Residence Lenno — Hotel in Tremezzina

As a last minute addition to our trip to Venice, we stayed in Lake Como for a couple of days. I actually wanted to stay in Varenna, but couldn't find anything with a vacancy, and finally came across Residence Lenno. Am I glad I did!||||From the start, communication was wonderful. I made an error in booking, and cancelled and re-booked, all online. I was a little nervous that it would mess up my reservation, but before I had a chance to reach out to them, they emailed me stating they wanted to confirm that this is what I wanted. Awesome :)||||En route from Venice to Lenno, we had some transportation issues which significantly delayed our arrival, and I stayed in touch with the hotel (Albergo Lenno) staff and they were unbelievably nice, asking that I just keep them up to date because they would pick us up when our bus dropped us in town. I felt bad, because our bus driver was nice enough to drop us right near the hotel, and when we got there, found out that the owner, Alberto, was waiting at the bus stop for us already! And when we walked in the door, they were like, "Helen! You're here!", like a family waiting for my arrival and glad I finally made it.||||From this point forward, everything was just fantastic. Francesca, Alberto's wife, is the sweetest person, so patient, and so welcoming. Same goes for Alberto, who took our luggage, drove us up to the the Residence (we stayed in Room 22), and helped us in with our bags. Luca helped us with the boat schedules, things to do, and any other questions we had. There were a few other employees who were also wonderful, especially one young woman we saw frequently (whom I didn't get the name of unfortunately); EVERYONE was so sincerely polite and accommodating, and always with a smile. Francesca also helped me figure out my boat/train schedule to get to the airport, maximizing my last hours in Lenno prior to leaving. I really wish we had been able to stay longer.||||Ok, that's the service--Beyond Excellent. On to the apartment. We chose a "lakefront" apartment, but the building really is set back, across the road. However, Room 22 had a lovely, huge balcony terrace with lounge chairs and a table with umbrella. The view of the lake was a little limited by trees and buildings, but was still gorgeous. And for the price, it was perfect. I knew that if I wasn't paying 400 Euro a night, I wasn't going to be right up on the lake. We loved our evenings with wine or prosecco sitting out on that balcony. ||||The apartment was spotlessly clean and everything looked pretty new. The bed was so comfy and the huge windows with the glass door entry to the balcony was right next to the bed. The blackout blinds block out any light, though. So in the morning, I'd pull open the blinds to watch the sun rise over the lake and mountains. Gorgeous. One morning, I walked down to the lake and watched the sun rise from there. The bathroom is very nice, very clean. The shower is quite small, a bit difficult to maneuver in, so if you are very large/tall, it might be a bit of an issue for you.||||The Residence is a tiny bit of a walk to the lake and to Albergo Lenno (which wonderfully has the ferry stop right in front of it!), and across a treacherous road (hello, it's Italy!). For my husband and I (ages 46 and 50), it was no big deal and, in fact, we welcomed the stroll. I will say that if you have ambulation issues of any kind, it might be a little challenging, but truthfully almost all of Lake Como would then be challenging. Everything is set in the mountains, up hills, up stone stairs, etc. ||||Lastly, the food. We chose the full service option, because for what it costs, vs. the fact that you have to pay a cleaning fee at the end of your stay anyway, it made sense for us. The breakfast is pretty basic, like a continental breakfast, the same every day, but still very enjoyable. The fresh squeezed juices are delicious!!!! You can have hard boiled eggs or soft boiled that you cook yourself (it says cook 5 min, I recommend 6ish). Yummy breads and croissants. I think there was yogurt. Lots of fruit. The meats weren't so great, didn't really impress me. But everything else is good and you can eat outside.||||Our last night, we had drinks in the lounge (sat outside) and ate dinner in the restaurant. The food was very, very good, probably the best we had in Lenno.||||Lastly, if anything could be better or is missing (all very small things), it's as listed:||1. The blowdryer in the bathroom is very weak. Took a precious 20-30 minutes to dry my hair out of my vacation time, lol!||2. The shower needs a shelf in it to place your soap, shampoo, etc. ||3. A place to hang wet towels other than the towel warmer, because that doesn't really hold much, and the warmer doesn't really warm much.||4. An ice cube tray in the freezer.||5. A safe for your belongings (we just kept our valuables locked in our luggage).||||We loved it there, and will definitely stay there again if we ever go back!!! And longer...

