Germany
Lake Constance (Konstanz)
Three countries around one Alpine-fed lake: island gardens, medieval harbour towns and a waymarked ride that laps the entire shore.
An inland sea some 63 km long, shared by Germany, Switzerland and Austria and backed on clear days by the wall of the Alps. The German shore strings together medieval harbour towns, orchards and vine terraces, and two islands that carry the region: Mainau, planted as a subtropical garden, and Reichenau, whose Carolingian abbey churches are a UNESCO site. Konstanz, running straight up against the Swiss border, is the usual base, and the whole shore is circled by boat, train and one of Europe's best-known cycle routes.
Suggested stay
3–6 days
Language
German
Currency
EUR
Timezone
UTC+2
Why you'll love Lake Constance (Konstanz)
The islands Mainau is a garden island of tulips, rhododendrons and a palm house; Reichenau, flat and market-gardened, holds three abbey churches with wall paintings from the Ottonian centuries.
The shore towns Meersburg stacked under its castle above the vines, Lindau on its own island harbour, Ueberlingen and Konstanz with medieval centres intact, all a boat ride from each other.
The lap A waymarked cycle route rings the water through three countries, flat almost the whole way, with ferries to cut corners and a train line shadowing most of it.
The water Grassed lidos and diving towers in high summer, sailing boats thick on the horizon, and lake whitefish on every terrace menu.
Best time to visit
Apr-Oct
15-26° days
47.659° N, 9.175° E
UTC+2 · Europe/Berlin
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Weather & when to go to Lake Constance (Konstanz)
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Apr-Oct
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Lake Constance (Konstanz)
December through February is cold, grey and often shut in under lake fog, and it is also when the scheduled boats stop and many gardens, castles and museums close or cut to winter hours, so the shore towns lose the thing that links them. The Advent markets on the harbours are the exception worth turning up for.
Top things to do in Lake Constance (Konstanz)
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Mainau - the flower island under Alpine views
nature wildlife scenic 👍 PopularA wooded island off the Konstanz shore, held for generations by a branch of the Swedish royal family and planted as one long relay of colour: tulips and rhododendrons in spring, rose garden and Italian terraces in summer, dahlias into autumn. There is a butterfly house, a baroque palace and church, and a causeway bridge or lake boat to reach it.
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Reichenau - the monastery island and its market gardens
history culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedFlat, green and largely under glasshouses and vegetable rows, the lake's other island holds three churches from the Carolingian and Ottonian centuries, one carrying wall paintings among the oldest to survive north of the Alps. The abbey was a scriptorium of the first rank; the whole island is a UNESCO site, and it is a short bus or bike ride from Konstanz.
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Meersburg - the old castle above the vineyards
history scenic 👍 PopularThe Altes Schloss, which claims to be the oldest inhabited castle in Germany, sits on the bluff over the ferry pier, a stone keep of armouries, kitchens and the rooms where the poet Annette von Droste-Huelshoff died. Below it the New Palace steps down in pink baroque, and stepped lanes drop through the vines to the promenade.
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Lindau harbour - the Bavarian Lion and the lighthouse
scenic history 👍 PopularThe old town occupies its own island at the Bavarian corner of the lake, reached by causeway, its harbour mouth guarded by a seated stone lion facing Germany's southernmost lighthouse. Behind them are painted facades, the frescoed old town hall and a promenade that looks straight across the water at the Austrian Alps.
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Konstanz Minster and the Imperia at the harbour mouth
history culture artsThe city came through the war unbombed, indistinguishable at night from Swiss Kreuzlingen next door, so its medieval core is whole: a minster with a tower climb, the lakeside Council hall where a pope was elected, and lanes of painted merchant houses. On the pier a rotating stone courtesan holds two small naked figures aloft, a joke at the Council's expense.
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Pfahlbauten Unteruhldingen - the stilt village over the shallows
history culture artsReconstructed Stone and Bronze Age houses standing on posts out over the water, built from the evidence of prehistoric settlements found in the mud all round the lake and listed by UNESCO. Guided walks through the huts are pitched at families without being dumbed down, and the museum sets out how the finds were dated.
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Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen - inside the Hindenburg
history culture artsAirships were designed and built on this shore, and the museum holds a walk-through reconstruction of part of the Hindenburg's passenger deck, cabins, lounge and gangway included, alongside the engineering and the 1937 fire. Sightseeing flights still lift off from the airfield next door in a modern Zeppelin.
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Bodensee-Radweg - riding the lap of the lake
adventure scenic ⭐ Highly recommendedA waymarked route of roughly 260 km rings the shore through Germany, Austria and Switzerland, flat almost throughout and mostly off traffic, past orchards, reedbeds and harbour towns. Most riders take three to five days and use the ferries and lake boats to skip a leg or cross to the other side.
