We are the Lorenzo Verdolin family, and we own and personally manage Garda Bike Hotel in Peschiera del Garda.
Our family has been in the hospitality business for 3 generations. During his 50 + year career, our grandfather owned and managed a bar, a trattoria, and from 1968, a hotel and restaurant in the south of Verona. Our father, Lorenzo, has also been in the hospitality industry all of his life, first managing restaurants in the Veneto region, and then hotels. We grew up working with and learning the business from our grandfather and father, but they taught us more than the business – they taught us how to make our guests feel welcome.
Our mother, Elvira, has always worked side by side with Lorezno, and she has a knack for adding those small details that delight our guests, like fresh cut flowers that she grows, and homemade sweets that she bakes from scratch.
Between 1994 and 2012 our family managed the Hotel Veronello, nearby in Calmasino. While we worked with our dad, it occurred to us that we had some of the best cycling roads in all of Italy right in our own backyard, and we were in a position to share all of this with other cyclists - cyclists who wanted to come and experience authentic Italian cycling. Thus, in 2005 Garda Bike Hotel was born.
We started with a small program at the hotel, taking guests cycling through the vineyards, into the mountains and along the lake, to enjoy the roads and terrain that are so unique to our area. As our unique service grew in popularity, we collaborated with high-end bicycle companies for rental bikes, and hired professional guides to lead guests of varied riding abilities.
In 2012, we found a hotel to call our own, undertook a complete renovation and brought the Garda Bike Hotel project to our new venture – Enjoy Garda Hotel, a modern 4 star hotel, rated the 25th best hotel in all of Italy by Trip Advisor. We now run the hotel, along with Lorenzo and Elvira and our extended family…our hotel staff – hand selected by us and, we think, the best staff around. Our bike program continues to flourish. We have bicycle partnerships with DeRosa, Merxck and Pinarello for rental bikes, and local guides, to accommodate our guests, and we continue to have some of the best riding….anywhere!
Our hotel is new and modern, but what has remained constant is our commitment to our guests - if you visit us at Garda Bike Hotel, we promise that you will feel welcomed, that you will be treated well, and that you will ride some of the best rides of your life. When you are staying with us, you are not just staying at our place of business; you are staying with our family.