Week in a luxury villa in Lake Maggiore, Italy – Travel Loving Family
We spent the last week of the summer holidays staying in a luxury family villa in Lake Maggiore, Italy. We had an incredible week exploring the region and enjoying quality family time in our temporary home. Our only regret is that the week in the Italian Lakes flew by far too quickly!
Our stay at Villa Sereni took place August 2017. Article updated May 2018 after a second visit to Lake Maggiore, Italy.
This is a video I took as we first arrived at Villa Sereni (and before my boys had chance to make themselves at home!) As you will see the villa has three bedrooms set over three floors and is fully equipped with absolutely EVERYTHING a family could possibly need for a relaxing family holiday.
As you can see from the video, Villa Sereni is really spacious. It truly was a lovely place to call home for a week and a great base for exploring Lake Maggiore and the surrounding region.
Richard and I stayed in the master suite on the top floor with its own en suite bathroom and private balcony overlooking the mountains and lake…
Our boys happily made themselves at home in the twin bedroom which was fully kitted out with toys and books.
We spent a lot of time on the main terrace area eating around the dining table and chilling out on the sun loungers. We enjoyed breakfast outside every day discussing where to go for the day, usually packed a picnic for lunch and quite often dined back at the villa at night just as the sun was setting.
The main terrace was such a lovely spot to chill out as a family, fire up a BBQ and just enjoy each others company. We also made full use of the DVD’s, Xbox console and board games for relaxing evenings in the comfortable living and dining area.
There is so much to do in this region of Italy. For Italian Lakes holidays ideas check out our destination guide – 15 things to do in Lake Maggiore with kids. 
It was our first time to the Italian Lakes but it certainly will not be our last. The region is absolutely stunning and very easy to explore. (Even if you don’t speak Italian which Richard and I regrettably don’t). We were taken by surprise on our first day blindly following SatNav on our way to check into our villa. One minute we were admiring the lake views, next minute the SatNav was telling us to hop on a car ferry to travel across to the other side of the lake!
After a couple of days we were pro’s at hopping on and off ferries, sometimes with our car other times as foot passengers. We felt like real adventurers, sometimes stumbling across little hidden gems and other times seeking out the many family friendly places that had been recommended to us in this Italian Lakes holiday guide.
One of the things we really loved about the villa was the choice of balconies to enjoy the lake view. There was one for both the master suite and guest room as well as one facing the back of the property, accessed from the master suite bathroom.
We used them all during our time there to play cards in the evenings and I quite often hid on one of the balconies from my boys to sneak in a quiet hour with a good book and cup of tea!
A little word of warning regarding driving in Italy. We found the local drivers to be rather reckless, often coming around corners whilst taking over most of the road. The only downside to the stunning mountain and lake views from Villa Sereni is that it is located quite high up a hillside and probably not the best choice of villa for timid drivers. To reach the villa you have to follow a steep twisty road for about five minutes and then take a sharp turn onto a steep driveway. When parking our car we wedged rocks underneath the tyres to prevent it from rolling. To be honest, I was very grateful that my husband was the nominated driver with our rental company, it was the perfect excuse not to have to take a turn behind the wheel! Don’t fret though, if from reading this review you fancy a holiday in Lake Maggiore there are many villas located lake side on the Bookings For You website to avoid this steep twisty drive.
Normally our lasting impressions of a holiday are just the destination itself. We usually return home raving about the places we have been and the things we have seen. Returning from our week in Lake Maggiore we raved first and foremost about our home for the week, Villa Sereni, followed by gushy descriptions of the absolutely stunning places we visited! It was truly a treat to stay somewhere so luxurious, spacious and relaxing and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this villa to other families.
**Click here to enter our exclusive villa holiday giveaway with Bookings For You**
Disclosure – We were kindly invited as guests of Bookings For You to stay at Villa Sereni for the purpose of this honest review. All views and words are, as always, my own. All images copyright Travel Loving Family.
