For 4 full months during Winter in Ticino (October to January) we stayed in a beautiful Rustic Apartment at Cadro Panoramica. In this post we share a full review of our stay in at Cadro Panoramica hotel and how the process went in renting a home for a stay longer than 1 month.
We felt like sharing this post since we had such as good experience during our stay. Located in Cadro, the apartments and complex is not far from the city center of Lugano.
This post is fully written in our own opinion and not sponsored by anyone. All thoughts and photos are our own!
Where Is Cadro Lugano?
Cadro is part of the city of Lugano, situated only 15 minutes North East with local bus 461. Cadro is, as you may already know, part of the sunny Ticino canton of Switzerland.
The village of Cadro is a small, quaint location that is home to around 2,000 residents. The municipality (along with a few others) merged into the city of Lugano in 14 April 2013. Even though it’s a small village connected to the city, many tourists visit this Cassarate valley for the hiking routes, since Cadro is at the base of the Denti della Vecchia mountain.
Hotel Cadro Panoramica
To start with, Cadro Panoramica is a hotel that you can find advertised on many sites. They have an amazing view towards the city of Lugano, with Monte San Salvatore in the distance. The location is only around 5km from the city, easily reachable by public transport and by car.
They have over 40 furnished apartments in the main building for short term hotel stays as well as 30 rustic apartments for long term stays (which we stayed in).
Some additional features includes:
- Free outdoor parking
- Gardens for relaxing in
- Cleaning and laundry service
- Tennis/Mini golf area
- Swimming pool (during seasonal months)
Rustic Apartments (for short to long term stay)
For our living situation, we had chosen a Rustic Apartment as a furnished place to stay at while we then looked for a more permanent location in Lugano. These apartments are part of the hotel complex, but in a separate area for longer term stays. They are built in a typical Ticino style, all with balconies and open space. Since we knew already that we would be staying and living in Lugano for longer, staying at Cadro Panoramica allowed us that option to already live nearby the city, register with the city, to allow us to look for something more long term.
We officially took a 3 month contract for the rental of a Rustic Apartment, which was 2.5 rooms. From the start it was already confirmed that we could extend monthly if we wish and it was written in our contract that we signed, as long as we inform them on time of course to extend or not. This was nice to have as a backup incase we didn’t find something more permanent while in the first 3 months.
During the 3 months, we had indeed decided to extend it longer while looking. So we actually stayed at Cadro Panoramica 4 months. The extension was easy to organise which was efficient too!
Our Top 5 Positive Points
From our first day at check-in, we have had a very pleasant stay at Cadro Panoramica. If we had to highlight 5 points as the top 5 positive, they would be:
- The rustic apartments is perfect for those staying with their pets! Our kitty enjoyed her stay and had plenty of space for playing.
- The location is very peaceful and surrounded by nature, as well as private. The rustic apartments are in a separate area to the hotel and we hardly saw anyone outside our front door!
- The view! Watching the sun set, rain fall or the low clouds float past lower than the house was amazing. We were lucky to have an apartment balcony with a view towards Monte Tamaro opposite!
- Free parking for our car outside, where there is always space too.
- Friendly, warm welcoming communication with the staff every time we need!
As an extra, a BIG thank you to the staff at Cadro Panoramica (especially Alessia!) for helping us with all the packages we ordered during our time. Since we moved with only personal belongings, we had ordered quite a lot of things we needed in general!
We have a fully-loaded, high content Ticino Guide listing local things to see, do and explore with each season: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
Click here
Additional Review Points
Since we were only living in Locarno for 2 months before moving to Cadro Panoramica in Lugano, we had to readjust and learn new things.
Learnings From Our Stay at Cadro Panoramica
You can register with the city officially if your rental contract is minimum 3 months. Anything less and it’s not technically possible or needed. So we took at least 3 months to start with for our rental contract for this reason, which was monthly extendable.
Our postbox was at the hotel reception area of Cadro Panoramica, and also any orders in bigger boxes would go there too. We then had to pick it up within the opening hours, which was easy to do and we always get a lovely, welcoming hello from the staff.
Only 1 set of towels and bed sheets were provided, so no extras included. So it was up to us to buy a 2nd duvet set as well as extra towels. Since we relocated from the Netherlands with most of our personal stuff in storage, we simply collected our own bedding/towels that we already had.
The kitchen is pretty small with a small fridge, so you cannot buy too much at one time as it simply won’t all fit. However the kitchen did have everything else provided (egg cooker, kettle, pots and pans, cutlery and plates etc) which is perfect.
There is a shared washing machine and drying machine in one of the storage rooms nearby. We’ve never had a problem sharing this with others which is great. You get a card from Cadro Panoramica directly that you can top up with CHF based on how much you need for your laundry. When we left, any CHF not used on the card was paid back to us with our returned deposit.
As we both worked from home, so the internet and wifi was an important factor. It can get a little weak during the busy hours since it’s a shared wifi, but in general the upload and download speeds are fine for us throughout the non busy hours.
Our bathroom window was next to the walking path outside, which was a bit less nice when at night when we had the light on with lack of privacy. There were little curtains hung up, but you can totally see through them. So during evenings when we had the light on in bathroom, we ended up just keeping shower curtain closed to block the view for people looking in. However its good to highlight that we (in the 4months we stayed there) noticed only 4/5 times someone walking along the path outside while we were in the shower.
There is a swimming pool at the hotel that you can use when staying in the apartments, but since we stayed during the Winter period it was not open for us to try – maybe we’ll head back for a night at their hotel to try it in the Summer!
Water, heating and electricity were included in the rent!
Interesting To Know For Cadro Panoramica
The trash bags for general rubbish for the area of Cadro Lugano are specifically red. They can be bought at most supermarket locations. In Locarno they were blue!
For plastic bottles and aluminium, we could recycle easily with the containers inside the same storage room where the washing machine was. However for paper there was no location, so we took our paper/cardboard to the Eco Center (the main recycling location just a short drive away down the village).
There is a small but super convenient post office just a short 8 minute walk from the Rustic apartments, perfect for sending anything abroad or locally (like our permit processes).
The closest supermarket (Lidl) is 12 minutes away by car/bus towards Lugano city, and walking there and back isn’t doable as Cadro is too far and with higher elevation. So with heavy shopping it’s best to go and come back with bus/car.
TIP: Read our 3 month expat review of living in Locarno and Lugano Switzerland for an interesting read!
Curious what to do while in Ticino? Check some of our latest posts:
Discover the village of Gandria
Lugano During Winter: Top Things To Do!
Swimming at Lavertezzo with crystal clear waters
9 beautiful reasons to visit Ascona, Switzerland
Morcote Switzerland: The prettiest village in Ticino
Want To Stay At Cadro Panoramica?
If you are interested in the Rustic Apartments or even to the hotel, we can highly recommend it. It’s been really perfect for us to live there with our kitty while working from home and exploring Lugano at the same time.
Living on the complex was really great as a base for Lugano to start with. It really helped us take the time to find a new home for more long term. Getting there and back with a car of our own, as well as using public transport was also very easy. Since the bus stop was only within 10 minutes away from our apartment.
All extras like the free outdoor parking, self service laundry and package pick up options was super efficient. We think using the pool would have also been very easy and lovely, so it was a shame we were here during Winter only.
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