Cernobbio is located approximately 45 minutes from MXP airport in Milan. There are many direct flights from NYC to Milan although most airlines don't have flight options available yet for Aug 2020. Doug has set up many flight alerts and will send email notifications to the group when cheap flight options become available from NYC, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Orlando. If anyone else wants me to track flight prices for them from their city, feel free to DM me on the side.
The quickest/easiest way to get to Cernobbio from MXP is car service. There are no ubers (that I know of) and taxis are about the same price. I would expect a car service to the hotel to cost around ~150 euros. This is fairly expensive for a short trip, so try carpooling with someone! I'd call the hotel to coordinate car service for you.
You can take the train from MXP to Como and I think the train tickets cost 15 EUR/person. Train allegedly takes 1.5 hours. I've never done it before but here are instructions for the train:
Malpensa Express to Milano Centrale and Regional Train to Como S. Giovanni.
Renting a car is another option but I'm not sure if I recommend that. The roads near Lake Como are kinda narrow/twisty and if I attempted to drive around the Lake, I would probably crash. Ben Krejci pulled it off on a trip we did together in May 2018 though so it can be done.
This is where Aisha and I are staying. We have a room from Aug18-Aug23. We recommend booking for 3 nights (Aug19-Aug22), but feel free to stay shorter/longer if you'd like. The Hilton has an awesome rooftop pool and the rooms are pretty modern/nice which is rare in Italy. European hotels in general kind of suck when it comes to air conditioning/bedding and it's going to be really hot in August so we opted for an American hotel. We will have shuttle buses running to and from this hotel on the wedding day. We'd love to have people stay here if they can, as it would be super fun to have everyone together hanging out at the pool throughout the weekend.
Below is the link to book a hotel room for our wedding at a discounted rate. A single occupancy King should be 365 EUR/night and double occupancy is 380 EUR/night. Please note that these rates include all taxes and breakfast. Please text us if you have any questions but it should be pretty straightforward. See the blurb from the hotel after the link
http://eventsathilton.com/show/60d3579ce91e59aae6390032
The weblink will be available until 12th July 2021, based on availability within the room block.
Should you wish to extend your stay or explore upgrade option, please reserve your room through this weblink first and then contact lakecomo_events@hilton.com with your requirements. We will be happy to assist based on hotel availability.
If planning to stay extra nights, you can book it without using our block for simplicity, or simply book for the 3 nights using the code and then email them as suggested to add on a few nights.
We did not block off rooms here, but if you want to splurge, villa d'este is a pretty cool experience. We stayed here for a few nights on our last trip here and while it's on the stuffier side, it's hard to find a more beautiful hotel. The pool is incredible and the grounds are very well maintained. It's consistently voted as one of the top hotels in the world.
Be careful when ordering lunch ladies! When Aisha and Doug went there in May 2018, the old school Italians at villa d'este left the prices off Aisha's menu. This led to her ordering a 50eur salad, a 90eur caviar pasta, a 35eur dessert, and a 16eur coffee. Doug winced as she ordered the most expensive item from each category on the menu and after lunch he asked her why she went so nuts ordering the most lavish shit. Only then did he find out that her menu had no prices and that she thought it was simply a prix fixe!!
There are many airbnbs as well that you can book in Cernobbio if you would prefer to go that route. One unfortunate thing about Lake Como is there are no Ubers and taxis don't really exist. There are a few black car services that partner with hotels so from a logistical standpoint, hotels are much easier. As the date gets closer, we will provide some car service company numbers here.
Feel free to book any hotel in Cernobbio. Note that Lake Como is very large so make sure the hotel is in Cernobbio near Villa Erba.