Property services
Classic & Luxury Car Hire
For the drive over the Ghisallo, or for the airport run.
Seasonal fleet on the network Lake Como
Begin with what the car is actually for. Between villages on the same shore, a boat will beat a car comfortably and pleasantly, and the roads are narrow, walled, and shared with coaches. Where a car earns its place is in leaving: the airport, Milan, Bergamo, the passes north towards the Spluga and the Maloja, the climb over the Ghisallo and down to Bellagio, the Valassina when the shore road is impossible. The standard mistake is to hire something fast and interesting and then spend the week following a delivery lorry between Argegno and Sala Comacina, at which point the car is an irritation rather than a pleasure. Firms worth using will say this before they take the booking, and will ask what drives you actually intend to do.
Then the practicalities, which are more limiting here than anywhere the car came from. Parking at the house is frequently a single space at the top of a ramp built for a Fiat, or nowhere at all; the historic centres of the villages are closed to traffic and enforced; and a low car on a steep private drive with a lip at the road will ground on the way out. In August, a classic without air conditioning stops being romantic somewhere around the second tunnel. The firms that work with villas deliver to the house and collect from it, which removes the worst of the problem, and they will look at the access before they promise a particular car. Insurance conditions on a valuable vehicle are stricter than ordinary hire: named drivers, minimum experience, an excess held against a card. It is far better to establish all of that at booking than at handover.
Finally, supply. This is a seasonal business: much of the fleet is brought to the lake for a few months and taken away again, the interesting cars are committed early in the spring, and by the middle of August what remains is what nobody wanted. If a particular car matters to you, book it when you book the house. If it does not, an ordinary comfortable estate that will take four people and their luggage up a ramp is, honestly, the more useful vehicle for most of a stay, with something more entertaining taken for a single day and the drive planned to go east and north, away from the shore road, where the roads are open and the traffic is not.
01What they actually do
Delivery to the house
Bringing the car to the villa and collecting it afterwards, having first checked that it will get up the drive and fit where it has to stand.
Classic cars for a particular drive
A car held for a day or two for the Ghisallo, the passes or a run to Bergamo, rather than for a week of sitting behind coaches on the shore.
Everyday cars for a stay
Something comfortable that carries the family and the luggage, copes with a steep ramp, and can be left in a village car park without anxiety.
Airport collection and return
Handover at Malpensa, Linate or Bergamo, or a driver for the motorway leg with the car waiting at the house.
02How we choose
We drive the cars and we look at how they are kept between hires, which in this business is where the differences show. Tyres, brakes and the state of a classic underneath matter more than the paint, and a firm that hands a car over dirty in July is a firm running beyond its capacity. We also judge them on what they refuse: an operator willing to send a long, low car to a house with a hairpin ramp has not been to the house.
No firm pays to appear here and we take no commission on a hire. We are recommending a car for a week of somebody's summer, and the only thing that recommends itself is whether the car and the firm behind it are right for the roads and for the house.
We remove operators for the ordinary failures of a seasonal trade: a car substituted at the last minute for something the member did not want, delivery that does not happen on the day, and disputes over damage that are raised weeks later without evidence. Coverage sits at Como because that is where the fleets are based and where handovers are done; the cars come to you anywhere on the lake.
Classic & Luxury Car Hire: questions
Do I need a car on Lake Como?
Not for moving around the lake itself, where boats and ferries are quicker and more pleasant. A car is worth having for the airport, for Milan and Bergamo, and for the drives up into the mountains.
Many houses have limited parking or none, and the village centres are closed to traffic. A common arrangement is no hire car at all, a driver for transfers, and one interesting car taken for a single day when the weather is right.
How is classic car hire priced?
By the day or by the weekend, with mileage limits, delivery and collection, and a security deposit held against the vehicle. We do not publish rates.
Ask specifically about mileage allowance and what happens beyond it, whether delivery to the house is included, and how damage is assessed on return. Photograph the car with the firm present at handover and again at collection; it takes five minutes and settles almost every dispute before it starts.
Can the car be delivered to the villa?
Usually yes, and it is the sensible arrangement, but send the firm photographs of the drive and the parking first.
Steep ramps, a lip at the road, a tight gate and a turning circle that does not exist are all common here, and they determine which car can actually come. A firm that asks for these details before confirming is doing its job.
What licence and insurance conditions apply?
Expect named drivers only, a minimum age and licence-held period, an excess secured against a card, and stricter conditions on a valuable or classic vehicle than on ordinary hire.
Drivers holding a licence from outside the EU should confirm whether an international permit is required and carry it. Settle all of this at the point of booking, since discovering a condition at handover on a Saturday afternoon in July is a way to lose the first day of a holiday.
Other people worth knowing
Before you instruct anyone
For people who work on the lake
Are you the bestat what you do here?
The list we introduce from is short and grows slowly: by working with somebody, seeing how a job goes, and only then adding them. If that is the standard you hold yourself to, tell us who you are. We read every one. We check work before we introduce anybody, and no money passes in either direction.
Put yourself forward