’t recommend driving two hours just to bike along it for the day, though. When the entire path is eventually finished, and I’m skeptical that will happen soon since this took 2 years for 2 km and it’s supposed to be 140 km total…when it’s eventually finished it will be really neat. Everyone won’t be bundled up on a 2 km stretch of path taking selfies, having their picture made, and trying to find places to park in a very narrow section of road right beside a lake.

P.S. This is not written to discourage you from going. In fact, it’s the opposite. I’m here to give you my honest opinion, which I can give because of experience. I think the issue with articles today is that they are often written without ever being experienced – which is false advertisement and basically lying to people!

Everything I write on my blog is 100% experienced and witnessed by myself. I never write about anything that I haven’t personally done. I would never recommend doing something that I myself would not do, or haven’t done. Biking this path was a great example of what happens when the writer who wrote this article never experienced it for themselves and made it out to be this amazing spectacular – the best of all Europe – path for bikes. I can promise you, my readers, that I will always keep that integrity about my blog and I appreciate and welcome any and all comments and opinions. I hope that you will head over to this bike path and experience it for yourself and then report back on what you thought!