How Long Is Lake Garda? Length, Width, Depth and Size

There is a lakeside road on each shore, both called the Gardesana. A route planner puts Peschiera del Garda to Riva del Garda along the eastern shore (through Garda and Malcesine) at about 64 km, and Desenzano del Garda to Riva along the western shore (through Salò and Limone) at about 66 km. Either way that is roughly an hour and a half of driving with clear roads and no stops.

Clear roads are the exception in season. Both routes are single carriageway, pass through the middle of towns and, on the western side, through a long run of tunnels north of Gargnano. On a summer weekend, plan for considerably longer, and set off early.

The full loop is about 145 km. The Garda Trentino tourist board publishes a circuit of the whole lake starting and ending in Riva at 142.6 km, and a route planner gives about 145 km and a little over three hours of driving without traffic or stops.

We would not try to do it as a single drive in high season. The same tourist board warns that the roads around the lake are heavily congested from April to October and at weekends. Treat the loop as a full day with three or four stops, or split it in two and cross the middle of the lake on the Torri del Benaco to Maderno car ferry. If driving is not for you, the Lake Garda ferry guide and our car hire picks cover the alternatives.

You can sail the whole length of the lake on a public boat, but only a few sailings a day do it without a change. In the timetable valid from 5 October to 1 November 2026, the fast service takes between 3 hours 10 minutes and 3 hours 20 minutes between Peschiera and Riva, and the ordinary boat takes between 4 hours 40 minutes and 4 hours 55 minutes because it calls at most of the towns on the way.

That makes a there-and-back trip in one day possible but long. A good compromise is to sail one way and stop off in Malcesine or Limone. From 2 November 2026 to 12 March 2027 the only boat running is the Torri to Maderno car ferry, so an end-to-end sailing is not possible in winter. Routes are on our ferry map and routes page and current times on the ferry timetables page.

Lake Garda is shared by three Italian regions, each with one province on the shore:

• Lombardy (province of Brescia): the western shore and the south-west, from Sirmione and Desenzano up through Salò and Gargnano to Limone.
• Veneto (province of Verona): the eastern shore and the south-east, from Peschiera through Lazise, Bardolino and Garda up to Malcesine.
• Trentino-Alto Adige (province of Trento): the northern tip, with Riva del Garda, Torbole and Arco just inland.

This matters more than it sounds. Local buses are run by different companies in each province, and tourist cards and offers rarely cross the regional borders.

The lake has two different shapes because it sits in two different landscapes. The northern half lies in a deep trench between the mountains, where the water is hemmed in by rock walls on both sides. The southern half spreads out onto the edge of the Po plain.

The basin was shaped by ice. A glacier flowed down the valley from the Alps, deepened it, and fanned out when it reached the plain. Where it stopped, it left a wide arc of low hills made of the debris it had carried, known as the morainic amphitheatre, which today holds the southern end of the lake. The ice was thick: geologists put its surface at around 1,100 m at Punta San Vigilio. The rock floor under the lake is far below sea level, and one theory is that rivers cut the original valley millions of years ago, long before the glaciers reworked it.

You notice the result on the water. The narrow north funnels the wind, which is why Torbole and Riva are the sailing and windsurfing towns. The broad, shallower south has the gentler shoreline and most of the family beaches.