Aperitivo is the best hour of the day on Lake Garda. From about 6pm the harbour cafés fill up, the spritzes come out with a bowl of crisps and olives, and the light on the water does the rest. The south shore, Sirmione and Desenzano, is where you find the polished cocktail bars and the champagne lists. The east shore from Bardolino to Malcesine is more about a glass of Chiaretto on the promenade. The north end around Riva and Torbole drinks Hugo spritz and Trentino beer with a windsurfing crowd, and the west shore around Salò and Gardone is quieter and a little more elegant.
We have sat at every bar on this list, usually more than once, and paid for our own drinks. We ranked them on the setting, how well they make a drink, and whether we would go back on an ordinary Tuesday. Expect €4–7 for a spritz at most of them and €10–15 for a proper cocktail at the top two.
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The grand old café on Piazza Carducci has been here since the 1890s, with a terrace that looks across the little harbour to the Scaliger castle. It is a proper bar with white-jacketed service, a long list of cocktails and a Negroni that is made rather than poured. You pay for the address, roughly €8–10 for a spritz, but the piazza at dusk is worth it once. It is a two-minute walk from the castle bridge in our guide to Sirmione.
On Piazza Malvezzi, the main square behind the old harbour, Caffè Italia is where Desenzano goes to show off a little. The champagne and Franciacorta list is enormous, the oysters are fresh and the crowd is dressed for it on a Saturday night. Prices match, €12–15 for a cocktail, but a glass of Franciacorta at the bar is a more affordable way in. We cover the rest of the town in our guide to Desenzano.
Salò has the longest lakefront promenade on the lake and a string of bars along Lungolago Zanardelli, from the ferry pier to the cathedral end. They are not fancy, mostly café-bars with tables under the plane trees, but the view across the gulf to the east shore is the best on this side of the lake. A spritz runs €5–7 and comes with proper snacks. See our guide to Salò for the rest of the town.
Bardolino · Lungolago and Piazza Matteotti, Bardolino
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Bardolino is a wine town, and the bars along the lungolago and around Piazza Matteotti pour the local Chiaretto rosé by the glass for €3–5, along with Bardolino Classico and Lugana from over the water. Several of the wine bars run tasting flights of three or four glasses with a board of local cheese and salami, which is the cheapest wine tasting on the lake. Combine it with the Thursday market or a lakeside walk from our guide to Bardolino.
Malcesine · Via Navene Vecchia, north of Malcesine harbour
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A ten-minute walk north of Malcesine harbour on Via Navene Vecchia, Speck Stube is a big Tyrolean-style beer garden under the trees, with pork knuckle and ribs turning on the grill and litre steins of lager. It is not a cocktail bar and it does not pretend to be, but on a warm evening after a day on Monte Baldo it is exactly what you want. Beers are €5–7, plates €12–20. We cover the cable car and castle in our guide to Malcesine.
Riva’s main square opens straight onto the harbour, with the Torre Apponale on one side and cafés under the arcades on the other. This is Trentino, so the drink is a Hugo spritz, elderflower and prosecco with mint, for €5–6, and the beer is local. The mix of climbers, cyclists and families makes it the most sociable square on the lake. Everything else in town is in our guide to Riva del Garda.
Garda’s long curving promenade faces west, so it is one of the few places on the east shore where you get the sun going down over the water. The bars along it are straightforward café-bars with big terraces, good for a spritz and a bowl of crisps rather than mixology, and the passeggiata crowd walks past all evening. Walk south to the Punta San Vigilio headland beforehand, we describe the route in our guide to Garda.
Lazise · Porto Vecchio and Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, Lazise
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Lazise’s little walled harbour is ringed by bars and gelaterie, and on a summer evening the whole town seems to be sitting around it. It is relaxed and family-friendly, with children running around the piazza while parents finish a second spritz. Prices are fair, €4–6 a drink, and the old town is small enough that you can walk between three or four bars in ten minutes. See our guide to Lazise for the campsites and beaches nearby.
Torbole is where the lake’s windsurfers and kitesurfers live, and the bars around the harbour and along the beach road reflect that: wetsuits drying on the railings, beer in plastic cups, music a bit louder than elsewhere. When the afternoon Ora wind drops around 6pm everyone comes off the water at once and the bars fill in minutes. It is cheap, friendly and young. Our guide to Torbole has the surf schools and the cycle path to Riva.