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Birnau - the rococo pilgrimage church above the vines
history scenicA pink and white church on a terrace over the northern shore, its interior one unbroken burst of eighteenth-century rococo and best known for the honey-sucking putto beside a side altar. The Cistercian vineyard around it still makes wine, and the terrace gives one of the great long views down the lake.
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Swimming the Bodensee - lidos, diving towers and reed banks
nature wildlife wellnessIn high summer the whole shore turns over to swimming, from grassed lidos with towers and rented pedal boats to quiet stretches of shingle between the reeds. The lake is clean enough that several million people drink it after treatment, and it is slow to warm, so the water lags well behind the air.
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Felchen and Bodensee wine - eating on the shore
foodFelchen, the lake whitefish, comes fried in butter or smoked and is on every terrace menu, with perch fillets beside it. The slopes behind Meersburg and Hagnau grow Mueller-Thurgau and pinot noir, poured young and light, and the orchards inland turn out cider, juice and fruit schnapps.
Best areas to stay in Lake Constance (Konstanz)
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Konstanz
First-time visitors $$University city hard against the Swiss border
Explore hotels in Konstanz →
Meersburg
Couples $$$Vine-terraced old town under two castles
Explore hotels in Meersburg →
Lindau
Views and old town $$Island old town at the Bavarian corner
Explore hotels in Lindau →
Ueberlingen
Quiet base $$Calm spa town on the northern arm
Explore hotels in Ueberlingen →
Friedrichshafen
Transport and value $Workaday lakeside town, rebuilt and practical
Explore hotels in Friedrichshafen →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Lake Constance (Konstanz)
Getting to & around Lake Constance (Konstanz)
Getting there
Fly into Zurich and take a train to Konstanz in about an hour and a quarter; the lake also has its own small airport at Friedrichshafen.
Flight
Zurich Airport (ZRH)
Roughly 70 km southwest of Konstanz. Trains leave from the station under the terminal and run via Winterthur and Weinfelden in about an hour and a quarter with one change. You arrive on the Swiss side of Konstanz station, and the German old town begins a few steps from the platform.
Train
Konstanz Hauptbahnhof
The Schwarzwaldbahn winds down from Offenburg and Karlsruhe through the Black Forest, the standard approach from the Rhine valley and the north.
Train
Lindau-Reutin
Fast trains on the Munich to Zurich line stop at the Bavarian corner of the lake, putting Lindau within a couple of hours of Munich.
Ferry
Konstanz
Swiss boats come in from Kreuzlingen, Romanshorn and down the Rhine from Schaffhausen through the warm half of the year.
Drive
The A81 from Stuttgart ends at Singen, half an hour west of Konstanz; from Munich the A96 runs straight to Lindau.
Getting around
Lake boats
The white fleet links the shore towns from spring into autumn and is the pleasant way to cross; watch the last sailing back.
TBC
Car ferry
Konstanz to Meersburg runs all year, round the clock, and saves the long drive around the western arm.
TBC
Regional trains
An almost continuous ring of lines circles the lake, though the southern legs run through Switzerland and Austria.
TBC
Bike
The flat shore route is genuine transport here, and bikes go on the lake boats and most regional trains.
TBC
Bus
Fills the gaps between lakeside stations and inland villages such as Salem, and thins out sharply on Sundays.
TBC
Walking
Every old town on the lake is small enough to cross on foot, and promenades link neighbouring villages.
Free
Day trips from Lake Constance (Konstanz)
Rhine Falls and Stein am Rhein
Half dayEurope's widest waterfall
The Rhine leaves the lake at Stein am Rhein, a small Swiss town of painted house fronts, and a few kilometres on throws itself over a limestone ledge in the widest falls in Europe. Boats run out to the rock standing in the middle of the flow.
Getting there
train
About 1 hr 15 by train from Konstanz via Schaffhausen
St Gallen
Full dayAbbey library and old town
The Swiss city behind the southern shore keeps a rococo abbey library of extraordinary woodwork holding one of Europe's great medieval manuscript collections, a UNESCO site. The old town below is stitched with carved oriel windows paid for by the textile trade.
Getting there
train
About 1 hr by train from Konstanz via Romanshorn
Bregenz and the Pfaender
Full dayAustrian shore and summit
The Austrian corner, where a cable car climbs the Pfaender for a view down the whole length of the water and deep into the Alps. Below it stands the huge lakeside stage built out over the water, and a walled upper town above the promenade.
