A different lake
Riva sits at the top of the lake, where the water narrows into a trench between cliffs and the landscape turns alpine. Boats leave from the lakefront at Lungo Lago Marinai d’Italia, with Torbole and San Nicolò as secondary bases just around the corner.
Two independent companies work the harbour: one running tours, transfers and pedal boats from the lakefront and stating that it works in Italian, English and German, and one running a pair of Sea Ray boats out of Riva and Torbole. Their skippers are professional captains. We plan and confirm the day; every decision on the water is theirs.
The two runs everyone takes
The Ponale waterfall comes out of the cliff a few minutes down the western shore: 30 minutes there and back, at 70 EUR for the boat. Limone, the next village down the western shore, is about an hour round trip at 130 EUR for the boat. Those are per-boat prices, not per person, which makes them one of the better-value hours on the lake for a family of four.
Beyond that, tours here are sold from 1 hour to 9 hours, and the same boats do transfers along the shore. A full day right down the lake and back out of the southern basin is 8 hours, which is the honest scale of this water.
The wind is the timetable
Nowhere else on the lake is the wind this predictable or this useful. The Peler blows from the north roughly 07:00 to noon at 10 to 25 knots, then the Ora turns it round and blows from the south through the afternoon at 15 to 25 knots at Torbole — the north basin gets it strongest, and the southern half of the lake is markedly calmer.
For a boat trip that means: mornings are the flat, glassy, photograph hours, and afternoons are lively. If you have young children or anyone prone to seasickness, take the early slot. If you want the lake with some weather in it, take the later one. Summer afternoons can also produce a thunderstorm.
One rule worth knowing before you plan
Private motorboat navigation is prohibited in the Trentino waters at the north tip of the lake, which is the stretch covering Riva del Garda and Torbole. So the self-drive, licence-free rental that works on the southern shores is not the answer up here — going out at Riva means going out with one of the commercial boats. Elsewhere on the lake, boats under 40 hp can be driven on ID alone, and the general navigation rules hold everywhere: 300 m off shore, 20 knots by day, 5 at night, 3 in port.
Season and cancellation
April to October, with the scheduled Desenzano-Sirmione-Riva passenger line running March to October and the main ferry timetable 16 May to 4 October if you are coming up the lake rather than driving. Life jackets are standard on commercial boats. When the weather makes a trip unsafe the skipper cancels it, and the norm on the lake is free cancellation 24 to 48 hours ahead with a refund or a reschedule.
The north end is also the best of the lake on two wheels — see the e-bike tour — and it has its own olive mill, on the olive-oil tour. For transport rather than touring, the water taxi. Everything else is on the Lake Garda page, with boats elsewhere on boat charters. Request availability with your date, your group and whether you want the morning calm or the afternoon breeze.