Where to stay in Isola

Isola and Porta Garibaldi are next to each other and are often treated as the same area. For anyone sleeping there they aren’t: the noise, the price and what you find downstairs when you go out in the evening are all different.

Isola or Porta Garibaldi

Porta Garibaldi is the side toward the station and the skyscrapers. It suits people arriving and leaving by train, people flying from Malpensa — the Malpensa Express stops there — and people staying one or two nights. It’s an office district: extremely convenient during the day, quieter at night.

Isola begins on the other side of the tracks and has a neighborhood life that carries on past office hours. It suits people staying a few days who’d rather have dinner and a drink without taking any transport. The price band is the same; the difference is what you find outside your door.

You can walk from one to the other in a few minutes, through the underpass toward via Pepe.

Hotel or apartment

A hotel makes sense for one or two nights: there are no keys, cleaning or groceries to deal with, and breakfast is included.

An apartment starts to make sense from the third night onward, and makes a lot of sense for two or more people. The practical reason isn’t only the price: it’s having a kitchen, a washing machine and the option of eating breakfast at home instead of at a bar every single day. Over a week-long stay the difference shows up on the final bill.

The comparison between all of Milan’s areas, with average nightly prices and the tourist tax, is in where to stay in Milan.

Our loft, declared as ours

We have a direct interest on this site and we’d rather say it here than let you work it out: Isola Urban Hub is our apartment, and it’s one of the possible places to stay in this area.

It’s on the ground floor, sleeps up to four people across two levels and has self check-in at any hour. It suits people staying more than two nights. It doesn’t suit anyone staying a single night, anyone who’d struggle with a few steps at the entrance, or anyone who’s a very light sleeper: you can hear the neighborhood in the evening.

Live availability and prices are on the Airbnb listing, reachable from the loft page. On this site there’s no calendar and no payment.