Getting there
train | car
About 20 min by train from Lindau, then the cable car
Appenzell
Full daySwiss hill country
Painted houses along one main street, dairy hills, and cheese and pastry Switzerland treats as a benchmark. Cog railways and cable cars climb from here towards the Saentis massif and the guesthouse wedged under the Ebenalp cliff.
Getting there
train
About 1 hr 30 by train from Konstanz via St Gallen
Ravensburg
Half dayMedieval towered town
An inland trading town grown on linen and paper that kept its full ring of towers and gates, the white one nicknamed the flour sack. The board-game company named after the town has a museum here, which makes it the obvious wet-afternoon call with children.
Getting there
train
About 20 min by train from Friedrichshafen
Salem
Half dayAbbey, palace and monkeys
A vast Cistercian abbey turned margravial palace in the hills behind the northern shore, with a gothic minster, baroque state rooms and a boarding school still occupying part of it. The Affenberg next door keeps a hillside of Barbary macaques you walk among.
Getting there
bus | car
About 20 min by bus or car from Ueberlingen or Meersburg
A little history of Lake Constance (Konstanz)
People have lived on this water since the Neolithic: villages of houses raised on posts stood in the shallows from around 4000 BC, and their waterlogged remains, preserved in the mud, are now a UNESCO site spread across the Alpine countries. Rome fortified the crossing at Constantia in the late empire, and in 724 Saint Pirmin founded an abbey on Reichenau that became one of the great scriptoria of the Carolingian world, turning out illuminated manuscripts and, later, wall paintings that still survive on the island.
Konstanz grew rich as a bishop's city and hosted the Council of Constance from 1414 to 1418, the only papal election ever held north of the Alps; the Bohemian reformer Jan Hus came under safe conduct, was tried and burned in 1415. The Reformation and the Habsburgs cost the city its independence, and in 1806 the shore was carved up between Baden, Wuerttemberg and Bavaria. The modern era arrived as engineering: Count Zeppelin flew his first airship over the lake off Friedrichshafen in 1900, and the works that followed made that town a bombing target, while Konstanz, indistinguishable at night from neutral Kreuzlingen, was left alone.
Pile-dwelling villages are built on posts in the shallows around the lake.
Rome fortifies Constantia, the crossing that gives Konstanz its name.
Saint Pirmin founds the abbey on Reichenau; its scriptorium follows.
The Council of Constance opens and goes on to elect a pope, ending the schism.
Jan Hus is tried by the Council and burned outside the walls.
Konstanz loses its free-imperial standing and passes to Habsburg Austria.
The German shore is divided between Baden, Wuerttemberg and Bavaria.
Count Zeppelin flies his first airship over the water off Friedrichshafen.
The prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps are listed by UNESCO.
Know before you go
Payment
Cards & cash mixed
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type C / F
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+49
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
Mobile network & SIM card
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FAQs about Lake Constance (Konstanz)
▸ When is the best time to visit Lake Constance?
May to September, when the lake boats and gardens are running and the water is warm enough to swim in. April brings orchard blossom and Mainau's tulips, and late September into October is quieter with the vintage on the slopes. Winter is grey, often fogbound, and much of the shore machinery shuts down.
▸ How many days do you need at Lake Constance?
Three days covers one shore properly: Konstanz with Mainau and Reichenau, plus the ferry over to Meersburg. Five or six lets you add Lindau and the Austrian corner, or ride the full lap by bike, which most people spread over three to five days.
▸ Can you swim in Lake Constance?
Yes. The shore is lined with grassed lidos and free public bathing places, and the water is clean; it supplies drinking water to several million households after treatment. It is slow to warm, so July and August are the realistic swimming months, with June and September for the hardy.
▸ Do you need a passport to go around the lake?
Germany, Austria and Switzerland are all in the Schengen area, so there are no routine border checks, but carry a passport or ID card: the boat crossings and the street border at Konstanz-Kreuzlingen are exactly where spot checks happen. Switzerland sits outside the EU customs union, so shopping allowances apply.
▸ Which town should you base yourself in?
Konstanz for the widest choice and the easiest connections, Meersburg or Lindau for the postcard old town, Ueberlingen for quiet and Friedrichshafen for practicality. All are linked by boat in season and by train year round, so the decision matters less than it first looks.
▸ Do the lake boats run in winter?
Mostly not. The scheduled passenger fleet works from spring into autumn and dwindles to almost nothing outside it. The Konstanz to Meersburg car ferry is the exception, running all year and around the clock, so the two shores stay joined even when the excursion boats are laid up.
▸ Is Lake Constance expensive?
Mid-range by German standards, with Meersburg and the peak summer weeks the dearest of it. The Swiss and Austrian shores cost noticeably more, so sleeping and eating on the German side and crossing over for the day is the usual trick.
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