What the island actually is
Isola del Garda is not a public island with a jetty and a bar. It is the private Borghese Cavazza estate off San Felice del Benaco, which opens its villa and its terraced gardens to booked visits and names the boat companies it works with — Danieli, Consolini Boats, Consorzio Motoscafisti Sirmione and Scoamar. That single fact explains everything else about planning this trip: you are buying a visit that happens to include a boat, not a boat trip that happens to stop at an island.
How to get there from Sirmione
The island is reached from eight embarkation ports, Sirmione among them, along with San Felice del Benaco, Desenzano, Bardolino and Lazise. Crossings run from 10 to 60 minutes depending on which of those you leave from, and Sirmione sits at the short end of that.
If you would rather have your own boat for the afternoon, the Sirmione round trip out to the island and back is a standard private tour of about two hours, and adding Gardone Riviera to it makes about three. Boats leave from Piazzale Porto, Piazza Castello, Piazza Carducci and Lungolago Armando Diaz. A private boat gives you the water on your own terms — but the landing and the tour of the gardens still runs on the estate’s booking, so the two have to be planned together, and that is the part we do.
Prices, honestly
The estate prices the visit including the boat, by distance tier: adults 39 to 49 EUR, reduced 35 to 45 EUR, children aged 5 to 12 at 23 to 33 EUR, with under-fives free. A private boat on top of that is quoted separately — Sirmione’s published rates run from 100 EUR for the short peninsula circuit to 1,300 EUR for a full day, and one company charges a flat 180 EUR per hour. From Desenzano, the island tour is published at 400 EUR for the boat, which is a useful benchmark for what a private crossing is worth.
Booking rules that actually matter
Two of them, and both are the estate’s, not ours. Visits must be booked online at least the day before, and the estate takes no bookings by phone. And the season runs 29 March to October in 2026, closed on Mondays, with limited departures in the low season. A Monday plan and a same-day plan are the two ways this trip goes wrong, and both are avoidable with a week’s notice.
Weather, water and the day itself
The south basin is the calmer half of the lake, and the crossing is short, so this is rarely a rough trip. The wind still runs to its usual timetable, northerly in the morning and southerly through the afternoon, and a summer afternoon can produce a thunderstorm. Boats carry life jackets as standard, and if the water is not safe the skipper cancels — with the lake norm of free cancellation 24 to 48 hours ahead and a refund or reschedule on a weather call.
The season for everything else on the lake is April to October, so the island’s window is close to the lake’s own.
Want the boat without the island? The boat tour from Sirmione or the sunset tour. Coming from the Brescia shore instead? Boat tour from Salò, the closest working harbour to the island. The whole lake is on the Lake Garda page, and boats everywhere else on boat charters. Request availability with your date, the port you want to leave from and how many are coming — including ages, because the island prices children separately.