Gardone was the lake’s grand resort a century ago and the lakefront still has that feel: hotel terraces, a short promenade below the Vittoriale, and a handful of bars where nobody is in a hurry. The big hotel terraces along the water serve non-residents, and a spritz there, €8–10, buys you a deckchair view most bars cannot match. It is the place for an early evening drink after the Vittoriale or the Heller Garden, both in our guide to Gardone Riviera.
For the setting, Piazza Carducci in Sirmione and Piazza Malvezzi in Desenzano are hard to beat, and both are in our Sirmione guide and our Desenzano guide. For value and local wine we prefer Bardolino, where a glass of Chiaretto costs €3–5 on the lakefront. If you want a sunset over the water from the east shore, go to Garda's promenade.
How much does a spritz cost on Lake Garda?
Most bars charge €4–7 for an Aperol or Campari spritz, and it usually comes with crisps, olives or a few small snacks. On the main squares of Sirmione and Desenzano expect €8–10, and cocktails at the smarter bars run €12–15. A glass of local Chiaretto or Lugana is often the best value at €3–6. Prices go up noticeably if you sit at a front-row lake table in August.
What time is aperitivo on Lake Garda?
Aperitivo runs from roughly 6pm to 8pm, and that is when the snacks appear and the terraces fill. Italians eat late in summer, so bars stay busy until dinner around 8.30 or 9pm, then quieten while people eat before a second wave later on. In July and August most lakefront bars serve until midnight or later; outside the season many close by 10pm and some shut altogether from November to March.
Which town has the best bar scene?
Desenzano, without much competition. It is the biggest town on the lake, has a train station, and the bars around Porto Vecchio and Piazza Malvezzi stay busy all year, not just in summer. Riva del Garda is the liveliest at the north end, and Sirmione is lovely for one elegant drink but quiet after 11pm. For clubs and late nights see our guide to Lake Garda nightlife.
Are there lake-view cocktail bars on Lake Garda?
Yes, though most lake-view bars are café-bars with a terrace rather than dedicated cocktail bars. The best-made cocktails with a view are at Caffè Grande Italia in Sirmione and Caffè Italia in Desenzano. Several of the grand hotels in Gardone Riviera and Sirmione serve non-residents on their lakeside terraces, which is our favourite trick for a quiet drink with a first-class view. Expect €12–18 for a cocktail at those.
What should I order? Is there a local drink?
Order wine. Chiaretto, the pale rosé from Bardolino and the Valtenesi, is the lake's summer drink, and Lugana, the white from the southern shore, is the other. Both are cheap by the glass. In Trentino at the north end the aperitivo of choice is a Hugo spritz, elderflower with prosecco and mint. We list the producers behind these wines in our guide to Lake Garda vineyards.
Do I need to book a table at bars on Lake Garda?
Not for aperitivo at ordinary bars, you just take a free table and someone comes to you. The exceptions are the smart bars in Sirmione and Desenzano on summer weekends, where a front-row table after 7pm may be reserved, and beer gardens like Speck Stube in Malcesine, where a queue forms by 8pm. If a place matters to you, arrive early rather than ringing ahead; most bars do not take bookings.
Are Lake Garda bars open in winter?
In the bigger towns, yes. Desenzano, Riva del Garda, Salò and Peschiera keep their main bars open year-round because locals use them. Smaller resort villages such as Limone, Torbole and Brenzone go very quiet from November to Easter and many bars shut for the season. Sirmione stays partly open thanks to the thermal spa. If you visit in winter, plan on a bar in a town rather than on a beach.
Can I have a drink and still get back to my hotel without driving?
Plan it before the first spritz. The ferries stop early, often before 8pm outside high summer, and buses thin out after 9pm, so an aperitivo in another town usually means a taxi home. Italy's drink-drive limit is 0.5, roughly one drink. Our advice is to drink where you sleep, or base yourself somewhere walkable like Desenzano, described in our guide to Desenzano.
Which bars are good if we also want to eat?
Most Italian bars serve a bowl of snacks with drinks rather than food, but the Bardolino wine bars do cheese and salami boards, Caffè Italia in Desenzano does oysters and small plates, and Speck Stube in Malcesine is a full grill. For a proper dinner afterwards, we keep a separate list in our guide to the best Lake Garda restaurants, ordered by how often we go back.
Our top pick
