Campsite Serenella, Lake Garda
A review of our stay in a cabin at Camping Serenella near Bardolino on the shores of Lake Garda, Italy…
We’ve been visiting Lake Garda almost every year since my daughter was first born almost 6 years ago now, it quickly became one of our favourite places and I’m in the middle of writing a full guide to it which I’ll link to when it’s finished. For the first few trips, we had always stayed in Airbnbs in Pescheria del Garda but on our last trip there we spotted so many amazing campsites & so did a bit of a recce and booked Camping Serenella for our folding caravan as part of a European roadtrip. Fast forward to our caravan axel sheering off on the journey there & we had to amend our camping pitch to a cabin which thankfully they had availability for last minute as they get booked up months in advance. It’s a super popular site for Europeans, many who come year after year.
Campsite Serenella, Bardolino, Lake Garda
~ it’s such a great location, right on the lake with jetties & beautiful sunsets. The pitches are fairly close together but filled with lots of olive trees. You can walk left along the lake path to Bardolino town in around 20 minutes & right to Garda also around 20 minutes. Both have gorgeous old towns, ports, ferries, little trains, supermarkets & beaches. I’ve shared lots more on these and all the photos in this guide to Lake Garda post.
~ we loved the campsite swimming pools & kids water slides although these did get very busy, especially the sun loungers & it didn’t open until 10 on the dot! Our children are always up early so we would have preferred to have had some time there before it got too hot. The views from the pool area felt Tuscan like looking out across the olive groves & cypress trees. I loved the retro glam of the pool umbrellas.
~ they had an entertainment team who did crafts with the kids 10-12 each day, some children went there without adults but I don’t know officially if it’s offered as actual childcare as such. One afternoon they did a kids pizza making class which our two loved & there would be pool games & a nightly mini show which we never made it to as it started at 8.30pm.
~ there’s a mini supermarket on site & a water sports hire place for paddle boarding etc
~ we stayed in a studio cabin which had a sofa bed & a double bed with a curtain in between and a balcony deck area outside which we enjoyed eating on and the kids would play on it in shady afternoons. See this story highlight for a cabin tour video. It had a small, albeit fairly well equipped kitchen which we ended up making some really delicious dinners from {the benefit of all of that gorgeous Italian produce which makes anything taste extra good!}
- It was on the small side but big enough given we were out for most of the days. We ended up having a bathroom in the cabin in the end but wouldn’t have done if camping, the toilet/shower blocks were clean & we bought a washing machine token to use one day to do some laundry
~ the staff were really helpful & came to fix our aircon quickly when it was leaking one day
~ the WiFi & signal is very hit & miss - mostly miss!
Overall, such an amazing location! The kids loved it. It was big but not too big & it felt safe. But it was very very hot in August last year & take good mosquito repellent, we got loads of bites.
I’m so glad we could still experience the Garda campsite life! We’d definitely go back.
See this reel for more
And you can email to book and find out more on Camping Serenella here.