Room / Apartment||This hotel was separate from the main Hotel Lenno, which is short few minute walk away. The room was self catering with everything you need, cooker, fridge / freezer, glasses, cutlery, table and chairs etc. The room was spacious, modern in design and very clean.||||The from desk of this residence was not staffed while we were there, the residents are responsible for locking and opening the front door as we come in and leave, so be aware of this. It was no problem to us, but if you like staff at your hotel this will not be the case here. We walked to Lenno when we had any questions to ask, or emailed them lol.||||I could imagine this place being perfect for a family to rent out and occupy a room each in the whole apartment.||||There is ample parking outside and a small pool upstairs. The pool did have some moss in it, but we saw people suing it every day.||||The only down side was that the mattress on the bed was hard and we found this very uncomfortable. If you like a hard mattress though you will be happy here.||||The shop is again a few minutes walk away, but you may well have missed it! It is not well signed and all we say were a few people sitting outside a building, we ended up walking 20 mins to the supermarket down the road, only to see the shop a few minutes away from the villa on way back.||||TRANSPORT||This is countryside location, be aware of this. There are buses that go to como and the other direction about 1 per hour. ||||Bus - The buses are a little strange (to me as an English person) as you can pay AFTER you get off?? We did not know where to buy tickets from so the driver told us where once we got to our destination. You can buy packs of tickets and give them to the driver when you get on the bus. it was about 2.50 each way for an hours journey!||||Water Boat - There is fast boat that take about 30 mins and a slower one. The fast one is more but i cant remember the price. The stops right in front of Hotel Lenno, so again just a few minutes walk away.||||Taxi - taxi to como centre is going to cost you about 80. ||||Hire a car - be well aware the roads here are not the the faint hearted, they are tiny, often only one car can pass at a time, huge lorries and coaches are alongside pedestrians (as there is no payment for most of the way) and vehicles constantly have to hitch into little corners to make another vehicle pass. although I've been driving for twenty years, i would not consider driving here.||||Walking - there are walking routes to some of the tourist villas, Balbianello is only 15 mins walk maximum. And another villa is about 40 minutes walk away. Again be aware of these roads, they are not for the faint hearted either. There is no pavement on most of the roads around here, so you are walking in the road with lorries and coaches, vans and cars. My heart was in my throat constantly. Where your route allows you can walk alongside the river which is beautiful, or up in the hills which again is beautiful but hard work - go dressed for a workout!! The hills are steep, trainers and shorts needed.||||BREAKFAST||Breakfast was at Hotel Lenno, quite ample, a range of cold meats, crossaints, breads etc. the only hot thing though was boiled eggs, which you put into a pot of boiling water yourself. It would have been lovely to have an omelette or fried eggs etc.||||STAFF||Staff at Lenno were more than helpful. Polite, happy to explain things in English (apologies for my lack of Italian) happy to give tips and advice. I could not fault them.||||WIFI - the wifi did not work in our rooms at Residence Lenno, but with the new European laws we were able to use our minutes from our English contracts with no extra charges, this was very useful when we went out walking.||||Overall this location was great. Would definitely stay here again, and would...

We booked to stay at the Residence Lenno for 5 nights, the self catering apartments associated with Hotel Lenno. When we arrived straight off the ferry and we consulted our reservation to see where to check in, we were pleased to see we were standing right in front of the the hotel! The staff were very friendly and helpful, giving us a map of the town, explaining where the supermarket was and explaining how the ferry worked and giving us the timetable.||||The apartment we stayed in was very clean, the bathroom and shower were large. I was really impressed with the amount of free toiletries and the shelving available in the bathroom. The kitchenette was well equipped. We cooked one night as we bough some lovely food from the Tuesday morning market, and had no trouble finding everything we needed. Our room opened directly onto the pool and as it was a quite time of year it was almost like having our own private pool! The building has some great views and is only a two minute walk to the Lake. Slightly further away is the supermarket, more like 10-15 minutes along a busy road but it has more than everything you will need. I liked that the apartments were affiliated with the hotel. You could go in for a drink and it could be added to your room. ||||Slight negatives: In all the hotels/apartments I have stayed in abroad they have had at least one English speaking TV channel but the channels were very limited. The Wifi was very unpredictable and kept dropping out for long periods of time. It was difficult to take a long hot shower as the hot water would run out after about 10 minutes. There was a wardrobe to tidy away clothes but it only had a few hangers and floor space was very limited to open out suitcases. Our room was not cleaned or fresh towels added for the whole 5 days we were there, when I asked reception about this and asked what was I paying a 50 euro cleaning charge for, I was told that the cleaning was only done after we left. ||||All in all a very pleasant stay and I would return but I would defiantly advise when checking in to make sure clean towels...