We chose the Motel Vezia because we were on a driving tour, and safe parking was very important. The option of having your own, private garage directly under your room was too good to miss.

The motel gives a good first impression. The building is interesting, in nice clean grounds, and has a decent looking swimming pool at the one end (which we didn’t get to try, since we were only here for two nights).

After checking in, the receptionist showed us how the garage worked. You park your car, and there is a locked door inside which leads directly up into your unit. There’s a landing, off which is the bathroom, the bedroom, and another door that can take you out to the motel hallway so you don’t always have to enter/exit through the garage.

The bedroom was quite a good size, decorated in a modern style mainly in white with black touches. The furniture included a wardrobe shelves, a safe, bedside table, a desk-like chair and room for writing. The separate bathroom had a shower (no bath), and not much shelf space, but it was perfectly adequate otherwise.

The TV had numerous channels, but only CNN in English. The bed was, as is typical, two singles pushed together, with bedspread and blankets rather than the duvets usually found in Switzerland. The bed was firm, but comfortable. It was difficult to sit up and read, however, due to the shelf arrangement immediately behind the bed.

The motel has a very nice Italian-style restaurant, at which we ate one evening since they offered a set menu for 30CHF, which was reasonable compared with other places we had seen. We enjoyed our meal here, and would recommend it.

Breakfast was not included in the price of the room, and was an extra 15CHF each. This seemed excessive for what looked like a pretty standard continental spread. Luckily, there is a Manora department store right next to the hotel, which was great for buying some drinks and groceries, and had a small café on the corner, from where we had a coffee and pastry each for around 12CHF in total.

We caught the bus into Lugano, rather than drive and attempt to find parking there. The stop was only a short walk away from the motel, and we bought our bus tickets from reception. This seemed a relatively easy way of getting into Lugano, although it wasn’t at all clear where to get off the bus on our first ride in, and we ended up quite a way out of the town centre before somebody helped us and directed us back. Maybe this was just our own stupidity, but I mention it just as a bit of advice for any other new tourists – have a good map, and know where you want to get off, or ask somebody to help!

We found Lugano pleasant, but a little bit dull if I’m honest. It was a great base from where to visit Lake Como, which is what we did on our one full day there. We will never forget driving to and from Lugano to the Lake Como area – an experience not for the feint hearted, but one that we thoroughly enjoyed.

The motel is a great choice if you’re visiting the general area with a car. It’s probably not the best if you just want to visit Lugano itself, since it seemed about a 15-20 minute bus ride out of town. It’s not cheap to stay here, since the rate didn’t include breakfast, and is inflated somewhat for the privilege of having your own private garage – but that’s the main reason we stayed there, and it worked out well for us.