Drivers Cernobbio
Driversin Cernobbio.
English-speaking, discreet, and known to us personally.
Lake Como Province of Como
The trade base here is the deepest on the lake, and it is a function of the city rather than the town: architects, surveyors, structural engineers, restorers and the notarial and legal professions are all in Como, minutes away, and they are used to working on protected buildings. Anyone renovating in Cernobbio has a shorter list of problems than someone renovating at mid-lake for this reason alone.
The complication is regulatory rather than practical. Much of the waterfront is subject to landscape and heritage constraint, several of the villas are individually listed, and works close to the water bring in a further set of consents. None of it is unusual for this lake; all of it takes longer than a first programme assumes, and the right answer is to have the constraints established before you exchange rather than after.
For how this trade works across the whole lake, what to ask for, how the firms are chosen and what goes wrong, read drivers on Lake Como. For the village itself, read our guide to Cernobbio.
Editorial note: we have not yet written up how this trade works in Cernobbio specifically, so this page is kept out of search until we have. The introduction itself is unaffected. Ask and we will make it.
On the network
12 drivers
Held across the lake rather than in one village. We introduce the two we would use ourselves for the job in front of you.
01What they do
Airport and city transfers
Malpensa, Linate, Lugano and Milan, with the timing worked backwards from the traffic on the day rather than from a fixed allowance.
Days at the disposal of the house
The car and the driver held for the day: restaurants, the school run, appointments, and the long wait outside that nobody thanks them for.
Knowing when not to take the shore road
Choosing the hour, the route over the hill, or the boat instead, and telling you before you have committed to a lunch on the other side.
Working with the boat
Meeting a launch at the right jetty, moving luggage between car and water, and covering the leg of the journey the boat cannot do.
Questions
How are private drivers on Lake Como charged?
Either as a fixed price for a defined transfer or as a rate for a day or half-day at the disposal of the house, with waiting time, tolls and any overnight away from base agreed in advance. We do not publish rates.
For a stay of any length the day arrangement is usually better value and always less stressful than booking transfers one by one. Agree what a day means: a start time, a finish time and what happens when dinner runs late. It is the only thing that ever causes friction.
Is a driver better than hiring a car on Lake Como?
For most people, yes. The roads are demanding, parking near the villages is scarce and controlled, and the historic centres are closed to traffic, so the car is rarely the pleasant part of the day.
A hire car earns its place if you are going to spend real time away from the shore: the passes, the Ghisallo, Bergamo, the Valtellina. For moving about the lake itself, the water is usually faster and always more agreeable, and a driver covers the legs the boat cannot.
How long is the transfer from Milan to the lake?
It varies enough by day, hour and season that we will not publish a figure. Ask the driver on the day, and build in the possibility that the last few kilometres take longer than the motorway did.
The motorway section is predictable; the shore road is not. A Friday afternoon in July and a Tuesday morning in March are different journeys entirely, and the closer the house is to the far end of a shore road, the wider the spread. Drivers who work the lake will tell you what time to leave rather than how long it takes.
Written by The Como Private Desk
Elsewhere in Cernobbio
Drivers in other villages
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